Nonprofit Accounting: To Cloud or Not To Cloud?

As nonprofits seek to better steward their organization’s resources they are challenged with providing the best in technology and support to increase efficiency, funding, and mission success.  Boards have expanding responsibility and oversight as well, so conversations are happening at all levels around how to reduce costs and increase benefits with the best IT setup and solutions.  Top of mind in all these conversations is cloud computing and promises of lower up-front costs, greater scalability and freedom from the burden of managing IT resources.  If you are involved in these conversations, here are ten points to ponder.

1. Strategic Plan.  What do you want to accomplish? What does success look like?  Start with a long-term organizational strategy and treat technology, deployment, and payment choices of solutions such as financial management software, as enablers to executing on the strategy. While you may understand this, remind other stakeholders who may be caught up in the latest buzz of in the software or technology market.
2. Autonomy and IT Outsourcing. Keep in mind that (Software-as-a-Service) SaaS applications are designed to be managed by business users, not IT specialists.  This may not result in complete outsourcing, as you will potentially still need savvy users to develop sustainable practices, customize the solution to suit your organization’s needs, as well as connect and integrate with other systems.
3. Cost & Startup. Nonprofits are being drawn to cloud applications to reduce costs and IT burdens and improve operations.  The comparatively low upfront cost and quick startup can be a big plus for your financials.
4. Security & Risk Management. As you look at the benefits of cloud computing, make sure you balance the security and risk management concerns by fully vetting the solutions and providers you select. Ask if the vendor has had a  security breach in the past several years, and if so what was the impact  customers and remediation of the issue.
5. Audit Trail. Transparency and accountability are top of mind for donors, community, board members and staff.  It is important to make sure that the cloud provider you are considering has the ability to provide tracking of information regarding user activity.
6. Board of Director and Auditor Support.  From the initial planning stages, get buy-in from your Board of Directors and CPA firm.  With increased governance and accountability demands, these partners will be essential in developing      strategy and executing a successful plan to achieve your goals across all critical areas.
7. Exit Plan.  One of the nice things about cloud accounting and subscription pricing for solutions is that you can always change your mind if the solution is not the best fit or if your organization’s needs change. The cloud ecosystem is complex and you need to have a defined exit strategy that you can execute. Look for flexible options that allow you to move (with your data) to on premise solution if desired. Pay attention to agreement details related to “if” you can move your data, and how much the transition will cost you.
8. Integration.  Most organizations will make a gradual shift in business processes to the cloud over time, as security, cost and ROI are proved out.   You want to make sure that you choose technology solutions that work and play well together – both on premise and in the cloud.
9. Connectivity Options.  Whether through a web portal or terminal services connections, you will want to have your IT and planning team test and confirm connectivity options with the cloud platform and architecture that you select.
10. Performance.  The contract between your organization and your cloud provider is critically important and should include a Service Level Agreement (SLA).  It should be reasonable and state the performance standards – along with appropriate penalties and protections in the event of non-performance by your provider.

So, cloud or not to cloud? What are your thoughts?

Joan Benson
Product Marketing Manager
Sage Nonprofit Solutions

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4 Essentials To Attract Top Talent

As the job market begins to pick back up, are you finding it more difficult to recruit top talent to your organization?  When you are recruiting either employees or volunteers, one of the key objectives is to hire the very best. How do you that in a competitive market – on a budget?  Here are a few simple things that you can do with minimal investment and a little bit of time.

• Educate the candidate on your organization – “Why would I want to be a part of your organization?” Use social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube to give candidates information about your organization and what makes it great; examples being, community events, relevant business news, organization culture, etc. Not only will this draw candidates in, but it will also weed out the ones who are not a good fit early on in the process.
• Make the application process easy – Whether electronic or paper, employee or volunteer; make the application process as simple as possible.  Go back to the basics, collecting name, phone number and email. You will have an opportunity to get other necessary information further in the interview process, along with the necessary signatures for legal purposes. Consider using an applicant tracking system or volunteer management tool to allow candidates to easily upload their information and provide you with a consistent, easy to read format. This may require a bit of investment, but I think you will see an improvement in your recruitment ROI.
• Follow up with all relevant applicants – Have you ever applied for a job and never heard anything back from anyone? When you call to follow-up on your application, no one seems to know anything about the position or your application? This seems to be the norm for many, so to stand out and make a great impression, follow-up with your applicants. The type of follow-up can vary depending on how far in the process the individual has gotten. For example, it can be a simple auto acknowledgement of the application, to a personal phone call from the manager, recruiter or volunteer coordinator calling to say “thanks but no thanks”.
• Make a good impression in the first meeting – Whether it is interviewing for an office position or a volunteer giving their time on your organization’s behalf in the community, you want to make individuals want to work for you. Take the time to work with your team  to ensure there is a solid interview plan in place and that there is a good balance, meaning the candidate can interview you as well.

These four points may seem easy, but they do take time and attention to the details. If your organization wants to staff up with top talent, make a “Candidate/Volunteer Commitment” and tackle one initiative at a time and give yoursefl time for the change to happen!

Erin Teter, SPHR
Sr. Human Resource Business Partner
Sage North America

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10 Reasons Why You Should Attend Sage Summit

This year’s annual Sage Summit will be held at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tennessee, from August 12th to 17th.   Partner days are designated for August 12^th -14^th  and customer days are from August 14^th -17^th.  If you are still debating whether or not to attend.  Here are ten reasons why you should:

1. It only happens once a year.  Sage Summit brings together all of our gurus who are eager to share their knowledge and tips for using Sage products.  Sometimes a quick shortcut someone shares at Summit ends up saving you hours in your workweek. 
2. On the spot problem solving.  Get one-one one help by scheduling an onsite appointment in the Support Center.
3. Training and even CPE credits.  There are over 60 nonprofit specific sessions to choose from!  And, depending on the tracks you choose, you can earn up to 17 CPE credits (Sage Partners can receive 32).
4. Come for the savings. Sage Summit attendees get access to exclusive money-saving discounts on products, services, training, and more.
5. See what’s next. Technology is constantly evolving and so is Sage. Come to learn about cloud computing, connected services, mobile trends, fundraising ideas, data wrangling and more.
6. Network, network, network. Come meet the people you interact with at Sage, your business partner and other Sage users all in one spot.
7. Yes there is a group discount!  Train all of your new employees and get a refresher for yourself.   
8. Enjoy an exclusive event.  Yes, there will be Nonprofit and Sage wide exclusive events throughout the amazing Gaylord hotel and at local favorites like, The Grand Ole Opry.  (Even if you’re not a country music fan, you’ll be awestruck by the history, sights and sounds at this legendary music venue.)
9. Boot Scoot and Boogie.  This year Sage Nonprofit Solutions will be celebrating our customers at a private event at The Wildhorse Saloon.  Yee Haw!
10. Oh, did we mention Jake Owen, Trace Adkins, Montgomery Gentry, and Diamond Rio will be performing?

You only have 7 days left to register for Sage Summit with the early bird discount.  Don’t wait another minute. Register now!

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Are People Your Biggest Expense Or Asset?

Why are some nonprofits thriving while others struggle? What is the distinctive difference between a good organization and a truly great one? The answers to these questions can only be found when looking at what defines the organization: its people.

Recently our colleagues at Sage HRMS created an infographic to explain the Return on Employee Investment (ROEI™).  What’s that? ROEI is a way for businesses, nonprofits, really all types of organizations, to quantify the positive return of investing in people or employees.  Think about it when you add up the cost of salary and benefits, employees are typically the largest expense, yet without them what do you have?  Employees are any organization’s biggest asset and investment.

Thus, as an investment, what type of return do employees provide their organizations? Check out the measures Sage used to show ROEI in the image below.  What measures are in place at your organization to quantify the value of your people?  Please share with us in the comments.

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10 Essential Tips For Social Media

Tip # 1 Claim Your Name

Secure your name or your organization’s name – even if you don’t plan to engage with the network right away.  Yes, there are thousands of social networks to join.  My recommendation is begin with the top networks first: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google +.

Tip #2 Complete Your Profiles Completely

Your profile is a virtual introduction. Make it authentic, descriptive and unique. And, please don’t be faceless egg. Include a photo or at least an avatar. You will receive more friends, follows and likes that way. The same is true for your organization’s profile. Include a visual element and an abbreviated mission statement with a link to the website or any social media sites in which your organization is active.

Tip # 3 Listen Before You Start

Every social network has its own unique dialogue.  By listening to the conversations first, you can learn the “language”.  Consider Twitter, tweets are 140 characters or less, can B full of #hashtags and include lots of abbrvs IMO.  Check out http://www.twittonary.com to begin learning.

Tip # 4 Old Etiquette Rules Apply

Social networking online is not so different from face-to-face communications.  Be a part of the conversation versus constantly talking about yourself, sending promotional or fundraising messages non-stop.

Tip # 5 Know Who You Are

Spend some time thinking about your voice, tone, unique point of view and what it is you want to put online.  How do you want your intended audience to perceive you or your organization? Do you want to be approachable, friendly, authoritative, or funny?

Tip # 6 Say Something Interesting

Closely related to tip #5, identify a few core topics or subjects to “talk” about.  Develop messages around your expertise, your mission, the people you serve….  What do you have to say that’s new, helpful, interesting, fun or – yes, interesting?

Tip # 7 Connect & Engage

Follow, “Like” and reach out to your audience in the various social platforms.  Share real messages that are thoughtful and relevant to your audience.  See tip #10.

Tip # 8 Build “Relationships”

Ask and answer questions, respond in as close to real-time as you can.  Acknowledge your social media followers and friends. Share stories.

Tip # 9 Organize

Use a social media management tool to listen, organize, and manage your communications.  A few free tools that are available include: Hootsuite, Seesmic , and Tweetdeck .

Tip # 10 GREAT Content

Social networks need content. Sharing links to what others produce is a good way to participate. However, creating unique content that speaks to your intended audience is even better! How do I define GREAT content?  Well, it depends on your audience.  Are you producing content that’s relevant to them? Does it solve a problem, share a resource, tell a story, motivate or inspire … make your followers and friends smarter, better, richer….

Realize this is a back to basics post.  Actually it’s from a webcast I presented last year, you can see the slides here. However, I think the core concepts are essential for new users to social media and good reminders for those who are currently engaged on various platforms.  What essential social media tips did I miss? Share in the comments. 

Patricia Tynan
Social Media & Community Manager
Sage Nonprofit

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Ten Criteria For Evaluating A Grant Management Solution

Below is an excerpt from Joan Benson’s recent article in the April 2012 edition of Canadian Fundraising & Philanthropy magazine online.  Read the full article here.

If your organization relies heavily on grant funding, you’ll need an automated system to address every stage of the grant life cycle. The top ten characteristics I recommend you look for when you’re evaluating a grant management solution are:

1. Ability to track and measure success or outcomes – Every nonprofit is different.  When evaluating a grant management solution, make sure it allows you to define, measure, and report on the key outcomes important to your organization.
2. Intelligence dashboards – Quickly communicate the performance and results for any program, grant, or application giving you the ability to quickly respond and make adjustments.
3. “Right” reporting – You should be able to configure reports just the way you want or need them. Look for a solution with a user-friendly interface and workflow that employees at all levels of experience will find easy to use.
4. Collaboration capabilities – The best solutions feature communication and collaboration elements to help you keep track of contacts and deadlines, create budgets and better manage the grant pipeline.
5. Document management – Seek out a solution that enables you to quickly store, access and update documents for each grant, relationship and application across the entire organization.
6. Advanced budgeting capabilities – Make sure any grant solution you are considering includes budget building tools by item or dollars, quickly creates pro-forma budgets for grant applications, and integrates with your financial accounting solution.
7. Access – Grant writers and program managers are often offsite. A web-based grant management solution will allow staff members to maximize productivity and efficiency across the organization.
8. Grant application tracking – Complete date tracking, reminders, shared documentation and a common contact list allow faster compilation of application components and, therefore, a higher funding ratio.
9. Strong internal controls – Help ensure the highest levels of accountability and security, building your organization’s credibility and ensuring donors’ trust.
10. Seamless integration with fund accounting and CRM solutions.

What criteria have you used to evaluate a grant management solution?

  Joan Benson
Product Marketing Manager
Sage Nonprofit Solutions

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10 Easy Ways To Make Meetings More Efficient

Of all the tasks we must do each day, meetings are among the most dreaded. We’ve all been there: watching the clock tick away while coworkers wax poetic about all the work they’ve been doing, falling to sleep with eyes open as they click through another PowerPoint presentation. The lights are dimmed, the projector hums, and the conversation dies. How many times have you left a meeting feeling that absolutely nothing had been accomplished?

When you sit down and calculate the dollar and opportunity cost spent on endless hours of meetings, you start to ask yourself: how can we make these things shorter, less frequent, and more efficient?

Here are a few tips from the experts at the Harvard Business Review (HBR):

1. Set Objectives & Agenda: Create a clear objective and agenda for the meeting, making sure to exclude tasks that could be accomplished in 1-on-1 huddles or by emailing information.
2. Prep: Assign pre-meeting “homework” so that each person arrives having brain-stormed or researched relevant topics before arriving.
3. Cut the Guest List: Only invite participants who must play a key role at the meeting, and make sure they know what that role is ahead of time.
4. Ditch the PowerPoint: In his HBR blog post, Peter Bregman proclaims the #1 killer of meetings are PowerPoints. Bregman points out that when we create PowerPoint (or Keynote) presentations, we present a thorough and satisfying picture. These kinds of presentations leave viewers to either tune out or to “poke holes.” Employees can review presentations on their own. Meetings should ferret out the questions, not pretend to have all the answers.
5. Stand Up: Want to discourage your coworkers from wasting time chatting about weekend plans? Make everyone stand for the duration.
6. Use a Stopwatch: Set aside time for each item in the agenda, with a couple extra minutes left for next steps and assignments.
7. Shake it Up: Meetings are a great opportunity to get fresh perspectives. Try assigning a vexing issue to a leader from a totally different department and see what they come up with.
8. Show them the Money: Calculate the average hourly cost to the company for meetings of 3, 5, 10+ employees and post it on the wall. Nonprofits are and should be especially aware of how they spend each dollar.
9. Record and Recap: Assign someone as the “note taker”. Delegate tasks as you address each topic and recap assignments at each meeting’s close.
10. Follow through: Assignments made in meetings tend to evaporate as people rush back to their desks. Send out a follow up email with meeting notes and assignments included and set a follow up reminder in Outlook.

What methods do you use to make meetings effective? Have you tried any of the above? What worked and what didn’t? Let us know in the comments!

 Kathleen Denyer Hall

Software Trainer

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Top 10 Fundraising Tips

Here are the top tips I captured during a recent education webcast featuring Darian Rodriguez Heyman and highlights from his book Nonprofit Management 101.

Tip 1: Stage a Thank-a-Thon – getting your board to fundraise can be difficult, a good trick to get board members to fundraise, is to stage a thank-a-thon. Call donors and say “thank you” and this is key – with no other ask.  It’s that simple.  It will help your board recognize fundraising is more than an ask, it’s also about nurturing relationships and stewardship.

Tip 2: Never Submit a Cold Grant  – did you know foundation giving is about 7-8% of the overall fundraising pie?  To get a piece of that pie build relationships.  Get out and network.  Research first, do your homework and be able to answer whether or not the foundation a fit with your organization.   Begin with calls and/or emails.  Don’t ask questions that are already explained on the website.

Tip 3: Make Specific, Direct Asks – once you understand why someone would give to your organization or program, make the ask.  If you don’t ask the answer is always “no”.  Be sure to position your program in the context of what the donor cares about and give a specific number.

Tip 4: Map Donations to Impact  –  people don’t give to you because you have needs; they give to you because you meet needs. Donors don’t want to hear how about the “bad” economy…. They want to know where their donation went the last time and if they give to you today, how their money will be spent.  Make sure to tell stories that show the impact of donor dollars.

Tip 5: Make Your Donation Button Shine – be online. Google analytics is free and a helpful way to see how people come to your organization’s website, how long they stay and when they leave.  Be sure your donation button is visible on every page.  And, don’t be afraid to experiment! Try different colors of your donate button.   Again, online tell the story of how the money will be used, map the impact for example: donate $5 to ‘save a litter of kittens’.

Tip 6: Create and Tap Your Social Network – meet your donors where they are at – in the social networks where they spend their time.  With an audience of 900 million and growing, Facebook is a good place to get started.  Pose questions, they engage the community more.  Post at times of day when your audience is active.

Tip 7: Corporate Partnerships – seek corporate and media sponsorship when you plan events with lots of participants such as a gala, walk-a-thon etc.  Always be sure to show the business the value of their sponsorship.  Another way to develop and nurture businesses relationships is to seek in kind donations like a local brewery that can always provide the beer for your events.

Tip 8: Apply for a Google Grant – they don’t give cash, it’s $10,000/month of free advertising on Google.  This is huge!  Nonprofits take advantage of this today.  It does take about 6 months to get it started.

Tip 9: Use the 2:1 Ratio for Fundraising Events – to avoid the likelihood of an event losing money, create a budget of expected expenses and be conservative in the amount you estimate you will raise. If the amount you expect to raise is $2 for every $1 you spend, that’s a fundraiser.  It’s ok to throw an event that doesn’t make money, you may do it for a different reason, just think of expensive events as friend raisers or fun raisers.

Tip 10: Understand the Social Capital Market – Earned income streams are attractive. To get started, ask yourself, how will it advance your mission?

I know I missed several of Darian’s tips, his webcast was packed full of information.  The notes above stood out to me the most because I am helping to fundraise for a local nonprofit. If you haven’t already, go listen to his webcast here or buy his book on Amazon.  You can also find Darian at  www.SM4NP.org  or on Twitter @dheyman. Thanks for reading!

Patricia

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Ten Popular Platforms For Sharing “Pictures”

A picture is worth a thousand words. A cliché because it’s true. One good photograph can convey much more than a thousand words of website or brochure copy any day. What we think of as marketing “content” is evolving. Marketing and communication materials need more than text to tell the story of your organization – they need visual elements: infographics, charts, photos and/or video. What’s more a picture in itself is “multimedia” content, defined as text, audio, photos, videos, presentations, infographics, etc. Why is it important to produce multimedia content for your organization? Because when you share it through social platforms like Flickr, you are amplifying and enabling your organization’s story to be shared, tagged and talked about easily online.

With the increasing popularity of multimedia consumption online: photo sharing in Facebook, video surfing in YouTube and the exponential interest in Pinterest, we wondered what social networks nonprofits are using to share their multimedia content. Can you guess?  Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter topped the list as the most popular platforms. Fascinatingly, no one surveyed identified Instagram a platform Facebook plans to acquire for $1 billion dollars.

Now look at the chart below. Can you immediately identify the top sites for sharing multimedia content?  I bet you can.

The results above are from our Q1 Sage Nonprofit Insights Survey 2012.  A full survey report can be found here [pdf].  Did we miss a top site? Let us know what social platforms your organization uses for sharing multimedia content in the comments.

Patricia Tynan
Social Media and Community

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Top Ten Reasons To Attend A Sage Customer Success Event

Why should you attend a customer success event in your city?  Here are ten reasons why.

1. Stay current and hear what’s new and what’s on the horizon for Sage and the nonprofit industry.
2. Be heard. Submit enhancement requests, product ideas and whatever else comes to mind directly to Sage.  Our customers loved speaking directly to Krista Endsley, VP and General Manager, at the recent Austin event.  While Krista can’t attend every customer event, you are guaranteed to have your voice (unfiltered) captured and shared with her, our executives, product and support teams afterwards.
3. Learn a better way.  Customer success events aren’t necessarily training, but over the course of the roundtable discussions you will learn how to do everything from A to Z better and faster from your peers.
4. Network with your peers.  Get to know other nonprofit professionals in your area.  At the Austin event, customers connected and shared their favorite local resources like Austin Greenlights and even a special Yahoo list-serve just for Austin nonprofit financial leaders.
5. Save on travel. Sage Summit is a great way to meet other Sage customers, but it only happens once a year.  Our customer success events are held in cities across North America, so no hotel and airfare necessary if you live nearby.
6. Share your top tips for using Sage products and learn some new tricks.  A few examples: auto updates, easy excel exports, eliminating double entry, automating reporting and more.
7. Inspire your peers.  Hear about fundraising successes.  Show off your organization. Find out what worked and what didn’t work for others.  At our Austin event, I was impressed with the success of Wonders and Worries Clay Shoot fundraiser.
8. Hear how others are dealing with “change”. From HR to accounting, emerging issues were discussed from increasing levels of scrutiny/oversight to HR hiring, firing and benefits.
9. Come for the fun tchotchkes and schwag.  If you need a new pen or coffee cup – definitely attend.  Plus, you never know what other fun trinkets and yummy goodies will make it to our customer event.
10. Eat a free lunch. There really is such a thing (no strings attached). We make sure to feed you well.  We also discuss other “free” resources your peers have discovered from open source software to Google docs.

Register for our next event in Chicago on June 5th here. The event will be held at the Renaissance Chicago (1 West Wacker Drive Chicago, IL 60601) and will be held from 1:45 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. An optional happy hour follows.

Hear what our customers liked the most about our recent Austin event.

Questions or comments leave them below.

Patricia Tynan
Social Media and Community

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