Question

problem:

YOUth is a not-for-profit organization that supports at-risk youth in a small Northern community through a crisis center, outreach initiatives, and after-school activity programs. The organization has implemented triple-bottom-line accounting, results are reported quarterly to stakeholders.

Financial performance is concerned with results as compared to budget as well as with measuring overhead costs as a percentage of donations and grants received to ensure that an appropriate proportion of total funds is spent on programs directly. Social metrics combine input-based approaches (such as the number of contacts and the number of youth taking part in programs) and output measures (such as youth crime rates in the community).

The environmental metrics currently focus on results achieved by recent initiatives to clean up schoolyards and parks to ensure safer play areas for children in the community. Last week, a new potential donor approached the organization and met with Saanvi, the executive director, explaining that his daughter had been having issues at school with bullying and had received help from YOUth’s after-school program. The potential donor is a wealthy businessman who owns a furniture manufacturing plant, and he questioned the triple-bottom-line approach. The businessman suggested that the organization should be monitoring only its financial results, because, as he put it, “if you can’t keep the financials working, you are just going to sink. The rest of those metrics are a waste of time, and I don’t like supporting wasted time.”

The businessman is coming to the office again next week, and Saanvi, unsure what the businessman may want, has asked you to put together a presentation to explain to him the merits of the triple-bottom-line methodology for YOUth.

Required: Use the ACAF Method to analyze this situation.

Specifically: a. Assess the situation.

b. Identify the issues.

Answer 1

Situation assessment Assessing the risk posed by toxic cyanobacteria, or the potential for development of cyanobacterial blooms, and linking this to effective measures for the protection of public health within available resources, is complex. Situation assessment may be proactive, for example to determine whether contingency planning is required or to inform longterm action, such as pollution control to minimise bloom formation; or it may be reactive, for example to assist in interpretation of specific local events or conditions to inform emergency or incident response. An important factor in situation assessment is understanding the adequacy of available information with which to make the assessment. In many, if not all, cases epidemiological evidence of cyanobacteria-related health effects would not be available because of poor or non-standardised, or poorly differentiated, diagnoses; lack of awareness of cyanotoxins as potential causes of symptoms; and inadequate reporting systems, research programmes, or information analysis. In most situations a limited range of information is available to assist in identifying whether a problem or potential problem exists. The types of information possibly available to aid in assessment are summarised in Table

1.Observation

2.Sources of information

3.Management options

B) Identification of  issues:

1. Gather pertinent facts,
2. Identify and clearly express issues,
3. Locate authority,
4. Evaluate authority,
5. Develop conclusions and recommendations, and.
6. Communicate results.

Each step is vital, but many professionals believe the most challenging and crucial step in conducting tax research involves identifying and clearly stating issues (step 2). Issues that tax researchers do not identify cannot be investigated. Failing to examine relevant issues can lead to missed opportunities, unbilled work, IRS penalties, and even malpractice suits. Students learning to conduct tax research frequently do not identify important legal questions. Similarly, professionals beginning their own tax consulting practices often fret about overlooked issues. A world of difference exists between conducting legal research as a tax associate or staff accountant that will be subject to review at one or two higher levels within the firm and, as the new owner of a practice, knowing that you are the end of the line and, thus, directly responsible if the firm overlooks anything