#nonprofit
Nonprofit accounting, fund tracking, and compliance
Since ASU 2016-14, every nonprofit filing a full Form 990 must allocate expenses across program, management and general, and fundraising using a reasonable, consistent methodology — here's how time studies, square footage, and headcount allocation actually work, and the five mistakes that draw auditor scrutiny.
Since early 2025, roughly $425 billion in federal funding has been canceled, paused, or put under review, while 52% of nonprofits hold three months or less of operating cash. This guide covers building a 3–6 month unrestricted operating reserve, capping any single funder at 25–30% of revenue, and tracking both in books that answer concentration questions in minutes.
Nonprofits accepting cryptocurrency gifts over $5,000 cannot rely on exchange prices for tax substantiation — IRS Chief Counsel Advice 202302012 requires a qualified appraisal, and ASU 2023-08 now mandates fair-value accounting for any crypto a nonprofit holds past the point of receipt.
A practical guide for nonprofits accepting cryptocurrency donations — how to write a gift acceptance policy for digital assets, apply FASB's ASU 2023-08 fair-value accounting rules, and meet IRS substantiation requirements including Form 8283 signatures, qualified appraisals over $5,000, and the Form 8282 three-year disposition rule.
ASU 2020-07 requires nonprofits to present contributed nonfinancial assets as a separate line item, disaggregated by category, with disclosed valuation methods. This guide covers the fair-value rules of ASC 958-605 — which volunteer services are recordable, how to value donated goods, professional services, and facility use, the offsetting journal entries, and the $25,000 Form 990 Schedule M threshold.
Under ASU 2020-07 (ASC 958-605), nonprofits must record donated goods, services, and facility use at fair value on a separate line item and disclose valuation methodology by category, or risk an auditor flagging the financial statements.
True endowments are created by donor restriction and governed by UPMIFA; board-designated endowments are unrestricted funds the board chose to treat like an endowment and can undesignate at any time — mixing up the two is the most common misstep auditors flag in nonprofit endowment reviews.
Nonprofit directors carry three legal fiduciary duties — care, loyalty, and obedience — and courts have held boards personally liable for failing to ask basic questions about how the organization spent its money.
Treasury and the IRS are restructuring Form 990 to require source-by-source government grant reporting and project-by-project fiscal sponsorship disclosure, aimed at detecting fraud in the tax-exempt sector.
Treasury proposes granular Form 990 disclosure of government grants and fiscal sponsorships — with structured data and automated review. Build the grant register and project ledger now.
A practical guide to nonprofit grant accounting under ASC 958 and the 2024 OMB Uniform Guidance updates — net asset classification, the conditional-versus-unconditional barrier test, cost-reimbursement revenue recognition, the new 15% de minimis indirect cost rate, and the $1 million Single Audit threshold.
Section 501(c)(7) social clubs must keep nonmember income under 35% of gross receipts and nonmember facility use under 15%, while Section 277 quarantines member-side losses for nonexempt membership organizations. This guide walks through how the two rules interact, how to allocate UBTI expenses on Form 990-T, and how to structure a chart of accounts so the member/nonmember split survives an IRS examination.
