question archive Your initial post should be at least 300 words on each discussion post and credibly supported by at least one brief cited and referenced current scholarly source no more than 7 years old
Your initial post should be at least 300 words on each discussion post and credibly supported by at least one brief cited and referenced current scholarly source no more than 7 years old
Subject:PsychologyPrice: Bought3
Your initial post should be at least 300 words on each discussion post and credibly supported by at least one brief cited and referenced current scholarly source no more than 7 years old. The post should focus on current realities. APA format, and references. Please use the textbook source and resources
Week 6 - Discussion 1
Forecasting
Forecasting is a very difficult part of budgeting. Discuss what sources of data (e.g., cost of living, inflation, housing market changes, unemployment rates, federal loan interest rates, gross domestic product changes, etc.) would you use to help forecast budget changes for year 2+? Provide rationale for your choice(s). Your initial post should be at least 300 words.
Resources
Readings
1. Textbook Dropkin, M., Halpin, J., & LaTouche, B. (2007). The budget-building book for nonprofits (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass. Chapter 20: Presenting Your Annual Budget Proposal to the Board Chapter 21: Board Review, Revision, and Approval of the Final Budget 2. Website: Tuck, A., (2011, February 9). Succeeding Through Tough Times. The Bridgespan Group. Retrieved from http://www.bridgespan.org/Publications-and-Tools/Strategy-Development/Managing-in-Tough-Times/Succeeding-Through-Tough-Times.aspx#.UTZphNZOTmd
INSTRUCTION TO FOLLOW
Focus substantively on our course topics. As all assignments are an assessment of your learning (including all posts), ask yourself for each post what you are demonstrating about what you are learning from the course readings and current scholarly research.
(2) Academic integrity (ethical scholarship) is essential. All information taken from sources needs to be briefly cited and referenced even when paraphrased. Another important thing to keep in mind here is that this also involves the credible use of information from other sources. In other words, if you copy in bulk (cited and referenced or not), that can bring into question the integrity of your information. Your task is never to copy in bulk from others. In shorter assignments such as the assignments we have in this course, that means we typically would not want to use block quotes (quotes of 40 words or more) or quote-heavy writing otherwise.
(3) Sources must be current credible sources of scholarly authority. The focus of sources used must be on current credible scholarly findings. Look at the questions in each assignment. You will notice there are no actual history questions in this course. Though you are asked in some situations to consider some older sources as a part of some assignments, the focus must be on current applications, etc. Our focus is on current research, practices, and applications. So, it is essential we actually focus on what we know currently from current credible scholarly sources.
Week 6 - Discussion 2
Monitoring Budget Goals
Sometimes things happen that we cannot predict or have control over that negatively impacts our budget. Consequently, monitoring budget goals on a quarterly basis is most common. If a quarterly budget goal is off (less than 20%) of its’ intended target, modifications and corrective action is generally needed. Discuss what modifications and corrective action you would make if your budget was 20% less than projected for quarter 2 of a fiscal year. Make sure to provide rationale. Your initial post should be at least 300 words.
Resources
Readings
1. Textbook Dropkin, M., Halpin, J., & LaTouche, B. (2007). The budget-building book for nonprofits (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass. Chapter 20: Presenting Your Annual Budget Proposal to the Board Chapter 21: Board Review, Revision, and Approval of the Final Budget 2. Website: Tuck, A., (2011, February 9). Succeeding Through Tough Times. The Bridgespan Group. Retrieved from http://www.bridgespan.org/Publications-and-Tools/Strategy-Development/Managing-in-Tough-Times/Succeeding-Through-Tough-Times.aspx#.UTZphNZOTmd
Week 6 Instructor Guidance
Forecasting and Monitoring
In your discussions this week, you will be addressing the challenges associated with forecasting. Dropkin, Halpin, and LaTouche (2007) provide information regarding forecasting in Chapter 22. It should be noted that forecasting can be difficult for nonprofit managers because of numerous volatile and unpredictable issues, including cost of living, inflation, housing market changes, and unemployment rates. Sometimes things happen that managers have no control over but still negatively impact their budgets. As a result, monitoring budget goals on a quarterly basis is most common. This allows for issues to be addressed if a goal is off of an intended target so that- ideally- the annual budget remains unaffected.
I’ve included one article that that provides very good information when attempting to justify projects and budgets ( http://www.urban.org/uploadedpdf/building_capacity.pdf (Links to an external site.) ). With the current state of the US economy, these discussions are extremely relevant. Nonprofit leaders are facing significant challenges in conducting successful financial initiatives. With more people to help and less money to be raised, many nonprofit organizations are facing very difficult programming decisions as well. If you’re still not convinced of this, take a look at Barton and Hall’s article, Many Big Charities Struggle to Raise Money in the Bad Economy ( https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Bad-Economy-Hobbles-Biggest/157677 (Links to an external site.) ). Their article discusses the challenges many of the largest nonprofits have had in recent years, and also describes various methods (including social media) that have helped them remain fiscally sound. As you read these, consider how current nonprofit managers are tasked with the unenviable task of forecasting budgets!
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Because most of your assignments have included the use of grants to help fund your nonprofits, I wanted to share two short videos from youtube.com that offer tips for making the grant writing process effective. Both videos are short, and I believe both provide very good information. Guidelines for Successful Grant Writing (Links to an external site.) |
I wanted to share two resources that I’ve found help in practice that assist in raising funds for the organizations. The first is an article from Guidestar.com ( https://trust.guidestar.org/blog/how-to-raise-money-without-asking-for-money (Links to an external site.) ) with useful tips that are great examples of ‘thinking outside of the box’. The Foundation Center (Links to an external site.) provides a comprehensive search engine to assist in finding funders sympathetic to your cause. I encourage you to add this site to your favorites! The search engine is only one of the many benefits of this site, so please check it out!
