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from 1946 to 1964, these “Boomers” revised how we viewed ourselves, our institutions, and our environments. To-day they are a generation of managers who are turning their talents to NFP organizations as they reach the peaks of their careers and eventual retirement.

Following the Boomers came Genera-tion “X,” born from 1965 to 1979. This generation adopted their parents’ be-liefs in individualism, distrust of institu-tions and rejection of the rules. But they don’t volunteer, and they are more in-clined toward for-profit organizations than NFPs.

Supporting the Baby Boomers is in-stead the generation that comes after, the “Millennials.” Born between 1982 and 1995, the 75 million Millennials in-herited both the diversity and the opti-mism of their grandparents’ generation. They are connected, collaborative and centered. They believe in technology, telecommunication and transparency in public institutions.

“The Millennials were born into a world where computers were already an integral part of both work and life,” says Peter Stam, president of fund ac-counting software company AccuFund.

“Technology is an integral part of their lives, and so is a commitment to making their world a better place. The chal-

Not-For-Profit organizations are usually defined in terms of what they are not – profit-making --

with less attention paid to what they are and how they are evolving in the 21st Century. Yet the role of the NFP as a cornerstone of culture is changing, and will pose unique challenges to manag-ers at every level of the organization in the decades ahead.

“What we have seen in recent years is the evo-lution of fund accounting from bookkeeping to accounting, and then to practice management,” says Jeff Sobers,

Product Marketing Manager for Fi-nancial Solutions at Blackbaud, Inc.

“Fund accounting, once a niche market, is coming into its own and injecting into these non-profits the management con-cepts of EPM, ERM and CRM. Today’s non-profit financial officer is focused on performance and communication to extent never seen before.”

Over the next two decades, NFPs will continue to be more transparent, to re-spond to the needs of members, donors and oversight organizations. They will embrace new generations of technology,

from social media and mobile comput-ing to cloud and web-based solutions. And they will demand more from their accounting and service software.

“The central question will be how to best take accounting data and turn it into information,” says Krista End-sley, senior vice president and general man-

ager of Sage Nonprofit Solutions in Austin, TX. “It’s not enough to simply have the data. You have to turn that data into information, and then take the next step to turn the information into processes that advance the NFP in terms of its mission -- time manage-ment, donor recruiting and informa-tion, volunteer tracking. Information transforms NFPs through processes.”

Managing this change will be two dis-tinct generations of NFP executives with the ability to work closely together and to share a common vision of the role of non-profits.

Boomers and MillennialsThe generation of Baby Boomers changed the world, ushering in an era of volunteerism and prosperity. Born

“Fund Accounting and the Future of

NFP Management”By Dave McClure

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As a CPA, you probably work with a lot of nonprofit organizations, and you’re in the perfect position to introduce them to Blackbaud and The Financial Edge accounting software. Blackbaud will work with them to ensure The Financial Edge meets your need for accurate reports and timely information as well as their need for transparency, accountability, and stewardship.

There are many more great benefits to helping your nonprofit clients such as our Accountant Referral Program. So don’t wait! Learn all the details at www.blackbaud.com/accountantprogram

If you, and your clients, were using The Financial Edge, you’d be done by now!

Help Us, Help You, Help Them.

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lenge for us is to then build the systems and solutions they need to have immediate ac-cess to current information.”

The Baby Boomers had to manage their organizations through periods of intense change, from the advent of computers to diversity in the workplace. Now moving into the top levels of man-agement and the boardrooms of NFPs, they are being joined by the Millenni-als, a new generation that has grown up with technology and volunteerism.

“These Millenni-als are younger, more connected, and expect that they will be able to use the same tools at an NFP that they use in other parts of

their lives,” notes MaryFrances Pid-geon, a senior sales engineer for fund accounting solution provider Intacct.

“They have been entering the NFP mar-ketplace for almost a decade now, are the heart of today’s young management teams, both men and women, who are turning data into deeds.”

“Managers now entering the NFP markets are much more d a t a - d r i v e n than their pre-decessors, but they want their data packaged in

specific ways,” agrees Brandon Taylor, vice president of product strategy and development for Serenic, Inc. “They want to organize their daily activities on any device they choose. They want

data that is real-time and constant, pre-sented simply. And they want informa-tion that is transparent both inside and outside of the organizations.”

Transparency Inside and OutJust as the capabilities of fund account-ing systems have mirrored those avail-able to for-profit organizations, so have the demands for better and more trans-parent information about the NFP and its operations. And in particular, how donations and volunteers are used by the NFP to advance its stated mission.

“There’s a word that defines what we are seeing emerge in non-profits,” says Linda Pin-ion, senior Sales Engineer for Intacct. “That word is ‘sophis-

ticated.’ Today’s NFP is sophisticated in the way they understand the need to do more with less. In the need for transparency and accountability in both structure and reporting. The buyers in the NFP marketplace – do-nors, recipients and other constituents

– know the tools. They know how to use mobile technologies. They multi-task, and augment this ability with social me-dia. They understand how to use all of the personal information, and all of the sales information, to develop what we call a 360-degree view of every person they interact with.”

“The Millennial generation sees the challenges of NFP organizations as every bit as gratifying as for-profit or-ganizations,” says AccuFund President Peter Stam. “Non-profits and govern-ment agencies are where people aspire to find careers that allow them to be involved, and to find value in what they do. Part of that value is to be able to answer questions about the organiza-

tion and its operations. This demand for transparency has added complexity to their task, but this is a challenge they want to take on.”

“There has been an evo-lution in the expectations of managers and donors for greater sophistication on the part of the non-profit

CFO, and the expectations they have of the systems they plan to use,” adds Andrew Payne, Product Line Manager for Financial Solutions with Black-baud. “You can’t draw an explicit line to Sarbanes-Oxley, but there is a connection in that expectations have increased on the part of donors. Do-nors demanded new tools and data to respond to the need to deliver on pro-gram promises. This hasn’t happened overnight, but over the past decade.”

“It’s about transparency to constitu-ents,” says Brandon Taylor of Serenic.

“In years past, most of the statistics and ratios were included in the annual re-port. As donors and the government have ratcheted up their requirements, they are demanding that the informa-tion be in different formats, and quicker than before. They want granular data, and they are measuring the efficiency with which the dollars are being spent.”

“It used to be difficult, when manag-ers had to work with just spreadsheets and shared data,” agrees Blackbaud’s Jeff Sobers. “The biggest leap forward has been our ability to get information into the hands of the people who need it. Key performance indicators. Compara-tive indicators across a segment, or the NFP industry. Before, it was all about delivery of reports and the cost of that delivery. Now it is about the quality of

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No Pain. All Gain.

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Real-time visibility into all your finances

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the report. We can deliver that quality today because of the rise of the Internet, and the emergence of mobile and cloud computing.”

New TechnologyThe Baby Boomers led the PC revolu-tion. They brought desktop comput-ers into the accounting departments of their companies, then spread the tech-nology throughout the organization. By the mid-Eighties, as the Millennials were being born, the last of the type-writers and dictation machines were disappearing from corporate America.

Cellular flip phones, created after a tele-vision show called Star Trek, became the norm for telecommunications. In the early 1990s, the US Department of Commerce let a contract to three pri-vate companies to develop a commer-cial version of the academic Internet. Just after the turn of the century, falling costs for data storage and the demand for 24/7 access gave rise to the massive server farms that made cloud comput-ing possible.

“It isn’t just about the technology. It is not just making management dash-boards available, it is the concept that such dashboards can exist at all,” says Blackbaud’s Andrew Payne. “It is all about removing bottlenecks and im-proving the efficiency of information delivery. The next step is on-demand ratios and benchmarks, and compara-tive data delivered in real-time. That’s where cloud computing and mobile computing, effected over a fast and re-liable Internet, have their greatest im-pact. The acceptance level of the cloud has been instrumental in driving the ability to get information into the hands of line managers.”

Changes in the Core PlatformsMaking the most effective use of these technologies will require not only their adoption, but the development of software and solutions that make

use of them. Applications for mobile platforms will need to be developed. Web-based portals and communica-tion systems will need to be created or adapted. And the industry will need to keep pace with the NFP technol-ogy track.

“We see integration through operational applications as a key to keeping pace,” says Serenic’s Brandon Taylor. “Our view is that core NFP applications

-- grants, fund-raising, accounting, member tracking, volunteer tracking and more – need to work through one database with a common user interface. For Serenic, we partner with Microsoft on the Dynamics NAV platform so that while the curve is changing, we don’t have to worry about the technology stack. We only have to worry about keeping pace with a vital and changing industry.”

“At Sage, we recognize that different lev-els of the organization have different information needs,” says Krista Ends-ley. “We respond to this in many ways, among them the creation of a special license for “executive views” that al-low NFP executives to run reports and use the management dashboards at a special low fee. These licenses respond to a user need, and have proven very popular for executives who do not need a full license.”

“ I n t e g r a -tion is also a critical fac-tor for Sage,” says Brandy Keller, prod-uct manager for Sage 100 Fund Ac-counting at

Sage Nonprofit Solutions. “We are tak-ing a legacy product to extend it through our connected service strategy. Instead of approaching fund accounting and NFP management as individual pieces

and parts, we focused on an integrated online suite of products that give NFPs the flexibility to use the services they need.”

“We’ve made strong investments in browser-based access to information,” says AccuFund President Peter Stam.

“The desire for better integration be-tween fund accounting and other web-based solutions has led to the develop-ment of a browser-based fund-raising system, and we have already converted timekeeping to a browser-based system that we will carry over to Windows 8 in the near future.”

“Our customers are equally interested in the ability to multi-task,” says In-tacct’s Linda Pinion. “They have a comfort with and flexibility for shar-ing information, for on-demand pro-cessing and reporting. Now we are looking at how best to augment these features with social media and other technologies.”

“The notion of integration is emerg-ing more strongly,” says Blackbaud’s Andrew Payne. “We are seeing a trend toward consolidation of disparate sys-tems into a single integrated entity. Consolidation that reduces waste and the time needed to enter data, and to deliver more effectively on the mis-sion.”

Ultimately, the fusion of the Baby Boomers and the Millennials is less about the technology itself than about the management style that drives ef-ficiency and transparency.

“It is about taking fund accounting data and turning it into information,” says Krista Endsley of Sage. “Then manage that information in a way that puts it in the hands of managers and divisional managers. The information has to flow, transparently, through the entire or-ganization and outward to the NFP’s constituencies.

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© 2012 Sage Softw

are, Inc. and its affiliated entities. A

ll rights reserved.

Sage gives you the knowledge you need to build strong relationships and boost success.

Know more about your constituents and you’ll get the gifts to secure your institution’s future. Sage Millennium gives you the flexibility to retrieve data in meaningful ways. Identify those most likely to support initiatives like scholarships, library funds, and building endowments. Built for mobility, Sage Millennium lets you access and update data from any smart device. Visit SageNonprofit.com/millennium today to make your institution Sage.

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Fund Accounting Vendors:AccuFund for Non-Profits, v4.03

AccuFundNeedham, Mass.www.accufund.com(877) 872-2228www.accufund.comsales@accufund.com

Price: Core system starts at $2,995 for a single user, $6,495 for three users; $895 for each additional user. Online ver-sion starts at $390 per user per month.

Cyma IV Not-For-Profit Edition v12.5

Cyma SystemsTempe, Ariz.(800) 292-2962www.cyma.com

Price: Starts at $645 per module; Grant tracking module, $395. Typical installations begin at about $1,945 for three modules.

Denali Fund+Accounting v3.2

Cougar Mountain SoftwareBoise, Idaho(800) 388-3038www.cougarmtn.com

Price: Starts at $595.

The Financial Edge

BlackbaudCharleston, S.C. (800) 443-9441 www.blackbaud.com

Price: Financial Edge for Small Offices starts at $2,995. Subscription, $299 per user per month, $75 each additional user per month.

FUND E-Z Nonprofit Accounting v10

FUND E-Z Development Corp.White Plains, N.Y. (877) 696-0900www.fundez.comfundez@fundez.com

Price: Fund E-Z Fund Accounting, $1,995. Fund E-Z Fund Rais-ing, $995. Fund E-Z Fund Accounting Pro Add-On, $2,995.

Intacct

IntacctSan Jose, CA(877) 437-7765www.intacct.cominfo@intacct.com

Pricing: Starting at $400 a month.

QuickBooks Premier NonProfit 2012

Intuit Mountain View, Calif.(877) 683-3280www.quickbooks.com

Price: Starts at $399.95 (single user); $999.95 (three users).

Sage Fund Accounting Version 11

Sage Software Nonprofit SolutionsAustin, Texas(800) 811-0961www.sagenonprofit.comkelley.horton@sage.com

Price: Starts at $895. Single-user package starts at $2,995. Subscription and cloud deployment prices to be an-nounced shortly.)

Serenic Navigator

Serenic Corp.Lakewood, Colo.(877) 737-3642www.serenic.com

Price: Business Essentials version starts at $3,500 per user. Advanced Management version starts at $6,500 per user. Serenic Navigator Basic Online, $165 per user per month, Business Essentials Online, $195 per user per month and Advanced Management Online, $275 per user per month.

Traverse Not-For-Profit Version 11

Open SystemsShakopee, Minn.(800) 328-2276 www.osas.com

Price: Starts at $2,100 (single user); more than 100 users, just over $100,000.

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http://www.serenic.com/