Olsen Thielen Advisor Blog

Even though nonprofits don’t face the same government regulations as for-profit companies, fiscal oversight is the board's responsibility.  Donors and other watchdog groups pay close attention, and the media is quick to pounce on rumors of fraud in the nonprofit sector.

If your not-for-profit’s program lineup has remained unchanged for a couple of years, some of them might be due for replacement.  Consider using the tradition of spring cleaning to review and update your offerings.

Many nonprofits struggle with technology because of smaller staffs and limited IT expertise. For them, "embracing the cloud" is a solution that’s easy to adopt, and could result in better control over technology costs and greater efficiency and productivity.

Are you doing everything you can to educate your financial supporters and their employers about matching gifts? Corporate gift-matching enables donors to make larger contributions than they can manage on their own. Knowing their gift will be matched, they might even bump up the amount. Therefore, do everything you can

The key role of a not-for-profit’s internal auditors was once limited largely to testing financial and compliance controls and reporting their findings to the organization’s leadership. But today, with their cross-departmental perspective, internal audit staff (whether employees or outside consultants) can help anticipate and mitigate a variety of risks, improve

Yet plenty of nonprofits are still hesitating to add employees to the payroll. If your organization is on the sidelines but thinking about hiring in the near future, the following three questions can help you decide.

Not-for-profit boards can vary widely, with different responsibilities and expectations for their members. The structure, for example, can be anything from a less-involved group that takes its direction from the organization’s leader, to a fully functioning, hands-on board that essentially runs the nonprofit, to boards that fit somewhere in between.