Nonprofit Compliance for the New Year
Mar 02, 2023
Start the Year off Right
Do you ever wake up in a panic worrying about what you might have forgotten to do? The filing you forgot to take care of, or the renewal with the state that completely slipped your mind? When it comes to running your nonprofit, there seems to be no end to the things you need to take care of. The last thing you want is to lose your nonprofit status or get revoked by the IRS.
In this post, I want to run through a checklist of the things that you absolutely must take care of – along with a few additional items that may not be legally required but will really help you raise more money this year, either directly or indirectly.
What you absolutely MUST do
Get these things on your calendar as soon as possible:
- Annual Report Filing with State (if required in your state)
- 990 Filing with the IRS
- Charitable Solicitation Renewal
- Grant Report due dates
- Schedule your Quarterly Board Meetings
What you SHOULD do
- Plan this year's Board Orientation sessions (for both new and existing board members)
- Develop or Review your Board Manual
- Update your Guidestar Profile
- Donor Database cleanup
- Hold a Financial Planning Session
- Complete your Business Plan (we like Live Plan)
- Review your Strategic Plan
Some of these seem obvious. Others, such as updating your Guidestar profile, may not seem as important. But keep in mind that many funders will go straight to your profile in Guidestar when they are considering giving a gift to your organization. Consider the massive gifts that MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, gave recently. She relied on a team of advisors to quietly do their due diligence on more than 800 organizations in order to identify those that would be receiving gifts from her. She had no prior relationship with any of the organizations and gave the gifts with no strings attached. So, when you question whether you should spend time on your Guidestar profile, remember that foundations and donors are doing their homework to see if you are a good fit.
Whether it’s reviewing your Board Manual or your Strategic Plan, attention to these details is what separates the mediocre nonprofits from the truly excellent ones.
Getting these tasks scheduled is the first step! You can prevent overwhelm and panic by putting these important tasks on a calendar, delegating them early in the year, and scheduling check-in points.
If you can’t seem to wrap your mind around getting all of these things done, call us at Kannico for a consultation and learn more about our Management Support Services. We can help make the process of running your nonprofit PAIN FREE!
855-KANNICO OR 561-208-6468.
