If there’s one superpower nonprofit professionals learn with experience, it’s the ability to make the most of every dollar. It's born from the same passion driving their mission to support people, causes, and communities. Managing indirect costs is an area where administrators can sometimes squeeze a little more efficiency out of their budgets.
Keep reading to take a deeper dive into indirect costs.
What are Indirect Costs?
Indirect costs, or administrative costs, are finances that can’t be directly allocated to a specific fundraiser, grant, or project. They‘re often costs associated with running the nonprofit as a whole. For example, indirect costs include office supplies, maintenance, office technology, rent, and furniture.
You can't improve what you can't see. Gaining visibility is crucial because Indirect costs are often small purchases dispersed across programs using cost rate percentages—making them difficult to identify.
Care for the Little Things and Big Things Follow
More nonprofit organizations are using cooperative purchasing to find bargains and understand where their money is going. OMNIA Partners offers nonprofits, large and small, access to a portfolio of publicly awarded contracts and access to spend data for improved budget forecasting.
Cooperative contracts enable nonprofits to purchase products and services at volume discounts that would be almost impossible for them to achieve alone. The benefits of ready-to-use cooperative contracts include:
- Leveraging power in numbers to reduce the price of products and services
- Compliant, transparent, and fully documented contracts
- Free to participate and no minimum order requirements
- Saving precious time in the buying process so you can focus on priorities
- Data on purchases made through contracts
When the Cincinnati Ballet needed furniture for their newest dance center, they turned to OMNIA Partners to save time sourcing quality furniture at a great price. “We extend our sincere gratitude to RCF facility services group for connecting us with OMNIA Partners,” said Scott Altman, President, and CEO of Cincinnati Ballet. “We could harness their group purchasing power to maximize every donor dollar in furnishing this remarkable space.”
Services Beyond Lower Prices
Budgets are not just about balancing numbers. In the nonprofit world, detailed budgets are often a requirement for audits, compliance, and charity scoring. OMNIA Partners contracts are competitively solicited and publicly awarded for maximum compliance. There is no cost to participate and no minimum orders. Participants are not locked into restrictive contracts.
The OMNIA Partners nonprofit team understands your need to be agile stewards of community resources. Our team has real-world nonprofit experience. They are happy to walk you through our contracts and connect you with subject matter experts in multiple categories.
As inflation continues to chip away at budgets, nonprofit professionals will continue finding creative ways to stretch their budgets. Cooperative purchasing is an option to use every dollar wisely.
Ready to learn more about the process?
- Start saving today with our portfolio of cooperative contracts.
- Cooperative purchasing for nonprofits
- TAGS:
- Procurement
- , Nonprofit