Tell Us What You Think

Sage is committed to providing the best nonprofit fund accounting and financial products to our clients, and we need your help!

We invite you to participate in our product research survey.

The survey should take you a maximum of 5 minutes to complete. Your insights will help us guide the strategic direction of Sage over the next several years. Please note that all information collected for this survey is for internal use only and will not be shared or sold to anyone. You’ll also be entered in a drawing for a Kindle Fire when you complete the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TMZJLKS  .

Thank you for your participation. We really appreciate your time!

Sage Product Management

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Payroll Takes A Dive Off The Fiscal Cliff

Now that all the fun and excitement of the election is over, the powers in Washington are rolling towards the “fiscal cliff” of tax increases and budget cuts. In case you haven’t been paying attention, over the summer there was much debate about allowing the debt “to boldly go where no debt has gone before.” The debate continued through the election and both parties engaged in a high stakes game of chicken. Each betting the scales would tip in their party’s favor giving them a mandate to shape the world in their vision.

Clearly, this didn’t happen. So, now the politicians have a few weeks to reach agreement on what they couldn’t do in months. Failure to do so will result in breathtaking tax increases and spending cuts. Forecasting the effect on the economy is something keeping economists busy on the talk show circuit. While the effect on payroll administrators, accountants,  HR managers and payroll software providers like us is best described as “frustrating”.

Since cliff diving is currently the law of the land,  we have no choice but to roll back to the tax rates prior to the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001.  Here’s some information from AICPA.

This is frustrating because we KNOW  the rates will change. Everyone seems to agree that going off the fiscal cliff is a bad idea, so I expect we’ll see some type of workaround.  However, if history is a guide, we will not see changes to the rates until sometime in January, retroactive to January 1^st.

This means employers across the country will likely run their first few payrolls of the year with the “wrong” rates and will have to make corrections once the revised rates are available. For state and federal taxes you should remember this is an estimate only, and it’s up to the employee to square the account with the government at the end of the year. In the event that taxes go UP for some employees, and you are compelled to withhold more, there is a provision in the software to withhold additional money on a payroll. This is a manual process, and the amount needs to be calculated and set up employee by employee.

If it’s less and you want to refund the money,  it will require you to make a manual calculation and adjustment for each employee. No matter how much the difference, it’s a lot of work for what historically has been less than a few dollars difference in pay.

Social Security taxes have a different tale to tell. Since this isn’t our first rodeo with Social Security rates, we have a mechanism built into our software to automatically collect more or refund excess withholding.  You can adjust the Social Security rate anytime without waiting for an update.

Medicare is a different creature. There are going to be changes to Medicare due to the 2010 health-care law. But, if there are changes beyond that you may have to go down the path of manual adjustment.

Sage will be keeping a close eye on all these developments. Please understand if the government makes a change at midnight it isn’t going to be in the software at 6 am. It takes a while to code, test and deliver the changes to you. So, have patience with the software and understand this is going to require additional work.

If you’re as thrilled about all of this as I am,  write your representative and let them know.

Blog and photo from:
Tom Tweedle
Sr. Customer Support Analyst
Sage Nonprofit

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Thanking Your Volunteers: Poll

Volunteers are critical to any nonprofit.  They donate their time and efforts to help advance your cause.  It’s important to take some time to thank them and let them know they are appreciated.   Since this week is National Volunteer Appreciation Week, it got us wondering, how does your organization thank your volunteers, supporters and donors?  Let us know in the poll.  You’ll immediately see how others are answering.

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Seven Social Media Insights: Infographic

Take a look at some of the key findings from our second annual Sage Nonprofit Insights Social Media Study.  The study investigated general social media awareness, usage and trends within the U.S. based, Sage community of customers and email subscribers.  A full survey report can be found here.

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Sage Nonprofit Email Marketing Infographic

We recently surveyed nonprofits asking them how they use email in their fundraising and outreach activities.  Email marketing is a cost effective way nonprofits can engage and build relationships with their supporters and constituents.  So, we were surprised to learn many of our survey participants are not using email for marketing.  Check out this infographic to read more of our key findings below.

Want to  learn more?  You can read the full report of the survey findings here.

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My Thoughts On Blackbaud & Convio

Krista K. Endsley
SVP and GM, Nonprofit Solutions
Sage Business Solutions

Like many of you in the nonprofit industry, I heard about Blackbaud’s acquisition of Convio in much the same way, on my Blackberry in the early hours of the morning on Tuesday.   Since then I have received a ton of questions from our partners, employees and friends.  Many of you want to know, what I think about the acquisition.  How will the merger of our top two competitors impact Sage Nonprofit? And, how will the integration of two really big nonprofit tech companies impact the nonprofit sector?  My initial thoughts:

Only time will tell as these two companies work together to create a common vision for two very distinct cultures and merge two very different platforms.  I am sure there are many complex strategic, technology, people and process issues to address.

Some are estimating the combination of Blackbaud and Convio, equates to 10% of the market for online fundraising and many nonprofits are concerned with higher costs due to less competition.  The fact is there are many fundraising solutions in the marketplace, so nonprofits have plenty of choices; Sage Nonprofit is one of them.

There are over 32,000 nonprofits using Sage for fund accounting, donor and fundraising management, grant management, online donations, e-marketing, human resources and even payroll processing.  We offer a complete and integrated set of tools to raise more money and track where every dollar is spent.

Convio is located just down the road from us and we have many shared partners and customers.  My heart goes out to the people: employees, partners and customers who are affected by this change. I want them to know we are here for them.  There are incredibly talented people that work with both Convio and Blackbaud who may be looking for different options. If that’s the case, then join us. Sage will welcome you with open arms.

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Is Your Organization Grant Ready?

This guest blog post is courtesy of Betsy Baker, President of www.YourGrantAuthority.com. Betsy is an author, trainer/coach, public speaker and grant writing consultant.  You can find her on her writing and sharing her expertise on her blog here.

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As a grant writing consultant, I naturally have many nonprofits asking me how to access grant money. While their passion and the good things they’re trying to do for the community always inspire me to want to help them, the plain truth is that there’s not much I can do if they’re not yet “grant ready.”

So, what exactly does one have to do to be deemed grant ready? It’s actually a combination of factors. First, it always helps to start with the basics. This would include already having a 501 (c) (3) designation, a Board of Directors composed of community representatives, an annual budget with a variety of income sources and detailed financial statements. The inclusion of correct and forthright financial information cannot be underestimated.

Grant funders also look at the uniqueness of the organization. Are they providing a service no one else in the community is offering? And, more importantly, is the service needed? Evidence of that need should be documented and shared with the grant funder. They want to know that they’re investing in a project that’s benefiting the community as a whole and having a positive impact.

Speaking of community impact, it’s not exactly about how many people the organization is assisting but it is necessary that there’s enough of a need to warrant an expensive project. And, is there proof of the difference that the project is making? This takes a strong evaluation component in the grant proposal and a competent staff to administer it.

While in my blogging you will often see me repeat the mantra that writing grants isn’t rocket science, it does take more than just piecing an application together. The organization itself is responsible for the legwork that goes into getting the grant funded. Becoming grant ready is well worth the effort and the organization stands to profit greatly from that effort.

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To learn more from Betsy about getting your organization grant ready, attend her educational webcast next Thursday, January 12^th at 1 PM Eastern.   Click here to register.

Sage Nonprofit

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Add This To Your Nonprofit Toolbox

Attend any nonprofit seminar these days and you are bound to hear some buzz around outcomes, success measures, goals, etc.  Regardless of what you call them, there is no doubt that we are seeing a huge push to use measures to show results.  Funders (aka “Social Investors”) want to see where their limited funding dollars are going, how they will be used, and the impact they will have.  It’s all about results and how you are going to show them.

It’s a great idea in theory, but how do you go about actually putting it into practice?  Well, you need the right tools for the job.  You need to define your outcomes, measure them, and figure out how to report your results.  (Quick company plug, we have great tools for this check out Sage Grant Management and Sage 100 Fund Accounting.)  Just like any project in your workshop, different jobs may require different tools.  Knowing what tools to use and when to use them is the trick.

This was the topic of a seminar that I recently attended by Dr. Robert Penna.  His book, The Nonprofit Outcomes Toolbox, covers a wide variety of tools that are available for defining, managing, and reporting outcome measures.  The interactive workshop, sponsored by TANO and The Center for Community-Based & Nonprofit Organizations at Austin Community College (ACC CCBNO), was a great hands-on experience to get an overview of these tools and to top it all off, the generous sponsors provided us with a copy of the book.  This book is an excellent resource with examples, case studies, and detailed explanations of each tool that you want to have in your toolbox.  You can read more about the book and find out where to purchase a copy here.

Have you read this book?  Are you using any of these tools in your organization?  I’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas on these resources.

Gina Rahn
Senior Interaction Designer
Sage Nonprofit

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