Mosaica: The Center for Nonprofit Development and Pluralism is a national multicultural capacity-building nonprofit organization that provides tools to nonprofits to build just, inclusive, and thriving communities and societies. Mosaica brings organizational development expertise and concrete tools to strengthen and support nonprofit organizations, with a special focus on groups that serve and represent populations whose voices are least likely to be heard when public policies are made and resources are allocated. After 15 years of helping nonprofits locally, nationally, and internationally, Mosaica understands and helps to address the constant challenges nonprofits face, among them fiscal management issues, funding needs, changing community needs, increased demand for services, ever-changing technology, staff and leadership transitions, the need to demonstrate impact, and rising competition from other sectors.
Mosaica provides fiscal management and oversight assistance designed to provide nonprofits and funders with the skills, knowledge, and tools to manage and safeguard their organizations’ assets and achieve high levels of accountability and transparency. Nonprofits are facing increased scrutiny by Congress, the Internal Revenue Service, and the public. They must cope with growing complexity in nonprofit accounting, from changes in the Fiscal Accounting Standards Board (FASB) requirements in 1993 to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in the post-Enron era. At the same time, nonprofits struggle to survive in a very difficult economy, with both public and private funders often cutting back on their contracts and grantmaking. Mosaica helps nonprofits in the following ways:
- Building staff and volunteer skills and knowledge. Many nonprofit leaders are “accidental fiscal managers.” Their passion is program, not management. Their education and background often do not include fiscal management knowledge or skills. By using plain language and interactive learning methods, Mosaica helps nonprofit staff and volunteer overcome both knowledge and psychological barriers to effective fiscal management (e.g., discomfort that may lead to giving fiscal matters low priority or depending too much upon external consultants). Mosaica introduces best practices in fiscal management and builds staff and volunteer skills in implementing them.
- Strengthening Board member competence in fiscal oversight. A Board bears the primary responsibility for ensuring that a nonprofit fulfills its obligations to its donors, its staff and volunteers, the government, and the public. Mosaica provides Boards with an understanding of their legal and ethical responsibilities, and with practical tools to protect the organization’s assets and provide oversight to ensure that its financial, human, and material resources are used appropriately to further the organization’s mission.
- Helping funders better understand and meet the needs of their grantees. Mosaica helps foundation staff build their skills to create effective grant requirements and reporting procedures, analyze applicant financial status, and provide technical assistance to their grantees.