As nonprofits add staff to their organization or focus on multiple ventures at once – it can be difficult to keep the same level of awareness when it comes to projects. As a result, projects take longer to complete, work suffers, and nonprofits may feel disconnected from their co-workers and fellow volunteers.  Asana hopes to solve these issues with their work management solution that enables businesses and charities to track and manage their projects while ensuring their staff stays connected.

In Use:

I had the chance to interview Mark Arnoldy, Head of Customer Success at Asana. Arnoldy brought a unique perspective to the interview – as he was formerly an Asana user prior to heading up the Customer Success team at Asana. As CEO of Possible, a global healthcare nonprofit – he began using Asana in 2011. Through the tool Arnoldy was able to connect members of his organization, submit grants more efficiently, and track projects throughout the organization. In a blog post on Asana’s website he wrote, “Over time, it became the single source of truth for everything we did, from writing grants to running meetings to tracking patient care.” He believes it is the best decision he ever made as CEO.

Asana is similar to a project management platform, but Arnoldy refers to it as “work management” tool because you are able to do much more than just manage projects. “We service through coordination,” he explains. He goes on to say that Asana lets companies create clarity, a timeline, and actionable results through their solutions such as building roadmaps, messaging team members, onboarding new staff, track campaigns, and streamline processes.

Asana can be pricier than their competition but along with offering a free basic package for up to 15 users – they also offer nonprofits 50% off Premium and Business plans making it more comparable to other management platforms. They also have a dedicated customer service team that helps nonprofits get started with the tool. For smaller nonprofits or charities wishing to try out the tool – Asana’s basic plan comes with unlimited projects, messaging, tasks and file storage along with 100+ free integrations like Adobe Creative Cloud, Tableau, Google, and Microsoft.

Technology Used:

Asana can be deployed on the cloud. It is also compatible with both Mac and Windows; iPhones an Androids. As stated before, Asana integrates with over 100+ solutions making projects and universal reporting easy and efficient.

Ease of Use:

Asana is easy to use once you get used to the software. When users log in they are brought to a dashboard that lets them track on-going projects, message colleagues, and manage tasks.  Asana offer help in the form of  webinars, documentation and videos. They also provide nonprofits with a dedicated customer service team to help them navigate the platform.

Arnoldy told me that while working at Possible, Asana enabled his organization to advance their mission but it also contributed to a better inclusive culture and environment – especially because he had staff all across the world. “So many nonprofits have been disappointed and let down by trying to adopt a new software that is cumbersome” so he was pleasantly surprised when Asana was able to deliver.

Recap:

A work management tool, Asana helps nonprofits streamline projects all in one place. The easy-to-use dashboard allows users to track projects in real time, message their co-workers and report on key metrics. Along with being able to manage projects Asana comes with universal templates which allows nonprofits to save time offering companies the ability to be agile even if they are juggling multiple grants and projects at once.

Advantages:

• 50% discount for nonprofit organizations who purchase the Premium or Business plan
• A dedicated customer service team for Nonprofits
• Easy-to-use interface
• 100+ integration
• Ability to streamline projects

Disadvantages:

• Pricier than their competition
• Reporting tool is lackluster

My Opinion:

The many positive reviews on Asana speaks for itself. The company has a lot of happy customers who love the ability to streamline their projects and communicate with their colleagues in a user-friendly platform. I also appreciate the 50% discount for nonprofits. While it may cost a bit more than Asana’s counterparts it doesn’t seem like users mind paying the extra money since the tool itself is robust – offering tools and services other platforms don’t.

A few customers noted that the reporting capability is lacking. The only negative instance I could find within the tool was its reporting capability. My only suggestion to Asana would be to work with their customers to create a robust reporting tool that meets their needs.

EveryAction brings together multiple platforms to make up one robust CRM (customer relationship management solution) that is trusted by over 15,000 nonprofits including the NAACP, Feeding America, and the Special Olympics.

In Use:

CRMs are crucial for any mid-large size nonprofit who wants to use their time efficiently. With a CRM like EveryAction, all of their donor information is at the tips of their fingers. They can save time by logging into one software as opposed to logging into multiple different platforms. With EveryAction a charity can access their volunteer and donor lists, create emails through their marketing automation tool, manage events, and visualize and report results.

According to their website, Covenant House saw an 83% increase in Giving Tuesday fundraising from 2019 while Audubon saw a 39% increase in annual fundraising revenue.

“My organization uses Everyaction [sic] as our CRM. They have recently made some upgrades so now we are able to house all of our fundraising, volunteer management, and digital communications in one system,” Anastasia O., a Campaigns Director wrote on Capterra, a software reviews and selection platform. She adds, “They also have some cool twitter and email integrations that make it really easy to create online actions for people to take and helps us engage our volunteer base more effectively.”

Ease of Use:

Many reviews on Capterra claim that EveryAction is easy to use sighting tech support and customer service as exceptional. They’ve also noted that the platform itself is intuitive. Other reviewers on the site think that the CRM is cumbersome.

EveryAction also has a variety of trainings and support that users can utilize such as Email/Help Desk, phone and chat support. They also have both live webinars and webinars on-demand that users can utilize to learn more about the product.

Technology Used:

EveryAction is Cloud based which means there’s no agent that will slow down your computer and take up space. It also means that it’s accessible anywhere – whether you’re working remotely on vacation or you need to check something while you’re out.

Recap:

EveryAction is a CRM tailored to the needs of nonprofit organizations. Housing many features and tools within their platform – EveryAction aims at being the one-stop-shop for all a non-profits needs. While the starting price of $109 is pricier than other CRMs in the nonprofit space – they do include quite a few features that makes can make it worthwhile for a charity. For instance, attendance tracking, calendar management, email automation, and donation tracking.

Advantages:

• Main customers commend the customer service and the training materials available
• Stacks up nicely against their counterparts
• Multiple tools and features that users can utilize

Disadvantages:

• The price tag could discourage small-medium nonprofits
• Integrations can be challenging when moving from one CRM to EveryAction
• Reporting is limited

My Opinion

I think if you’re a medium-large nonprofit or business in general – investing in a CRM is a good idea. A CRM lets you store all of your data in one place to make it easier to access. I think where EveryAction falls short is that some of their features are just “ok.” Reviews on Capterra mention that the reporting can be limiting. But where EveryAction accels is that their customer service seems to be exceptional. I do appreciate that not only do they have a chat feature, but they have assets that users can utilize from webinars to videos to learn exactly how to use the program.

After working as an accountant, CPA and CFO for a number of years - founder and developer of Grant Budget Manager, Rick Perrin began to consult for Wisconsin Early Childhood Association and found that they had unique budgeting needs. He quickly learned that this problem wasn’t unique just to this nonprofit. In fact, all nonprofits small or large face the same budgeting and forecasting issues due to the uncertainty of grants and the continuous fluctuation of donations. With his background in finance he set out to create a tool that would make budgeting and forecasting easy for small to mid-size charities.

In Use:

Nonprofits rely on grants and donations to keep them afloat throughout the year. It’s what allows them to pay their staff, invest in infrastructure and help the constituents that they serve. But grants and donations can’t always be counted on – and grants start and stop at different times of the year. An organization could have $10,000 in grant money coming in, in April, but only $5,000 coming in, in September. But like any business, that same charity has similar monthly expenses in April as it does in September. That’s why it’s so important to manage their budget monthly but also forecast what they’ll need in months to come.

Unlike similar products, Grant Budget Manager was created for nonprofits. It works directly with QuickBooks and many other accounting systems for a seamless integration.  Unlike similar software that charges a set-up fee on top of annual fees, Grant Budget Manager requires a one-time implementation fee. Perrin did this to relieve nonprofits of the burden of having to budget monthly fees into their forecasts.

Technology Needed:
Grant Budget Manager currently sits on prem and is compatible with a PC. The program has an encryption key built into it to protect a nonprofit’s data and prevent data loss.

East of Use:

The implementation of Grant Budget Manager takes about 20 hours, most of that time is working with the client and their employees to show them how the platform performs. Once the platform is installed, Perrin is confident it will save charities both time and money.

Recap:

Founded by Perrin, Grant Budget Manager is a tool that’s built for nonprofits. It works with excel to help charities manage their budget and forecast future spend. With a 36-month timeline it allows nonprofits to manage long-term grants and their multiple-year budget. The platform also allows clients to run reports, analyze key results, allocate costs, and quickly update their finances. With different dashboards available, clients can see where they stand in the present and what their future expenses may look like.

Advantages:

• Unlike other accounting tools, Grant Budget Manager is built for nonprofit organizations
• The platform costs a one-time implementation fee while other competitors charge an implementation fee plus annual fees
• Integrates with QuickBooks and other accounting systems
• Has an encryption key built in to protect against data loss

Disadvantages:

• Located on prem and for PCs only
• Grant Budget Manager is a newer software so there aren’t very many reviews and testimony about the product yet

My Opinion:

Just by talking to Perrin for a short amount of time, it’s clear that Grant Budget Manager was a labor of love (1500 hours of programing to be exact). This robust platform sets out to solve all of the unique problems that nonprofits face in terms of budgeting and accounting.

Bigger isn’t always better when it comes to your nonprofit software. Complex accounting and donation platforms can lead to complicated set-up processes and procedures that might not benefit your organization in the first place. That’s why Software4Nonprofits created two simple programs for their users – their DONATION program to keep track of donors and donations and their ACCOUNTS program for basic bookkeeping functionality.

In Use:
Small to mid-sized nonprofits and churches who primarily wish to keep track of their donations or utilize basic bookkeeping and fund accounting functionality benefit the most from Software4Nonprofits programs.

DONATION Program:

Software4Nonprofit’s DONATION program allows organizations to record donors and gifts while also issuing receipts to supporters. Users can access different types of reporting that makes it easier for charities to track one-time contributors, current donors, and all contributions by date, name and amount. When speaking to Software4Nonprofits founder Dan Cooperstock, he wanted to make it very clear that this software was not a full-featured fundraising software. If you are interested in a fundraising platform he recommends a “full-featured and customizable fundraising program.”

In terms of pricing, Software4Nonprofits offer a free LITE version, and free 60-day evaluations of other full-featured versions. Support for the LITE version is $20 a year after the first month, and support and upgrades are included for the first year with the purchase of the other versions. From there the purchase price is either $100 or $180 depending on the version chosen. The LITE version allows for up to 100 donors per year. With multiple versions available and a 60-day free trial, charities and churches can find the right version for them.

ACCOUNTS Program:

Like the DONATION program there are different versions of the software depending on what a charity is looking for. A nonprofit may start with a standard version and then upgrade over the years as their organization grows. “Initial pricing for ACCOUNTS is $130 to $220 depending on the version and again subsequent year support and upgrades costs are half of the initial price,” Cooperstock explained.

Unlike traditional commercial accounting programs like QuickBooks or Quicken, users can track income and expenses while also having a simple and completely automated fund accounting. Like the DONATION software, users can also take advantage of different reports such as income statements, balance sheets, and detailed transaction reports.

Technology Used:

Software4Nonprofits can only be installed on Windows desktop apart from the OnDemand version. Because this version is controlled by secure remote control, it can also be used on Macs.

While there are no direct integrations, users can export their data and upload it to their CRMs like Constant Contact or QuickBooks.

Ease of Use:

Nonprofits can access multiple introductory videos that teach users exactly how to use each software.  There is also an expansive FAQ page and Help file that covers everything from problems using the program to installations. Users who are still having issues can email Software4Nonprofits or call them for support.

Recap:

Software4Nonprofits was created as an easy solution for churches, charities, and nonprofits to solve for basic donation and accounting needs. It was important to Cooperstock to create a software that was easily accessible to anybody including volunteers with minimal experience.

Advantages:

• DONATION program has a free LITE version that many charities and churches can utilize
• The programs are easy to use and there are a plethora of documents and videos to help an organization learn how to use each program
• Export documents and upload to your CRM
• Fairly priced

Disadvantages:

• The only cloud-based program is their OnDemand version
• The software is only available in English
• If you do not have accounting experience, the ACCOUNTS program may have a learning curve

My Opinion:

The biggest advantage of a software like Software4Nonprofits is that they know what they are. They are a simple solution for charities and churches to upload DONATION and track income and expenses. The program doesn’t promise to be the next QuickBooks or fundraising tool – in fact Dan Cooperstock makes it very clear that they’re not. If you need a way to keep track of your spending, donors, and DONATION – these programs can help. With different versions of each program – small-to-mid nonprofits can pick the best version for their organization to get the most benefit.

If you’re looking for a simple, intuitive way to track your donors and gifts – I would recommend trying out the 60-day trial to see how you like it.

The mission of every nonprofit is to solve a particular problem. However, these problems can change from one time to another. They can evolve from simple to more complicated issues that require a properly thought out solution and an organized nonprofit. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic that has posed significant challenges, new problems have emerged for the nonprofit sector. The demand for nonprofit services has consequently gone up. With the changes in the operating environment, nonprofits need to be creative by leveraging new technologies to enhance better decision-making and other processes. Here are some ways that non-nonprofits will evolve in 2021.

1. There will be a demand for more services

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to many problems, most of which require nonprofits' services to surmount. Although we hope for the recovery of the economy later this year, many people will still need help to address various challenges that include food insecurity and poverty. According to a 2020 report by the United Nations, the pandemic pushed back 70 million to poverty in 2020. CDC, on its part, noted with concern that there is an increasing number of people who have various stress-related mental conditions due to the pandemic. With these statistics, nonprofits will need to find ways to respond to the rising and changing needs of the communities they serve.

2. There will be a transition to digital events

Although in-person fundraising will continue to exist, the transition to digital events might have just started with the pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, digital events have proven to be the cheaper and effective alternative to in-person events. They allow nonprofits to surmount the geographical barriers and encourages engagement from donors who would not attend if they were in-person. Data generated from online meetings can also be used to get valuable insights into the donation activities and how the future can be planned.

3. Technology will help nonprofits evolve

Nonprofits will take advantage of artificial intelligence, enhanced communication technologies and blockchain to find and reach suitable donors. For example, social media conversations and direct emails are used as the main methods of communication where nonprofits target their potential audience. However, with artificial intelligence, tools such as automation will make these platforms better by introducing personalized messages. These technologies and others like chatbots will reduce the effort involved in looking for new potential donors and increase conversion rates.

4. Partnerships, joint ventures and mergers in the nonprofit sector will increase

Although partnerships, mergers, and joint ventures are mainly associated with for-profits, nonprofits sometimes use these strategies. With the increasing challenges, most of which demand a collaborative approach in terms of resources and expansion of operations, we will likely see this happening in the nonprofit sector in the coming months. Nonprofits will enter these kinds of ventures to build their capacity and take advantage of each other’s potential in addressing specific problems in the society. We will witness nonprofits having conversations with one another on making a lasting impact on society as challenges increase. 

5. Central management of data will be used to enhance transparency and efficiency

Data is a valuable component in planning, reporting and marketing for nonprofits. Sadly, many nonprofits have no strategy for managing massive volumes of data that comes from different sources. Since the pandemic began, data from these sources have been coming in thick and fast, often overwhelming nonprofits. To survive the changing landscape, nonprofits will need a data strategy that can use this data. One of the solutions to this challenge is creating centralized data management to enhance collaboration, audience segmentation, and better reporting and forecasting. This will significantly improve nonprofit management.

The role of social workers is more demanding than ever before and the needs of human services continues to outpace the bandwidth of the most valued asset in driving social impact: our frontline workers. An average case load for a social worker is 300 people and there aren’t enough qualified workers to fulfill the skyrocketing human need. In simple terms, it is estimated that 38 out of 50 states across the US do not have enough social workers to support the humans in need today.

My name is John Tramel and I support the team of employees and volunteers at Drumm Center for Children, also known as Drumm Farm. For over 20 years we’ve provided much needed housing and support services to children in foster care and young adults who are homeless in the community.

Our organization is focused on three main programs. The first program connects to our history as an orphanage, and we call it the HOME Program, which is a village of foster homes across 50 acres that creates a welcoming neighborhood feel for families to live full time on our campus. We transitioned to a residential group home model in the 80’s, and roughly 10 years ago we shifted into a family-centered neighborhood setting filled with full-time foster homes. This model has allowed us to significantly improve the outcomes for foster children. It eliminates the institution feeling of other models, allows us to keep siblings together, and lets these children experience what it truly feels like to be part of a family.  

Our second program, the COMPASS Program, is a campus transitional program that offers an apartment-style home living environment that delivers intensive support services for youth and young adults ages 16 to 22. It also provides necessary services to help them become self-sustaining and emotionally healthy young people. This program’s core focus is to help young adults gain stability and make significant progress to becoming independent young adults. We do this by providing immediate services such as healthcare, food, transportation, and stable housing; clinical services to support mental health; and educational-support services with certified teachers across the state of Missouri to foster the ability to achieve sustainable employment and develop true independency. However long these children are with us–for a short time or an extended stay–we make sure they can learn in a safe, caring environment where they feel connected to and involved in family life.  

Our third program is a Street Outreach Program where we provide case management support and therapeutic services for homeless youth and young adults ages 14 to 21 throughout the community who are not living at Drumm Farm. We find housing and support services for them through our local continuum of care, and our partnership with the Kansas City Work Readiness Center delivers that extra layer of support for those young adults looking for even more workforce development programs to foster long-term, independent sustainability.

Drumm Farm recognized the need to embrace technology and automation to better serve the youth across the community that relied on our services. We also realized that implementing case management technology would give us easier access to participant data and help us better understand individual needs, more efficiently manage the hundreds of applications in the metro-wide system, and track youth service requests for faster response delivery. We quickly realized the efficiencies associated with Social Solutions’ Apricot case management software, which has allowed us to serve more people and foster community collaboration.

Here are more details about our experience:

Selecting a Solution

I joined Drumm Farm as Associate Director in 2016. We did not have a data system in place and the team was working predominantly from Excel spreadsheets while using manual pen and paper for all forms and files. I knew early on that we needed to move from this archaic way of tracking applications and managing services for each individual. For example, it took me four days to create a grant report that could have been done in 20 minutes with technology to automate the process.

Several social services organizations across the community, including dozens of school districts, had been using Social Solutions’ Apricot case management software to improve operations, go paperless, streamline workflows, track performance, and enable growth, and I had seen the difference it made firsthand. Even though our budget for technology was small at the time, it was a natural choice for us to make an investment and deploy Apricot at Drumm Farm knowing it would help increase efficiency, inform decisions about resource allocation, and foster community collaboration to better serve individuals.

Streamlining the Case Management Process and Fueling Grant Growth

Apricot was fully implemented at Drumm Farm in the summer of 2017 and it has been transformational for us. Having this data system in place has allowed us to streamline our processes and grow and serve an increasing number of children and youth in need. Our campus has grown from four foster homes to 11 foster homes. Additionally, we will soon have 31 housing units, up from four units in 2016. This growth is tied directly to the Apricot case management system, which accelerated our ability to monitor assessment tools, analyze the data we were collecting, and measure outcomes accurately. Our service-delivery model is multifaceted, and Apricot allows us to easily track–for each individual–educational outcomes, clinical outcomes, therapeutic outcomes, life skills outcomes, and case management status all in one place.

Prior to our technology integration project, Drumm received approximately $30,000 in grants a year. From 2016 to present, we’ve seen a 15X growth in annual grants and Apricot has made it increasingly efficient and easy to manage the grant process paperwork. We can assess daily and run outcome reports quickly at any given time. Paper applications and associated manual surveys are a process of the past. Technology has completely automated this process and made it simple to compare assessment periods, run reports based on data queries, and produce calculations. Outcome reporting that previously took several days is now a mere-minutes process. Importantly, this access to data has positively impacted our fundraising efforts as grantors can see how their donation is really helping children. It also gives us an opportunity to evaluate our mission, articulate where adjustments need to be made, and identify new services we potentially should be providing.

Fostering Community Collaboration

Apricot 360 has increased our ability to serve youth and we now know more about what interventions are helping them. Additionally, we’ve been able to form a true partnership with various program providers across multiple locations within the metro Kansas City community to provide transitional living for homeless youth. We now have a single, shared, and automated application process that simplifies applications for the agencies and youth seeking housing. For example, since we can all access Apricot Connect, I can create one report that allows partner agencies to view and add notes to an applicant’s record. 

The software also allows me to put access permissions in place so documents remain confidential. As an example, a therapist has access to therapeutic documents only and a teacher has access to educational documents pertaining to the individual only.  As the administrator, I can track data cross-functionally and quickly create reports that show a child’s progress over the year. I can analyze and accurately assess the data to see a child’s stability across all kinds of life domains over a period of time, see growth patterns, and calculate areas where more specific areas of service may be needed.

Currently, we manage more than 800 youth applications in the metro-wide system, all through Apricot Connect, track the youth requesting services at a regional level, and provide faster time-to-service to significantly improve the participant application process and overall experience. We’re truly collaborating as a community to best serve youth.

Whatever your nonprofit’s mission may be, leveraging technology and data is the fastest way to transform your operations and drive greater social impact. If Drumm Farm can do it, anyone can do it.  

John Tramel, Associate Director, Drumm Center for Children

Running a nonprofit can be an emotionally rewarding undertaking. However, ensuring that everything works as required is no mean task. As good as the cause might be, there are always many financial red tapes that make it difficult to maintain the status of a nonprofit. Accountants in these organizations face a challenge in tracking various financial processes. Depending on the changes in regulations, these challenges can change regularly, making things unpredictable. Unlike the for-profits whose budgets are bigger and have more resources, nonprofits operate on smaller budgets and have fewer resources to work with. Therefore, any slight financial mistake can have a significant impact on the organization. Here are some challenges you should be prepared to face in nonprofits.

• Funding sources

There is no single source of nonprofit cash. Money to run operations in a nonprofit comes from many funding sources, some of which are irregular and unpredictable. As such, nonprofit leaders must always strive to find money to keep things running from different sources. They can do so by engaging donors, members, holding fundraisers, and applying for various grants. Keeping track of money from all these sources is often confusing and challenging for accountants, some of whom have other roles in the organization. Studies show that the main challenges to accountants and nonprofit leaders are identifying long-term sustainability and finding new funding sources. Keeping the existing sources is also tricky. As an accountant, however, using accounts receivable software can help keep you informed.

• Poor collaboration

Collaboration is critical in nonprofits. Financial professionals will get the information they need from other quarters, and fundraising will be boosted with the right collaborative efforts. However, according to the study, most nonprofit financial professionals stated that they were least involved in fundraising and development. Collaboration needs to address aspects such as nonprofit funding and long-term sustainability. With the proper collaboration, money management will be made easy, and nonprofit vision and mission will become clearer. ERP software and funds accounting programs are needed to achieve this goal.

• Tracking grants

Even after identifying grants and potential sources for your cause, you still have to go through a lot to track them. This is even harder if grant providers make the process hard. In addition to the lack of a specific date specified for funds, grant money is limited to certain expenses in most cases. This forces nonprofit accountants to continually track where the money will go to, receivable grants, and when the grant is ready to be collected. This wastes too much time that could have been used in other things. The ability to track these grants would free up a lot of time for research and the application of other grants.

• Payroll tracking

Like the for-profits, tracking payroll in nonprofits is also a big challenge. Your nonprofit needs a system to track payroll effectively. If you do not have a way of tracking income sources for your employees, the chances are that your tax reporting will be more complicated. Additionally, without sound payroll management, a nonprofit will have critical financial discrepancies. Sadly, most nonprofits lack proper bookkeeping payroll management methods, and therefore auditing is always a problem.  The best approach to this is to use an external payroll bookkeeper to remove tracking issues of income and funds dispersal.

• Management reporting

This challenge is caused by a lack of real-time financial data that makes real-time reporting difficult. It includes inaccurate management reports and outdated financial statement data. To determine reporting and fundraising goals accurately, current reports are needed. This is often a challenge for many nonprofits who lack timely detailed reports for mission-based budgets. This challenge is sometimes the doing of nonprofits, who often overlook management reports. As an accountant, you can improve this by improving your daily function and finding better funding sources. 

A good grant manager provides professional, high-quality services beyond what a typical bookkeeper, program director or grant writer can offer. The right grant manager for your nonprofits needs to:

1. Keep Your Nonprofit Out of Trouble With Funders and the IRS

This is crucial if your nonprofit plans to seek future grants, especially if you're working with or pursuing government funds. Nonprofits that haven't followed the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) or foundation spending guidelines can end up on the “excluded parties” list, meaning they will never be allowed to apply for or accept grants again.

A good grant manager will analyze your financial systems and make improvements if needed. They will ensure that your grants are being spent only on allowable items and are being properly documented. They will also make sure that everyone working on grants documents their time and effort for the performed work.

2. Prepare Your Audit

Every nonprofit that spends more than $300,000 of government grants in one fiscal year is required to go through an audit. This means that the nonprofit's financial systems and grant implementation documentation will be processed in a systematized way to prove full compliance with both your and your funder's organizational policies and procedures. This process is rigorous for government funders, and a good grant manager must know their restrictions.

3. Create or Update Policies and Procedures for How Grants Must Be Used and Accounted

A good grant manager knows that your CPA will analyze your policies and procedures for internal controls if your nonprofit is ever audited and will look for proof that you regularly follow these practices. Having quality policies and procedures is equally important. They should be original and customized to the needs and processes of your nonprofit. The grant manager must ensure these are regularly updated and shared with the board and check if they are being followed as needed.

4. Support Your Nonprofit in Meeting the Policies

A good grant manager must balance using rules and regulations as sanctions versus using them to support and educate your nonprofit into becoming a better functioning organization. They need to review your organizational policies and procedures and analyze your financial documentation and grant reporting systems. With this information, they must sit down with the board and show how your practices, policies and procedures align with the law or funder regulations.

5. Help You Create Organization-Wide Forms, Spreadsheets and Reports to Track Grant Activity and Evaluation

A good grant manager will have tools they can use to keep your grants on track. That's why you should look for a manager who has extensive knowledge and experience with spreadsheets and related project management software and technologies. They need to be organized and have a system for your grant documentation for easier tracking and control.

6. Oversee the Leadership of the Grant Programs

Putting your grant manager over the grant leadership staff will stop you from having to deal with the daily functioning of grant programs. That person should hold regular meetings with your team and require grant leaders to regularly report on the progress of grant activities, so the progress and accomplishments are adequately tracked and reviewed. A grant manager should also help grant leaders deal with funding, grant sustainability and partnerships. This means they must have grant writing and grant implementation experience.

 Jackie Sue Griffin, JSG & Associates

You can now say “Alexa make a donation to_____” and have Alexa use your Amazon pay account to make a donation up to $5,000.  Currently, this program is only available to select charities that have been invited by Amazon. However, it is likely that this program will be a hit with both donors and nonprofits, so it is something that you should have on your radar for the upcoming year. 

Another high tech trend to watch for 2020 is the rise in giving via a blockchain platform. A blockchain platform is  a public ledger relying on globally distributed historical transactions to prevent tampering and fraud. 

Blockchain was designed to offer a higher level of transparency for transactions. Many donors wish to know that their donations are going directly to the charity that they have selected for the express purpose of funding a certain project. A blockchain giving platform can give them that piece of mind. 

BitGive’s GiveTrack is an example of one such platform. BitGive shares detailed real time information about the financial and project status of the charities that they work with that are accepting donations via GiveTrack.

Global Giving is a crowdfunding platform designed to help small nonprofits raise awareness and money. Global Giving is also a nonprofit, which means it understands what nonprofits need to run a successful fundraising campaign. 

Global Giving also understands that small nonprofits don’t have a large budget, so there is no application fee to join the  Global Giving platform. There is no monthly subscription fee, however Global Givings has a 3% transaction fee along with a sliding scale support fee of 5-12% of collected donations. 

The site offers a host of training and support options for nonprofits that join the platform. There are webinars, training libraries, workshops, one on one phone consultations or site visits.  The platform has tools like gamification and incentives to increase donations. 

The platform offers all the standard fundraising campaign tools, including metrics, donor engagement, social media integration. What it also offers is opportunities to partner with large companies for matching grants, or specific giving programs with the company.

know your audience in order to determine if live streaming is right for your nonprofit. The people you want to engage through a live stream have to be savvy enough to access your video feed so that they aren’t overwhelmed or frustrated by the experience. Beyond this point, your decision should come down to value—both to the viewer and to your organization.

If your organization is exploring adding a livestream to your next event there are a few things that you should consider. First, is your event the type of event that makes for a good livestream. 

The purpose of the livestream is to generate enthusiasm and excitement from those who are unable to attend in person. The event you are live streaming has to be visually interesting enough to keep your online viewer engaged. The most successful live streams are based on events that have an element of excitement to them. Is your event a fashion show? Will there be cute animals?--you can never go wrong livestreaming cute animals.  Also, if your event includes a celebrity guest that you know people who were unable to attend in person would love to see, 

After determining if your event is right for a livestream, it’s time to consider if your intended audience is right for a livestream. If your audience is comfortable using Twitch, YouTube or social media, if you chose to livestream via Facebook than live streaming is a good idea. If your audience is not comfortable with those platforms it doesn’t mean that you can’t do a livestream it just means that you may not get a huge return from the event. 

Next, it’s time to plan your livestream events content. Think of your live stream as the modern equivalent to a charity telethon-except instead of broadcasting on TV your using the internet. A telethon doesn’t consist of a single still shot of the action and neither should your livestream. 

Create a content script. If your are doing a fashion show consider doing interviews with the models or designers (or stores that donated the fashion). Have a host roving the audience,anything to spice up the broadcast. Remember you want to keep the excitement going. 

Many livestream apps allow your organization to collect donations directly from the livestream platform, so make sure your call to action is clear. 

EveryAction wants to be everything to every nonprofit. This cloud based platform offers fundraising, advocacy, organizing and digital all in one package. 

For fundraising, you can use the platform to create a simple donation page for your website. You can also use the platform to track major gifts, pledges and other donations. And, you can run an online auction with it as well. 

Get all your advocacy done with social matching and listening which lets you monitor and track influential supporters and it has an advocacy module that makes it easy for you to turn your advocates into donors. 

Organize your supporters with the built in tools to manage your volunteers and coordinate your canvassing or phone bank events. 

The digital portion lets you build multi channel ad campaigns. The platform includes data visualization tools so you can make use of all the various data sets that your organization accumulates. 

Nonprofits can make the most out the remaining giving days in the year, reports The Nonprofit Times. 

You’ve survived Giving Tuesday – and hopefully come out of it with a nice boost of donation revenue for your nonprofit.

Read article on The Nonprofit Times

New Story, a nonprofit that focuses on using tech to build affordable housing, plans on having 50 new homes erected a Mexico community by the end of 2020. 

A giant 3D printer built two houses in an impoverished, rural part of Mexico last week, breaking ground on what will be the first 3D-printed neighborhood in the world.

Read article on Fox 2 Now

According to the Biz Tech Magazine, integrated giving is one of several technology trends that will impact nonprofits in 2020. 

Nonprofits have a lot on their plates. Charitable giving took a hit last year, declining for the first time since the Great Recession, forcing organizations to do more with less.

Read article on Biz Tech Magazine

Mobile friendly devices help contribute to the success of #GivingTuesday, reports Biz Tech Magazine.  

Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday are all behind us, but the long Thanksgiving weekend isn’t over yet. Many will be digging deep into their pockets again today, but not for themselves—this time, it’s for Giving Tuesday. 

Read article on BizTech Magazine