Your all-volunteer nonprofit finally has funds to hire someone, who should they hire first?

Photo by Dennis Wong

This is tough, all-volunteer organizations typically have a lot of needs. They need help with data management, program planning, finances, and leadership. In my experience, when an all-volunteer organization finally has the money to hire someone on, the first person they should hire is someone to help with the finances. Here’s why:

1. It’s usually a job no volunteer wants. There’s a reason nonprofits are often looking for a treasurer. In nonprofits that have full-time staff managing finances, the treasurer’s job can be pretty straight-forward. When you consider a nonprofit that doesn’t have any staff, the treasurer becomes that staff person. They are responsible for income, expenses, taxes, filings, etc. Their job becomes so much more than a supervisory/financial leadership role. That is why when  a nonprofit can hire someone, using the money to make sure the person in charge of the organization’s finances is qualified, reliable, and trustworthy is critical.
2. It’s arguably one of the most important jobs (if not the most important) at a nonprofit. This is the person that makes sure your 990 is filed. They make sure you don’t go in the red. While hiring on a leader is very important, making sure you have money to operate and that your finances are handled in a timely manner is critical. Your leader can’t lead if your organization drops the ball on its finances and doesn’t have money to do it’s work.
3. It can make or break an organization.A financial mishap can move your small, obscure nonprofit into the national limelight, cause you to lose all your donors, and your nonprofit status. Yes, one could possibly say the same for a mishap caused by the person in a leadership role – but how many news stories do you see about nonprofit financial misdealing these days?

Hiring a leader for an organization is very important, but I have found that all-volunteer organizations often have great leaders and are really lacking help with their finances. I’ll give you an example. An organization I am familiar with has been all-volunteer for years. Over this time they have had amazing leadership. Unfortunately, due to a lack of volunteer candidates for treasurer (who was responsible for all the organization’s finances) they took on the only person who said they would do the job. That person promptly said they were getting the finances back on track – which was later discovered to be lies, as this person did absolutely nothing for months (didn’t cash checks, didn’t transfer money, didn’t file taxes, etc). This left the organization in quite a bind when it was discovered a few months later. Fortunately, due to strong leadership and a budget that could accommodate hiring outside help the issues were resolved.

What do you think, who should nonprofits hire first and why?