Accreditation Department
Financial Assessments: a Framework

Alternative Investments and Nonprofits: The Danger of Oversimplifying Asset Classes
Should a nonprofit invest in nontraditional assets to enhance returns? The answer lies in the organization’s ability to fully comprehend the various risks.

Beyond the Numbers: Keys to Financial Decision-Making for Not-for-Profit Boards
In this paper, authors Joel Nelson and Aaron Rulnick lay out general principles of financial decision-making for not-for-profit boards, emphasizing essential questions to ask and answer when the stakes are high and the decisions concern large capital expenditures or the assumption of large amounts of debt.

PowerPoint: Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice
This presentation summarizes the 33 principles in "Principles for Good Governance and Ethical Practice: A Guide for Charities and Foundations" by the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector. Use the PowerPoint alongside the guidebook to review board responsibilities in four areas: (l) legal compliance and public disclosure, (2) effective governance, (3) strong financial oversight, and (4) responsible fundraising. Both tools are organized in four stand-alone sections, making it easy to cover the principles one or two modules at a time over successive board meetings.

Governance and Ethics Guidelines for Charities
The Independent Sector's Panel on the Nonprofit Sector published a guide for charities and foundations covering 33 principles of good governance and ethics. The principles are organized under four main categories: legal compliance and public disclosure; effective governance; strong financial oversight; and responsible fundraising.

Matters of Principal: Ethical Fundraising and Investing
Not-for-profit providers are obliged to practice ethical stewardship of resources while protecting their missions and underlying values.

Can the Nonprofit World Govern Itself?
Diana Aviv, Independent Sector’s president, answers questions about new guidelines that spell out principles of governance, fund raising and management that nonprofits should follow.

Making the Decision to Finance: A Primer on the Borrowing Ability of Nonprofit Organizations
Experts at Lancaster Pollard, an AAHSA business firm member, developed this resource to help organizations like yours understand their power in the financing process.

Quality & Transparency
Read about how financial audits improve governance for aging-services providers.

Glossary of Senior Living Finance Terms
This resource from Ziegler Capital Markets Group will assist those who desire to learn about senior living and the tax-exempt bond financing process.

Speaking of Money: A Guide to Fund Raising for Nonprofit Board Members
User guide for video by this title from BoardSource.

Understanding Nonprofit Financial Statements
A primer for nonprofit boards by John Paul Dalsimer for the National Center for Nonprofit Boards, now BoardSource. A Governance Series booklet.

Critical Factors
How do lenders and investors evaluate aging services providers?

Turning Around Financially Troubled Organizations
A turnaround can only begin when leadership acknowledges a problem and creates a comprehensive agenda for change.

Balancing Sophistication With Clarity in Financial Management
Larry Bradshaw, chief financial officer for Asbury Communities, Gaithersburg, Md., reflects on the value of—and tension between—these two vital priorities.

Audit Committee Guide for Not-for-Profit Organizations
Audit committees oversee financial and compliance reporting. Use this guide to find out how to establish or fine-tune your committee.

IRS Document Helps Shape a Healthy Board of Directors
Learn more about the Internal Revenue Service’s 9 helpful tips to create a more successful governing board.

Test Your Organization's Financial Ethics
There are many critical matters that tie together the finances of an aging services provider with ethics. Answering a few questions from this article will help clarify the gray areas that can exist in financial matters and put your organization's actions squarely into the "ethical" category.

Quality & Transparency: Financial Audits Improve Governance for Providers

Value of Volunteer Time
Wondering the dollar value of the time that volunteers work in your organization? The Independent Sector has calculated the value of volunteer time, based on government statistics and other research.

Vision: Hearing What Your Markets Tell You
Darrell Jensen on marketing and repositioning.

Excellence in Finance and Strategy
Financial strength and strategic planning are core responsibilities for any governing board. How can it ensure the organization's long-term fiscal health and meet the changing needs of new generations of residents?

Creative Funding for Supportive Services
Supportive services play a key role in integrating senior housing into the aging services continuum. For many affordable housing complexes, the challenge is finding the necessary funds to connect older persons with existing resources in their community.