Finance for Poets

Many nonprofit leaders advance in their careers because of their programmatic excellence. They are tireless advocates, gifted clinicians, and imaginative designers of services. Too often, however, the nonprofit leader’s career path leaves an “experience gap” when it comes to financial management. Although leaders may have dealt with budgets and funders at the program level, when they move into executive positions they need to adopt an unfamiliar organizational perspective and a strategic approach to financial matters.

If this scenario resonates with you, then this workshop is for you.

The Finance for Poets workshop, presented by David Stolow, is designed for nonprofit leaders who do not have formal training or deep experience in accounting or financial management. It is especially focused on helping these leaders overcome the barriers of jargon and intimidation that obstruct them from engaging fully in financial discussions with colleagues, board members, and external stakeholders.

Learning Objectives

• We will explore the budgeting process through hands-on exercises and lively discussion. We’ll see that the core idea of budgeting is planning and that communication is more important than calculation. If you can plan a family vacation, you can lead an effective budget process.
• We will explain the basic financial statements that every corporation — from a telecommunications giant to a neighborhood soup kitchen — uses to tell the story of its financial condition and performance. We’ll also identify the many issues that financial statements do not address.
• We will explain the value of an independent audit and how it is conducted.
• We’ll provide time for questions and open, collaborative discussion.

Bring your good spirits, your open mind, your unpublished haiku, your art history degree, and the questions you were afraid to ask anyone else. Together, we’ll get past the jargon and focus on what nonprofit leaders need to know and do in the domain of financial management to build strong organizations.

Target Audience

Rising nonprofit managers with little or no background in financial management, non-classically trained financial staff, wearers of many hats.