Moving On

Just a quick note to say that I am moving on from the California Association of Nonprofits (CAN). My last day in the office will be this Friday, December 12. After the first of the year, I will continue my work as a consultant and trainer in the area of nonprofit accounting and finance and continue blogging and providing resources as well.

It has been my pleasure to work with CAN for nine years to help the nonprofit sector, to develop and lead the Nonprofit Accounting Boot Camps and other financial trainings (1,300 trainees across the state and nation!) and to speak with thousands of you on our helpline and at our events around the state. I look forward to continuing my relationship with you in the years to come and I want to say thanks to all of you for helping me learn about and grow with this sector over the last nine years. It has been an interesting journey, and I could not have done it without you.

It is hard to believe that this blog has been up and running for over a year and a half, and that we get almost 2,000 readers a month. Thank you for that as well. I'm not sure what the status of this blog will be in the weeks and months ahead but I will continue my interest in the area of nonprofit finance and accounting in another forum for those of you who are interested in reading yet another not-for-profit accounting blog.

I wish you a happy and relaxing holiday season.

Alan J. Strand
Interim Executive Director, California Association of Nonprofits (until 12/31/08)
Principal, Strand Financial Services (starting 1/1/09)
www.notforprofitaccounting.net

Three New Technical Practice Aids for Nonprofits

From the Thompson Tax and Accounting e-newsletter comes the news of three new technical practice aids for nonprofits. You can download a PDF of them here. The highlights:

• TIS section 6140.20 discusses circumstances in which not-for-profit organizations with contribution revenue could have minimal or no fund-raising expense. It describes situations in which this would occur, thereby expanding the relevant guidance in the AICPA's Audit and Accounting Guide, Not-for-Profit Organizations.
• TIS section 6140.21 addresses the accounting treatment of professional fund-raiser charges. It states that these charges should be reported "gross," i.e., as fund-raising expenses, and should not be netted with contribution revenue.
• TIS section 6140.22 describes how an NPO may act as an agent or intermediary for a donor that has stipulated that certain resources be transferred to another NPO. It states that any compensation (including administrative fees) retained by the agent/intermediary NPO should be reported as fund-raising expense by the NPO that receives the contribution. The receiving NPO also reports the original amount contributed by the donor as contribution revenue.

Cal CPA Nonprofit Courses

Most of you probably already know about our nonprofit accounting boot camps, and our annual Money Matters finance conferences. But the California CPA Society's Education Foundations has a couple of good programs as well. The have a day long conference on nonprofit issues in LA and San Francisco and two day long classes. The first is a nonprofit accounting and auditing update that spends a day talking about the latest doings and the second is a tax update covering both CA and federal issues.

This link will take you two a listing of their nonprofit events. They also have classes that are primarily designed for auditors that focus on A-133 audits and other government programs that folks out there my find useful, do check them out.

Updated Nonprofit Accounting Boot Camp Schedule

Nonprofit Accounting Boot Camp
Three new boot camps have been added for 2007 in Los Angeles, Oakland and Palm Desert. Click the link for details and prices.

Fun Facts!

According to May 2006 data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics :

1. California has almost 11% of filing nonprofit organizations in the country (organizations who are required to file a form 990 tax return), 60,729, more than any other state.
2. CA nonprofits are third highest in gross receipts ($233,990,322,869) reported on the 990, just behind New York and Michigan.
3. CA nonprofits are first in total assets ($335,975,355,076) reported on the 990.

With numbers this big it really shows how valuable good financial tracking and reporting is.

CA Attorney General

Who regulates charities in California? The state AG's office. Click the above link to find out all the resources they have to help you stay compliant. If someone wants to complain about your charity, this is where they will go.

Life Cycle of a Public Charity

The IRS has a nice section on its site that details what most charities will go through and what they will have to do. Compensation issues, records retention, what does a donor get, a lot of good information can be found here.