Much has been said about the unfairness of the reliance on arbitrary percentages of overhead spending to determine the fundability of a nonprofit. 

ACRE believes and actively supports efforts to educate and persuade funders and watchdog organizations to recognize the significant flaws in using overhead as the measuring stick. Recognizing that funders deserve some evidence of effective resource management before handing over funding, ACRE encourages them to consider stewardship as the best metric of a nonprofit’s operational efficiency, financial maturity, and managerial strength.  

How do you measure stewardship? That’s what we’ve been working on with the creation of ACRE’s Stewardship Assessment Tool. It’s an internal assessment of the processes, procedures, practices, and safeguards that a nonprofit has in place to ensure every dollar is spent intentionally and wisely.  Questions in the assessment are many but they are multiple choice and should be easy to answer. The nonprofit has complete control as to what, if any, results it wants to share with its Board or funders.  The tool will report only accurate information but it follows the nonprofits’ directions in determining what, if any, information it wants included in a self-generated report to its Board or a successes-only report to potential funders. 

We invite you to download the free assessment tool, which has been sent out for vetting and amending to dozens of nonprofit executives and fundraisers. We continue to invite more feedback, comments, and ideas for additions or deletions of assessment questions and features. The goal is to make the tool as useful as possible for all sizes and types of nonprofits to strengthen their fundability.  Get more information and log in for free access to the tool here. And contact ACRE to let us know what you think.