There is a not-so-subtle disconnect in most not-for-profit organizations between the finance team and the fundraising team. Providing the tools and technology necessary to enable these departments to collaborate and support each other allows your not-for-profit organization to achieve even greater mission impact with the right not-for-profit financial software. There are several reasons why finance and fundraising professionals find it difficult to collaborate sometimes.
These teams:
- Focus on different priorities
- Measure and report on different metrics
- Draw on different personalities
- Speak different lingos
Organizations need to increase their internal communication to improve the relationship between finance and development. Some practical ideas for improving communication include teaching each other basic accounting and fundraising processes and terminology, conducting joint meetings, and creating interdepartmental goals and objectives.
Another way to help bridge the gap between fundraising and finance is by having powerful, integrated not-for-profit software solutions. True cloud financial management solutions enable greater visibility into performance, better sharing of financial data, and easier collaboration between people. Development and finance can work together and add value to the mission impact armed with complete information from cloud solutions.
Freely share financial information
Cloud-based not-for-profit accounting software allows finance leaders to spread performance information more easily, allowing other parts of the organization to benefit. This means eliminating any data silos caused by outdated software and getting into a more comfortable position to share financial data with the development team. Cloud software requires no installation and can be accessed by web browser, making it much easier to share information internally.
Each part of the organization needs to see the relevant financial information. Development and fundraising want to focus on the financial information that pertains to their own objectives. This is one of the reasons Sage Intacct enables the finance team to create roll-based dashboards.
With Sage Intacct, you can create dashboards and reports for different users – from program managers to fundraisers to financial executives. Drag and drop outcome measurements, KPI visualizations, and reports that track the most important information for each role. Dashboards place statistical and financial data side by side for a comprehensive view of organizational performance.
