Financial

Financial Statement Program For Clubs

Financial Statement  /  Instructions

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ACCOUNTING FOR THE FUTURE

How well, financially, did your organization do last month - or last year? How well will your organization do next year? Planning for the future should encompass some sort of financial budget or projection of how you plan to raise and spend money.

The first step in budgeting should be a through review of past financial results. This step should be broken down into various fundraising and spending areas. For example, a breakdown of revenues and costs per fundraising activity and a breakdown of overhead costs into various components such as rent, utilities, postage, publications, etc. In examining these figures, it is important to be critical of the activities performed relative to their financial performance. For fundraising activities, be critical of the amount of time spent and expenses incurred relative to the revenues generated. Can costs be decreased without adversely affecting the activity? Should the fundraiser be structured differently in order to increase revenues? For overhead costs, consider looking at historical trends for increases or decreases in certain areas. If, for example, rent is consistently increasing a cost/benefit analysis can be performed to determine if the current premises is worth the added cost.

Cost/benefit analyses are important tools in examining whether the activity should be continued. Costs and benefits can be quantifiable, in other words a dollar amount can be identified, or intangible which can be very important such as public image.

Ultimately, a decision has to be made taking into account all aspects and determining which items are more important than others are.