In the nonprofit sector, the strategic planning and positioning of your organization typically involves a multitude of “What if?” questions or scenarios as well as predicting future trends. I hope you find the 10 items below helpful as your nonprofit organization and board assesses its strategies for the coming year and for securing the long-term viability of your programs and services.

1. What have you done to assess the impact of demographic changes on future demand for your programs and services? For example, the aging baby-boom population certainly bodes well for elder and health-care services. However, what if it has a negative effect because of the large number of New Yorkers going South for the warmer weather and lower taxes?

2. Demographic assessments are closely intertwined with the impact of our economy on future demands for programs and services. For example, the fact that 25 percent of New Yorkers will be eligible for Medicaid as of Jan. 1, 2014, represents a dramatic shift in the distribution of wealth in New York state. The dramatic increase in poverty, coupled with a vanishing middle class, must be considered for both the short-term and long-term effects on your organization.

3. Many nonprofit organizations, largely due to an aging baby-boom population, are facing the retirement of long-tenured executives and management-team members. Every nonprofit board has the responsibility for selecting its CEO. If you haven’t had to do succession planning in the past 20-30 years, it is a challenge that requires a significant amount of board involvement and oversight, especially since the candidate pool is not as deep as it has been. What if the board is not ready for this task?

4. The stock market is continuing its record-setting climb in the face of relatively weak economic data. All levels of government are experiencing fiscal pressures that will continue to result in reductions in government spending. What if the Federal Reserve stops buying Treasury bonds each month that no one else would buy at the unreasonably low interest rates now offered? The Fed is now up to about $4 trillion on its balance sheet with its quantitative-easing program. How much higher will it go?

5. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in his 2012 Executive Order (EO) No. 38, and the Internal Revenue Service have both made it quite clear that nonprofit boards must evaluate and fairly determine the compensation of the nonprofit CEO on an annual basis. What if your organization is not in compliance with IRS Section 4958 and/or Cuomo’s EO 38?

6. Technology advances continue to amaze and progress at a pace that will fundamentally change our society. For example, think of what you do daily on your smart phone compared to your comparable activities in 1980 or 1990 or 2000. What if your organization fails to see the impact of technological advances similar to the personal computer, digital cameras, and smart phones? While you’re at it, think of the incremental costs with maintaining current technologies, particularly for smaller nonprofit organizations.

7. Competition on prices for goods and services will continue to accelerate. Every organization should prepare and maintain a list of its top 20-30 vendors. The board or its designated committee should be assigned the responsibility of monitoring periodic bidding practices. Remember that government demands warrant more cost efficiencies as their budgets continue to be pressured.

8. What if the federal and state governments finally recognize that nonprofit organizations are among the largest employers in most metropolitan areas? Large nonprofit organizations typically have significant investment reserves and investment income that is never taxed. Knowing the need for incremental government revenue, it is a relatively small leap to anticipate some form of tax on the investment income of nonprofit organizations.

9. What if your computer network is vulnerable to unauthorized hacking? The technology-savvy criminal element continues to target the less sophisticated nonprofit organizations for fraud for initiating fraudulent transactions. In addition to increasing your security protections and processes, you should make sure that your liability-insurance policy covers cyber-crime. Not all of them do so without a separate rider.

10. I would be remiss if I did not mention the potential what-ifs associated with inadequate internal-control policies and proper segregation of incompatible duties. Our current economic environment has resulted in increases in employee misappropriations and malfeasance. What if your independent audit firm has no substantive experience in working with nonprofit organizations that are similar to the programs and services your organization offers?

I could go on and on. However, I encourage every nonprofit board and management team to address its strategic positioning on the topics discussed above.

Gerald J. Archibald, CPA, is a partner in charge of the management advisory services at The Bonadio Group. Contact him at (585) 381-1000, or via email at garchibald@bonadio.com

While it may seem as though you were filing tax returns just yesterday and packing away last year’s records, the time for tax planning for this year-end is now upon us. With a number of significant changes to the tax code resulting from 2013 legislation, tax planning is more important than ever.

For a number of years, the possibility of rising tax rates has been a point of discussion, and now that reality has come to pass. The top 39.6 percent income-tax bracket has been added along with a corresponding capital-gains rate of 20 percent for taxpayers in this bracket. Let us not forget the 3.8 percent surtax and 0.9 percent Medicare tax.

Simply looking at tax rates is not enough. In terms of tax-planning strategy, unless Congress acts to extend certain provisions, a number of tax breaks could be dropping into the sunset for years beyond 2013.

Among the tax breaks that may not be available next year are the option for state and local sales/use taxes instead of state and local income taxes; the above-the-line deduction for higher-education expenses; 50 percent bonus first-year depreciation as well as the $500,000 expensing limitation for Section 179 property and tax-free distributions by individuals 70 ½ or older from IRAs for charitable purposes.

While no one likes spending money before they absolutely must, there may be exceptions depending on a number of factors. Consider your marginal tax rate — the highest rate at which your last dollar of income will be taxed — in combination with potentially expiring tax benefits.

Tax planning is a complicated dynamic in which you should consider multiple years together. Common wisdom tells us that if you expect your tax rate may be lower next year, consider deferring income to next year and accelerating deductions into this year. Conversely, if you believe your tax rate will be higher next year, then the opposite approach makes sense.

The reintroduction of phase-outs for personal exemptions for higher-income taxpayers and certain itemized deductions adds to an already complicated situation. Timing is the name of the game in many situations. Whether it be “bunching” of itemized deductions, acceleration, or deferral of income to maximize the potential for limiting bracket shift, timing can be critical.

Tax-deductible expenditures must be made before year-end and can be accomplished with the use of a credit card. When planning year-end stock sales, be sure to consider carry-forward losses available to offset gains and the holding period for the stock. The last thing you want to do is find yourself making a decision that could have resulted in a more favorable outcome if only another day or two had passed. Holding periods are important for sales that result in both gains and losses as well as in situations involving gifts of appreciated stock to charities or loved ones.

Consider this: in 2013, the tax rate for long-term capital gains is still 0 percent for gains and dividends that fall within the 10 percent or 15 percent bracket. This makes one think immediately of gifting to children. But beware; gifts exceeding $14,000 (or $28,000 if splitting gifts with a spouse) will reduce your unified federal gift credit and estate-tax exemption. In addition, if your gift recipient is under 24, the ever-annoying “kiddie-tax” rules could apply.

Charitable contributions are always a topic for consideration. In certain cases, gifting appreciated securities instead of cash makes sense because you may be able to deduct the fair-market value of long-term, capital-gain property. Bottom line: avoiding the capital-gains tax is an important aspect of choosing your type of gift.

IRA conversion is still a popular topic. A conversion from a traditional IRA to a Roth does trigger income and you can’t ignore the marginal tax-rate implications. However, a conversion may make sense if you expect to be in the same or higher tax bracket during retirement.

The timing of health-care expenditures often bubbles up at this time of year. The IRS recently announced a new exception to the “use it or lose it” rule for flexible-spending accounts. The caution here is that there may be limitations and an employer must amend the plan to allow the carryover privilege and the grace-period option may not also be employed. Your best bet is to contact your plan administrator if they have not yet reached out to you.

For all of the changes and 2013 year-end concerns, some of the standby tax-planning items remain relevant. The alternative minimum tax (or AMT) is still a troublesome mess, and retirement plans need to be established before year-end in order for deductions to apply.

Businesses need to consider recently issued rules relating to expensing and capitalizing asset purchases, repairs, and maintenance. The rules take effect in January 2014 and will impact nearly all businesses.

What is one to do? Contact your CPA today and prepare now for what lies ahead.

Gail Kinsella is a partner in the accounting firm of Testone, Marshall & Discenza, LLP. Contact Kinsella at gkinsella@tmdcpas.com

Organizations spend a lot of money each year to develop their image, brand reputation, and messaging for their key audiences. However, there comes a point when leaders wonder if what they are communicating through advertising and public relations is actually being received as intended by their audiences.

Achieving success by re-enforcing your brand begins with research. We often conduct qualitative research to help our clients address their concerns about developing the right messages to convey their brand. This is typically done through focus groups and one-on-one interviews. We then evaluate if their communications strategies are successfully getting across, and ultimately producing a return on investment, or ROI.

First, it is critical to understand what the organization is known for now, and what it is trying to become, before it tries to move the business needle.

During these focus groups with a cross-section of audience representatives, we collect opinions and perspectives on the brand, which often results in us landing upon many branding opportunities for the future.

Acknowledging what the target audiences perceive, need, or would like to see from their interaction with the brand in their everyday lives is then used to inform the strategy. Most importantly, this is done by actually listening to the audiences and not trying to convince them that your communications approach is the right one.

Comprehensive rebranding and reputation research can yield good results, but it’s what an organization does with that data that is critical. Remember: data drives direction.

Effective branding means giving your services or products a profile in the minds of current and prospective customers that distinguishes it from others and encourages people to want to support it. How do you do that?

You must understand what motivates your customers to choose your brand and how it matches their priorities in terms of relevance, credibility, and sustainability. You must also understand how your competitors perform against those needs and then find a way to differentiate yourself from them with your unique brand.

It sounds like a lot of work, but only after this crucial research is complete can a thorough communications plan be developed with specific messages, mediums, and measurements.

Are you being heard?

Lyndsay Hollis is a public-relations consultant at Strategic Communications, LLC, which says it provides trusted counsel for public relations, crisis communications, government relations, and business strategy. Contact Hollis at Lhollis@stratcomllc.com

Since the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008, many contractors have found themselves in a continuous battle to achieve a positive bottom line. They have reduced overhead, whittled away at their bid margins, and expanded their geography — all proven strategies for short-term, once-in-awhile growth spurts.

We are now into the fifth year of this downturn and these tactics are now considered the new norm for the construction industry. While some positive outcomes may occur from these tactics, it takes a toll on your greatest asset — your people. The reality is that many employees may begin to seek greener pastures if these issues are not addressed. Perhaps exiting employees have already started to affect your jobs and your business.

Take a step back and think about the survival strategies you have instituted. In most cases, they revolve around doing more with less — being “leaner and meaner.” In order to generate additional profits and work farther from home, you have placed a burden on your project teams to produce at the same or higher level with fewer people.

Have you taken the time to share the reasons for these actions? Have your key employees played a part in developing these strategies? Have you explored other means and methods for increasing productivity? If your answer to any of these queries is “no,” it’s time to call a timeout and regroup.

The regrouping process begins with understanding the reasons that you have designated certain people in your organization as “key.” They are self-starters, problem-solvers, and moneymakers. These key individuals know how to build “your way” and they have generated a following in their sphere of influence. If any of them left your firm, you would be hard-pressed to replace them with someone of equal talent.

With margins shrinking, the chances of significant increases in wages and incentives are also shrinking. An alternative approach is to close the ranks by bringing key employees closer to the decision-maker by making them a stakeholder.

The term is stakeholder, not shareholder. Key employees don’t need to become owners in order to play a vital part in the overall business. However, your employees are primarily builders and not necessarily entrepreneurs, like yourself. They need to develop a different skill set with supplemental training to understand the issues you face and the decisions you make as a business owner.

Part two of this training is the development of the employees immediately below your key personnel. As the stakeholders begin working on the business along with you, they will need to strengthen their teams to assist them in the business, too. This tactic has been considered a win-win for all participants. This involvement is something more than just an individual project; it creates a strong incentive to stay with a company as an employee’s future with the business becomes much more clear.

The first step in this process is to identify your key personnel. Who are the keepers? These are the employees you rely on most heavily to maintain a steady hand on the work and have earned your confidence that they will do the right thing, whether you are watching or not. Maybe it’s one or two managers or field supervisors, or it could be as many as a dozen.

The selection process is very important, but it shouldn’t delay the implementation of the stakeholder program. You will have the luxury of adding or subtracting candidates along the way as the team’s synergy begins to unfold.

The second step is to generate a specific list of questions regarding your business and let each potential stakeholder provide confidential responses. This Q&A exercise is the initial function performed by an outside facilitator, who will guide the development process and assist you in selecting the proper training package.

The first facilitated meeting for you and your designated stakeholders includes a review of the compiled Q&A responses, with no names attached. As facilitators for a number of these meetings, the experiences of Bonadio construction consultants have shown that the openness developed by this exercise can be both eye-opening and rewarding for all participants. Concerns of both the owner and the stakeholders are shared, possibly for the first time, with everyone leaving with a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities confronting the team.

An additional positive outcome of this first facilitated meeting is the identification of some of the leaks in, or areas of improvement for, the organization. These are money wasters, so putting the proper fix in place can directly add to the bottom line. The identified leaks also act as the vehicle to set the stakeholders on their path to working on the business. By selecting key individuals to plug the leaks, they suddenly become more than just employees.

The outcomes from this process also establish the training program going forward. Based on the needs of the team, issues including basic financial reporting, cost accountings, field productivity, project purchasing, and bid selection can all factor into the further development and training of the stakeholders. This usually generates future topics for the next tier of employees in an effort to advance their interests and importance within the business.

Finally, an additional positive outcome from this leak-identification process includes the potential for generating a self-funding incentive pool for key employees. Identifying the importance in resolving these leaks can result in up to a seven-figure gain in total savings. Stakeholders can now be rewarded for achieving the identified solutions that have been designated as key performance indicators. The ultimate outcome of this training process is ensuring that employees are more involved and invested in the company.

Thomas (Tom) M. Eckert, P.E., is a senior consultant with The Bonadio Group’s Construction Division and former president and CEO of MLB Construction Services. As a consultant, he is involved in suc­cession planning and strategic planning for con­struction companies, claim preparation assis­tance, strategy development, and expert testi­mony for construction claims, damage assess­ment, and control work for surety companies, as well as executive coaching for construction company CEOs. Contact him at teckert@bonadio.com