April 11, 2025 • 29 mins
When nonprofit funding landscapes shift dramatically—as they have in recent months—the organizations that survive and thrive are those with impeccable financial stewardship practices. Dayna Sear, founder and CEO of Sear Growth Solutions, brings her wealth of experience to this crucial conversation about compliance, transparency, and strategic financial management. Sear addresses the fundamental paradox facing nonprofits: they're expected to tackle society's most complex challenges while operating under strict administrative spending caps that limit their ability to invest in proper compliance systems. "We want you to solve the hardest problems of the world, but yet we cap the amount that you can spend on your admin costs," Sear explains, pointing out that this restriction makes it difficult to attract and retain the talent needed for effective management. For nonprofit leaders wondering where to start improving their compliance practices, Sear offers practical advice: begin by creating a comprehensive inventory of all funding sources, understand where each dollar originates (federal funds often trickle down through state or local entities), familiarize yourself with specific spending restrictions, and get all reporting deadlines on your calendar. These seemingly simple steps can prevent major compliance headaches later. Ready to strengthen your organization's financial stewardship? Visit smartgrantsolutions.com to learn how technology can simplify compliance while helping you demonstrate clear return on investment for every donor dollar.
Get free nonprofit professional development resources, connections to cause work peers, and more at https://nonprofithub.org
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome back to the Nonprofit Hub Podcast.
I'm your host, megan Spear, andjoining me today is Dana Sear,
who's the founder and CEO ofSear Growth Solutions.
We're going to dig into a topicthat I don't know, that I've
talked about yet with anyone onthe podcast, specifically around
some stewardship and complianceissues for nonprofits Kind of
getting into the nitty grittytactical here today.
(00:39):
Really excited to dig into that, dana.
Welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate that.
Dig into that, dana.
Welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate that.
Yeah, it's great to have youhere.
So tell our audience a littlebit about yourself and your
nonprofit journey.
I've always liked to hearfolks' stories about how they
got into the industry and alittle bit of your experience
that led us here today.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Sure.
So my experience and pathway hasnot been a direct one, but I
started out in the art actually,and I have a degree in business
because my father was sort ofthe old school saying you know,
you have to have a plan B andyou can't be in the art.
And although I had an earlycareer in the arts, in the
(01:21):
nonprofit industry and thefor-profit side Also had a
degree in nonprofit management,and over time a lot of my
friends were artists who werestarting businesses and I
started consulting with thembecause I have this business
degree about how they automatetheir accounting and one thing
(01:44):
led to another and before I knewit I was in the nonprofit sort
of development side.
I have been a CEO, a CFO, afractional CFO.
I've sort of sat in all theseats in the nonprofit sector
and over time really just becamespecialized as a consultant in
(02:09):
how do nonprofits manage theirmoney, set up their processes
around managing their money, howdo they set up their systems
and how do they really becomegood stewards of their money so
that when their grant funding ortheir audits come knocking at
the door, that they are incompliance and don't have any
(02:33):
problems.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I love that.
So that actually is what'sgoing to lead us into our
conversation here today, becauseand there's a statement that
you had made as we were chattingbefore we even hopped onto the
recording here about the factthat this is the season not for
nonprofits to get complacent,but to really focus on
stewardship and compliance.
(02:56):
And I think you know, as we sithere, beginning of March, it
has been a crazy couple weeks inthe nonprofit sector.
We've seen all sorts ofexecutive orders and changes to
grant funding.
All of the pieces tend to be ina little bit of upheaval at the
moment, and I think you'reright.
It would be really easy to justpull back into our shell, stick
(03:18):
our head in the sand and ignoreit right, that would be lovely.
But talk to me a little bit.
When you talk about this is atime for good stewardship.
I think that's a surprisingstatement to a lot of folks,
right?
So talk to me a little bitabout what that means and what
that looks like from yourperspective.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Right.
So you know you're right.
Over the come the middle ofJanuary, things kind of exploded
and there's chaos.
Right now.
Many people don't know if theirfunding will exist in the short
term, in the long term, if it'scoming from the government,
trickling through the state.
And I think this conversationaround compliance,
(04:03):
accountability, stewardship,outcomes you know what are you
doing with this money has been aconversation that has been
evolving over the past 25 years.
Different things in place, suchas uniform guidance If you get
(04:25):
federal funding, talking aboutoutcomes, tying your outcomes to
your finances, all newconversations, and I think what
has happened in the past coupleof months is that, although
these conversations have beenhappening, all of a sudden, boom
, we're there, right, aside fromthe fact that the executive
(04:49):
orders are targeting certainfunding sources, and we can talk
about that later this generalidea of compliance you're
hearing.
You know, how are you spendingthe money?
Are you spending it?
Is there waste?
Is there fraud?
And I think, although nobodygoes into spending their money
thinking we're going to bewasteful or not going to be good
(05:11):
stewards, I think thinkingthrough what that actually means
, how are we spending the money?
Does that money align to whatwe said we were going to do?
Are we spending it in a timelymanner?
What we said we were going todo?
Are we spending it in a timelymanner?
Are all of our processes inplace and our budgeting and our
(05:32):
scenario planning in place sothat we can communicate how we
actually spent that money andthat we did what we said we were
going to do and that we'remaking outcomes?
I think when you can align yourspending with your outcomes and
say, look, we did exactly whatwe said we were doing, here's
(05:54):
the return on the investment,Then I think you begin to help
to insulate yourself from someof the problems that others may
have.
And now is the time to startthinking about that.
And if you haven't been doingthat, you should start to think
about how you put thoseprocesses in place to be able to
communicate in that way in thefuture.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I think that's a great point.
I was talking to you just at anetworking event yesterday and I
shared who I am and what I doand he was like, oh, nonprofits
are really getting a bad repright now.
I'm like, okay, but yes, yes,there are.
There are some nonprofits thatare the bad actors who might not
be doing what they say they'regoing to do, in the same way
(06:39):
that there are some companiesand corporations that are bad
actors.
Right, there's going to be someof that everywhere.
But I appreciate what you had tosay so much, because that
transparency that comes withgood stewardship is honestly
what we're seeing, especiallyyounger donors crave.
Right, we're not blind loyaltyfolks anymore.
(07:02):
Right, and to function in thatmanner is, I think, a call for
better compliance, a call forbetter stewardship.
A better transparency isactually long overdue in this
space because it impacts the waythat donors view us.
Correct, right, and I thinkthat's important.
Agree or disagree, I know thereare some people who are like,
(07:25):
no, everybody needs to be handsoff.
We should do what we want.
There should be no system thatgoverns that.
I disagree.
I think there should betransparency in the system.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Well, absolutely, I think, at least from my
perspective using the money in away in which is creating
outcomes.
After all, if you're usinggovernment money, you're using
taxpayer dollars, so you areaccountable to everyone and how
you spend that money.
You know, I think we've allseen times where you've received
(08:00):
a grant.
You said you were going to dosomething and then time got away
from you and then there mightbe some spend down and you know,
these things sometimes happen.
But that's the point we need tobe planning and aligning our
objectives so that doesn'thappen.
And that's where you need goodtools and processes.
(08:21):
And in nonprofits, defense youdefense.
There's a multitude ofdifferent grant-funded
organizations out there andthere is a lot of money.
It's a huge economic driver yetthere are no tools and
processes in place forparticularly nonprofits to be
(08:44):
able to manage the money inwhich the expectation is set.
So I, if we, if we want to begood stewards of the dollar and
you're right, especially youngpeople drive that.
They see what they care aboutand they want their money to do
that and they want to right sayyou know, did you do what you
(09:04):
say you do and not just oh, wedo good work anymore, right,
like what did Right, tools andtechnology that allow nonprofits
(09:24):
to get there.
I mean, there's so much missingin.
We want you to solve thehardest problems of the world,
but yet we cap the amount thatyou can spend on your admin
costs.
So it inherently moved frombeing able to pull the best and
the brightest into theconversation because you spent
(09:47):
too much.
But if we want to solve thoseproblems, we need to bring smart
people and pay them whatthey're worth.
So that's a problem in thefirst place.
But then how do you show thisaccountability?
It's hard, and if you're cappedin your admin, how do you find
the tools and the processes tobe able to do that?
(10:09):
And really that's been over thelast three or four years.
My passion is about how do Idevelop a tool and how do I
develop processes that makecompliance, accountability and
stewardship easier fornonprofits.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I love that and I want to piggyback off what you
just said, because I do thinkit's interesting timing for both
things.
Right, because we do have a callfor accountability, we have a
call for transparency, but beingable to prove those outcomes
does take more manpower.
Right, we have to be able toreport on them in some way and
at the same time, there is kindof that Well, we don't, we don't
want you to spend this money onadmin.
We're going to give you a grantfor the outcome, but it doesn't
(10:54):
go towards the people who aredoing the outcome.
Right, yeah, and I'm wonderingif and I'm not asking you to
predict the future, I won't, Iwon't hold you to it but is this
maybe a moment where, as we're,as as an industry, non-profit
in general, across the boardbecause I just heard a stat that
(11:16):
, as an industry, non-profitsare the third largest employer
in the country right, so it'swe're not talking about an
insignificant number of peoplethat this impacts as the call
for higher transparency, higheruh governance, higher
stewardship comes, is it time tohave that conversation hand in
(11:38):
hand, like it is now the momentwhere we could turn the tide on
some of those overheadstipulations that we've put?
Do those two things have to gohand in hand, or is one the cart
before the horse?
Speaker 3 (11:53):
I think you bring up a great point.
I think everything that'shappening today although you
know it happened in a second andmaybe we would have liked a
moment to think about it I'vehad an opportunity, and I think
that's what you're getting at isthat there's an opportunity to
take a situation that could bevery bad and start to not only
(12:15):
get your house in order, but tostart to mobilize, to have the
conversations with the peoplewho are listening about.
We want to do these things.
I've not met a single leader ina nonprofit that doesn't want
to do this, but their hands aretied sometimes.
So how can we change thestructure?
How do you start to use thissector in a way that empowers
(12:40):
them to do what they need to do?
If you want to solve thehomelessness problem, then you
have to have really brightpeople coming in to think about
how to do that, and they want tobe paid a living wage, and
sometimes the leader of anorganization, the leader of an
(13:07):
organization and multi-milliondollar organizations it doesn't
matter if it's a non-profit or afor-profit, everyone should be
paid the same wage.
But there's this feeling thatsomehow, if you're a non-profit,
you should be this do-gooder atheart that's willing to work
for weaker wages and that's justreally not going to cut it
anymore.
Particularly as you starttalking about meeting leaders
(13:32):
that are professional businessthat have business acumen.
You know and I think that'spart of being good stewards and
being able to be compliant andbe transparent is having
nonprofit leaders that areeducated, have all the
technology, all the tools thatother businesses have, and so
(13:54):
there has to be a movementtowards reaching out and saying
these are the tools that we need.
And so, you know, I actuallyhave built a software called
Mission Granted.
That also it's about empoweringnonprofits to be able to budget
and scenario plan quickly whilemanaging multiple funding
(14:18):
sources.
Also, for-profits don't have toworry about having maybe 50
different funding sources allcobbled together to make a $3
million operating budget andthen every single one of those
funding sources requiresdifferent reporting, different
(14:38):
rules, and I would challenge anyfor-profit company to be able
to account financially, accountfor that money, with some 5% or
10% admin cap on the ability tohire people to do that and to
have tools to help them do that.
(14:58):
And so I think that isdefinitely now is the time to
not be complacent and, like yousaid, I think, put your head in
the sand and just wait forwhat's going to happen.
Now's the time to be thinkingabout how do we get our house in
order, how do we start to beable to plan for the changing
(15:19):
landscape?
Because I think the landscapeis going to continue to change
very rapidly over at least thenext four years, and you have to
be able to be nimble and movewith that.
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Speaker 2 (16:11):
A lot of our listening audience are nonprofit
leaders, a lot of executivedirectors, a lot of founder, ceo
kind of roles.
If they're listening to thisconversation and they're
thinking, yeah, you know, wehaven't been particularly nimble
in this, we haven't.
I'm not sure that we've alwaysbeen the most transparent.
Maybe we haven't been the goodstewards.
(16:32):
If somebody wanted to, to useyour phrase, get their house in
order, where do we start?
What's the first?
What would be your advice onthe first step that someone
would take in that process toreally make sure that they are
following all of the rules first, but also being good stewards
of those finances and reallyshowing that accountability?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
funding, which is sort of the positioning of this
conversation today around whatis happening in the country.
I would say that you want tostart at the beginning and sort
of put a checklist together.
There are many out there, but Iwould start at the beginning
and really understand.
I talk to a lot of people whenthey either get in trouble with
a federal government or a stategovernment and now they need to
(17:28):
reorganize and understand.
Start now to understand.
Go back to your compliance andto your guidance and all your
grants and read it again.
And what are the requirementsfirst, in spending those dollars
, what are the requirements interms of what is allowable and
what is not allowable in thatgrant?
(17:49):
And I would start familiarizingmyself or re-familiarizing
myself with those things.
I would make sure, because Ithink a lot of non-compliance
starts with these easy things.
You've got to assume that thisis okay, and so I would say go
back and really understand yourguidance, what is allowed, what
(18:11):
is not allowable, and start withthat.
And then what are the rulesaround reporting, both in terms
of deadline I mean, so manypeople are dealing with many,
many deadlines.
Program reports are due multipletimes throughout monthly,
(18:31):
quarterly, semi-annual and, ifthey have 50 different grants,
these reporting deadlines alonecan be just a handful to deal
with.
Program deadlines are differentthan financial deadlines, so
get them on your calendar,because the government watches
and has a scoring tier and ifyou are late in your reporting
(18:54):
you go up the risk category.
So that's something simple thathelps keep you as low risk.
Understand your allowabilityand then start to get yourself
together on what did you sayyou're doing.
Are you running costallocations?
(19:14):
Are you using your indirectcost rate?
And understand how that worksand make sure that that process
is working smoothly.
And if you're not sure, reachout to a professional to get
some guidance on that.
It would be worth investing alittle bit of money now to save
a lot of time and headache later.
(19:35):
Lot of time and headache later,and that's sort of what I mean
by getting your house in order,understand every single funding
source and make sure that youare doing what you say and
saying what you do.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, and I think what's interesting, a lot of
folks, I think, are waking up tothis fact.
As you had said, the federalgovernment has their checklist
but that does have trickle-downeffect, right?
That grant that you think mightbe from your state or from your
city or your local, those aretrickle-down pieces and so it
(20:10):
sometimes is more than afull-time job just to track that
.
You're right.
Like I, I've just talked to anorganization last week who said
we don't have any federalfunding, and then we were
talking about some of theirgrants and, as you start to
chase it back, oh no, that doescome from federal and we have
the trickle down in that.
But each layer of that trickledown comes with its own set of
(20:32):
tracking as well.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
That is such a good point.
When I work with people, whenthey call me, I'm saying let's
just get an inventory of all ofyour grants, first and foremost,
let's get them all in a list,one place.
Where do they come from?
Are they federal, state, local,foundation?
What are the rules?
Are they reimbursement?
Are they restricted?
How are we recognizing thisrevenue?
(20:54):
All these different questions,and very often, like you said,
people do not even have thesethings in a list that they can
go to and say these are exactlymy funding sources.
And so that is an excellentpoint.
Start by putting a listtogether and making sure that
(21:16):
you understand where your moneyoriginates, because it is not
who is giving it to you, it'snot who you're reporting to it.
Where does it originate?
And I find the same thing, justlike you said, people usually
have federal funds and theydon't even know it, and then
that is a huge problem, becauseyou are required to comply with
(21:39):
federal guidelines when you areusing federal funds and if you
don't even know that you havethem, you are certainly not
applying those guidelines.
And understanding thoseguidelines and what that means
for yourself can be veryoverwhelming if you didn't even
know.
Even know, because what thefederal government requires in
(22:02):
terms of compliance and uniformguidance is very much different
than other.
Although uniform guidance ismeant to be consistent across
all funding sources,unfortunately it is not.
Every department at the federalgovernment can make that
guidance harder.
If it trickles to the state,the state can add more rules on
(22:23):
top of that and then if it goesto the local government before
you get it, they can add morerules and more restrictions on
that, and you have to understandwhat those are in order to be
compliant.
And that's why I say start withunderstanding what funding do
you have and what are the rulesaround it.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, I mean that's a great place to start for sure,
because I do think a lot oftimes we miss the boat on
understanding all of it.
So it's a really great reminder, dana, if somebody wanted to
tell us a little bit about thatplatform that you are launching,
because I do think that thatmight be a helpful tool for
(23:04):
folks.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Thank you, I would love to.
So we're launching a platform.
It's a web-based applicationcalled Mission Granted and it is
all about managing your grantsto automate some of these
financial reporting requirementsand help you stay in compliance
(23:27):
, because all of the things thatwe talked about just now, and
then more, are difficult forpeople, and particularly in the
beginning, when we talked aboutbeing able to be nimble and move
with the changing landscape.
That is very hard fortraditional nonprofits that have
(23:51):
these budgets that they mustcomply with.
If you have 50 grants, you have50 budgets, all with different
rules that you have to complywith, and as I work with
nonprofits about how to do this,I realized that there was only
spreadsheets.
There's a lot of tools outthere that say they help you
(24:14):
with compliance, but they mightonly do one or two things.
But in reality, understandingthose budgets, how to comply
with those budgets, being ableto create scenario plans for
modifications when life changesthere's nothing out there that
did that.
I was just trying to find a tooland then I couldn't find one,
(24:36):
and then somebody said well, youshould build it.
And so today I am an unexpectedfounder of a tech company
called Smart Grant.
See all their different fundingsources in one place, because
(25:02):
most people say, well, thisgrant covers this and this grant
covers that and this grantcovers yet a third thing.
But they don't see the effectof how all these things work
together and the effect oftaking some money.
So if you take some governmentmoney that has this cap on admin
, you take it but you actuallyincur more expenses because now
(25:26):
you have to raise more money tocover the administrative costs
of running that program thatgrant will not cover.
So this tool allows you to seethat all in one place and be
more strategic and understandthe impact on your overall
organization when you takedifferent money.
It also allows you to set upyour allowability of cost that
(25:50):
we talked about.
It allows you to put all ofyour different reporting
categories in so you know whenthe time of month or quarter
comes that you have to report oryou have to file an invoice for
reimbursement.
It saves you tons of time byautomating that reporting and
automating that compliance,particularly for smaller
(26:15):
nonprofits that struggle withunderstanding how their
allocations work you knowallocating their overhead to
their different grants.
It automates that process andallows them to learn, and for
large organizations with greatteams, it helps them save a lot
of time.
And then it'll help with youractuals and bring your actuals
(26:38):
in and lay them over your budgetso that in real time you can
see where you are and understandhow you're spending and where
you might be able to pivot.
Oftentimes people it's too late, it's the last three months of
the grant and they're like, ohmy gosh, we should have pivoted,
but they didn't really realizethey needed to pivot and now
(26:58):
it's maybe a little too late tobe super strategic.
This warns you and gives youinformation about hey, you
should maybe I'm speaking in thesoftware you should probably
consider doing somethingdifferent with this grant right
now because maybe you'respending too slow.
So I just think for me it's anactual tool around financial
(27:22):
compliance and accountability,but it's really about for me and
empowering leaders and financeteams to work together to really
be strategic, to manage thosegoals and outcomes and be able
to say, look, we did exactlywhat we say, because we now can
(27:42):
see what we're doing and that'swhat we mean at the end of the
day what it's all about.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah, I love that.
Some of my favorite tech toolson the market are the ones that
have this story just like yours.
Like I couldn't find what I waslooking for, but I've been in
this space and I understand itas a leader, and so I'm just
going to go ahead and make itand make it actually work for
what nonprofits need.
So that's always one of myfavorite stories to hear.
Is that accidental founder?
(28:08):
Yeah, I love the passion thatyou all bring to that.
So if somebody wanted to findout more about that, about some
of the solutions that you offer,what's the best way to connect
with you?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Well, thank you.
You can go to our website,which is smartgrantsolutionscom.
You can email us at info atsmartgrantsolutionscom, and we'd
love to hear from you and showyou a little bit about the
product and how we can help you.
Right now too, given thelandscape, we are in sort of an
(28:40):
early user phase, as we're astartup and we're looking for
people this month of March whowant to use the product, who
want to be informed how theproduct will work in the future.
We're interested in connectingwith people who want to really
be good stewards and can help usas well.
(29:00):
If you're one of those peoplethat really wants to get your
house in order and understandhow to be more strategic, we
would love to partner with you.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
That's great.
I love it, dana.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Really appreciate theconversation and the call for
all of us to make sure thatwe're paying attention at
leading well, stewarding welland providing that transparency
within our organizations.
Some great reminders.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Thank you for having me.
This has been another episodeof the Nonprofit Hub podcast.
(29:32):
Thanks so much for joining usand we'll see you next time.
Marketing Support Network is proud to serve the
nonprofit community by offeringfull-service contact center
fulfillment, digital marketingand fundraising services.
Your vision is our mission andwe can't wait to partner with
you.
Visitmarketingsupportnetworkcom for
more information.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome back to the Nonprofit Hub Podcast.
I'm your host, megan Spear, andjoining me today is Dana Sear,
who's the founder and CEO ofSear Growth Solutions.
We're going to dig into a topicthat I don't know, that I've
talked about yet with anyone onthe podcast, specifically around
some stewardship and complianceissues for nonprofits Kind of
getting into the nitty grittytactical here today.
(00:39):
Really excited to dig into that, dana.
Welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate that.
Dig into that, dana.
Welcome to the show.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciate that.
Yeah, it's great to have youhere.
So tell our audience a littlebit about yourself and your
nonprofit journey.
I've always liked to hearfolks' stories about how they
got into the industry and alittle bit of your experience
that led us here today.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Sure.
So my experience and pathway hasnot been a direct one, but I
started out in the art actually,and I have a degree in business
because my father was sort ofthe old school saying you know,
you have to have a plan B andyou can't be in the art.
And although I had an earlycareer in the arts, in the
(01:21):
nonprofit industry and thefor-profit side Also had a
degree in nonprofit management,and over time a lot of my
friends were artists who werestarting businesses and I
started consulting with thembecause I have this business
degree about how they automatetheir accounting and one thing
(01:44):
led to another and before I knewit I was in the nonprofit sort
of development side.
I have been a CEO, a CFO, afractional CFO.
I've sort of sat in all theseats in the nonprofit sector
and over time really just becamespecialized as a consultant in
(02:09):
how do nonprofits manage theirmoney, set up their processes
around managing their money, howdo they set up their systems
and how do they really becomegood stewards of their money so
that when their grant funding ortheir audits come knocking at
the door, that they are incompliance and don't have any
(02:33):
problems.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
I love that.
So that actually is what'sgoing to lead us into our
conversation here today, becauseand there's a statement that
you had made as we were chattingbefore we even hopped onto the
recording here about the factthat this is the season not for
nonprofits to get complacent,but to really focus on
stewardship and compliance.
(02:56):
And I think you know, as we sithere, beginning of March, it
has been a crazy couple weeks inthe nonprofit sector.
We've seen all sorts ofexecutive orders and changes to
grant funding.
All of the pieces tend to be ina little bit of upheaval at the
moment, and I think you'reright.
It would be really easy to justpull back into our shell, stick
(03:18):
our head in the sand and ignoreit right, that would be lovely.
But talk to me a little bit.
When you talk about this is atime for good stewardship.
I think that's a surprisingstatement to a lot of folks,
right?
So talk to me a little bitabout what that means and what
that looks like from yourperspective.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
Right.
So you know you're right.
Over the come the middle ofJanuary, things kind of exploded
and there's chaos.
Right now.
Many people don't know if theirfunding will exist in the short
term, in the long term, if it'scoming from the government,
trickling through the state.
And I think this conversationaround compliance,
(04:03):
accountability, stewardship,outcomes you know what are you
doing with this money has been aconversation that has been
evolving over the past 25 years.
Different things in place, suchas uniform guidance If you get
(04:25):
federal funding, talking aboutoutcomes, tying your outcomes to
your finances, all newconversations, and I think what
has happened in the past coupleof months is that, although
these conversations have beenhappening, all of a sudden, boom
, we're there, right, aside fromthe fact that the executive
(04:49):
orders are targeting certainfunding sources, and we can talk
about that later this generalidea of compliance you're
hearing.
You know, how are you spendingthe money?
Are you spending it?
Is there waste?
Is there fraud?
And I think, although nobodygoes into spending their money
thinking we're going to bewasteful or not going to be good
(05:11):
stewards, I think thinkingthrough what that actually means
, how are we spending the money?
Does that money align to whatwe said we were going to do?
Are we spending it in a timelymanner?
What we said we were going todo?
Are we spending it in a timelymanner?
Are all of our processes inplace and our budgeting and our
(05:32):
scenario planning in place sothat we can communicate how we
actually spent that money andthat we did what we said we were
going to do and that we'remaking outcomes?
I think when you can align yourspending with your outcomes and
say, look, we did exactly whatwe said we were doing, here's
(05:54):
the return on the investment,Then I think you begin to help
to insulate yourself from someof the problems that others may
have.
And now is the time to startthinking about that.
And if you haven't been doingthat, you should start to think
about how you put thoseprocesses in place to be able to
communicate in that way in thefuture.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
I think that's a great point.
I was talking to you just at anetworking event yesterday and I
shared who I am and what I doand he was like, oh, nonprofits
are really getting a bad repright now.
I'm like, okay, but yes, yes,there are.
There are some nonprofits thatare the bad actors who might not
be doing what they say they'regoing to do, in the same way
(06:39):
that there are some companiesand corporations that are bad
actors.
Right, there's going to be someof that everywhere.
But I appreciate what you had tosay so much, because that
transparency that comes withgood stewardship is honestly
what we're seeing, especiallyyounger donors crave.
Right, we're not blind loyaltyfolks anymore.
(07:02):
Right, and to function in thatmanner is, I think, a call for
better compliance, a call forbetter stewardship.
A better transparency isactually long overdue in this
space because it impacts the waythat donors view us.
Correct, right, and I thinkthat's important.
Agree or disagree, I know thereare some people who are like,
(07:25):
no, everybody needs to be handsoff.
We should do what we want.
There should be no system thatgoverns that.
I disagree.
I think there should betransparency in the system.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Well, absolutely, I think, at least from my
perspective using the money in away in which is creating
outcomes.
After all, if you're usinggovernment money, you're using
taxpayer dollars, so you areaccountable to everyone and how
you spend that money.
You know, I think we've allseen times where you've received
(08:00):
a grant.
You said you were going to dosomething and then time got away
from you and then there mightbe some spend down and you know,
these things sometimes happen.
But that's the point we need tobe planning and aligning our
objectives so that doesn'thappen.
And that's where you need goodtools and processes.
(08:21):
And in nonprofits, defense youdefense.
There's a multitude ofdifferent grant-funded
organizations out there andthere is a lot of money.
It's a huge economic driver yetthere are no tools and
processes in place forparticularly nonprofits to be
(08:44):
able to manage the money inwhich the expectation is set.
So I, if we, if we want to begood stewards of the dollar and
you're right, especially youngpeople drive that.
They see what they care aboutand they want their money to do
that and they want to right sayyou know, did you do what you
(09:04):
say you do and not just oh, wedo good work anymore, right,
like what did Right, tools andtechnology that allow nonprofits
(09:24):
to get there.
I mean, there's so much missingin.
We want you to solve thehardest problems of the world,
but yet we cap the amount thatyou can spend on your admin
costs.
So it inherently moved frombeing able to pull the best and
the brightest into theconversation because you spent
(09:47):
too much.
But if we want to solve thoseproblems, we need to bring smart
people and pay them whatthey're worth.
So that's a problem in thefirst place.
But then how do you show thisaccountability?
It's hard, and if you're cappedin your admin, how do you find
the tools and the processes tobe able to do that?
(10:09):
And really that's been over thelast three or four years.
My passion is about how do Idevelop a tool and how do I
develop processes that makecompliance, accountability and
stewardship easier fornonprofits.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I love that and I want to piggyback off what you
just said, because I do thinkit's interesting timing for both
things.
Right, because we do have a callfor accountability, we have a
call for transparency, but beingable to prove those outcomes
does take more manpower.
Right, we have to be able toreport on them in some way and
at the same time, there is kindof that Well, we don't, we don't
want you to spend this money onadmin.
We're going to give you a grantfor the outcome, but it doesn't
(10:54):
go towards the people who aredoing the outcome.
Right, yeah, and I'm wonderingif and I'm not asking you to
predict the future, I won't, Iwon't hold you to it but is this
maybe a moment where, as we're,as as an industry, non-profit
in general, across the boardbecause I just heard a stat that
(11:16):
, as an industry, non-profitsare the third largest employer
in the country right, so it'swe're not talking about an
insignificant number of peoplethat this impacts as the call
for higher transparency, higheruh governance, higher
stewardship comes, is it time tohave that conversation hand in
(11:38):
hand, like it is now the momentwhere we could turn the tide on
some of those overheadstipulations that we've put?
Do those two things have to gohand in hand, or is one the cart
before the horse?
Speaker 3 (11:53):
I think you bring up a great point.
I think everything that'shappening today although you
know it happened in a second andmaybe we would have liked a
moment to think about it I'vehad an opportunity, and I think
that's what you're getting at isthat there's an opportunity to
take a situation that could bevery bad and start to not only
(12:15):
get your house in order, but tostart to mobilize, to have the
conversations with the peoplewho are listening about.
We want to do these things.
I've not met a single leader ina nonprofit that doesn't want
to do this, but their hands aretied sometimes.
So how can we change thestructure?
How do you start to use thissector in a way that empowers
(12:40):
them to do what they need to do?
If you want to solve thehomelessness problem, then you
have to have really brightpeople coming in to think about
how to do that, and they want tobe paid a living wage, and
sometimes the leader of anorganization, the leader of an
(13:07):
organization and multi-milliondollar organizations it doesn't
matter if it's a non-profit or afor-profit, everyone should be
paid the same wage.
But there's this feeling thatsomehow, if you're a non-profit,
you should be this do-gooder atheart that's willing to work
for weaker wages and that's justreally not going to cut it
anymore.
Particularly as you starttalking about meeting leaders
(13:32):
that are professional businessthat have business acumen.
You know and I think that'spart of being good stewards and
being able to be compliant andbe transparent is having
nonprofit leaders that areeducated, have all the
technology, all the tools thatother businesses have, and so
(13:54):
there has to be a movementtowards reaching out and saying
these are the tools that we need.
And so, you know, I actuallyhave built a software called
Mission Granted.
That also it's about empoweringnonprofits to be able to budget
and scenario plan quickly whilemanaging multiple funding
(14:18):
sources.
Also, for-profits don't have toworry about having maybe 50
different funding sources allcobbled together to make a $3
million operating budget andthen every single one of those
funding sources requiresdifferent reporting, different
(14:38):
rules, and I would challenge anyfor-profit company to be able
to account financially, accountfor that money, with some 5% or
10% admin cap on the ability tohire people to do that and to
have tools to help them do that.
(14:58):
And so I think that isdefinitely now is the time to
not be complacent and, like yousaid, I think, put your head in
the sand and just wait forwhat's going to happen.
Now's the time to be thinkingabout how do we get our house in
order, how do we start to beable to plan for the changing
(15:19):
landscape?
Because I think the landscapeis going to continue to change
very rapidly over at least thenext four years, and you have to
be able to be nimble and movewith that.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
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Speaker 2 (16:11):
A lot of our listening audience are nonprofit
leaders, a lot of executivedirectors, a lot of founder, ceo
kind of roles.
If they're listening to thisconversation and they're
thinking, yeah, you know, wehaven't been particularly nimble
in this, we haven't.
I'm not sure that we've alwaysbeen the most transparent.
Maybe we haven't been the goodstewards.
(16:32):
If somebody wanted to, to useyour phrase, get their house in
order, where do we start?
What's the first?
What would be your advice onthe first step that someone
would take in that process toreally make sure that they are
following all of the rules first, but also being good stewards
of those finances and reallyshowing that accountability?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
funding, which is sort of the positioning of this
conversation today around whatis happening in the country.
I would say that you want tostart at the beginning and sort
of put a checklist together.
There are many out there, but Iwould start at the beginning
and really understand.
I talk to a lot of people whenthey either get in trouble with
a federal government or a stategovernment and now they need to
(17:28):
reorganize and understand.
Start now to understand.
Go back to your compliance andto your guidance and all your
grants and read it again.
And what are the requirementsfirst, in spending those dollars
, what are the requirements interms of what is allowable and
what is not allowable in thatgrant?
(17:49):
And I would start familiarizingmyself or re-familiarizing
myself with those things.
I would make sure, because Ithink a lot of non-compliance
starts with these easy things.
You've got to assume that thisis okay, and so I would say go
back and really understand yourguidance, what is allowed, what
(18:11):
is not allowable, and start withthat.
And then what are the rulesaround reporting, both in terms
of deadline I mean, so manypeople are dealing with many,
many deadlines.
Program reports are due multipletimes throughout monthly,
(18:31):
quarterly, semi-annual and, ifthey have 50 different grants,
these reporting deadlines alonecan be just a handful to deal
with.
Program deadlines are differentthan financial deadlines, so
get them on your calendar,because the government watches
and has a scoring tier and ifyou are late in your reporting
(18:54):
you go up the risk category.
So that's something simple thathelps keep you as low risk.
Understand your allowabilityand then start to get yourself
together on what did you sayyou're doing.
Are you running costallocations?
(19:14):
Are you using your indirectcost rate?
And understand how that worksand make sure that that process
is working smoothly.
And if you're not sure, reachout to a professional to get
some guidance on that.
It would be worth investing alittle bit of money now to save
a lot of time and headache later.
(19:35):
Lot of time and headache later,and that's sort of what I mean
by getting your house in order,understand every single funding
source and make sure that youare doing what you say and
saying what you do.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
Yeah, and I think what's interesting, a lot of
folks, I think, are waking up tothis fact.
As you had said, the federalgovernment has their checklist
but that does have trickle-downeffect, right?
That grant that you think mightbe from your state or from your
city or your local, those aretrickle-down pieces and so it
(20:10):
sometimes is more than afull-time job just to track that
.
You're right.
Like I, I've just talked to anorganization last week who said
we don't have any federalfunding, and then we were
talking about some of theirgrants and, as you start to
chase it back, oh no, that doescome from federal and we have
the trickle down in that.
But each layer of that trickledown comes with its own set of
(20:32):
tracking as well.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
That is such a good point.
When I work with people, whenthey call me, I'm saying let's
just get an inventory of all ofyour grants, first and foremost,
let's get them all in a list,one place.
Where do they come from?
Are they federal, state, local,foundation?
What are the rules?
Are they reimbursement?
Are they restricted?
How are we recognizing thisrevenue?
(20:54):
All these different questions,and very often, like you said,
people do not even have thesethings in a list that they can
go to and say these are exactlymy funding sources.
And so that is an excellentpoint.
Start by putting a listtogether and making sure that
(21:16):
you understand where your moneyoriginates, because it is not
who is giving it to you, it'snot who you're reporting to it.
Where does it originate?
And I find the same thing, justlike you said, people usually
have federal funds and theydon't even know it, and then
that is a huge problem, becauseyou are required to comply with
(21:39):
federal guidelines when you areusing federal funds and if you
don't even know that you havethem, you are certainly not
applying those guidelines.
And understanding thoseguidelines and what that means
for yourself can be veryoverwhelming if you didn't even
know.
Even know, because what thefederal government requires in
(22:02):
terms of compliance and uniformguidance is very much different
than other.
Although uniform guidance ismeant to be consistent across
all funding sources,unfortunately it is not.
Every department at the federalgovernment can make that
guidance harder.
If it trickles to the state,the state can add more rules on
(22:23):
top of that and then if it goesto the local government before
you get it, they can add morerules and more restrictions on
that, and you have to understandwhat those are in order to be
compliant.
And that's why I say start withunderstanding what funding do
you have and what are the rulesaround it.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, I mean that's a great place to start for sure,
because I do think a lot oftimes we miss the boat on
understanding all of it.
So it's a really great reminder, dana, if somebody wanted to
tell us a little bit about thatplatform that you are launching,
because I do think that thatmight be a helpful tool for
(23:04):
folks.
Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Thank you, I would love to.
So we're launching a platform.
It's a web-based applicationcalled Mission Granted and it is
all about managing your grantsto automate some of these
financial reporting requirementsand help you stay in compliance
(23:27):
, because all of the things thatwe talked about just now, and
then more, are difficult forpeople, and particularly in the
beginning, when we talked aboutbeing able to be nimble and move
with the changing landscape.
That is very hard fortraditional nonprofits that have
(23:51):
these budgets that they mustcomply with.
If you have 50 grants, you have50 budgets, all with different
rules that you have to complywith, and as I work with
nonprofits about how to do this,I realized that there was only
spreadsheets.
There's a lot of tools outthere that say they help you
(24:14):
with compliance, but they mightonly do one or two things.
But in reality, understandingthose budgets, how to comply
with those budgets, being ableto create scenario plans for
modifications when life changesthere's nothing out there that
did that.
I was just trying to find a tooland then I couldn't find one,
(24:36):
and then somebody said well, youshould build it.
And so today I am an unexpectedfounder of a tech company
called Smart Grant.
See all their different fundingsources in one place, because
(25:02):
most people say, well, thisgrant covers this and this grant
covers that and this grantcovers yet a third thing.
But they don't see the effectof how all these things work
together and the effect oftaking some money.
So if you take some governmentmoney that has this cap on admin
, you take it but you actuallyincur more expenses because now
(25:26):
you have to raise more money tocover the administrative costs
of running that program thatgrant will not cover.
So this tool allows you to seethat all in one place and be
more strategic and understandthe impact on your overall
organization when you takedifferent money.
It also allows you to set upyour allowability of cost that
(25:50):
we talked about.
It allows you to put all ofyour different reporting
categories in so you know whenthe time of month or quarter
comes that you have to report oryou have to file an invoice for
reimbursement.
It saves you tons of time byautomating that reporting and
automating that compliance,particularly for smaller
(26:15):
nonprofits that struggle withunderstanding how their
allocations work you knowallocating their overhead to
their different grants.
It automates that process andallows them to learn, and for
large organizations with greatteams, it helps them save a lot
of time.
And then it'll help with youractuals and bring your actuals
(26:38):
in and lay them over your budgetso that in real time you can
see where you are and understandhow you're spending and where
you might be able to pivot.
Oftentimes people it's too late, it's the last three months of
the grant and they're like, ohmy gosh, we should have pivoted,
but they didn't really realizethey needed to pivot and now
(26:58):
it's maybe a little too late tobe super strategic.
This warns you and gives youinformation about hey, you
should maybe I'm speaking in thesoftware you should probably
consider doing somethingdifferent with this grant right
now because maybe you'respending too slow.
So I just think for me it's anactual tool around financial
(27:22):
compliance and accountability,but it's really about for me and
empowering leaders and financeteams to work together to really
be strategic, to manage thosegoals and outcomes and be able
to say, look, we did exactlywhat we say, because we now can
(27:42):
see what we're doing and that'swhat we mean at the end of the
day what it's all about.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Yeah, I love that.
Some of my favorite tech toolson the market are the ones that
have this story just like yours.
Like I couldn't find what I waslooking for, but I've been in
this space and I understand itas a leader, and so I'm just
going to go ahead and make itand make it actually work for
what nonprofits need.
So that's always one of myfavorite stories to hear.
Is that accidental founder?
(28:08):
Yeah, I love the passion thatyou all bring to that.
So if somebody wanted to findout more about that, about some
of the solutions that you offer,what's the best way to connect
with you?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Well, thank you.
You can go to our website,which is smartgrantsolutionscom.
You can email us at info atsmartgrantsolutionscom, and we'd
love to hear from you and showyou a little bit about the
product and how we can help you.
Right now too, given thelandscape, we are in sort of an
(28:40):
early user phase, as we're astartup and we're looking for
people this month of March whowant to use the product, who
want to be informed how theproduct will work in the future.
We're interested in connectingwith people who want to really
be good stewards and can help usas well.
(29:00):
If you're one of those peoplethat really wants to get your
house in order and understandhow to be more strategic, we
would love to partner with you.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
That's great.
I love it, dana.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Really appreciate theconversation and the call for
all of us to make sure thatwe're paying attention at
leading well, stewarding welland providing that transparency
within our organizations.
Some great reminders.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
Thank you for having me.
This has been another episodeof the Nonprofit Hub podcast.
(29:32):
Thanks so much for joining usand we'll see you next time.
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