Taking Steps Toward Financial Agility
If you work in nonprofits, you’ve experienced the trials and stressors that come with managing the financial side of your mission. Due to this being such a common trial, our team has identified a number of issues nonprofit leaders could expect in starting to make progress toward what we’re calling Financial Agility.
Today, we’re diving into the real-world challenges that can make attaining financial agility feel overwhelming. Anything involving financial analysis, planning, or budgeting can feel daunting especially when you and your staff are already stretched thin.
However, naming the challenges is the first step to addressing them. From there, you can begin to address these issues and take one step closer to STAYbility. Here are some of the most common hurdles nonprofits face on the road to financial agility:
Lack of Reliable Data
First and foremost, financial agility depends on having data you can trust. However, as we all know, tracking revenue and expenses systematically and accurately often falls to the bottom of the priority list when day-to-day ‘fires’ arise.
This is your reminder that good data is not a luxury. It’s the foundation for smart decision-making.
This might be the moment to:
Clean up your existing data
Ask for help gathering missing data
Invest in a financial or donor management system that can make future analysis possible and reliable
Even doing something as simple as conducting a strategic cleanup on your donor or financial spreadsheets can point you in the right direction.
Making Hard Financial Decisions
Many nonprofits hold on to programs, events, or revenue streams simply because “we’ve always done it this way.” And while history matters, longevity alone isn’t a reason to keep something going.
Sometimes financial agility requires sunsetting activities that once made sense but no longer serve the mission, the moment, or simply can no longer be sustained at the quality/consistency required to support your community.
Bring your leadership, staff, volunteers, and board along with you so you’re not carrying these tough decisions alone. If you haven’t done so already, you and your team can look at your nonprofit’s activities and determine what impactful programs are mission-focused and financially beneficial. Is the result of an activity worth the time and money required of your organization?
Creating buy-in with your team and board takes more time but helps ensure the resulting decisions have been vetted and reduces the excuse of, “well… I was never consulted on this!”
Fear & Uncertainty Among Your Team and Supporters
When the financial landscape feels shaky, people feel it. Staff get nervous. Supporters worry. Board members start asking big questions.
Fear is a natural response to uncertainty, but silence makes uncertainty worse.
Proactively communicating your financial reality (even when it’s not perfect) builds trust and shows that leadership is paying attention. Listen to concerns, create calm where you can, and keep your people informed so tough moments don’t turn into crisis moments.
How Do You Move Through These Challenges?
You don’t have to figure this out alone — and you shouldn’t. Bring in your staff, your board, your volunteers, and the champions who care deeply about your mission. Financial agility works best when it’s shared work, shared problem-solving, and shared leadership.
Tough times call for honest conversations, thoughtful choices, and a community that shows up — together.
Not sure where to start? Reach out to our team of nonprofit consultants.
The nonprofit consultants at Harper Consulting Group have deep expertise in helping nonprofit organizations of all sizes achieve financial agility.
Through taking a fresh look at your financials with services like revenue analysis or fundraising program development, we can help identify ways to help your organization thrive.
If you need support in articulating your position, suggesting solutions, or troubleshooting financial issues, contact us. It’s a free consultation!