How Fund Accounting Helps Associations Promote Transparency

Your association likely brings in funding from a wide range of sources, from membership dues and sponsorship to merchandise sales and online course fees. To make the most of your resources for your operations and member engagement strategy, you need to properly track all of your revenue streams via organized accounting procedures.

This is where fund accounting comes in. Jitasa’s guide to fund accounting defines the term as “a method of financial management that tracks the amount of money allocated to various operations at a tax-exempt organization.” While most organizations that use this system are traditional nonprofits, professional and trade associations like yours also benefit from it because your accounting should focus on promoting accountability rather than generating a profit.

In this guide, we’ll walk through a few applications of fund accounting that your association can incorporate into its operations. But first, let’s dive deeper into what we mean by “fund” accounting.

Please select this link to read the complete article from ASAE's Center for Association Leadership.