The Skills to Pay the Bills, an Evaluation of an Effort to Help Nonprofits Manage Their Finances

Between 2009 and 2013, the Wallace Foundation funded a management consulting firm, Fiscal Management Associates, to provide the 25 nonprofit organizations that participated in the project with one of two models of professional development: (1) a customized model that included substantial individual consulting and group learning for organizations’ leaders, or (2) a model that provided primarily group learning opportunities. This report discusses lessons learned from the initiative about strengthening the financial management of nonprofit organizations but also, more generally, about how to improve organizational capabilities.