For organizations interested in undertaking efforts to improve their financial practices, the following tips may be helpful:

• Be prepared to spend between 800 and 1,000 staff hours on the work over two to three years.
• An organization’s top leader and its top financial manager must be involved in this work. Without the motivation and commitment of the organization’s top leaders, changes are hard to achieve. 
• An organization’s CEO must have a basic understanding of good financial management practices and the risks that organizations face if practices are lax. The CFO must also be involved in communicating the importance of the work to financial staff members, in ensuring that staff members get the training they need, and in overseeing necessary changes to software and policies.
• In order to create lasting changes in their core administrative infrastructures, organizations need to work consistently for several years on strengthening their financial management. 

For organizations interested in pursuing changes in funder practices, the following steps may be helpful:

• Convene key stakeholders, including organizations, multiple funding constituencies, politicians, and agency officials. 
• Define the problem, garner support for change, and define common principles of good practice. 
• Decide where to focus attention (for example, on specific issues or on types of funders), depending on what types of changes would benefit organizations most and on where change can be achieved. 
• Provide concrete solutions that respond to funders’ needs. 
• When new legislation passes, provide support to help public agencies develop concrete plans to implement it.

For more hands-on tools and resources to help you improve your organization's financial management see the StrongNonprofits toolkit.