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Think Like a CFO
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Publisher: Michael D. Ward
Published: Aug 14 2026
Pages: 246
Weight: 0.87
Height: 0.75 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
You're responsible for the finances. That doesn't mean doing the finances - it means owning the outcomes.
Most nonprofit CEOs came to the sector to pursue a mission, not manage a balance sheet. So finance gets handed off - to a CFO, a controller, an auditor - with the assumption that someone else has it covered. That works, until it doesn't. A cash crisis. An audit finding. A grant that doesn't come through. A board that starts asking questions you can't confidently answer. In those moments, the difference between delegating financial work and owning financial outcomes becomes very clear.
Think Like a CFO: Finance, Risk, and Strategy for Nonprofit CEOs is the practical, experience-driven guide for nonprofit leaders who want to lead their organization's finances - not just manage them from a distance.
Drawing on decades of experience as a nonprofit CEO, CFO, board member, and financial advisor, Michael Ward covers the full landscape of what financial leadership actually requires:
- The CFO mindset - how to think about financial decisions before they're made, not after the fact
- Financial statements - how to read them as leadership tools and use them to spot problems early
- Budgeting - how to build a rigorous annual budget and use it to guide performance throughout the year
- Strategic financial analysis - how to look behind the top-line numbers to drive stronger results
- Revenue models - how to evaluate strategies across the nonprofit sector and borrow lessons from organizations unlike your own
- Risk management - how to identify, assess, and manage the financial risks your organization faces before they become crises
- Internal controls - why they matter to you as CEO and how to ensure the right safeguards are in place
- Tax compliance - what the IRS requires of nonprofit organizations and how to stay ahead of it
- Long-term commitments - how to evaluate facilities, technology, and multi-year financial decisions
- Outsourcing - how to decide what to staff internally, what to contract out, and how to manage both
- Telling your story - how to communicate financial results in ways that build trust with your board, funders, and community
Ward draws on his experience leading a national nonprofit as both CEO and CFO, advising dozens of organizations as a consultant, and serving on seven nonprofit boards. He doesn't write like a professor teaching accounting. He writes like the advisor he is - direct, practical, and focused on what actually matters to the person in the CEO's chair.
Whether you're stepping into a nonprofit CEO role for the first time, navigating a financial challenge, or looking to sharpen the financial leadership skills you already have, Think Like a CFO gives you the mindset and the tools to own the outcomes.
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