Technology Bridges the Gap Between Revenue and Expense for FY 24

For many of us, spring is a very positive time of year, filled with warmer weather, more hours of daylight, and plans for a myriad of outdoor activities.  For nonprofit executives, the time is also marked by planning and executing the agency budgeting process for what is typically a new fiscal year beginning July 1.  Through this process, however, an Executive Director or CEO’s positive, hopeful spring thoughts are often replaced with significant stress and perhaps even dread.  The fiscal year budgeting process often feels daunting, as multiple programmatic and organizational priorities clash with each other and then again with revenue realities.  

This guide discusses these fiscal challenges and the role technology can play in helping nonprofit organizations have greater confidence in their ability to raise the funds necessary to bridge the gap between expenses and current revenue realities, versus exacting budget cuts.  Data-rich organizations can focus on increasing the probability of winning grants, projecting specific increases in individual donations and fee for service revenue, and ultimately achieving sustainability.

Programmatic Priorities: Programs will want to meet what is usually a never-ending increase in demand for the organization’s services or perhaps even more comprehensively serve the individuals and families currently enrolled in programs.  To this end, proposed program budgets will likely reflect new staff positions and perhaps suggest additional program space and/or new subcontracting partners.  Of course, program leadership will also likely push for salary increases to support morale and minimize turnover.  Today, the pressure on organizations to pay competitively is intense, as turnover is not only financially costly but generally has a negative impact on service delivery and meeting funder expectations due to disruptions in service relationships.  

Organizational Priorities:  An organization’s Executive will also hear from the likes of the CFO, COO, as well as Human Resources and Development offices during this budgeting process.  Administrative divisions will express concern with increasing capacity, as nonprofit infrastructure generally pales in comparison to the demands.  Further, there are the normal inflationary increases to the cost of doing business – everything from office equipment and supplies to insurance costs, and if the organization supports physical spaces, the COO will likely present a list of capital improvements that can no longer be put off. 

Revenue Realities:  So, in light of all these demands, what are the likely revenue realities? While an Executive may have found listening to all the plans and demands program leaders may have for the new year stressful, especially when combined with the concerns over the organization’s infrastructure capacity and capital challenges, the need for a powerful stress anecdote really presents itself when an Executive reviews the coming fiscal year’s revenue realities.  While most organizations enjoy some multi-year commitments from government, private philanthropy, and perhaps even some individual donors or board members, the majority of an organization’s annual budget must be earned each and every fiscal year.  This presents two additional, inter-related stresses.  First, this financial reality almost always causes a significant gap between revenue and expense in the overall agency budget, even with tempered demands for growth and expansion.  Second, in order to present a balanced budget for the organization, the mandate for any well-managed nonprofit, the Executive will have to either make budget cuts and/or predict how the shortfall will be fundraised before June, 2024.  

Executives naturally will want to avert having to make cuts.  So, in lieu of a crystal ball, Executives typically meet with the CFO, Senior Director of Development, and perhaps other key organization leaders, identify potential revenue sources for the new fiscal year, and then plug these sources into categories, such as: a long shot, a maybe, and an almost sure thing.  For example, revenue projections for fee for service programs, individual giving, and special events may each be increased in such a graded fashion, especially if the organization saw success in these categories in the present fiscal year and economic forecasting suggested stability or even growth over the next twelve to sixteen months. In most instances, however, agency executives will need to look to possible private and corporate foundation grants to help close budget gaps.  An Executive once told me, foundation grantmaking is the “mortar” between the “bricks” – revenue sources such as service fees and government contracts – at a nonprofit organization.  Indeed, in so many nonprofits of all sizes, foundation grants tend to be that glue, allowing an organization to serve more clients, offer new and necessary services to the community, or in special cases, support a capital project or offer unrestricted funds for critical infrastructure development.  In a 2017 article entitled, “How to Predict Grant Revenue”, ELEVATE Grant Writing Services offered a similar mathematical formula as mentioned above for predicting potential grant revenue, along with some helpful, additional guidance.  The authors recommended sliding scale percentages be assigned to potential sources based on four key determinants: 

• the organization’s history with the foundation; 
• how large an amount is requested; 
• the length of time an Executive Director has been with the organization and their networking skills; and 
• the extent to which the proposal focuses on a current public priority area.

The result percentage, based on the answers to these four determinants, is then multiplied by the grant amount requested, and the answer is then plugged into the organization’s annual budget.  Prediction by prediction, the Executive and leadership team begin to chip away at the organization’s projected operating deficit.

According to A Beginner’s Guide to Winning More Grants for your Nonprofit, there are more than 87,000 foundations currently in operation, having to give away at least 5% of the average market value of their net investment assets every year. So, increasing an organization’s win percentage could have a tremendous impact on agency budget deficits.  While the mathematical formulation recommended by ELEVATE Grant Writing Services in 2017 seems well-tested, what if there was a way to substantially increase the probability of winning grants, as well as confidently projecting specific increases in individual donations and fee for service revenue? Is such a stress anecdote out there for nonprofit executives spending their spring days mired in dread?

Agencies that make an investment in a quality case management solution will find that they are able to have greater confidence in predicting future revenue generation, because they can speak to program impact in quantitative terms that many foundations, individual donors, and potential customers require.  

Perhaps more so than government agencies that are primarily concerned about an organization’s capacity to enroll participants and deliver services, private and corporate foundations are additionally concerned about an organization’s capacity to create impact.  To what extent can the organization speak to its impact – the way in which participants’ lives change for the better as a result of program participation?  Serendipitously, such qualitative impact data could also be a game changer at speaking engagements with potential individual donors as well as for online donors whose giving tends to be based on data relative to impact that is shared on the organization’s website, other social media platforms, as well as resources like Charity Navigator.  Such data on an organization’s website could also generate many new customers for an organization’s fee for service programs, even in or perhaps even more likely in tighter economic conditions.  

A Powerful Fundraising Tool: A quality case management solution provides development teams with all the data they need in one place to:

• answer the questions posed by individual donors; 
• produce annual reports that provide a 360° view of the organization that not only speaks to service numbers but impact; 
• continuously and easily update social media statistics; 
• speak to organizational experience in government RFPs; and 
• elevate program impact to private and corporate foundations.  

Imagine what impression a potential major donor might have of an organization that is able to provide answers to questions within 24 hours.  Imagine how being able to speak to utilization and impact in real time on the agency website might drive increases in online donations.  According to Ilma Ibrisevic in her blog, “15 Techniques to Boost Donor Acquisition, “More than ever, millennials and Gen Z seek out information about which nonprofits to donate to on social media. Although these young generations still do not make the biggest donations, their impact and donor value is increasing every day.”  Over and over in philanthropy research, foundations responded that the number one reason they deny a grant request is that it does not match the foundation’s priorities.  Imagine being able to send targeted outreach and proposals out for specifically those areas with projected fiscal year shortfalls.  According to numerous research studies in philanthropic giving, the number one reason a foundation denies a grant application is due to the lack of alignment with the foundation’s priorities.  Knowing exactly the programs that need additional funding can guide targeted research into the foundations funding similar programs.  Even further, with all the organization’s data in one place, development teams are not slowed down waiting for calculations and reporting from program staff and as a result, can generate significantly more philanthropic requests and reports to secured foundations.  

Beyond measuring impact, a quality case management solution will also afford organizations the opportunity to not only secure additional funding from the aforementioned sources but also increase the changes for coveted multi-year funding by demonstrating an exceptional ability to be great stewards of the money awarded.

A Powerful Quality Assurance Tool: A quality case management solution provides leadership teams with real time dashboards that reflect the success of agency programs.  Such data in real time is a critical tool for individual and team supervision, as well as ensuring audit and site visit preparedness.  Dashboards also support continuous quality improvement via strategic conversations around how a program model may be tweaked to influence everything from better enrollment and utilization to more significant positive change or impact on those who participate.  When these “mid-flight adjustments” do not produce the change in outcome data, organizations do not need to dread a mid-year call to the funder.  Contrary to perhaps popular opinion, foundations are not opposed to hearing mid-year bad news relative to program performance.  It demonstrates the organization is keeping its eye on the ball, is invested in impact, is a good steward of the funds provided, and sees the foundation as a thought partner.  Ultimately, whether the model is tweaked or replaced, such regular, ongoing conversations can better ensure positive year-end reporting and definitely keeps these philanthropists impressed and therefore consistently generous. 

A Powerful Fiscal Management Tool: A quality case management solution not only provides real time dashboards that inform leaders relative to programmatic success, but can also layer in data relative to fundraising performance and fiscal data such as fee for service revenue.  Perhaps this spring, a nonprofit leader can take a higher level of risk relative to revenue projections knowing that the dashboard will allow for timely corrective action, if necessary.  Additionally, a shortfall on monthly or quarterly fundraising goals might be offset by better than expected revenue generation in fee for service programs or vice versa.  A leader will have this data in real time in order to continuously plot a timely fiscal course.  Finally, amongst key findings in a Donor Loyalty Study was the fact that individual donors are most likely to give to nonprofits they can trust and that trust is defined by a sense that the nonprofit spends donated money wisely.  Even better news is that these donors tend to evenly divide their giving between restricted and unrestricted gifts.  Finally, and equally important to both individual donors and foundations, a quality CRM will support an organization in keeping infrastructure costs down by automating many formerly time-intensive job functions.  Lower infrastructure costs means that an organization can maximize the percentage of every donated or granted dollar spent on programs, and from there make some meaningful ROI calculations.

At Exponent Partners, we’re passionate about building information systems that empower nonprofits to create radically better impact. Our outcomes-focused approach leverages the full potential of people and technology to achieve its goals. Our flagship product, Exponent Case Management, is a customizable and user-friendly system that provides real-time data insights to program and agency leadership. 

Our team of industry experts is committed to delivering exceptional results by leveraging their expertise in implementing various case management functionalities on the Salesforce platform, such as NCCM, PMM, and the new Nonprofit Cloud Case Management. With our team of experts, you can be assured that your nonprofit will have the necessary support to take your impact to the next level.

Moreover, we can implement fundraising systems on Salesforce, providing nonprofits with an all-in-one system that streamlines agency and impact management. As your partner, we understand the unique challenges that nonprofits face and are here to provide support and guidance in taking your organization to the next level.

Don’t hesitate to contact us today to learn more about how Exponent Partners can empower your nonprofit to create a lasting impact on your community. Our team is always ready to assist you in achieving your goals.

Benefits for Streamlined Human Services Intake and Assessments

Nonprofit Cloud: What it means to human services organizations

Now that the new next generation Nonprofit Cloud has been announced, Exponent Partners is looking ahead to the benefits that this innovation provides to human services organizations and nonprofits that aspire to manage programs, cases, outcomes, and fundraising on the world’s #1 CRM platform. With the move away from managed packages to core functionality, the Nonprofit Cloud benefits from a host of industry common components that will effectively change the way organizations manage services and benefits, not to mention the enhanced experience that clients receive. With this in mind, let’s take a look at how some of these powerful components will provide benefits to nonprofits, beginning with the intake assessment process.

Expertise with nonprofits on Salesforce

Since 2005, Exponent Partners has helped human services nonprofits optimize their programs and case management. Our wealth of expertise around best practices helps organizations provide the right services in the most efficient way possible by leveraging a well-designed information systems platform – in this case, Salesforce. We understand how critical it is to connect recipients with the programs and services they need in a timely manner. And we know how important it is to consider all the data gathered during the intake and assessment process to ensure that recipients are on the right path to the best outcomes. The new innovative vision for nonprofits that Salesforce and partners are realizing includes the use of industry common components in the new Nonprofit Cloud to enable more intelligent and streamlined intake that provides benefits to the recipient, the power users doing the critical work of managing cases and programs, and the admins who support these processes.

Powerful tools to enhance the client experience

Using new tools like OmniStudio and Business Rules Engine (BRE), the path from first touchpoint to first service delivery becomes smarter. In the past, assessments were rather linear, and dependencies with conditional logic were more cumbersome to configure. With the interface options provided by Omnistudio and the dynamic options that BRE affords, assessments become more flexible and intelligent, driving recommendations based on recipient input. This frees counselors or case managers to focus more on the people at the heart of the process rather than the process itself. For example, in the past, a “dynamic” intake may have required screen flows or Dynamic Forms for Lightning record pages, and it relied on a lot of validation rules to ensure the right conditions were met in order to move to the next step in the assessment process. With Omnistudio’s OmniScripts and BRE’s powerful engine driving conditional logic, we see the future of intake assessments being methodical and relevant throughout every step of the process. This gives the recipient a better experience, and if intake is self-service (e.g. on a tablet or kiosk in a community center), it also provides an attractive user interface that enhances the experience that recipients have right from the first moment they begin to seek services.

A future of streamlined service delivery

The result is a dynamic assessment that drives recommendations based on input and effectively hides irrelevant or unnecessary questions to streamline the steps that case managers use to connect people with the services they need. The industry common components are able to process the information collected in the intake and automatically create action plans, care plans, or benefit recommendations. This can reduce potential bias in service delivery and also streamline the delivery of services that would most benefit the client while still allowing the case manager to make additional decisions based on their experience. This reduces the time to service for the recipient, and provides a more efficient workflow for the power user at the heart of the system. After all, people are who create impact, not software. So why not let the software do the work of parsing data, allowing the people providing services and receiving services to focus on their next steps with clarity and ease?

Templates to speed up innovation

Omnistudio also provides a host of benefits to admins and partners configuring the platform for organizations. Salesforce has announced that alongside Omnistudio, there will also be a library of Omniscript templates that can be leveraged to quickly configure assessments appropriately and without the need to reinvent the wheel every time. These scripts can be leveraged both internally for admins and power users and externally, enhancing the recipient experience as well as making the day to day work of tracking program participants, services, service providers, and referrals easier. These templates and the power of Omnistudio, combined with the flexibility and dynamic nature of Business Rules Engine, give the Salesforce admin more options, and more powerful ones at that, to create and sustain a business process that works for their organization and provides a scalable path to future innovation.

Notice we did not say that this part will be easier! Rather, it will be more important than ever for organizations to prioritize the admin role, and for the system administrators themselves to stay on top of enhanced functionality, change management, and new releases.

The important role of implementation partners

And of course that is where Exponent Partners can help! In addition to our advisory and implementation services for standing up the new Nonprofit Cloud, Exponent Partners has expert and managed services offerings to handle these ongoing critical functions and plan for future innovation while incorporating best practices. We can also provide or extend your admin capabilities with Virtual Administration (VA) services that replace or augment internal resources and keep everything running smoothly. As one of the longest-tenured Salesforce partners dedicated to human services nonprofits, we are excited to provide these services to help forward-thinking organizations create lasting social change through their use of technology.

Trailhead modules to get you started

• Nonprofit Cloud for Programs Case Management: Quick Look
• Manage Programs with Nonprofit Cloud
• Nonprofit Cloud for Programs: Quick Look

If you are interested in learning more about the new Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud, please reach out to chat about how tools like Omnistudio and Business Rules Engine can help your organization more efficiently and effectively fulfill its mission.

As grantmakers seek to increase their impact it is critical to find areas to increase the efficiency in the grantmaking lifecycle. This blog post explores three discrete areas grantmakers should consider for optimization.

Simplify and Standardize

A trend we have seen recently across grantmaking organizations is the drive to simplify and standardize. This comes in many flavors and can be seen across the stages of the grantmaking lifecycle. 

Perhaps the most common approach is the adoption of a single set of application forms with standardized questions across programs and funding types. An organization may be able to reduce the number of applications from over a dozen to three basic types – programmatic support, operational support, and sponsorship. Although on the surface this sounds simple, we are keenly aware that getting buy-in across grantmaking stakeholders is no small task.

Other steps to consider are:

• Reducing the number of required documents from grantseekers
• Limiting the number of steps in approval processes
• Standardizing scoring rubrics

Use Technology to Support Business Processes

Grants management software, when implemented thoughtfully, can ease the burden on grantmakers by automating business processes and integrating with external systems. 

Some examples of automation we frequently see include:

• An approval process that automatically routes a grant application to the correct approver(s) based on program, requested amount, and geographic location of the grantee
• Automated reminders to grantseekers prior to application and report due dates. 
• Generating PDFs of a grantseekers’ submitted application and reports

• Automatically retrieving data about a grantseeking organization from Candid (Guidestar) when an application is submitted

Grants management software should also be end-user friendly, which often means having an interface that is intuitive to use, minimizes the steps that a grantmaker or grantseeker must take in order to complete a task, is mobile-friendly, and accessible to users with assistive devices such as speech recognition software and screen readers.

Several user experience features to help streamline the grantmaking lifecycle include:

• Grant application forms which lead grantseekers through the steps and validate the completeness of an application prior to submitting, reducing the back and forth between grantseekers and grantmakers 
• Mobile-friendly applications which can be completed by grantseekers anywhere, anytime

• An interface for reviewers to access and score applications without requiring them to juggle PDFs, scoring rubrics, and countless Excel spreadsheets

Tie Grantmaking Priorities to the Organization’s Logic Model

At the beginning of the grantmaking lifecycle, grantmakers should work to align internal stakeholders around the desired outcomes and impact of their grantmaking program. These outcomes and impact may reflect the entirety of the organization’s logic model, or a subset of the larger framework.

Naming the desired outcomes of the program will inform the indicators against which the grants will be measured. Defining these indicators and communicating it clearly internally and externally will help both grantmakers and grantseekers avoid spending time and resources on applications and grants that aren’t a good fit. 

This structure will also increase efficiency during the monitoring, evaluation, and learning stage. Grantees will report results against the established indicators and MEL teams will have access to data in structured format connected directly to their logic model, saving untold hours of data manipulation and extrapolation.

In conclusion, simplifying and standardizing across programs, using technology to reduce the administrative burden on end users, and aligning grantmaking priorities to an organization’s logic model will help grantmakers more quickly and effectively get their funds out the door.

The expert team in the philanthropy practice here at Exponent Partners has decades of combined experience working with grantmaking organizations to increase efficiency across the grantmaking lifecycle. Drop us a line if you would like to have a conversation about how we can support your organization to achieve radically better impact.

Since 2005, Exponent Partners has been committed to our mission of helping nonprofits be radically better at driving social impact. Our team’s work has helped equip organizations working in human services, education and philanthropy with information systems that allow these organizations to extract the real value in their data and tell compelling stories of measurable impact. In addition to being the leading experts in developing enterprise-wide information systems for human services, education and philanthropic grantmaking nonprofits, we long ago chose Salesforce as the technology platform to best serve our nonprofit clients with the most configurable, extensible and scalable solution platform in the world. As the longest-tenured Salesforce partner for human services nonprofits, we even established our reputation as the premier expert in building Salesforce-based information systems through the development of the first widely available case management system built on the platform. 

Today Salesforce announced a new vision for their Nonprofit Cloud industry-specific solution that allows nonprofits to take advantage of the innovations that Salesforce enables for other industry clouds. While past product lines were built and layered on top of the Salesforce platform via installed applications, the new Nonprofit Cloud will be built directly into the core platform. This next-generation evolution of the Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud brings together all current and future functionality in a single solution without the need to manage additional installations. This vision will allow nonprofits who opt to use the newer offering to leverage industry common components and newer Salesforce tools to complement the well-known nonprofit solution line we’ve all come to know and trust. This will eventually include program and case management, impact and outcome management, grants management, and fundraising.

Available today, the new case management and program management features in the reimagined Nonprofit Cloud leverage a common core architecture and a broader spectrum of Salesforce innovations. For some Salesforce nonprofit customers, this may enable them to better implement their full breadth required functionality and derive greater value from their use of Salesforce. As the premier experts in Salesforce for human services and education nonprofits who might benefit from program and case management, we are eager to tap into the power of this new and improved platform where it makes sense to do so. What has not changed is Exponent Partners’ ability to help these organizations dramatically improve impact through a well-implemented information system strategy designed, built and managed in a single consolidated systems architecture that avoids the loss of valuable time and data coherence. Our High-Level Planning (HLP) and strategic roadmapping capabilities uniquely position Exponent Partners to help our clients determine if the new Nonprofit Cloud offering is right for them.

And as this newly released nonprofit industry solution expands throughout the year with additional functionality for grants management, outcomes management, and fundraising, those organizations who adopt it will be able to expand into these additional functional areas with efficient workflows and a single view of all of their generated impact. This innovation is envisioned by Salesforce to be another step in the direction of  enabling the whole agency vision that we at Exponent Partners have spent nearly two decades creating for the human services, philanthropy, and education nonprofit spaces.

It’s worth noting that this new technology approach for the nonprofit sector is made possible by Salesforce’s outcomes-focused commitment and benefits from core technologies in other Salesforce industries like health, life sciences, and the public sector. This means that nonprofit organizations will ideally be able to leverage best-in-class technology developed for many other Salesforce use cases and can benefit from a robust and expanded product roadmap.

Exponent Partners is one of the nonprofit sector’s longest-tenured Salesforce implementation partners and the premier human services experts. With these enhancements and the reimagined vision of the Nonprofit Cloud, our solution lines and consulting services are poised to create even more impact for the people and organizations that drive change and social impact. If you’re curious about if the new Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud is right for you, please contact us to schedule a consultation. If you’re already working with us, please reach out to your Exponent Partners Client Lead or Account Executive to discuss what this means for you. We look forward to continuing to drive radically better outcomes for the nonprofit sector, as well as collaborating with the Salesforce Trailblazer community to create lasting, positive change for the communities we serve.