Nonprofit Reserves Workgroup
From NCCS Wiki
Welcome to the Nonprofit Operating Reserves Initiative, a collaborative effort of the Nonprofit Operating Reserves Initiative Workgroup. NCCS/Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at The Urban Institute serves as secretariat to the Workgroup.
[edit] Reserve Policy Toolkit
A Final Draft (7-1-10) of the "Operating Reserve Policy Toolkit for Nonprofit Organizations," is now available here for comment and for use by the nonprofit sector.
| The whitepaper, “Maintaining Nonprofit Operating Reserves, An Organizational Imperative for Nonprofit Financial Stability,” December 2008, by the Nonprofit Operating Reserves Initiative Workgroup is available here. |
Our basic premise is that many nonprofits do not have adequate operating reserves, and an initiative is needed to help them improve their financial condition by increasing their reserves. An organization without adequate operating reserves facing chronic cash shortages can be distracted from long range planning or prevented from taking advantage of unexpected opportunities. As used here, “operating reserves” means the portion of unrestricted net assets that are available for use in emergencies to sustain financial operations in the unanticipated event of significant unbudgeted increases in operating expenses and/or losses in operating revenues. According to a preliminary analysis of IRS Form 990 data (2003), 1,516 or nearly fifty percent of the 3,154 nonprofits located in Washington, DC had operating reserves below the Nonprofit Reserves Workgroup’s suggested minimum of 25 percent of annual expenses.
[edit] Members and Contacts
Nonprofit Operating Reserves Initiative Workgroup list - Nonprofit_Reserves_Workgroup.pdf
Workgroup organizers Bill Levis and Jim Schmutz can be reached at QRLevis@aol.com and JamesS@hkusa.com.
[edit] Working Papers
The Nonprofit Reserves Working Group and its members have a number of useful working papers and other resources available for download here. These include:
- Draft Nonprofit Reserves White Paper and supplements (10-30-08)
- Initial “Nonprofit Operating Reserves Ratio” working documents
- Related papers by Dick Larkin
- Illustrative reserves policies
- Guidelines for long-term investment planning and policies (coming soon)
The views, recommendations and suggestions expressed in these web pages and Work Papers are those of the Nonprofit Reserve Workgroup. Some Workgroup members may disagree on some points. Workgroup positions on the issues have been established on a consensus basis. Workgroup members represent themselves and not their affiliations. These Work Papers are not research-based papers of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at The Urban Institute, which serves as secretariat for the Workgroup. The Urban Institute plans to conduct a nonprofit reserves research project, which may have findings and reach conclusions that differ with views presented in these Work Papers.
