Finance

Evaluating Your Funding Mix Exercise

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Evaluating Your Funding Mix Exercise

PURPOSE AND INSTRUCTIONS
In light of COVID-19 and the new challenges it presents, many nonprofits are examining their funding sources and having to adjust their plans for the future.

By knowing exactly where your funding comes from, you can determine if you have a good mix of income streams or whether you are too dependent on only one or two sources. That way, when decisions come up and ideas for new programs or revenue sources are discussed, you’ll know how they’ll fit into the overall picture of your organization.

Print copies of the worksheet, which we’ve provided for free as a PDF. Have your Board Treasurer complete Part 1 (an example of Part 1 is provided). Distribute copies of your Treasurer’s completed version of Part 1 and a blank copy of Part 2 to each board member. Take 10 minutes to have each board member review the Treasurer’s findings in Part 1 and then fill out Part 2 of the worksheet. After the meeting, compile the answers and review at the next board or committee meeting.

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Toolbox Monitoring Your Budget

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Toolbox Monitoring Your Budget

Toolbox: Monitoring Your Budget
PURPOSE
Once a budget has been adopted, it is important to monitor revenue and expenses throughout the budget cycle to ensure your organization stays within the budget. If revenue or expenses are significantly different than expected, you may need to make adjustments to your budget in mid-year.

INSTRUCTIONS
Before your board meeting, ask your bookkeeper or treasurer to prepare a Profit & Loss Statement summarizing your actual year-to-date revenue and expenses with an additional column for the current budget. The line items should be organized in the same format as your budget and cover the same time period, (this is often called a Budget vs. Actual Profit and Loss Statement that is a standard report in accounting software).

At your board meeting take 10 minutes to have all board members compare the budgeted sums to the actual expenditures to see if any adjustments to your budget are necessary.

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Mobile Banking in Australia

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Mobile Banking in Australia

Reviewing user experience of the banking sector we looked at whether the banks are providing an easy-to-use mobile experience and what tasks were supported.

Developing user experiences on mobile is an interesting challenge, because of things such as the small screen size and the need to make often complex steps as clear and simple as possible, all while considering that the mobile user is likely to be on the move.

We reviewed the mobile web experience of ten of Australia’s banks and financial institutions, including the ‘big four’. We found that Australian banks are mature in their provision of mobile access. All except the Commonwealth Bank of Australia render mobile versions of their websites and all but the Bendigo and Adelaide bank provide mobile apps for both iPhone/iPad and Android devices.

Very few of the banks used location based services for the seemingly obvious ‘locate an ATM/branch’ task. It was also surprising that only one bank offered calculators as this would seem to be an opportunity to help customers decide on the affordability of a purchase or calculate an exchange rate, which in turn is a likely driver for more business for the bank.

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