Understanding Nonprofit Financial Statements

Book excerpt: "This book concentrates on one major and widely recognized method of measuring value: financial statements and their implications for outcomes. It is organized to maximize a nonprofit board member's understanding of the most important financial elements within his or her organization. At the outset, the book reviews the function of the board in its goal-setting role, which includes financial outcomes. This sets the stage for examining the differences between simple accounting and the board's function in analyzing accounting numbers to portray financial outcomes. Understanding the major elements of the financial statements is the heart of the book, and attention is given to the key ways in which those elements represent the real financial outcomes of the operations performed by the organization's senior management and staff over the relevant time period. The remainder of the book highlights similarities and differences of interim versus audited financial statements, some very specific ways to use available financial information to fulfill the board's fiduciary responsibilities, and, finally, how to utilize financial information to measure organizational performance. Included is a CD-ROM that contains sample financial documents and a Microsoft 'PowerPointʼ presentation on financial practices that can be used at board meetings to improve financial skills."--P. ix.