Nonprofit Finance Fund

In response to the economic downturn, the New York Health Foundation (NYHealth) worked with the Nonprofit Finance Fund to create a one-time technical assistance (TA) program to help NYHealth grantees build capacity in their financial management capabilities.

Grantees, especially those from smaller organizations, may lack experience developing and implementing long-term strategic fiscal plans that are critical to effectively sustaining their organizations and the projects that represent their mission. In 2010, NYHealth awarded the Nonprofit Finance Fund a grant to develop and lead a TA workshop for selected NYHealth grantees.

This project provided NYHealth grantees with technical assistance around fiscal planning methods to weather the economic storm. The Nonprofit Finance Fund’s Recession Fundamentals Workshop was a half-day seminar that gave the leadership of grantee organizations the necessary guidance and tools to withstand challenging economic times.

Topics of the workshop included:

• Assessing organizational preparedness;
• Evaluating fiscal risk exposure and tolerance;
• Identifying and quantifying budget options; and
• Communicating organizational financial stories to current and potential funders.