Finance

11 Best Small Business Insurance Companies for 2026
To be a successful fundraiser, you must know not only how your organization raises money, but also how it is spent. You must know and understand your organization’s budget so that you can explain to others the costs of operation and how the money to cover those costs is to be generated. Nearly all non-profits …
Forming an LLC is a smart move to shield your personal assets from business liabilities, but that protection only holds if you keep your finances separate. One of the first and most important steps? Opening a dedicated business bank account. The choices you make early on can have a lasting impact on your business, and …
Tennessee’s vibrant mix of urban centers like Nashville and Memphis, historic small towns, and scenic rural communities means residents need banking solutions as diverse as their lifestyles. Whether you’re a music industry professional, a college student in Knoxville, a retiree in the Smoky Mountains, or a small business owner in Chattanooga, your bank should offer …

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Responsible planning, in any economy, involves identifying sources of funding sufficient to ensure continuation/survival of the programs that satisfy the needs of the people and the communities you serve. Ensuring the funding of your programs requires that you minimize the risk of (again?) losing a large percentage of your income. According to “Giving USA 2011,” …
Strategic Planning Every nonprofit must periodically assess its success in pursuing its mission and must evaluate its progress toward achieving its long-term goals and objectives. Those assessments and evaluations can only proceed if an organization has clearly established (and periodically) confirms its reason for being and has established benchmarks by which it can judge its …
We should (and usually do) work hard to make our best possible case for support to corporations … wanting them to know as much as possible about us. But an equally important issue is, “What do we know about them?” I was recently thinking about the extent, the depth, to which we have to know …
Going Over And Beyond A Foundation Program Officer’s Role Recently, a disgruntled grant seeker I know told me that he was so upset with what he said was a “blatant” turndown from a foundation Program Officer that he was going to go over that official’s head to appeal to a board member of the foundation …
When Does A Foundation Really Mean “No”? Unfortunately, the answer is most of the time. Let’s go through a couple of scenarios from my recent real-world encounters to see how this can play out. Scenario A: You’ve done your prospecting homework and have identified a foundation that’s a good fit with your organization. Unfortunately, you …
A reader wrote: Our non-profit, faith based social service agency is going to split from the identity/brand of the church, but continue under a new name and separate 501(c)(3) to offer the same programs and services. The only difference is that it would no longer be associated with the church or considered part of the …
An Executive Summary must be compelling and persuasive, as it introduces your narrative and provides a roadmap for reviewers. If it isn’t, reviewers will likely not pay much attention to the rest of your proposal. Writers of good Executive Summaries avoid four common mistakes: #1: Poorly written Executive Summaries very often begin with some flowery …