Innovative Practice Groups

Nonprofit financial education is often about compliance and accounting; ours focuses on improving effectiveness. NFF’s practice groups connect program officers with financial tools and concepts that will help them improve grantees’ chances of success. Grantmakers learn to assess grantees’ key financial indicators and understand their critical business needs. Our goal is to combine funders’ program knowledge with our practical experience in finance, resulting in grants that help nonprofits more reliably deliver on mission. One-on-one engagements and coaching are available on a flexible basis. Innovative Practice Groups explore a variety of topics, including:

Applying the Build / Buy Funding Method^SM and learning from others doing similar work;
Connecting key “whole enterprise” finance concepts to grantmaking;
Using financial data in talks with grantees;
Evaluating grantees’ operating health and risk tolerance;
Comparing grantees to peers using data across a range of dimensions;
Exploring the financial impact of grantmaking decisions;
Sharing practice and experience with peers.

Full or Half-day Workshops

"NFF delivered an invaluable workshop on financial frameworks which helped program offi