Are you a board member with fiduciary responsibilities but little experience with financial matters? Do you find yourself lost or confused by the financial jargon that comes up in budgetary or investment discussions? Have no fear. In Trust has created a detailed glossary of common financial terms that will help you become more knowledgeable in financial matters.
Edited by Lee Merritt, the guide draws on a number of resources, including documents from BoardSource and the Washington State Administrative and Accounting Manual, to provide definitions and explanations of terms that will help you in future budgetary and investment discussions.
This glossary goes through the gamut of relevant terms, from “assets,” to “unrestricted cash balances.” Using this resource, you may not become a financial wiz, but you will be more confident in the jargon you will often encounter when tending to your fiduciary responsibilities.
Have you utilized this resource in the past? If so, did you find it helpful?
If you have an online In Trust account, you can access the financial vocabulary glossary online.
And for more financial terms, check out Financial Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards, 2nd edition, by Andrew S. Lang (BoardSource, 2009, 102 pp., $29).
