I have been working with financial balance sheets for years, although I am not primarily an accountant or finance guru. Still, I have a broad base of managerial experience, and I'm pretty handy with numbers. Nonetheless, my new non profit job absolutely baffles me. I had always thought that financial balance sheets were easy, but my non profit financial statements are absolutely terrifying.
Of course, keeping your paperwork in order is a challenging and important task for any business, but for non profit organizations, it is much more difficult. First of all, almost all non profits are forever applying for grants. Running an operation off of grants requires the most careful of financial tallies. A normal business just has to show that it has used its funds appropriately for the running of business and has returned the right amount of money to shareholders, but a non profit financial statement has to show much more. Most grants are only allocated for a very specific purpose, and they often require that the nonprofit financial statements be kept to the strictest level of accuracy. Basically, in the not for profit organization I work for, almost every penny has to be counted.
Of course, non profit financial statements are also scrutinized very closely by the government. With a recent spate of corruption in the private sector, you can't be too careful. I feel like most of my previous bosses were a bit lackadaisical in their management styles. They thought that nothing could touch them, and so although they weren't corrupt, they also didn't go to great pains to prove that they were honest businessmen. With this particular nonprofit, however, things are much different. Raising awareness about environmental issues, they have made powerful enemies. They have been audited two out of the last three years, and so it is understandable why they would take such great pains with the non profit financial statements. Even so, I don't like it very much. It doesn't really make my life any easier!
Still, at least I am appreciated here. I work with some very passionate people, you see, but I am about the only person in this office with a practical head on my shoulders. I have worked in the private sector for years unlike most of these idealists, so I know how things work there. When money is a little less tight, they will hire an expert to take the non profit financial statements off of my hands. Until then, however, is back to the grind.
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