Board Financials: A Plain-Language Guide for Nonprofit & Co-op Board Members

By Lindsey Mayo

You joined the board to help - not to wrestle with spreadsheets. Then the financial packet showed up: forty pages, a meeting in two days, and numbers no one ever taught you to read. So you nod along, and hope someone else understood.

Here's the secret: around that table, more people are nodding than understanding.

Board Financials is the missing list of questions - a plain-language guide for nonprofit and cooperative board members who were never trained in finance. No accounting course. No jargon. Just three statements, five health numbers, and one habit: read the cash first, and ask before you vote.

Inside, two complete guides in one volume:

Nonprofit Edition - follow one small youth center, statement by statementCooperative Edition - follow one small food co-op, from margin to member equity

You'll learn to spot the difference between a timing blip and a real problem, read a board packet in 15 minutes, and ask the one question that was always your actual job.

Written by a nonprofit finance director and board treasurer who teaches this to real boards.

We make the boring stuff make sense.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H7QGJ2Y6
• ISBN13: 9798184364285
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"