Nonprofits Spend Much Time and Money Meeting Reporting Requirements
RAND:
A RAND Corporation study issued today recommends actions that nonprofit social services providers can take to reduce the large amount of time and money they spend complying with reporting requirements set by organizations that provide them with funding.
In a yearlong in-depth examination of one nonprofit social services agency in Western Pennsylvania, RAND researchers found that employees of the agency spent nearly half their time collecting information needed for compliance efforts imposed by funding organizations.
The nonprofit organization agreed to provide RAND researchers with full disclosure of its operations and financial records, under the condition that it was not identified by name in the study.
The RAND Labor and Population study found that work hours spent on compliance reporting consumed 11 percent of the nonprofit agency's annual budget.
"This is the first and most accurate exploration of how nonprofits balance their staff, time and finances between the services they provide and their commitments to the groups that fund them," said Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo, a RAND developmental psychologist and lead author of the study.
"If nonprofit social services groups can find ways to comply with reporting requirements more effectively and efficiently, they will have more time and money to help the clients they serve," Lara-Cinisomo said.
Develop an agency-wide procedure for completing compliance activities that would clearly define reporting goals, reduce staff tensions and increase office productivity.
Interview topics included: whether field staff were properly trained to create comprehensive client reports; challenges staff faced accessing necessary data from each other; and how staff felt overall about the experience of meeting reporting requirements.
Of particular importance to those interested in report writing for non-profit agencies.
