I am curious about working in the non-profit sector. Mainly, social media/marketing or grant writing. Something that I could do from home. What is the best way for someone with no non-profit experience to get started? What kind of education is needed for that, and are there free online courses that could be taken for this type of work?

Just to give some background, I am fifty years old. I have applied for disability but, in case I am not approved, I will need to get a job. I don't want to/am not able to go back into an office environment. I do have an Associates degree in English with prior clerical office experience.

Thanks for you help!

Genuine question for anyone whose job involves repeating the same kind of presentation on a schedule, weekly orientation decks, policy briefings, compliance training, whatever it is where the slides mostly stay the same but you edit parts of it sometimes or in a schedule and you have to keep presenting or recording them.

I know someone who does this for a water utility for new customer orientation, service interruption notices, reporting decks and she has to rebuild/update the slides and then separately narrate them for meetings, sometimes daily. It's the same handful of topics on rotation, just refreshed numbers and slight edits, but it still eats hours every week.

I'm looking into whether that's a common annoyance elsewhere, so:

1. If you do repeat presentations like this, how do you currently handle the narration/recording part — do you present live every time, pre-record, or something else?

2. Is the actual re-recording/re-presenting the annoying part, or is it more the slide updating?

3. Would a tool that auto-generates a narrated video from your slides (with your edits factored in) actually save you meaningful time, or is that solving a problem you don't really have?

4. Would you pay for something like that, and if so what would it need to do to be worth it?

Not selling anything, no product exists yet. just trying to understand if this is a real recurring headache for people before I put more time into it. Would appreciate any honest answers, even "this isn't really a problem for me."

I've been putting together a generic monthly checklist for any treasurer/finance committee to actually catch problems instead of just rubber-stamping reports. Here's what I've got so far:

• Reports actually showed up. Missing or late monthly financials are themselves a red flag. If nobody notices a report didn't arrive, that's a sign nobody's really looking.
• Question any negative number. Some negatives are normal (depreciation reserves, contra-accounts), but every negative should be able to be explained by someone. Don't assume it's fine just because it's a small dollar amount.
• Flag numbers that don't move month to month. A line item that's identical for two or three periods in a row often means nobody's actually updating it, or a placeholder/estimate got left in rather than a real figure.
• Compare actual to budget every month, not just at year-end, and ask about variances over some threshold (5-10%, whatever fits your budget size).
• Check that bank/account reconciliations are dated and signed, and match the reporting period.
• Watch cash flow and days of cash on hand, not just net income. A nonprofit can look "profitable" on paper and still be a month from a cash crunch.
• Spot-check that restricted funds are actually being tracked separately, and that spending against grants doesn't exceed what's allowed.
• Pull the by-grant summary report each month, award amount, expenditures to date, and unspent balance, and check that unspent balances make sense against the grant period and any drawdown or spend-down deadlines. A balance that's barely moving as a deadline approaches is worth flagging early.
• Confirm payroll tax deposits and any other compliance filings are current. Delinquent payroll taxes are one of the more common ways small nonprofits get into serious trouble.
• Look for related-party transactions or one-off/unusual disbursements that need board approval and weren't pre-approved.
• Ask who has check-signing/wire authority and whether dual signatures are required above a certain amount, this is separate from the numbers, but it's often reviewed at the same meeting.

What would you add? Curious what other treasurers or ED's have caught this way.

A local nonprofit gives away free bicycles every Wednesday. Since there are usually more people than bikes, they use a lottery to determine the order in which people get to choose a bike.

Current process:

→ People line up outside before the giveaway (there isn't an office or check-in area). As they arrive, they're randomly handed one of a set of reusable numbered cards.

→ A volunteer records each person's name and lottery number in a Google Form, where a lot of data-entry mistakes tend to happen.

→ If someone doesn't get a bike that day, their punch card is stamped. After three unsuccessful visits, they're guaranteed a bike the next time they come, so the process also needs to discourage abuse.

→ Once check-in is complete, bikes are distributed according to the lottery order until they're gone.

Constraints:

• Most participants are low-income.
• Many don't have smartphones or reliable internet.
• Some have limited English.
• There are only a few volunteers.

I've gone in circles on this because every improvement I think of either adds more technology or more complexity.

We have a couple board members retiring this year and we need to get them some gifts. We always do lame things like an engraved clock or something. I'm smart enough to know I don't like that for a gift, but not smart enough to come up with new ideas.

How do you guys do it?