Overview: 

For nonprofit organizations, the process of budgeting is critical to the organization’s sustainability and success. Even though nonprofits do not have a profit motive, it is very important for them to manage resources in order to meet their outlined mission. The budget provides a guide and enables the nonprofit organization to manage current resources while planning for the future. Once a budget is established, it should be compared to actual results to make sure the organization is on track and it may need to be modified if circumstances change that were not accounted for when the budget was developed. In this short paper assignment, you will outline the steps a nonprofit manager would need to take to develop and monitor a budget within the organization.

Prompt: 

You are a nonprofit manager and you are preparing for the upcoming fiscal year. You are in charge of leading the budget process for the organization. Briefly describe how you would start to prepare the organization’s budget. What considerations would you need to take into account? Who would you involve in the process? What are the timeline and key activities of the budget process? Once your budget is developed, what steps would you take to ensure the organization is on track to meet its budget? 

Specifically, address the critical elements listed below in detail.

Preparing a Budget

Describe the key steps you would take to prepare your nonprofit organization’s budget. Cite at least one academic source to support your response.

Discuss the considerations that you would need to take into account when preparing the nonprofit organization’s budget. Cite at least one academic source to support your response. 

Describe individuals involved in the budgeting process.

Outline the budgeting process timeline and key activities.   

Ongoing

Describe the steps you would take to ensure the organization is on track to meet its budget. 

Guidelines for Submission: Your short paper assignment must be submitted as a 2-to 3-page Microsoft Word document with double spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins, and at least two academic sources cited in APA format.