Guides Document the Work: Reporting
When people cannot trust a report, it does not take long before they stop trusting each other. A report the board believes is one that gets pulled the same way every single time.
The Pattern.
Finance says one total for the year and development says another. The amount a donor gets credit for, the amount you raised and the amount that is tax deductible all get treated like the same number. So every board meeting opens with a debate about whose figure is right. The person who built the reports has moved on and nobody can tell what the queries are counting.
What we Take Out FirSt.
We pull apart the numbers that were never the same number to begin with. We retire the reports nobody acts on. We also stop anyone from rebuilding the same report by hand every month.
What we build
- A short list of reports the board and staff use, each with a written definition
- Queries that match your audited numbers
- Written steps so your team can pull each report on its own
- A reporting rhythm: what goes out weekly, monthly and at year-end
Your board meeting should start with what the numbers mean for your mission.
Erin Peshoff is the Founder of Vivid Operational Advisors. She has spent thirty years inside nonprofit operations, helped raise over $100 million for institutional missions, and built Vivid around the operating discipline most strategic engagements skip.
