Leading, Supporting, and Serving the Non-Profit Housing Sector

Best Practices

Resources for Financial Planning

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bullet BC Housing
The Financial Management Section is an important resource. See the
  • Financial Management Section for essential and thorough information on financial planning. View the guide on-line.
  • Major Repairs This section provides information to help non-profit providers better understand available funding options for capital projects and the steps involved in the capital planning process. View the section on-line.
  • On-line Resource Directory to download budget and replacement reserve plan worksheets under Financial Forms.

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bullet BC Non-Profit Housing Association
BCNPHA offers a three-session series of Capital Planning workshops that
  • Introduce the concepts (half hour)
  • Lay the foundation for a capital plan (three hours)
  • Work with participants to develop their project-specific replacement reserve plan to 90% completion (six hours).

BCNPHA also offers the one-day workshop, Operating Agreements and Budgets, which surveys the operating agreements of various programs and highlights similarities and key differences. One area—the Operating Budget—is singled out for detailed examination. Learn what goes into creating a good budget and how to use it as a management tool.

Members can use BCNPHA’s Policy Templates to develop policies on budgeting, investments, and replacement reserves.

For workshops or Policy Templates, e-mail Kate Nielsen or call 604-291-2600 (1-800-494-8859), ext. 224.

BCNPHA also offers the Pooling for Increased Earnings (PIE) fund for operating funds and the Housing Investment Fund (HIF) for replacement reserves. E-mail Jacqui Mendes or call 604-291-2600 (1-800-494-8859), 225.

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bullet Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
CMHC is an important resource:
  • Financial Assistance & Planning: CMHC's Affordable Housing Centre website provides information on the range of financial assistance programs available from CMHC for affordable housing development. Financial assistance programs are available for projects in the early stages of development, to support the creation of new affordable housing, and for renovation projects. Click here for the website link.
  • Capital Replacement and Planning Manual and Software Helps non-profit and co-operative housing providers plan their capital reserve funds to pay for major replacements and repairs as their buildings age: click here for the website link.

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bullet Co-operative Housing Federation of BC
The CHF-BC Web site lists a number of Finance Workshops that may be helpful for financial planning. E-mail Sue Moorhead.

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bullet Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto
The Co-op Housing Bookstore on the CHFT Web site offers a number of inexpensive, practical guides written using plain language:
  • Three guides, Financial Management, Preparing a Budget, and Property Management, while geared to co-ops, have extensive information and examples about financial planning.
  • A Guide to Solving Building Problems has valuable information on obtaining technical audits.

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bullet Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association
The ONPHA Financial Policies and Procedures Handbook has useful information for financial planning. A diskette comes with the manual and includes all forms and schedules. Order on-line. BCNPHA members pay the ONPHA member price.

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bullet Property Management Software
BCNPHA supports two suppliers: Netintegrity Inc. and Yardi Systems Inc. Both offer functionality for financial planning.

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bullet Vantage Point
Vantage Point's’s resource library has a number of titles on financial management. Check the on-line catalogue. Some of these titles are also available in public libraries.

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