A New Approach for Measuring and Strengthening Nonprofit Capacity

Nonprofit leaders routinely struggle to maintain financial sustainability while doing more to serve their missions in an ever-changing world. When nonprofit organizations make commitments to serve beneficiaries, they create ‘invisible liabilities’—obligations that do not appear on financial statements but that are critical to operations. Nonprofits also benefit from ‘invisible assets,’ promises of financial and voluntary support from others. By assessing how much invisible assets exceed invisible liabilities, nonprofits can understand their ‘invisible net assets’—their latent capacity for further growth and development. This new paradigm—the Invisible Balance Sheet—is analogous to the financial balance sheet and other accountability structures and offers an equally powerful lens into nonprofit vitality and sustainability.
In this SSIR Live! session, attendees will gain a deeper perspective on how nonprofit governance and planning should reflect the balance between promises made by others to nonprofit organizations and the commitments organizations themselves make and embrace. Nonprofit leaders and board members with a heightened awareness of their invisible net assets can be more effective in making decisions about new programs, capital expansion, or building resilience.

In this program, we will arm you with frameworks to rethink assets, liabilities, and net assets, within-session exercises, worksheets, and illustrative case studies. We will outline how to weigh the elements of the invisible balance sheet, with exercises to deepen your understanding of your organization’s underlying capacity. Nonprofit leaders can plan to increase and sustain their invisible assets, carefully manage their invisible liabilities, and deploy their latent capacity to further their mission.

This session will be facilitated and led by Roland J. Kushner, professor of business at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Professor Kushner has 40 years of experience in nonprofit management, and his research has been focused on nonprofit governance, management, and finance.

Program Features:

 Expert Speaker: This webinar is designed, facilitated, and presented by Roland J. Kushner, professor of business, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania. Professor Kushner has 40 years of experience in nonprofit management, and his research has been focused on nonprofit governance, management, and finance. Further, he specializes in the role of arts and culture in the economy. He is a board member of Martin Guitar Charitable Foundation. Earlier in his career, he was managing director of Bethlehem Musikfest, development director of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, interim executive director of WDIY-FM, board president of New Bethany Ministries, and director of Kushner Management Advisory Services.

 Interactive: Participants are encouraged to ask questions throughout the session. This interactive 90-minute workshop will include prompts for reflective discussion, live polling, and two Q&A rounds to answer your most pressing questions on this topic. Further, we will outline how to weigh the elements of the invisible balance sheet with exercises that provide a deeper understanding of an organization’s underlying capacity.

Real-world Case Studies: In this program, we will use illustrative case studies from well-known nonprofits. We will delve into Professor Kushner’s decades of experience in nonprofit management, and his research on nonprofit governance and finance.

Who Should Attend? This program will provide new insights into capacity building for leaders across the social innovation ecosystem. Heads of mission-driven organizations who desire to be more effective in making governance and strategic decisions will find this program beneficial. By rethinking evaluation, they will be better able to unleash capacity for new programs, capital expansion, and resilience for their organizations.

Closed Captioning Available: Live transcription is available for this program. To activate Closed Captioning during the LIVE broadcast, click on the upward arrow next to the CC icon and select the Subtitling option. To disable Closed Captioning, click on the upward arrow next to the CC icon and select the Hide Subtitling option.

On-Demand Version: Register and access the recording of the live event on-demand 24 hours after the webinar ends and anytime over the next 12 months.

Price for this webinar: $79 This price includes access to the live interactive webinar and unlimited access to the recorded webinar video and resources for 12 months from the date of broadcast.

If you have any questions about this program, write to us at [email protected].