Whether you’re already working as a nonprofit treasurer or ready to take up the position, knowing a treasurer’s duties in a nonprofit organization would help you perform effectively and help your organization achieve its cause.
As in most organizations, the importance of a treasurer in a nonprofit organization cannot be overstated. A treasurer is responsible for overseeing and managing the organization’s cash flow for its smooth operations and survival. In addition, they make financial reporting and are responsible for the organization’s overall financial management by working closely with other finance committee members.
The nonprofit treasurer help meet the financial demand of the organization. They focus on income generation, such as fundraising campaigns and helping to increase nonprofit investment to reach their cause. In addition, they take care of bookkeeping and accounting and help direct the nonprofit’s, financial adviser. Sound financial knowledge and management are critical for you to excel in this position.
Read on as we walk you through the roles and responsibilities of the nonprofit treasurer.
Summary
What is the Role of a Treasurer for a Nonprofit?
Performing the duties of a treasurer in a nonprofit organization is a big task, and knowing your roles and responsibilities is even a considerable challenge. However, with the requisite skills and a great deal of accounting knowledge, you can be an excellent fit for the position and help your organization achieve an enviable financial future.
That said, you should create and maintain a working system that ensures a healthy financial outlook for your nonprofit and help in the development of the organization’s financial policies. You should develop a helpful policy that ensures your organization’s solvency, especially in times of emergency. In other words, you must manage your nonprofit finances so that you have more assets than liabilities and be able to pay all debts as they become due. 
You may be responsible for preparing the annual budget. Plus, you will frequently monitor and compare the actual revenues and expenses incurred against the budget. Preparing a budget that supports your nonprofit’s goals is critical for actualizing your organization’s mission. While you’re prepared to explain and justify your budgetary decision, the board should review and approve the budget.
The 3 Key Duties of a Nonprofit Organization’s Treasurer.
Besides the general responsibilities of a nonprofit treasurer we highlighted above, every nonprofit’s treasurer has three important duties that ensure the organization’s success. These three main duties include:
- Creating a budget and financial report,
- Providing ideas for financing, and
- Giving guidance and advice to the board on financial strategy.
Create a Budget and Financial Reports
As a nonprofit treasurer, it’s your duty to estimate the revenues and expenses of your organization over a specified future period. You should compile and re-evaluate your budget on a periodic basis to keep track of the budgetary allocations. Having a working budget helps manage your organization’s monthly, quarterly, or yearly expenses and ensures that your nonprofit is ready for future or unpredictable events. Plus, it helps your organization avoid the debt trap through prudence allocation and management of financial resources.
In addition, you should periodically develop financial reports. By documenting and communicating the financial activities and performance of your nonprofit for a specific time period, such as on a quarterly or yearly basis, you will show the board of directors and other critical stakeholders how the organization is faring from a financial standpoint.
Provide Ideas for Financing
Your responsibilities as a treasurer are not only limited to developing a budget, managing cash flow, and financial reporting. But it also includes bringing innovative ideas to help your organization generate enough income. Many nonprofit organizations are faced with financing issues, and the ill-prepared ones failed as a result. As a savvy treasurer, you should be in the lead in providing resourceful and innovative ideas that will enable your nonprofit organization to have adequate financing in order to ensure its solvency and reach its mission.
Advise the Board on Financial Strategy.
As a financial expert, you should advise the board on the procurement and utilization of funds. With this, you will ensure adequate and regular cash flow in carrying out your nonprofit’s immediate and future financial obligations. In addition, advising the board on the best financial strategy for managing the organization’s financial resources will help your nonprofit attain its long-term goals and objectives.
Final Thought
The treasury department is a very critical aspect of nonprofit organizations. The treasurer position is the engine room of nonprofits; hence sufficient financial knowledge and accounting skills are indispensable for you to excel. Then again, every nonprofit treasurer should be able to translate financial concepts and information clearly for board members who do not have a financial background or adequate financial experience.
More so, the treasurer should learn all the particulars of the nonprofit’s finances and the applicable laws.
And finally, a nonprofit treasurer is also in charge of completing (or assuring the completion of) mandatory financial reporting forms (such as the IRS Form 990) on time and making them accessible for the board’s consideration.
Does Your Nonprofit Need Help With Financing?
The success of every nonprofit hugely depends on how prepared they are to tackle unexpected financial emergencies. Planning for future cash flow shortages helps your nonprofit survive unforeseen financial crunch. At Financing Solutions, a leading provider of business loans for nonprofits in the form of a 501c3/not-for-profit line of credit, we provide nonprofit lines of credit and small business lines of credit that are easy, fast, and inexpensive. Our business credit line requires no collateral or personal guarantee (except in cases of fraud), making it an excellent financing alternative.
Financial Solutions line of credit is an excellent alternative to the traditional bank credit lines because it costs nothing to set up, nothing until used, and when used, is inexpensive. The nonprofit line of credit with instant approval requires no collateral and personal guarantees making it a great backup cash plan. We ask for very little paperwork and an easy application ( it takes less than 2 minutes to fill out)
Financing Solutions’ credit line for nonprofits is a reliable funding option ready to go whenever you need it. We, the founders of Financing Solutions, know how important it is to keep costs low, having started and grown several companies by ourselves. That’s why we don’t charge you to set up the line of credit.
if you want to know if your nonprofit would be approved for a nonprofit line of credit and for how much, please fill out the no-obligation form
