One Mission, One Team: Getting Finance and Fundraising in Sync

HOST: Welcome and thanks for listening to Cherry Bekaert's not-for-profit podcast series. In each episode, we hear from the best in the business on the latest challenges, trends, and opportunities affecting not-for-profit organizations and educational institutions.

HOST: I hope you enjoy and thanks for listening.

JASON STURDIVAN: Hello again, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Cherry Bekaert's nonprofit finance podcast series. I'm Jason Sturdivan, Senior Manager in Cherry Bekaert's CFO Advisory practice, working with not-for-profit finance teams to help them clean up and strengthen their accounting systems so they can focus more on their strategic goals.

JASON STURDIVAN: With me today is Blakeley.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: I'm Blakeley Richard, a Manager also working in CFO Advisory with not-for-profits. We both come from audit backgrounds and spend a lot of time helping not-for-profits get their finance operations in shape.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: We've worked with organizations across the not-for-profit field, including museums, universities, foundations, and social service agencies. We've seen many ways things can go wrong and how to make them right.

JASON STURDIVAN: Today we're diving into a topic that comes up constantly in our work: how to get finance teams and fundraising teams on the same page. It's one of those relationships that can either be a huge asset or a source of ongoing tension.

JASON STURDIVAN: When it's not working, it doesn't just affect internal operations. It can impact donor relationships, reporting accuracy, and strategic decision-making.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: It's not that either team is doing something wrong. Usually, they're working toward the same goals but speaking different languages.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: Fundraisers typically focus on relationships, bringing in cash, and impact. Finance and accounting teams tend to focus on controls, compliance, reporting, and sustainability.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: Both are essential functions for any organization. But when they're not aligned, you can get issues like budget surprises, cash flow mismatches, and donor restrictions being misunderstood.

JASON STURDIVAN: The stakes are high. If finance doesn't have visibility into fundraising plans, they can't forecast cash flows accurately. If fundraising doesn't understand accounting rules, they might overpromise to donors or fail to provide accurate reports.

JASON STURDIVAN: It's not just a communication issue; it's a strategic one.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: This can sound abstract. Jason, I remember you telling me about issues you saw firsthand at a not-for-profit that did natural disaster recovery. How did that misalignment show up and what problems did it create for the organization?

JASON STURDIVAN: This was a real case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. The fundraising team was doing fantastic work securing matching grants, in-kind donations, large corporate gifts, and many multi-year pledges.

JASON STURDIVAN: But the development team didn't understand the nuances of not-for-profit revenue recognition. They recorded conditional gifts as revenue before conditions were met, treated in-kind donations inconsistently, and handled in-kind services the same way.

JASON STURDIVAN: They didn't clearly flag donor restrictions, so finance had to review every agreement, reclassify some revenue, and clean up the books. That delayed internal and external reporting and led to a number of audit adjustments.

JASON STURDIVAN: All the time spent cleaning up accounting meant resources were pulled from raising more funds and preparing for the next disaster recovery effort. It even required the CEO to act as referee between the teams, which wasn't the best use of the CEO's time.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: That cleanup is tedious and time-consuming, and it's very risky. It can affect your audit opinion, your credibility with funders, and your ability to make timely decisions.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: This wasn't malicious; it was a lack of shared understanding and a failure to take time up front to ensure everyone was rowing in the same direction. That caused the organization to spin in circles longer than necessary.

JASON STURDIVAN: I've seen a foundation where fundraising had great donor relationships, but there was no documentation for critical information like restrictions on gifts, spending policies for endowed funds, or timing of pledge payments. It was all in emails or verbal conversations.

JASON STURDIVAN: It got so bad that finance had to take over responsibility for updating the donor database. Rather than solving the issue, that left finance frustrated and often without critical information.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: Finance was essentially flying blind. They couldn't pull accurate cash flow forecasts, track restricted net assets, or meet donor reporting requirements. That was a missed opportunity not just for compliance but for strategic donor engagement.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: It also created mistrust between the teams. Eventually, finance stopped responding timely to development's questions and records began breaking down further until they asked our team for help to clean things up and begin rehabilitating the relationship and workflow.

JASON STURDIVAN: What does good alignment look like? For me, it starts with shared planning. Finance and fundraising need to be in the same room during budget season, not just handing off numbers as gifts come in.

JASON STURDIVAN: Monthly check-ins are key. Fundraising should update finance on pipeline activity: what's likely to close, what's uncertain, and what's restricted. Finance should share burn rate, cash flow projections, and any red flags.

JASON STURDIVAN: If there's a database team involved, they should also be in those conversations. When translating data between development and finance, that team needs to be centrally involved.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: I also love when organizations build joint dashboards. Database teams are critical there. Dashboards shouldn't just show financial statements; they should provide visuals of revenue progress, grant timelines, and spending against program goals.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: Those visuals help both teams see the same picture and ask better questions. It builds trust when fundraising sees finance as a partner helping with the plan and stewarding resources, rather than just saying no.

JASON STURDIVAN: There's a lot to be said for starting with trust. Problems move more quickly toward solutions once teams know they can count on each other.

JASON STURDIVAN: What can not-for-profits do? One simple option is to create a shared glossary. Terms like pledge, restricted, and available balance mean different things to different teams, so agreeing on definitions prevents confusion.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: Second, build a donor agreement checklist. Every time a gift comes in, finance and fundraising should review it together: what are the restrictions, what's the payment schedule, is it conditional, and what reporting is required.

JASON STURDIVAN: Another step is to integrate systems. If a nonprofit's CRM and accounting software don't communicate, you'll have data silos. Even a shared spreadsheet can help bridge the gap if funds are limited.

JASON STURDIVAN: With some investment and expert help, there are tools that can make data flow timely and accurately from fundraising to finance.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: Finally, invest in training. Fundraisers don't need to be accountants, but they should understand basic revenue recognition and donor restrictions. Finance folks should understand the donor lifecycle and fundraising strategy so they can request information in a way that makes sense to development colleagues.

JASON STURDIVAN: Too often, when the relationship between finance and fundraising breaks down, nonprofits need outside help. Our team at Cherry Bekaert CFO Advisory has seen it all.

JASON STURDIVAN: For a recent organization, we started by conducting extensive interviews across teams, converted findings into a matrix to address stakeholder concerns, presented recommendations formally, and provided a standard operating procedure for new gifts.

JASON STURDIVAN: That provided structure and consistency moving forward and was a huge help to both the finance and fundraising teams.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: We also provide short trainings. These can be one-, two-, or three-hour sessions spread over a week, month, or held annually. In training, we review glossary terms—what gifts, pledges, restrictions, and conditions mean—and allow development to explain their processes to finance.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: We prepare SOPs and glossaries based on those meetings and trainings. For some clients, we attend recurring meetings between development and finance as a third party to hear both sides and flag miscommunications or misalignments.

JASON STURDIVAN: Organizations don't have to solve this alone. There's help available, using experience we've developed from others who solved these exact problems.

JASON STURDIVAN: Alignment between finance and fundraising is essential for sustainability, credibility, and impact. Start with shared planning, regular communication, and mutual respect.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: A few practical steps: set up monthly cross-team meetings with a shared agenda; create a donor agreement checklist and review it at least annually; use shared tools like dashboards or grant-tracking spreadsheets; and invest in cross-training for a few hours.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: If you want to go deeper, check resources from the National Council of Nonprofits, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Nonprofit Quarterly for case studies, templates, and articles on finance and fundraising collaboration.

JASON STURDIVAN: If you have questions about helping development and finance get on the same page or need help untangling messes from them not being aligned, our team at Cherry Bekaert is ready to assist.

JASON STURDIVAN: For more information, head over to cbh.com and search NFP advisory or reach out to our team through the links in the episode notes.

JASON STURDIVAN: After all this serious talk of fundraising and finance, a dad joke. Blakeley, I have a confession: I only know 25 letters of the alphabet. I don't know why.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: That'll wrap up today with Blakeley's groan. Thank you, everyone, for joining us.

BLAKELEY RICHARD: I hope you enjoyed this episode and look forward to our next one. Don't forget to subscribe.

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