The Impact Issue #35: Financial Red Flags To Look For

Hey there!

Here’s what you can expect from this week’s edition of The Impact:

• 🚩 Three red flags to look for in your financial statements
• 🫣 A study on what donors really think about AI (spoiler: it’s not great)
• 🗒️ A 5-step blueprint to successful post-award management

Like always, we also have networking opportunities, new grants, and helpful resources to share too.

Let’s dive in!

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Are You Using AI to Just Write Grants? [Survey]

Take our 3-minute survey on AI grant writing. Your insights will inform how grant teams use (or don't use) AI.

💸 Bonus:

• Win a $100 gift card by completing the survey—because your feedback deserves more than just thanks.
• We'll also send you 5 data-backed reports on grant busy season, average success rates, and the U.S. grant landscape.

🔗 Share your insights—take the survey now!

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Pitfalls and Pointers

⚠️ Pitfall: Not Conducting Regular Financial Project Monitoring

We get it—sometimes, the financial side of grant management can get lost in the craziness of program planning and execution. However, if you aren’t carefully tracking the budget and identifying deficits and surpluses as your project moves forward, you may be left doing some accounting gymnastics at the last minute.

💡 Pointer: Planning Accounting With as Much Detail as Programming

Often, grant professionals end up being a middle-man between the programs team and the finance team. Scheduling regular financial reviews for each grant to track budget progress will help you:

• Keep everyone on the same page.
• Catch potential issues early on.
• Evaluate what adjustments may need to be made to avoid last-minute challenges.

Looking for other ways to improve your grant accounting?

👉 Check out these 10 grant financial management best practices for success ➜

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Expert Perspectives

🏆 Tosha Anderson, The Charity CFO, on Ensuring Your Nonprofit’s Financial Sustainability

We spoke with Tosha Anderson, founder of The Charity CFO, about the essential skills every nonprofit needs to secure a solid financial future. Whether you're managing one grant or many, Tosha shared with us the most common red flags nonprofit leaders should look for in their financial statements:

Here are her top financial red flags:

• 🚩 Too Little Unrestricted Funding: Restricted funding can hinder programmatic growth and expansion. Tosha recommends that more than 50% of a nonprofit’s funding should have little or no strings attached across all funding streams.
• 🚩 Too Little Diversification: Tosha sees diversified funding as key to financial sustainability. As aspirational as it may sound, she recommends no more than 20% of funding should come from a single source.
• 🚩 Too Little Cash on Hand: Less than 30 days of cash on hand is a huge red flag and can compromise operations. Tosha suggests 90-100 days as ideal.

💸 Watch Tosha’s full workshop for more expert financial insights and advice ➜

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The Latest Numbers

In a new study co-authored by Nathan Chappell (DonorSearch AI) and Cherian Koshy (Kindsight), one third of respondents said they would be less likely to donate to charities that use AI tools. What does this mean for your organization? How can you harness the power of new technologies without making donors nervous?

Here’s what you need to know:

• 86% of respondents consider transparency in AI usage to be very or somewhat important in their decision to fund organizations that use this technology.
• Top donor concerns related to AI in charities include data privacy and lack of human touch.
• Opinions on AI usage correspond closely to the age of the person being interviewed, with younger people claiming more familiarity with the tools, and therefore more confidence in them; older respondents were less familiar, and more uncomfortable with the technology.

🤓 Check out the full report and gather more insights here ➜

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Opportunities Spotlight

🏠 First Horizon Foundation: Grants for Good

Who It’s For: Organizations with a presence in the Southeastern United States who work with their communities to build financial stability, affordable housing, healthcare services, and food availability.
Next Deadline: April 30, 2025
Grant Amount: $10,000

The Details:

This grant is for organizations aiming to strengthen their communities in a variety of different ways, addressing root causes and working towards equity and equality.

✅ Apply Here ➜

⭐ Trevor TCR Grant

Who It’s For: Organizations across the world who work to support health, education, enterprise, and the arts to build strong and stable communities.
Next Deadline: Rolling deadline for letters of inquiry, full proposals once every quarter
Grant Amount: Unspecified, dependent on the proposal

The Details:

The Trevor TCR awards grants across four categories: Community Health & Wellness, Education & Educational Opportunity, Enterprise & Economic Innovation, and Arts & Expression, allowing for a wide variety of proposals and projects while focusing on organizations who have direct contact with their beneficiary populations and recipients.

✅ Apply Here ➜

🔍  Explore thousands of other grant opportunities now ➜

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Networking Nook

💻 WEBINAR: From Sticky Notes to Strategy: How to Build a Dynamic Grants Manual‍

Tuesday, November 19 | 1:00 pm - 2:00 p.m. ET

Join ​M. Ellen Withrow and Mallory Weymer as they explore how to build an individualized Dynamic Grants Manual that uses sticky notes to conceptually visualize four components: development, narrative writing, budget creation, and submission. ​This Dynamic Grants Manual may be easily accessed, updated, and shared with your development team and/or successor to quickly illustrate your process.

👉 Register Now ➜

To check out more recent and upcoming live events, go here.

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In Case You Missed It

📑 ARTICLE: How to Create a Budget for a Nonprofit Organization

Feeling overwhelmed about where to start? In this article, we go back to the basics and discuss what a nonprofit budget is, best practices for its creation, and how to manage it successfully.

Get the Full Story ➜
 

🗒️ WORKSHOP: We Won That Grant: A 5-Step Blueprint to Successful Post-Award Management

This on-demand workshop covers the key components of successful post-award management, including compliance, reporting, and budget oversight. It includes a 5-step blueprint to help ensure clear communication and accountability across teams and stakeholders.

Replay the Course ➜

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Making Grant Management Easy, From the First Day to the Last Report

Finding grants, applying, meeting deadlines, and following up with funders can be hectic.

Looking for tools to manage your grants from planning to the final report?

Try Instrumentl's all-in-one platform for free and see how easy managing your grants can be.

👉 Start your 14-day free trial now ➜