The CFO'S Perspective

As a finance team professional with years of experience navigating office politics, human relationships and life in general, I have the need to successfully complete difficult conversations every day. It is a skill that one acquires over time, especially after learning that it’s better to face problems head on.

It's easy to avoid the problems, bury your head in the sand, or pretend things are peachy, especially at work or in a new relationship. Avoidance only makes it worse for you and everyone around you - but mainly for you. When you go along because you're afraid of making it worse, you will slowly resent it and may leave your job or relationship because of it.

What if, instead, you faced these problems head-on, resulting in more positive working relationships and maybe even happier clients?

Grant management is one of the fundamental elements of effective financial management for a non-profit organization. There are many components of grant management, and while the degree of sophistication may vary from organization to organization, the fundamentals remain largely consistent.

So, why is grant management important?

The entire answer to this question depends on the organization, but here are the core reasons:

Nonprofit organizations are champions of challenge. They are inherently designed to recognize, address, and overcome challenges of all kinds. And while there has been a tremendous amount of buzz over the last two years about the kinds of social and political challenges that nonprofits across the country have been taking aim at, very few people have talked about the kinds of fundamental organizational challenges that are keeping nonprofit leaders up at night. These kinds of challenges are not newsworthy or exciting, because despite everything else that has changed in this post-pandemic society we are living in, these challenges have remained the same.

Yes, today’s top nonprofit leadership challenges are yesterday’s challenges continued. Every organization regardless of size, location, or focus area has the same core hurdles that their leadership team needs to address. And how leadership handles these challenges can make the difference between whether an organization thrives or closes its doors.

At any nonprofit organization reporting tells the story of what is happening and why. But reports are not simply a snapshot of where the organization is today. They are a critical piece of information to predict where the organization will be tomorrow.

All nonprofits do some combination of financial reporting, management reporting, and board reporting. Internally these reports help organizations manage risk, evaluate current efforts against performance objectives, make strategic operational decisions, and prepare for what is coming next. Externally these reports communicate with key stakeholders and rally supporters. As such, reporting is extremely important for any nonprofit organization.

For-profit companies understand the importance of cash flow projections because they are inextricably tied to their goal of generating ongoing revenue. Nonprofits, on the other hand, are not typically as “cash flow savvy.” Some only do cash flow projections when required as a grant application stipulation, while others do not do them at all. And of the organizations doing cash flow forecasts regularly, many do not truly understand what they should be getting out of the process.

Every so often, one of my non-profit clients will see a small windfall in unrestricted funds, such as a large gift or bequest, proceeds on the sale of an asset, or loan forgiveness. Wanting to protect funding for mission-driven programs into the future, some will start discussing the possibility of setting up an endowment. But this begs the question:

What exactly is an endowment, and are they always the best thing to do?"

It's hard to believe 20 years has gone by since CFO Selections was founded! It has been 16 years since merging a small search practice with CFO Selections. Time has gone by so quickly! It has been gratifying to make great friendships within the community, including my partners, consultants, clients, and fantastic trusted advisor community. To this day, I still get a thrill reading the business section of various publications and finding a company mentioned we assisted at some point in their growth.

Today I am sharing lessons learned as both a partner of CFO Selections as well as in the business development role. These are the keys to success I encourage all business owners and entrepreneurs to leverage on their business journey.

Managing consistent working capital provides the resources needed to achieve organizational objectives and execute on the company’s strategic vision. In this way, working capital ensures business continuity for manufacturers and acts as a determiner of success. When cash is managed properly, a manufacturer will not only have the resources needed to keep operations running on schedule but also generate the long-term capital needed for major expenses like equipment replacement and facilities upgrades.

However, in a manufacturing setting, working capital is typically harder to manage than other industries. Manufacturing has a number of oddities that complicate their working capital formula and make management more challenging. Furthermore, inventory risks, high operating costs, reliance on manual processes, and frequent payment delays can all put strain on their working capital. The result is a perfect storm of cash flow management difficulties for manufacturers.