Type: Aggregated

Conducting A Search For A Leader The Times Require

by

Leadership transitions are important for arts and culture organizations. We have featured a number of articles on the topic, covering both planning philosophy and actual practical examples. But since the Covid pandemic, it is increasingly important to think about transitions both in terms of establishing plans in case a crisis should arise, but also in terms of what you may want from entities who may be assisting you with a leadership search. Recently, Seema Sueko, wrote a piece on the subject for American Theatre, addressing some misconceptions she had about the search … Read more

Are You Ready For Mastercard’s New Recurring Payment Rules?

by

Earlier this fall, Mastercard issued new rules for merchants processing recurring credit card charges on its network (essentially, merchants who process recurring charges to a Mastercard-branded credit card, regardless of the issuing bank). As originally announced, these new rules would have presented extra and potentially burdensome administrative work for small nonprofits, including arts organizations, that have recurring monthly donations (though enforcement for the recurring donation case was due to begin later than for other types of recurring charges). Stripe, one of the major payment processors, has a helpful breakdown of the new … Read more

You Probably Need To Be Spending More On Overhead

by

For decades now there has been a belief that the lower the ratio of non-profit’s overhead expenses to program expense, the better run the non-profit is.  As a result, a low overhead ratio has been viewed as something of a virtue and non-profit organizations have used all sorts of accounting tricks and parsed terminology in an effort to  redefine what constitutes an overhead expense. Likewise, funders have rewarded non-profits who can exhibit low overhead expense ratios or they disallow the use of funding for overhead altogether. This has created what many have … Read more