Understanding Mission vs. Back Office
Your mission is the heart of your organization. Your focus should be on the cause you support, and your ability to evolve as needs change. However, you must at the same time manage your organization effectively.
Your organization is made up of two key areas, your mission and your back-office. Your mission is the fuel that propels your organization forward and it encompasses fundraising, community outreach, donor communication and messaging, not to mention meeting the needs of the cause and/or community you serve. While your back-office includes the stabilizing functions such as: HR, payroll, benefits, accounting, finance, grants, donation processing, regulations, IT, and tax. These supporting functions stabilize your vision and provide the resources necessary to support your mission.
Mission vs. Back-Office
Your purpose and first priority is your mission. The more time your staff and volunteers can spend on your mission the better. However the back-office supports the mission, and typically needs specialized expertise. The back-office can inhibit or enable growth, and is the primary place to look for accounting process improvements and cost reduction. The more streamlined and cost effective the process – the more time and money you can spend directly on your cause. This is where the option of using a third party comes in. Engaging with a high level accounting service provider to complete back-office processes can be a great way to reduce costs while at the same time improve both quality and efficiency.
Nonprofit executives acting as Controllers, CFOs acting as Bookkeeper, and Accountants acting as HR Managers, all create inefficiencies and risks. All too often nonprofits are forced to hire over qualified people to handle basic needs which unnecessarily increases overhead costs. Worse yet is asking under qualified staff to take on tasks which they are not trained to handle which increases liability and provides delayed, inadequate or inaccurate results.
Supporting Your Mission vs. Managing Processes
Many organizations do not need and/or cannot afford a full-time Chief Financial Officer (CFO) or Controller. What nonprofits often do is place the CFO/Controller responsibilities with the Director of Finance and Operations or with the most capable finance/accounting executive on staff. The problem with this approach is that the person placed in charge may not have the right skill set or experience to fulfill the role of CFO. Partner with a service provider to complete the accounting functions bridges the gap between the back-office and the mission without having to hire over or under qualified people.