Nonprofit Financial Oversight in a Nutshell

The content for this learning path was developed with our partner, The Charity CFO. We encourage you to learn more about their work and pick up their Crash Course in Understanding Nonprofit Financials free download.

Welcome to your first lessons on financial oversight! Financial oversight is an activity that is largely the responsibility of the board of directors. There are, however, a number of activities and skills that all team members can participate in to support financial oversight.

In our bronze badge lessons, we’ll start with a look at what financial oversight is. We’ll explore why it matters, and look at some skills that will support your abilities to help your nonprofit pursue effectiveness in this area. We’ll wrap up our work by revealing what some of the hallmarks of good financial oversight are, and how we can measure them.

Let’s jump in with your first lesson, “What is financial oversight?”

*Note that a transcript of all audio is available for download on the lessons to come, as well as an audio-only version of the lessons. You can always turn on closed-captions on the video player settings above.

In this lesson, we'll jump in on an overview of what financial oversight is and what it looks like in your non-profit.

Be sure to download the transcript to begin building your reference library, and also feel free to use the audio-only download below for on-the-go learning.

Now that you have some basics about financial oversight, let's take a look at why it matters.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

In this lesson, we'll look at the five skills needed to support financial oversight practices. Remember: skills can be learned, practiced, and developed over time, so if you feel that you have a little (or a lot of!) room for improvement, know that you're on the right track!

Be sure to download the transcript to begin building your reference library, and also feel free to use the audio-only download below for on-the-go learning.

In this lesson, we'll bring together our learning on what effective financial oversight looks like, and how can we measure it.

Be sure to download the transcript to add to your reference library, and also feel free to use the audio-only download below for on-the-go learning.

In this lesson, we'll explore how to measure financial oversight effectiveness in your nonprofit.

Remember, you can download the audio and transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

Welcome to your silver badge lessons on financial oversight! Now that we’ve considered what financial oversight is (and isn’t!), why it matters, and the skills you can develop to build up effective practices, we’ll now put that learning into practice.

In the next three courses, we’ll explore how you can activate your own abilities at the individual and leadership level, as well as how building the capacity for financial oversight across your nonprofit can be started or improved. We’ll close our work in this series with some suggestions regarding goals you might set for yourself and your nonprofit to amplify your work in this domain.

Let’s jump in and look at how you can individually build up your own financial oversight capacity!

*Remember that a transcript of all audio is available for download below on the lessons below, and you can always turn on closed-captions on the video settings above.

Let’s start with activating your financial oversight efforts and go beyond the focused skill-building we talked about in our bronze lessons. We’ll look at more deeply exploring your motives for improvement, managing innovation, and understanding others.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

Now that we have a little bit of foundation in your financial oversight efforts, let's think about how we can apply this to your organization.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

In this lesson, we'll look at how to put financial oversight efforts into practice with a look at how to design and elevate your financial oversight approaches in your nonprofit.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

In our consideration of how to build up your own capacity in developing and supporting effective financial oversight at your nonprofit, we’re going to consider the principles behind goal-setting.

Be sure to download the transcript to review your learning.

Setting goals to improve your nonprofit’s overall financial oversight efforts looks and feels different than setting goals as an individual.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

Welcome to your final lessons on financial oversight! In the gold badge, we’ll consider how you and your team can get–and stay–motivated to build and improve your financial oversight practices. We’ll take a moment to reflect on and review all that we’ve covered in this topic, and then you’ll have the opportunity to complete a personal learning plan. This learning plan challenges you to consider how you’ll put your learning into practice over the next three to six months in a tangible way.

Let’s turn our attention now to how to develop your motivation surrounding financial oversight!

*Note that a transcript of all audio is available for download on the lessons to come, as well as an audio-only version of the lessons. You can always turn on closed-captions on the video player settings above.

In this lesson, we'll look at how motivation can be supported in building financial overseeing efforts in your organization.

Be sure to download the transcript to not only review your learning but also to see the research references used in this lesson.

In this lesson, we're going to discuss how we can inspire others to get personally motivated about nonprofit financial overseeing efforts, especially those who may be resistant.

Remember, you can download the transcript for this video below, and can also turn closed captions on and off for your convenience.

In this final teaching lesson on financial oversight, we're bringing together all our learning into a capstone video on how we can grow from everything we've covered thus far!

Be sure to download the transcript to not only review your learning but also to see the research references used in this lesson.