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There are many similarities between for-profit and non-profit organizations. First and foremost, both types of organizations begin with a solid mission statement and a vision statement that drive the strategic planning process and remind all the members of the organization of their moral foundation.

Nonprofits still need to run their agency like a business and report to a many stakeholders just like for-profit organizations do. Instead of stockholders we have a vast amount of stakeholders that hold us accountable.

We are accountable to our Board of Directors, chosen from the private sector in order to help us apply some of the paradigms and models of private sector to our non-profit agency. Each month they are presented with a comprehensive set of financials so that they can monitor the fiscal stability of the organization. We present them with a full report of agency activities so that they can not only make informed decisions about the strategic direction of our agency but also carry the message out to the community of the good work we do each and every day.

We are accountable to our funders: state, federal, regional, and local who are very much interested in how the funding was spent as well as the quality of the service delivery.

We are accountable to our employees and must be sure we provide them with a suitable environment, competitive salary, growth and learning opportunities, and the tools they need to do their job.

We are accountable to other non-profit service agencies in our community that are our collaborative partners in serving the population well.

Most of all, we have a moral obligation to the community we serve to make sure that the services that we offer are high quality, culturally sensitive, and meet the needs of all members regardless of their social status.

To illustrate, I am the CFO of a non-profit federally qualified health center. Our health center provides comprehensive services, much like a private medical practice, to all members of the community, regardless of their ability to pay. This means that people with insurance and the means to access health care sit side-by-side with people who cannot afford health insurance and must be enrolled in state and federal programs in order to receive good quality care.

As the CFO, I must be mindful of all the same types of indicators as those a private practice must monitor: level of users, payor mix, productivity of providers, staffing patterns and ratios of support staff to medical providers and

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