FAR New
FARSight
Summer 2015
Dear Friends and Colleagues:
 
At this year's retreat, the board decided to change things up a little by inviting Seth Kahan to facilitate the meeting.  By all accounts, it was a very productive day!  The board members and the gold resource members spent the day strategizing on next steps for FAR.  With Seth's direction, three strategic issues were identified. 

Branding
Build on current brand stewardship by targeting audiences that should be familiar with FAR.  We want people to think of FAR as forward thinking and inviting.  A small committee will be appointed consisting of some current and past board members, resource members and at-large members.  

Knowledge Repository
Develop a knowledge repository containing a collection of white papers, sample policies and best practices.  A new committee will be forming soon to spearhead this project.

Culture
Protect the FAR culture as we continue to grow.  

This year's agenda is ambitious and exciting.  I look forward to all of the new changes that are being planned for this year.
 
Best, 


Susan Medick, CPA, CAE
Chair
In This Issue
September Luncheon
FAR Board Strategic Planning Retreat
FAR Gold Member Spotlight - SunTrust
FAR Gold Member Spotlight - CliftonLarsonAllen
Risk Meets Reserves...
FAR Gold Member Spotlight - Wells Fargo
FAR Gold Member Spotlight - West Lane & Schlager
Real Estate Trends for Non-Profits...
FAR Gold Member Spotlight - Hertzbach & Co.
Uniform Guidance is Here...
FAR Gold Member Spotlight - TD Bank
Rising Rates...
Directory
FAR September Luncheon
Topic: Influence & Communication - Skills to Make Us More Effective Leaders
Speaker: Paul McMurray 
Date: Tuesday, September 15
Time: 11 am-1 pm
Where: Capital Hilton 

FAR at the July 2015 Board Strategic Planning Retreat

Seth Kahan
FAR Board of Directors and Gold Members came together on July 28, 2015 for the annual Strategic Planning Retreat at the Capital Hilton. Seth Kahan
(pictured left) facilitated the group discussion and help FAR develop three strategic goals :  
1. Branding 
2. Knowledge Repository 
3. Culture

FAR Board of Directors and Gold Members 
A day of small group exercises and productive discussion left everyone energized for the new FAR year!
FAR Gold Member Spotlight
 
Yasamin Al-Askari
Senior Vice President, Not-for-Profit Division
Diane Taylor
Senior Vice President, Not-for-Profit Division
SunTrust is one of the nation's leading banking organizations, serving a broad range of consumer, commercial and institutional clients in selected markets nationally, including a Not-for-Profit specialty.  As a recognized leader in the marketplace serving non-profit organizations, SunTrust's dedicated specialty practice services over 2,500 nonprofits, including the arts, service, grant making, religious organizations, international labor unions, municipalities, associations, independent and charter schools, healthcare, continuing care retirement communities and higher education. Our 50+ dedicated Relationship Managers have on average over 20 years' experience.  SunTrust successfully delivers large bank services through local approval and delivery channels. Our professionals have the expertise to assist you in meeting the investment, administrative and regulatory challenges that you face by creating tailored solutions, from tax exempt financing and treasury services, to investment advisory and administration.  SunTrust can help optimize your working capital, enhance your financial performance and provide the strategic counsel and comprehensive solutions you need to: Discover your path to financial well-being; Ensure effective funding for your short-term needs and long-term goals; Focus your time and resources on what matters most - your organization's mission.
FAR Gold Member Spotlight
CLA
 
Drew Smith, CPA
Principal
 
Leena Saini, CPA
Director

CLA is a professional services firm delivering integrated wealth advisory, outsourcing, and public accounting capabilities to help enhance our clients' enterprise value and assist them in growing and managing their related personal assets - all the way from startup to succession and beyond. Our professionals are immersed in the industries they serve and have specialized knowledge of their operating and regulatory environments. With nearly 4,000 people, 90 U.S. locations, and a global affiliation, we bring a wide array of solutions to help clients in all markets, foreign and domestic. For more information visit CLAconnect.com. Investment advisory services are offered through CliftonLarsonAllen Wealth Advisors, LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisor.
Risk Meets Reserves in Nonprofits, Higher Education, and Government
By: CliftonLarsonAllen
The last several years have seen an uptick in both understanding and application of enterprise risk management (ERM) concepts in nonprofits, higher education institutions, and government organizations. However, the conversations about risk in these sectors are often still tied to financial reserves.

When confronted with risks or opportunities, the first tool organizations often turn to is financial reserves. With the Great Recession behind them, a lot of organizations have rebuilt their reserves, in many cases with increased sophistication, a longer time horizon, and with application of larger capitalization strategies. But determining an adequate level of reserves has always been more of an art than a science.

We're seeing organizations ask important and smart questions about their risk tolerance:

* Having survived the Great Recession, what is our risk tolerance?
* What level of reserves do we need for our organization?
* What risks - strategic, operational, and environmental - are driving these needs?
* Can we develop a reserves model that can be updated in real-time based on changing variables? 

(read more click here)
FAR Gold Member Spotlight
Wells Fargo
 
Maria Christofi Georges
Senior VP, MId-Atlantic Division Team Leader, Education & Nonprofit Banking
 
Steve Miller
Vice President

Wells Fargo is a strong financial services company providing banking, insurance, investment tools, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores (in 39 states and the District of Columbia), 12,500+ ATMs, local relationship offices, and through the internet across North America and internationally.

Wells Fargo has dedicated teams around the country that cover the full spectrum of nonprofit clients and has relationship managers exclusively focused on serving the unique needs of the nonprofit sector. Our expertise allows us to anticipate your unique needs and assist you in making smart decisions about the future. We offer an extensive range of financing and operating solutions designed to grow with you. Each nonprofit organization will work with one relationship manager who is dedicated to helping you achieve your mission.  Our Mid-Atlantic Education & Nonprofit banking team consists of 14 relationship managers, all in the Washington, D.C. market. This team has focused on nonprofit entities for over 30 years. 

We are proud of our 23 year association with FAR and deeply value our partnership.
FAR Gold Member Spotlight
West Lane & Schlager
 
Eric West, LEED AP
Principal
 
Ganon Rich
Principal

The Washington Metropolitan Area's nonprofit organizations and professional services firms trust West, Lane & Schlager Realty Advisors ("WLS"), to assist them in making measurably better real estate decisions. As an independent commercial real estate firm, we provide all of our leasing resources, experience and transactional services exclusively to tenants, ensuring our clients representation free of conflict. We are continuously developing innovative ways to exceed our clients' needs. We build lasting relationships with clients by demonstrating our passion for quality, creativity and accountability in everything we do.  
 
WLS works collaboratively with our clients from the initial planning phase through lease expiration, treating each engagement as if we were solving our own real estate challenges. We first analyze our client's current real estate situation, determining and prioritizing their business goals and needs.  Next, we develop a strategic real estate plan, benchmarking and meticulously detailing each lease/purchase option available, based on established project goals and extensive market research. Throughout the planning process, we remain focused on finding solutions that are in line with our clients' budget, narrowing the options until we have selected the best fit for their unique situation, and negotiated the best possible terms for the transaction.  Each step along the way is documented in the strategic plan, representing a transparent and thorough road-map for our client of what they did, and why they did it.
 
Our goal and vision for every project is to supersede the expectations of our clients, provide exceptional service and negotiate transactions that create better market conditions for the tenant community. Whether it's strategic planning, benchmarking, leasing/purchasing office space, construction management or operating-expense reviews, we'll convert rent dollars into working dollars.
Real Estate Trends for Non-Profits: You CAN Always Get What You Want...At Least For a Little While Longer.
By: Eric West, LEED AP
Anyone who has spent some time with me knows that I am a huge Rolling Stones fan. For some reason, their music struck a chord in my teenaged brain and it's never subsided. I'm not great at the game "Name That Tune", but with the Stones it only takes one note to recognize the song. Lately, however, as I take stock of the local office market trends for non-profit organizations, I start to think about the song, "You Can't Always Get What You Want" and realize that my beloved band was wrong...for a while longer at least.

Even though local office building owners countered the 2008/2009 economic downturn by lowering rents and increasing concession packages, by national standards, our market was strong because the federal government was actively leasing new space. But that actively ended in 2011. By the second half of 2012, a few owners came to the conclusion that demand in the market would not pick up again for 3-4 years. In turn, these owners initiated a strategy of filling their buildings with tenants, even at severely discounted rents. Once a few "low cost" transactions were completed, all landlords followed suit. As a result, within three months, landlord allowances increased by approximately 25% and rental abatement increased by almost 33%.

(read more click here)
FAR Gold Member Spotlight
 
Mark Edward. CPA, CGMA, FCA
Principal
 
Rebecca Boland, CPA
Principal

In 1948, George Hertzbach had a vision of starting an independent, full-service accounting firm dedicated to local, hard-working businesses. Since those humble beginnings, his vision has grown into a firm of over 160 professionals, diverse in their experience and achievements, concentrating in multiple practice areas throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.

Though 65 years have passed, Hertzbach & Company, P.A. has never lost sight of what our founder deemed important; that all clients, without exception, have the right to the highest level of expertise and advice, a thorough understanding of their financial position and a commitment by those engaged and entrusted to guide them to business success.

The depth of our expertise and our excellent reputation makes us the preferred choice for businesses and individuals when selecting a CPA and business consulting firm for growth and prosperity. This client-focused philosophy, set forth by George Hertzbach, today enables us to retain significant client relationships spanning these 65 years.
Uniform Guidance is Here - Ready or Not
By: Mark A. Steinberg, CPA, CVA
OMB launched the process for establishing the Uniform Guidance (UG) more than three years ago to overhaul the decades-old federal grant making process. The Uniform Guidance merges eight separate yet overlapping OMB circulars into the Code of Federal Regulations, eliminating the circulars. The resulting consistency across governments and the entities with which they contract to provide services are intended to ease administrative burdens, increase efficiency and effectiveness of federal awards, and strengthen the oversight of federal funds to reduce the risks of waste, fraud, and abuse.

While many nonprofits may feel overwhelmed by the Uniform guidance, it does establish some important rights for nonprofits:

Reimbursement for More of Your Direct Costs
The UG clarifies numerous cost allocation rules and specifies more costs that are reimbursable as direct costs.  For instance, in certain circumstances, program administration (e.g., secretarial staff dedicated to a specific program) can be reported as direct, rather than as indirect, costs, and therefore are fully recoverable.

(read more click here)
FAR Gold Member Spotlight
 
Patricia Lenahan
Senior Commercial Lender
 
Linda Courie
Senior Relationship Manager

TD Bank America's Most Convenient BankŪ,  US is a member of the TD Bank Group and a subsidiary of The Toronto-Dominion Bank. TD US is one of the 10 largest banks in the U.S., providing more than 8 million customers with a full range of retail, small business and commercial banking products and services at approximately 1,300 convenient locations throughout the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Metro D.C., the Carolinas and Florida. In addition, TD Bank and its subsidiaries and affiliate, TDAmeritrade, offer customized services including Commercial Lending, Equipment Finance/Leasing, Capital Markets Financing, Treasury Management, Corporate Card, Merchant Services, International Banking, Institutional Investment Management, among other financial services. The Toronto-Dominion Bank trades on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges under the ticker symbol "TD". To learn more, visit www.td.com.

At TD Bank, we have a team of seven bankers who work with not for profit organizations.  Headquartered in Greater Washington and Baltimore,  the team is led by Patti Lenahan and has a combined experience of well over 100 years. Our professionals understand the unique not-for-profit sector, and we work side by side with clients to craft financial solutions customized to achieve their goals. In addition, TD has two teams dedicated to serving not-for-profits in New York City and Boston. All three teams share ideas and best practices.

Recent awards include the following:

* TD Bank, America's Most Convenient BankŪ, was named Best Big Bank by Money Magazine
* Named Safest Bank in North America and one of the World's 50 Safest Banks by Global Finance Magazine
* Named one of the World's Most Admired Companies by Fortune Magazine
Rising Rates, Accounts Payable and BACK TO THE FUTURE?
By: Neil McHugh
It's 2017, the future! And while we don't reside in Hill Valley and hoverboards still don't exist, interest rates have finally risen back to normal levels. You've considered everything to best prepare your organization for this future. Or have you? Have you contemplated how rising rates could help unlock value trapped in your accounts payable (AP) and accounts receivable (AR) functions? If not, or if you're not sure, please read on.

The most progressive, best-in class organizations are developing formal payment strategies to define optimal payment types, terms and the payments mix necessary to maximize returns. The commercial card is quickly emerging as an invaluable component to these strategic plans as new technology automating business-to-business (B2B) card payments is strengthening an  already impressive suite of benefits. Rising interest rates will only create additional opportunities for both trading partners to further enhance these benefits.

(read more click here)
FAR Printed Member Directory

FAR staff will be distributing the printed member directory at the September luncheon. Those members who do not attend will receive a copy via mail. 

 

FAR Membership Renewals

FAR membership renewals have begun - don't let your membership lapse and keep you from the benefits you enjoy like the FAR listserv, special member registration rates, and access to member-only webpages!

If you need assistance renewing, please contact FAR at hq@far-roundtable.org.
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