The 6 Segments: ADMINISTRATION
Administration refers to the governance, legal, real estate, compliance and people management that powers your business. When you are big enough, you might break out Human Resources or Facilities Management. For smaller nonprofits, all this gets lumped together as “admin.”
Ongoing tasks are weighted towards people management (payroll, hiring, training, team meetings) and governance, which is a shared responsibility between the Board which leads and the Staff which supports.
Annual tasks will feel bureaucratic, but they are critical. Government filings, insurance, lease renewals: these are tasks you do not want to miss.
Scroll down for examples of ONGOING tasks and ANNUAL tasks that you should get onto the calendar.
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Everyone likes to get paid! If you have employees, this is one of the most important tasks - run payroll consistently, accurately and ON TIME.
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Depending on the size of your organization and your team, you may have standing meetings or ad hoc meetings. Either way, checking in with the team on a regular basis is an important part of running your business.
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Your by-laws will tell you how often you need to hold board meetings; some organizations only need a single annual meeting. Quarterly, monthly and every-other-month are the typical options. Board meetings is a critical part of the Governance process.
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Administration includes human resources tasks - that includes onboarding new employees and even new volunteers. You can delegate this to the new person’s manager or do it centrally. Some organizations ask Admin Staff to onboard new board members; other organizations prefer that the board itself welcomes and trains new directors.
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This training is designed to get staff up to speed on organization-wide processes or to offer professional development to staff members. If the training you are planning is program-related, put that in Orange Programming, not as Yellow Admin. Admin is for managing the organization, not the program.
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If you have physical space, it means you need to stay on top of the upkeep. Schedule preventative maintenance, cleaning or improvements. You’ll also have some emergency items to get on the calendar so as not to have conflicts, e.g., meetings in the same room that needs repairs.
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You may need to upgrade your software, purchase and install new hardware or just realign all your digital files. This always takes longer than you think - put it on the calendar!
Stickers available in the 6+4 Planner System:
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Remember, nonprofits are businesses too! Check with your local town, city, county and state to see if you need a business license. If you do, it needs to be renewed annually.
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This is big - and you’ll need to investigate what you need. Common insurance: “D&O” is directors and officers insurance, which protects your board members and your staff. You also need to look into general commercial liability insurance, workers compensation (if you have employees and even contractors), auto insurance and property insurance. Check and see what you need, and then be sure to but the annual renewal dates on the calendar.
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Businesses - nonprofit and for profit alike - are incorporated in their state and must file an annual report with their respective secretary of state each year. This is usually a simple report asking you to list your directors. Some states let you do this online; check your state’s website.
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Are you leasing anything? Car, copy machine, equipment? Review the contracts at least annually.
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Administration includes Human Resources so you’ll need to be sure that year-end filings related to people are sent out on time. Sometimes your finance team will do it; sometimes HR. A payroll system might do the W2s/W3s for you - check to be sure. The 1099s are the IRS forms you need to send to any contractor to whom you paid over $600 in a single year. (Pro tip: make sure you have their social security numbers, which you get by asking them to give you a W-9).
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Lots of ways you can do this publicly, but check your by-laws to see the official version of what you need to do. Often, your board needs to hold an annual report at which you’ll appoint new directors and officers. This isn’t a public meeting or a party - it’s a governance requirement. You can always turn it into a party of you want to…as long as you fulfill the requirements in the by-laws.
Stickers available in the 6+4 Planner System:
Human Resources and Governance are two of the big chunks of Administration; Governance has a certain cadence between board meetings, reports and committee reports. But HR can be measured with metrics.
Here, we’ve chosen “open positions” as the metric worth monitoring quarterly. Whether the open positions are board seats, staff members, providers or volunteers, it is Admin’s job to make sure those positions get filled.
Stickers available in the 6+4 Planner System:
Administration is one of the last things a new nonprofit leader wants to do - especially one who joined the sector to focus on programming. That is why the 6+4 System can be so helpful - put those ongoing tasks and annual deadlines on the calendar so as not to forget! Administration forms the bones of the organization, holding it up in good times and rough times.
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