Nonprofit Research Assignment: Your boss’ spouse, Vivian Victory, wishes to donate $100,000 to a charity. She has selected three possible nonprofits:
V Foundation
Episcopal Social Services (ESS)She has asked you to recommend one of these charities to receive her donation. For each nonprofit conduct research into the selected entities using the GuideStar (guidestar.org) database, using the information found there, including any IRS Form 990’s. Determine the mission of each charity. Compute the percentage of each charities funds are going toward their mission, as opposed to expenses and overhead. Determine the amounts that are going to insiders, including salaries, rent and other payments. Discuss all of the above for each nonprofit, then give your recommendation, including your rationale for your selection. Prepare your report in professional form. Include in your report an Excel spreadsheet or table showing all of the key amounts that you considered for each charity. This writing assignment will be submitted to the Blackboard drop box by the end of the semester.Expected length: at least 5-6 pages.
Non-profit Research Assignment
Integrative Perspective on Accounting Issues
Jasmine D. Murphy
Governors State University
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Jasmine Murphy
Professor Kresse
Non-profit Research Assignment
May 10, 2020
V Foundation
This not for profit organization for Cancer Research aims to find cures for cancer by
raising finance for cancer research through charities.
It has indulged itself in philanthropy,
education fundraising, and advocacy to enable the successful execution of its missions. Their
vision is to establish themselves as world leaders in the segment of cancer research. The cause is
undoubtedly very noble, but to make any decisions about choosing which organization to donate,
we need to have our priorities set. In the scenario given, we must have known the preferences and
the priorities of sir Vivan Victory in order to have a better perception of what cause would mean
more to him. The mission of that NPO must have aligned with the preferences of Boss’s spouse
(VFoundation, 2020). However, we do not know so we would like to make a judgment based on
which cause is more important and why? Which of the organizations is better performing and
fulfilling its mission? Let’s zero in.
Charts below represent the total number of grants awarded by the V foundation
successfully. It showcases that they have an increasing direction with greater success and a number
of grants every year. In the latest 2019, they provided with around 88 grants worth $27,744,382.
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Since the commencement of its operations, the V Foundation has awarded $200 million
worth of grants towards supporting research in cancer. Now, what showcases whether these grants
have had any positive impact or success is that this money directly leveraged an incremental $1
billion in cancer research funding.
They have also initiated collaborative researches crossing institutional lines. These grants
not only provide numbers but also with quality. How? V foundation provides flexible and
exclusive mechanisms for funding by funding the most promising cancer research projects.
V
foundation’s success and performance are constantly accelerating. V foundation claims to spend
100% of its donations directly on cancer research and relevant programs (Pro, 2020). They are
highly motivated towards their mission and they aren’t window dressing in their financial
statements. Also, not only the figures are great, the impacts, quality, and goodwill of the NPO are
also excellent. The 2019 statements showcase the cash flows and finances of the V Foundation.
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When we put the focus onto the amount spent on fundraising, programs, and grants, they
make a total of 30,749,734 (21,528,523+852,499+27,744,382). Taking this amount spent directly
towards mission excluding the expenses of management and provisions, as a proportion of total
revenues 33,605,962 yields us a figure of 91.5%. This says that around 92% of revenues were
directly invested into cancer research projects and grants while the rest of only around 6.4%
( 4,583+2,176,031)/ (33,605,962) management and other expenses were a proportion of revenues
(Lee, 2020). This showcases that the cost control is great and the V Foundation is efficiently
managing its finances. Figures also showcase that the NPO has a good amount of short term assets
i.e. cash, bank, trade receivables, etc available to pay off its short term debts hence has a good
liquidity ratio. This shows going concerned and no risks of liquidation or shut down. Hence, it is a
great NPO to invest in.
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- Goodwill Industries International
This not for profit organization aims to enhance the quality of life of people by boosting
communities. It does this by mitigating any barriers in the way towards opportunity and by helping
people reach their best potential through learning and power of work. The mission of this not for
profit organization is more helpful than it seems. Goodwill Industries is striving towards providing
people with training and education to enable them to secure employment. It is also providing
employment to many while boosting skill sets of others throughout the world. Youngsters all
across the globe struggle with securing jobs after completing their degrees (Goodwill, 2020).
Sometimes the major cause of this is that they don’t possess the right expertise and skillsets.
Goodwill Industries International aims at helping not only youngsters like these to nurture their
skills, have the training and secure jobs, but also helps those needy who are not able to acquire
formal education. Teaching a skill to such needy means that they would have one way to provide
services and generate money. This improves not only the literacy rates but also betters the living
standards of the people. The mission is great and noble.
Now after knowing how noble the cause is, we must be familiar with how much of their
efforts have actually impacted the society and how near are they towards achieving this mission.
Their goal is to provide skills and training to people so they could develop their careers, Goodwill
has served around 35 million individuals approximately all around the globe. It has also helped
around 242,000 people and trained them for banking, health care, and IT industries. They’ve also
provided assistance and training in the fields of English language, child care, and access to
transportation. Those learning English language could be language teachers while others learning
child care could babysit and generate money. The cause is indeed great and their figures show a
good number of lives impacted positively (Goodwill, 2020).
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The digits show a fluctuation but the number of clients served has overall increased since
2013. However, participants who actually gained employment with them has decreased since 2014,
for some reason (Watch, 2020). This should be noted.
The 2018 financial statements of Goodwill tell that the revenue was 79,657,820. While the
total of management expenses and services made up around 4,635,678.
This says that
management and other expenses as a proportion of revenue made up around 5.8% only. While
services and expenses directly on the program were 76,893,121 which makes up around 96.5% of
total revenues (Watch, 2020). This shows how most of the money coming into the business is
directly spent towards the noble cause and goodwill is efficiently working and managing its
expenses. Hence, making it a great choice of NPO to chip into.
Episcopal Social Services (ESS)
This not for profit organization saves lives of approximately 5000 people of New York
City each year who are the most vulnerable. The mission of the NPO is to strengthen families and
promote healthy children and youth development while empowering others to become selfsufficient. This agency aims at helping the unemployed and homeless in combination with those
who are mentally ill. They are raising awareness about how it feels to live with a severe mental
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illness, to end the poverty cycle for those who contact them while helping those who are lost
(Church, 2020). The cause must be appreciated as these are big gaps and segments that were in dire
need of attention. Now we must zero in on how they’ve impacted the lives of people so we may
choose among the best mission and the best organization.
It has programs that cover 4 areas:
1) Representative Payee Program which provides financial assistance to around $4.2 million every
year and provides services to around 400 people having some mental disorders.
2) Employment Program which trains and provides opportunities that help find jobs. This has
helped around 230 unemployed people find jobs.
3) Food Outreach Program that trains about on-job food-handling skills while also giving good
meals to low-income families.
4) Clubhouse helps people with mental illness. It assists around 380 people annually.
The above figure shows how the memberships at ESS are gradually increasing over time
which is a good signal. It also discusses that membership is about three times greater than
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membership in 2005. They must be performing really well towards their mission and goals which
is why the memberships are increasing. Stats and numbers showcase great positive impacts added
to the lives of people (Vaillage, 2020). The financial statements of ESS, however, do not
showcase a lot many numbers. This makes it a little hard to decide about the legitimacy of the
organization’s performance against the mission. We can’t make a decision without looking into the
figures.
Recommendation
Looking at the three scenarios above, I’d recommend investing and donating in the V
foundation since it is for a noble cause that is more serious and dark in nature. Many people lose
lives every day due to cancer. Cancer research would not only save lives but would also let many
children have their parents living. The rest of the two generally cover about employment and
money, helping the poor. They are very noble and important causes, indeed. But, people losing
their loved ones are a more gruesome aspect of life. This is more crucial than it seems. Except for
the mission, the organization has great expense management. On the other hand, the goodwill
industries international show that the number of employees with their program has decreased over
the past few years due to some reason that we can’t really tell about it. This is not a good sign. The
ESS NPO, however, does not show many figures into its annual reports so our conclusion would
only be biased without the actual numbers. For all these reasons, the V Foundation is best suitable
to be given charity by sir Vivan Victory.
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References
Church, E. (2020, May 6). Episcopal Social Services, Wichita. Retrieved from Episcopal Church:
https://episcopalchurch.org/posts/domesticpoverty/episcopal-social-services-wichita
Goodwill. (2020, May 6). Goodwill Industries International. Retrieved from Goodwill:
Lee, B. (2020, May 6). ESPN, V Foundation Reach A $100 Million Milestone In The Fight Vs
Cancer. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2019/07/11/espnand-v-foundation-reach-100-million-milestone-what-you-need-to-know/#2f86c254713e
Pro, N. (2020, May 6). The V Foundation Awards More Than $20 Million in Cancer Research
Grants in 2015. Retrieved from Nonprofit Pro: https://www.nonprofitpro.com/article/vfoundation-awards-20-million-cancer-research-grants-2015/
Vaillage, C. (2020, May 6). Children, Youth, and Family. Retrieved from Charity Village:
VFoundation. (2020, May 6). Financial Responsibility. Retrieved from V Foundation:
https://www.v.org/about/financial-reports/
Watch, C. (2020, May 6). Goodwill Industries International (National Office). Retrieved from
Charity Watch: https://www.charitywatch.org/charities/goodwill-industries-internationalnational-office
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