{"id":18145,"date":"2023-03-31T05:40:52","date_gmt":"2023-03-31T09:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/?p=18145"},"modified":"2023-03-31T05:40:53","modified_gmt":"2023-03-31T09:40:53","slug":"top-3-fpa-challenges-facing-the-nonprofit-sector-today-and-examples","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/top-3-fpa-challenges-facing-the-nonprofit-sector-today-and-examples\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 3 FP&#038;A challenges facing the nonprofit sector today (and examples)"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header has-dark-background-color entry-header--has-illustration entry-header--has-illustration--generic\">\n\t<div class=\"container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__row row align-center\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"col col-lg-7 col-xlg-6 entry-header__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"component component-single-header\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-header__misc text--subtitle text--uppercase text--small\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/category\/technology-innovation\/\" class=\"entry-header__link\">Technology &amp; Innovation<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"entry-title-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"entry-title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTop 3 FP&#038;A challenges facing the nonprofit sector today (and examples)\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"entry-header__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"single-post-details container\">\n\t\t<div class=\"col\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"posted-on \"><time class=\"entry-date published\" datetime=\"2023-03-31T05:40:52-04:00\">March 31, 2023<\/time><\/span><span class=\"reading-time\"> min read<\/span>\n\t\t<button\n\t\t\ttype=\"button\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"social-share-button button button--icon button--secondary js-social-share-button\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-title=\"Top 3 FP&#038;A challenges facing the nonprofit sector today (and examples)\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-url=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/top-3-fpa-challenges-facing-the-nonprofit-sector-today-and-examples\/\"\n\t\t\tdata-share-text=\"Please read this interesting article\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__share-label\">Share<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-label\" hidden>Copy Link<\/span>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"social-share-button__copy-tooltip\" aria-hidden=\"true\" hidden>Copied<\/span>\n\t\t<\/button>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/header>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"co-authors\">\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<div class=\"entry-author-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<a class=\"entry-author\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/author\/matthewlui\/\">\n\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/03\/Picture2.png\" class=\"entry-author__image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"entry-author__name\">Matthew Lui<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">A nonprofit has a primary goal of doing more with less &#8211; for every dollar saved across the organization, that\u2019s one more dollar that can be applied toward the nonprofit\u2019s mission. That said, this fixation on doing more with less has put pressure on nonprofits, notably in the financial planning department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">These challenges can end up draining resources and revenue from your organization, so it\u2019s critical to identify them and determine solutions to these challenges to get the maximum yield from your FP&amp;A efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Let\u2019s now highlight some of the challenges facing nonprofits, and solutions that are available to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">These challenges include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Excel not scaling<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Inability to access real-time data for forecasting<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Varied funding sources<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Excel doesn&#8217;t scale<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">When most organizations are starting out, Excel makes perfect sense as a tool that can be leveraged for FP&amp;A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">But as you grow, spreadsheets can multiply from a few dozen to a few dozen hundred. At that point, they become unwieldy and unmanageable; finance planning and analysis directors increasingly find themselves spending seemingly endless hours trawling these spreadsheets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Worse yet, these hard-to-search spreadsheets will often be the only way to answer budget queries, run reports, develop what-if scenario planning. Couple this bottleneck with the need to track multiple sources of funding (grants, donations, etc.), and this process can end up eating away at huge chunks of the finance team\u2019s time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Automation is among the most obvious solutions here. By being able to delegate rote and repetitive tasks to computers, you\u2019re freeing up your finance experts to concentrate their efforts on more critical finance concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Leveraging cloud technology can also help reduce roadblocks by allowing for easier collaboration and searchability when managing your finances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Inability to access real-time data for forecasting<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Similar to the issue with collaboration above, forecasting can be a laborious, time-draining process due to the need to send emails to multiple departments and otherwise chase key (busy) organization members down for their data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Once you have the data, you have to, of course, verify its accuracy, then incorporate it into the forecast, and by the time you\u2019re done, the forecast may be using figures that are several weeks or months old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">That\u2019s hardly efficient or all that useful considering your data is already stale by the time it\u2019s incorporated into a forecast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Getting a tool that allows you to leverage real-time data and incorporate easily into your forecasts is critical to both saving time <em>and <\/em>gleaning insights based on actionable, up-to-date data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Varied funding sources <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Cash flow for nonprofits is harder to track than for many organizations of similar sizes due to the variance in funding sources. Whereas commercial organizations need only track a few products or services, nonprofits must make note of every grant, small and large, as well as donations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">This is especially important in today\u2019s nonprofit environment where financial transparency is critical to earning the trust of the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Collating and concentrating this multi-sourced data can take a long time and require a lot of double- or even triple-checking. Again, considering that nonprofits are already attempting to do more with less, this can strain already thin resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Being able to centralize this data with a tool or platform can help reduce these roadblocks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">What\u2019s more, automation programs can help ensure that the data is automatically updated across multiple sheets, budgets, etc. with a single input, saving hours of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How Sage Intacct and Cloud FP&amp;A software come together to facilitate FP&amp;A for Nonprofits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">While there are many challenges when performing FP&amp;A for nonprofits, the good news is that there also exists a solution: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golimelight.com\/fpa-software\">FP&amp;A software<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">The right FP&amp;A software can help achieve all the above, by providing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Automation tools<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Access to real-time data<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Collaboration tools via the cloud<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Comprehensive workforce planning models<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Forecasting tools for fundraising and rapid cash flow monitoring<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Higher visibility and transparency into your nonprofits finances<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">And more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Better yet, if you\u2019re a Sage Intacct user, you can often integrate your FP&amp;A platform directly into your Sage Intacct system making it simple and easy for data to be shared across these platforms, again saving you time and effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Between the robust features of Sage Intacct and a comprehensive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golimelight.com\/fpa-software\">FP&amp;A platform<\/a>, your budgeting cycles can be cut in half, real-time data leveraged to provide insights, and your forecasting can become more sophisticated &#8211; and faster &#8211; than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">TEDx Conferences, for instance, is able to manage its massive network through the combination of Sage Intacct and Limelight <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golimelight.com\/fpa-software\">FP&amp;A Software<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"single-cta\">\n\t<div class=\"single-cta__positioner\">\n\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__wrapper has-dark-background-color\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"single-cta__title h3\">Subscribe to our Sage Advice Newsletter<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"single-cta__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Get our latest business advice delivered directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\t\t\t\thref=\"#gate-ab515c6e-7e90-4c2f-a67e-113872516e8b\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"single-cta__button button button--primary\"\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t>Subscribe<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"810\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1440x810.jpg\" class=\"single-cta__image\" alt=\"Working from home with tea in hand\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2022\/04\/GettyImages-1073797282-1440x810.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 48em) 33vw, 100vw\" \/>\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s now highlight some of the challenges facing nonprofits, and solutions that are available to them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1668,"featured_media":18148,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[420],"business_type":[41],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[204],"persona":[],"imagine_tag":[440,444],"coauthors":[926],"class_list":["post-18145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology-innovation","tag-cloud-financial-management","business_type-growing-business","industry-technology"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-us","author_name":"Matthew Lui","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/03\/GettyImages-1077158358.jpg","imagine_tags":{"440":"Intacct Financial Services","444":"Intacct Medium Business"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice US","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1668"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/18148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18145"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=18145"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=18145"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=18145"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=18145"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=18145"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=18145"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-us\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=18145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}