Financial management & planning
Financial sustainability and reserves planning for nonprofits
You live grant cycle to grant cycle with no reserves — one late payment or unexpected cost away from a crisis, and your board knows it.
What you'll achieve
A realistic reserves policy and a financial sustainability roadmap that gives your board and funders confidence in your long-term viability.
How a Nonprofit Builder consultant helps
- Model your income and expenditure scenarios, facilitate a board discussion on risk appetite, and help you set a reserves target and a plan to reach it.
Key deliverables
- Reserves policy, financial sustainability analysis, income and expenditure scenarios, board briefing paper, recommended action steps.
Related projects
More from Financial management & planning
Accounting software selection & implementation
“You are managing organisational finances in spreadsheets — and your funders are asking for project-level reporting you simply cannot produce.”See project
Audit readiness support
“Your first statutory audit is approaching — or a previous audit raised concerns — and your records, reconciliations, and documentation are not ready.”See project
Budget framework development
“Every project manager budgets differently — consolidation is a nightmare and leadership has no real oversight of where money is going.”See project
Often paired with
Funding diversification & earned income
“Two funders represent 80% of your income — and you know that's not sustainable, but you don't know how to change it.”See project
Multi-year strategic plan development
“Everyone is busy, but there is no shared sense of direction — priorities shift, decisions are made ad hoc, and funders keep asking for a strategy you don't have.”See project
From the resource library
Free tools and guides to get started
- 8.2C200
A Budgeting Guide for NGOs
A free guide to budgeting for NGO managers and finance staff. It sets out a plan, do and review cycle for building and running a budget, a checklist for monitoring spending against the budget during the year, and tips from experienced NGO finance professionals. Managers use it to prepare annual and project budgets and to keep them on track.
CurrentKey manual or guideFree with sign-up - 8.2C201
Cash Flow Projection Template
A free Excel template from Nonprofit Finance Fund for projecting cash coming in and going out each month across the year. It shows the expected cash balance month by month, so you can spot periods when cash will run short and estimate how much working capital you need to cover them. The page includes a short video on how to use it.
CurrentTool or templateFree