This book tells a fascinating story on municipal finances for local government practitioners with rich examples, global practices, and good and bad experiences the authors gained in decades of field work.

A nonprofit’s mission cannot be achieved unless there are resources available to fund it—without a sound financial strategy, a nonprofit cannot thrive. By creating stable financial foundations for their nonprofits, managers take advantage of the nonprofit sector’s size and scope, realize all of the sources and distribution of revenues, and effectively develop fiscal risk assessment methods and apply strategies to mitigate risk. Nonprofit managers must comprehend and efficiently use the financial tools available to them to develop financial policies that will help them to succeed in many types of economies. The Second Edition presents financial concepts in a straightforward format grounded in real examples that are readily accessible to students from any background. The authors provide the groundwork for solid accounting principles and ethical guidelines, define and set standards for internal controls and audits, and explain the ingredients used to measure program performance. Today’s nonprofits must also be aware of the growing scope of the fourth sector of social enterprise, which can inspire nonprofits to be flexible, creative, and innovative in achieving their missions.

This project, based on the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) data set, researched how PEFA can be used to shape policy development in public financial management (PFM) and other major relevant policy areas such as anticorruption, revenue mobilization, political economy analysis, and fragile states. The report explores what shapes the PFM system in low- and middle-income countries by examining the relationship between political institutions and the quality of the PFM system. Although the report finds some evidence that multiple political parties in control of the legislature is associated with better PFM performance, the report finds the need to further refine and test the theories on the relationship between political institutions and PFM. The report addresses the question of the outcomes of PFM systems, distinguishing between fragile and nonfragile states. It finds that better PFM performance is associated with more reliable budgets in terms of expenditure composition in fragile states, but not aggregate budget credibility. Moreover, in contrast to existing studies, it finds no evidence that PFM quality matters for deficit and debt ratios, irrespective of whether a country is fragile or not. The report also explores the relationship between perceptions of corruption and PFM performance. It finds strong evidence of a relationship between better PFM performance and improvements in perceptions of corruption. It also finds that PFM reforms associated with better controls have a stronger relationship with improvements in perceptions of corruption compared to PFM reforms associated with more transparency. The last chapter looks at the relationship between PEFA indicators for revenue administration and domestic resource mobilization. It focuses on the credible use of penalties for noncompliance as a proxy for the type of political commitment required to improve tax performance. The analysis shows that countries that credibly enforce penalties for noncompliance collect more taxes on average.

This analytical volume looks at emerging fiscal trends and introduces the tools for effective financial management to American business professionals in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. This hard-hitting book is the most comprehensive reference to financial theory and practice for operating a business—profit or nonprofit—in the United States today. Content focuses on fiscally responsible behaviors and strategies, such as the introduction of a financial auditing system to troubleshoot potential problems before they occur, the creation of internal control and risk management systems, and step-by-step procedures for ensuring maximum transparency and accountability in every part of the organization. Author and financial expert Jerome B. McKinney has expanded on the previous edition of this popular financial text, offering the latest best practices in e-government applications, cash flow analysis, revenue forecasting, and fiscal health evaluations. This fourth edition also looks at sustainability, the role of monetary policies and fiscal policy, globalization and its competitive impact, and the massive growth of outsourcing. On a final note, the work explains how recent legislation has influenced the development, use, and implementation of performance measures holding government agencies more accountable for their actions.