The board of directors, key staff, and volunteers have spent countless hours discussing and planning the mission and strategic goals for your nonprofit organization.  Once the goals have been put in place, everyone can breathe a sigh of relief and be confident that your nonprofit is heading in the right direction.  What happens over the course of the next month, quarter, or year?  If you aren’t sure whether you are hitting targets and staying the course to reach your goals, then it may be time for a new business management software solution.

After the excitement of planning goals and activities for your nonprofit wears off, your people may settle back into the status quo – working the day-to-day tasks with less focus on the mission.  According to “1 Year Later:  Assessing Your Strategic Plan” posted by Dennis Miller on TheNonProfitTimes.com, nearly 60% of nonprofits experience difficulty with executing the strategies in their plan, and hence, their goals.  Although Miller offers many reasons, such as resistance to change or political infighting, the larger problem is of lack of communication and the inability to manage progress.

When you invest the time and effort to make a plan, you should also invest the time and effort to measure and monitor the activities needed to achieve that plan.  Today’s innovative enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, such as Microsoft Dynamics® ERP, can support your efforts.  You can monitor all aspects of your nonprofit from this single, robust solution, including financials, grant funding, encumbrances, and other transactions.  You can also monitor real-time budgets, from the general fund or specific grant-funding, so that you can be confident that you are spending in accordance with grant restrictions and planned goals.  The audit trails and electronic signatures provide transparency, often required by governmental or other organizations that provide grant funding.

Microsoft Dynamics ERP also offers real-time insight into your nonprofit operations.  You and your team can access real-time data about the products or services that you provide to members and the community you serve, grant-funded activities, cash flow, and more.  These key metrics are important to keeping your day-to-day activities on the right track, as well as reaching strategic goals.  Contact Premier Computing, Inc. for more information about using ERP to assess and achieve your nonprofit strategic goals.

By Premier Computing, Inc., a Microsoft ERP and CRM Partner out of Utah