Free · Certificate included
Nonprofit Operations 101
Run the day-to-day systems that keep your nonprofit organized and accountable.
What you’ll learn
- Map the core systems your nonprofit runs on
- Build repeatable workflows and SOPs for a lean team
- Read a budget and a cash-flow projection with confidence
- Stay ahead of the Form 990 and the annual compliance calendar
- Create accountability without heavy bureaucracy
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Create a free account →Course outline
- 1
What "operations" actually means
Programs are why your nonprofit exists. Operations are how it keeps existing. Operations is the unglamorous machinery underneath the mission — the money, the…
5 min Quiz Interactive - 2
Budgets & cash flow
A budget is your mission expressed in numbers — a plan for what you will raise and spend.
6 min Quiz Interactive - 3
The Form 990 & your compliance calendar
Almost every tax-exempt organization must file an annual return in the Form 990 series with the IRS.
6 min Quiz Interactive - 4
HR & payroll basics
The moment your nonprofit has even one paid employee, you become an employer with all the obligations that entails.
5 min Quiz Interactive - 5
Technology, data & core policies
Your nonprofit’s data — donor records, volunteer files, financials, beneficiary information — is one of its most valuable and most sensitive assets.
5 min Quiz - 6
Documentation & SOPs for a lean team
In a small nonprofit, the biggest operational risk is often a single person’s memory.
5 min Quiz Interactive - 7
Connecting operations to mission
It’s easy to treat operations as a cost center to minimize.
4 min Quiz Interactive - 8
Scaling operations without breaking
The systems that work for a $50,000 organization run by three volunteers will buckle at $500,000 with paid staff.
4 min Quiz
Sources & further reading
- National Council of Nonprofits — Financial Management & Annual Filing Requirements
- Propel Nonprofits — Nonprofit Finance: 12 Golden Rules & Operating Reserves
- Internal Revenue Service — Form 990 Series — Which Forms Do Exempt Organizations File
- Internal Revenue Service — Governance — Form 990, Part VI (conflict of interest, whistleblower, retention)
- Candid / Learning — How Much Should My Nonprofit Have in Its Operating Reserve?
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