ANE: Financial Confidence for Nonprofit Leaders

Financial Confidence for Nonprofit Leaders: Understanding Financial Statements, Budgets, and Funder Perspectives

This course is designed to help nonprofit leaders, managers, and board members build confidence in reading financial information, using budgets effectively, and strengthening financial decision-making. Participants will receive an accessible overview of nonprofit financial statements, including what key reports show, how they connect to one another, and what questions non-accounting professionals should know to ask. The course will also explore budgeting as a planning, management, governance, and communication tool, with attention to realistic assumptions, program and organizational costs, revenue planning, monitoring performance, and adapting to change. The session will include practical examples and discussion to help participants connect financial reports and budgets to everyday leadership decisions.
 

Learning Outcomes: 

• Participants will be able to explain the purpose of core nonprofit financial statements and identify the key information each report provides. 

• Participants will be able to interpret financial reports at a practical level and identify questions to ask in support of sound management and governance. 

• Participants will be able to describe how budgets function as planning, management, monitoring, and communication tools. 

• Participants will be able to develop stronger budget assumptions by considering revenue realities, program needs, staffing, direct and indirect costs, and organizational priorities. 

• Participants will be able to use financial statements and budgets together to monitor performance, identify emerging risks or opportunities, and support timely decision-making. 

• Participants will be able to recognize how strong financial practices build board confidence, management accountability, organizational sustainability, and funder trust. 

Course taught by Nicole Lindley, Armstrong McGuire

??Nicole Lindley is a licensed CPA and nonprofit advisor, facilitator, and organizational strategist with firsthand experience working in the nonprofit sector. She works with nonprofit leaders, boards, and executive teams to strengthen strategy, structure, leadership, financial understanding, and organizational effectiveness. Her work includes strategic planning, organizational assessments, executive search, leadership transitions, board engagement, and facilitation of complex conversations with staff and board leaders. Nicole brings a practical, accessible teaching style that helps nonprofit professionals build confidence in understanding financial information and using it to support sound decisions, accountability, and long-term sustainability.?