A Sage MIP user’s group hosted by your west coast experts.

RBP Methods along with other west coast Sage MIP experts have teamed up to bring you the 2010 SMUG West Coast user’s group. SMUG West Coast will take place October 14th-15th at the Sonoma Doubletree in the heart of Sonoma Wine Country. Needless to say, we’re excited to be in full swing lining up an exceptional user’s group for our clients’.    

For more information about SMUG West Coast 2010 click here.

A yearly visit to the doctor is a great way to ensure you stay in optimum health – and it is no different for your accounting system. An annual database review can help you identify any potential issues before they become major problems, not to mention it can help you find ways to save your organization’s precious time and resources. Over time data entry increases, reporting needs evolve and some data and codes become obsolete – taking up unnecessary space within your system. RBP can help you identify these and other problem areas and point out the best course of action to help you stay on the right track.

As a part of our annual database review, we will:

• Run a complete system check to see how well you are using Sage MIP to ensure you are getting the best possible value from your system.
• Make sure you are in alignment with the industry’s best practices
  • If you find yourself spending an abundant amount of time on data entry – we can help. Many times this can be automated saving you and your staff a ton of time.
  • We can review your chart of accounts set up and look for ways in which it can be improved, reducing data entry and ensuring you are getting the appropriate reporting out of your system.
• Ensure your database is properly maintained
  • Database maintenance is often overlooked, and as time goes by systems can get bogged down with old data and information. We can review your database looking for ways to clean it up and ensure its optimum performance.
• Point out areas for improvement
  • Once we have taken a good look at your system and process we will provide you with our recommended courses of action to address any issues we find.

Keeping your system in good shape takes a little work – and we can help. There’s nothing more important to us than making sure you are as efficient as possible and getting the very best from your software investment. If you’d like to discuss how the database review can be of help to your organization, please give our office a call.

The Pension Protection Act of 2006 requires the IRS to revoke the federal tax exemption of any organization required to file an annual return that has failed to do so for three consecutive years. This is most concerning for smaller nonprofits with gross revenues less than $25,000, who were not required to submit returns prior to 2006. However after the Pension Protection Act passed, the IRS created Form 990-N for organizations such as these, and will begin revoking tax exempt status this year, sending revocation notices in 2011.

There is an estimated 350,000 to 400,000 nonprofits in danger of losing their exemptions, which can only be recovered after re-applying, waiting several months and paying a fee ranging from $400 to $850.

Additionally, Grantmakers and donors should seek to verify the nonprofit status of organizations they plan on giving to in order to insure their exempt status, and compliance with the law.

For more helpful points on this subject, click here.

Educational webcast

Register today

Are your donors truly engaged with your organization? Does it matter? Join Richard Dietz, founder of Nonprofit R+D, for an in-depth discussion about why creating engaged donors is important to your long-term success.

Attend this educational webcast and learn:

• How to tell if your donors are engaged, and how to nurture it in your donors.
• Differences in new donors versus established donors, and how to reach both groups.
• What to do to make it easier for people/groups to become engaged.
• Methods to keep donors engaged.

Engaged donors can really boost your fundraising efforts. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to attract and keep the most engaged supporters. What engaged donors do for you that other donors do not.

About the webcast speaker
Richard Dietz, Founder, Nonprofit R+D

• Extensive public sector experience serving a variety of nonprofit, political, and government organizations
• Former Director of Operations for the Texas Alliance for Child and Family Services (TACFS)
• M.S.W. from The University of California-Berkeley, B.A. in Political Science from UCLA

Beaverton, OR – June 10, 2010– RBP Methods, a Sage North America business partner specializing in the sales, installation, and support of Sage MIP Fund Accounting earned the number one spot among all Sage MIP Partners and all product lines from their customers on the annual Net Promoter score through Sage’s Customer Loyalty Program for 2009-2010. Net Promoter Score high achievers are the top performing business partners who received the highest markings from their client base in the Customer Loyalty Survey. Sage recognized RBP Methods for their devotion to customer care in 2009-2010 at the Insights partner conference in Denver, Colorado.

The Sage Customer Loyalty Program provides Sage partners the opportunity to measure their customer satisfaction by a powerful surveying tool. The survey results make up the Net Promoter Score providing vital information on customer satisfaction, technical expertise, product, and many other areas of service. Of the top ranking partners, RBP Methods achieved the highest Net Promoter Score throughout all Sage partners.

“This is an honor that I am proud to share with my team,” stated Kent Arnold, CEO of RBP Methods. “Being able to achieve high rankings in this difficult economic environment is a strong testament to our focus on servicing the customer. Being ranked number one is humbling.”

About RBP Methods

RBP Methods is a consulting company helping nonprofit and governmental agencies sort through complex technical decisions by providing quality services and products either directly or through our wide network of associated firms. They offer a variety of services for organizations facing technology changes.

RBP Methods has abundant knowledge and expertise regarding the nonprofit software industry.  They believe in providing the best possible assistance in order to help companies make the best possible choice based on their needs. To learn more visit www.rbpmethods.com.

The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust was established on June 30th, 1975 by the will of the late Melvin J. (Jack) Murdock. Mr. Murdock was a co-founder of Tektronix, Inc., and was an innovative entrepreneurial leader with business interests throughout the Pacific Northwest. The Trust’s mission is to enrich the quality of life in the Pacific Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington) by supporting nonprofit organizations that seek to strengthen the region’s educational and cultural base in creative and sustainable ways.

The priorities of the Trust’s General Grants program include educational programs offered in both formal and informal settings; performing and visual arts projects that enrich the cultural environment of the region; and preventive health and human services programs, with a focus on youth. General Scientific Research Grants and Formal Program Grants in Science are also provided. With the exception of the Formal Program Grants in Science, which has specific deadlines, letters of inquiry may be submitted at any time.

The Trust began with assets at $91 million and has since grown to over $800 million, and $500 million has been given out in grant awards. This makes the Trust one of the top five largest in the Pacific Northwest, and places it in the top 100 nationwide.

For more information on the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and their grant opportunities, click here.

Surrounded by an ever increasing sea of Social Media options, many nonprofits are turning to these outlets to better and more consistently engage their community, supporters and donors. While adding visibility and increasing awareness through blogging and participating in the online community can be great for nonprofits, they should take care to go about it the right way.

While generally beneficial, Social Media outlets can pose some unique challenges to charitable organizations. These can include: a lack of control of online posts; an increased risk of miscommunication, misuse and abuse; each of which can lead to public relations entanglements. And if your organization isn’t using social media, chances are that your staff is.

Furthermore in addition to using Social Media to find donors, many nonprofits also use it to recruit volunteers, employees and even board members. This could present major liability risks in regards to the available information of people’s protected class status. It would be impossible to prove what characteristics were actually considered in the hiring process.

Each of these concerns point to a common solution: A social media policy outlining clear usage guidelines. A great way to create a new policy is to include a diverse group of people including a legal advisor, marketing and HR staff, a technology specialist, and senior management. With these varying perspectives you are likely to build a strong and well thought out policy to encourage the proper use of social networking.

For information on how to write a Social Media Policy, click here.

The passage of the Healthcare reform bill included some of the most drastic changes to 1099 information reporting in over a decade. The bill included revenue raising provisions meant to seek greater compliance of the tax code via 1099 information reporting. General provisions included:

• The elimination of the corporate exemption from 1099-MISC reporting. (Public Law 111-148)
• The requirement to report payments for property (goods, materials, merchandise, supplies, etc.). (Public Law 111-148)
• A six-fold increase in penalties from $250,000 to 1.5 million. (H.R.4213, H.R.4849)
• A doubling of penalties per record from $50 to $100. (H.R.4213, H.R.4849)

Beginning for payments made after December 31, 2011, companies will be required to furnish and file form 1099-MISC for payments made to all for-profit companies regardless of corporate status. In addition all payments for goods, materials, merchandise, supplies, and other property will need to be reported as well. Early indications reveal that these changes will likely cause the 1099 reporting volume to increase significantly for most companies as well as the associated B-Notices.

While the law applies to payments made after December 31, 2011 companies need to make broad changes to: 1) W-9 procedures to include all vendors. 2) Solicit W-9’s for corporate vendors. 3) Prepare for larger 1099 year-end printing, mailing, and filing. 4) Make the appropriate budgetary and system updates to accommodate these changes.

Information from www.1099pro.com

For Nonprofits, investing in new technology can feel like shopping for a car – nothing prepares you for the sticker shock. We encourage our nonprofit clients and friends to use two rules of thumb when embarking on software change. The first rule – The 3 Times Rule – says that the total project will be approximately 3 times the base software price. This total budget would include the software investment, the first year of technical support and enhancements, and professional training and implementation assistance. First, configure the software that you believe will do what you need done, and then look at the software investment. If $10,000 covers the software options you want, then the total budget for the implementation of the new system would be about $30,000.

The second rule of thumb is the 1½ % Rule. We believe that no project should consume more than 1½ % of the organization’s annual budget. While there are cases to go beyond that, we strongly believe that nonprofit’s should focus their resources on providing services and support for the communities they serve. Under this rule, a $30,000 project budget would need an annual budget in the range of at least $2,000,000 in order to appropriately support the investment.

Now let’s restate these rules a couple of different ways:

• First, if your annual budget is $3,000,000, what should you be ready to afford in the nonprofit software realm? Be ready for a $45,000 project, of which $15,000 is direct software cost.
• Next, let’s say you have a $25,000 budget limit for the project. What can you afford? First make sure that your overall annual budget is at least $1,700,000 to fit inside the 1½ % rule. If it is, the next step is to choose a software package that costs around $8,300. If not, evaluate the investment’s economic sense before making a commitment.
• Last, imagine your board approves a new software purchase of $15,000. They expect this amount to include both the software and the 1st year of support. You can estimate that the technical support will be about 25% annually – a common rate in this market. Therefore, the software cost should be around $12,000. Next, find out how your organization plans to implement the software? The board needs to consider professional services or the staff needs in order to avoid the work falling entirely on them.

Often nonprofit organizations do not recognize the complexity of options in today’s software packages and are not prepared for the actual investment to make them fully functional. We actively support nonprofits in obtaining professional implementation assistance. This will minimize down time during implementation and avoid pitfalls the new user might build into the software by accident. We have worked with some who have called us to help them after they have been running the new product for some time, incorrectly, and ask us to help fix it. It is much easier – and less costly – to implement your new software correctly the first time than it is to fix the system after the fact.

In November 2009, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. announced a new $500 million initiative to aid 10,000 small businesses in underprivileged communities throughout the United States. As a kind of follow through to the widely held view of experts that education, capital and support are the keys to unlocking potential, Goldman Sachs’ initiative will provide a combination of business and management education, mentoring and networking, and access to capital to support small business owners in hopes of creating jobs and economic growth from the ground up. Of the initiative, Dr. Michael Porter, Founder and CEO of Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, and Bishop William Lawrence University Professor, Harvard Business School said, “The 10,000 Small Businesses program will meet a vital need in disadvantaged communities, which is to provide the training, tools, and relationships to help local entrepreneurs and their businesses grow and create a self reinforcing cycle of economic opportunity.”

While this sounds like a great investment for Goldman Sachs and small businesses across the United States, there is some speculation that the money may not be spent effectively. According to their press release, Goldman Sachs will allocate $200 million to partners who can provide scholarships to predominantly underserved small business owners to build educational capacity; and $300 million through a combination of lending and philanthropic support to Community Development Financial Institutions.

In an article on inc.com, staff writer Kasey Wehrum pondered whether Wall street bankers and community development groups understand entrepreneurs well enough, so he asked entrepreneurs, investors, and experts how they would spend the money… to read their comments and view the article, click here.

In a struggling economy, when nonprofits suffer the most – it is vital to ensure that you are producing interest in your organization and cause with your donors. The best way to do this is to be interesting! Unfortunately many nonprofit communications tend to lack the drama that interests society at large, while the organization itself definitely doesn’t.

In an article we read recently in The Nonprofit Quarterly, author Tom Ahern discusses what he call s’ The Dance of the Four Veils’ which depicts the four main things nonprofits do to become less interesting, and we thought we’d break them down for you here.

• Include the entire story, even if it involves a little conflict.
  The fear of offending, creating conflict or controversy can lend itself to boring correspondence. You may want to try ‘getting real’ in your communications and insert a little drama. This can create an emotional response in your reader, and will likely lead to a higher number of donations.
• Use active verbs.
  The first way to provoke a lack of interest in a reader is to use boring, soft, bland words. Have you ever read something and after two sentences just scanned the rest and moved on to the next thing? I think most people do. Try inserting action verbs to create interest.
• Create an Emotional Response
  The first way a brain responds is emotionally, and the second is rationally. If you can insert text that brings emotion to your reader they are more likely to continue paying attention. When writing your newsletters and correspondence materials consider these: hope, fear, desperation, sadness, salvation, anger etc.
• Jargon
  You are reaching out to the average person. Keep your communications conversational and jargon free. You want your reader to easily understand what you are trying to say, not have to sit there trying to figure out why you’re so smart.

To read the article, The Dance of the Four Veils, by Tom Ahern, click here.

In the ‘for profit’ realm of business, executive coaching is a common occurrence. While leaders and staff likely have several of the skills needed to properly run their organization, it is fair to assume that there is at least one area where they could use some additional guidance. However in the nonprofit sector this extra training and/or polishing tends to be less likely due to the necessary investment of time and money.

In a recent article in The Nonprofit Quarterly, there was an article that discussed the pros and cons of Executive Coaching in the nonprofit community, and we found some great information. In the article, ‘A Leader’s Guide to Executive Coaching’, author David Coleman states, “With time-strapped staff and a frequent dearth of role models to call on as mentors, nonprofits often struggle with providing the training necessary to address these challenges and are turning to outside help from executive coaches to build internal talent.” With the complexity of a job, it is natural that some extra training be provided – especially if you want to set up your leader for success.

Executive Coaching can provide your leaders and employees with some extra guidance on the best ways to manage tasks, other employees and volunteers, while at the same time striving to meet financial goals. There are several situations in which coaching is appropriate, and others when it is not. The article provided some of the following examples:

Coaching can help when:
• An employee’s responsibilities are shifting due to a change in the organization.
• An employee who has unreached potential. Some extra training can help get them through a slump.
• A new director is promoted and lacks one part of a skill set. For example, they may be great at increasing membership and donors, but not so great in front of the board.
• An old director that has lost his/her drive and passion for the cause.

Coaching probably won’t help when:
• An employee was put in a position they’re not qualified for.
• When an organization as a whole is in crisis.
• An honest conversation between a boss and the employee about the need for change has not previously occurred.
• When you believe you may eventually decide to fire the employee

Read the full article.

With high unemployment rates and a challenged economy, many nonprofits received a lower number of donationsthan they had hoped for in 2009. Some may be tempted to cut back on acquisition funding in order to save dollars in the short term; however this could result in a bigger loss over time than many organizations realize.  Statistics show that about 20% of the number of donors acquired in a given year will continue to contribute to the organization for the next five years. This could result in huge losses in the long run.

In an article we recently read from www.nptimes.com, we found 8 tips for finding new donors. In summary they are:

• If you are under pressure to reduce acquisition costs consider trying to at least keep a level that will maintain the current number of active donors.
• Send donation request letters during months that have historically proven to be the most effective: January – May.
• If you have to reduce your acquisition budget, do so by eliminating the lowest performing lists from your campaigns.
• Send multiple requests to people who have donated more than once in the past.
• Ask your list broker if you can re-use names from better performing lists and make sure they have negotiated the best possible net name arrangements for you.
• Try to re-connect with long-lapsed donors.
• If you have corporate partnerships, ask them if they have consumer names that can be made available to you.
• Decrease the cost of your acquisition packages by reducing inserts and multi-colored printing.

To read the entire article, click here.

In a challenged economy Nonprofits tend to feel the strain even more than the for-profit sector. However there is an upside – the struggles posed by the current conditions provide a great opportunity to make some significant changes in the world of nonprofits. In a recent whitepaper by Nell Edgington, of Social Velocity she shares some great ideas for restructuring the way the entire nonprofit sector is funded, and also mentions some things you can do right away to raise more money, and we thought we’d discuss them with you here. The unique challenges you are facing present an opportunity to learn, grow and become even stronger for the future.

Are your Mission, core Competencies and Fundraising Efforts Aligned?

The ultimate mission of your organization should be supported by your core competencies and then both of these should help you generate money. A nonprofit is one of three important groups within a community. You have the group that has a need, the group that can fund that need, and the nonprofit that connects the two together. Fundraising then is about connecting those with resources to those that need your support.

Do you have a plan?

If you are asking for support, which all nonprofits do – you should have a clear plan in place, and a great way to communicate to your donors regarding the steps you’re taking to make a difference. Make your goals affordable, create an annual revenue plan, and devise multiple ways to bring in money.

Do you have the right messaging?

In order to raise sustainable revenue, nonprofits have to begin to develop investors rather than donors. To do this you should focus your messaging on the impact you can have within the community you reach, rather than trying to reach a ‘donation goal’. If you can show how the end-result will have a positive impact, people are more likely to get involved, and stay in touch financially.

To obtain the whitepaper, Resetting Fundraising: 5 Ways to Raise More Money, click here and receive a free copy when you sign up for Social Velocity’s monthly newsletter.