A CEO’s Guide to a Mission to Margin Analysis

As CEOs and Executive Directors assess the impact of the recent COVID challenges, they need the data and analysis to be able to take action to ensure sustainability. Some may be facing tough decisions about how to maintain critical impact in the community with less resources, as well as more challenging infrastructure needs. The right financial partner, like QBSS, can facilitate this with you – our designated CFO level advisors can be the partner that you need.

One recommendation we make is to perform a Mission to Margin Analysis. This analysis will align your leadership team and the Board on priorities for the organization and where to make changes if necessary.

STEPS TO COMPLETE A MISSION TO MARGIN ANALYSIS

1. Ask your leadership and the Board to rank each of your programs on a scale of 1 to 5 on each of the following metrics:
   a. How aligned they are with mission (1 – not aligned at all to 5 – fully reflective of the mission)
   b. The level of the margin (1 – significant loss to 5 – showing a substantial surplus)
2. Your CFO will need to prepare and submit margin data by program (Don’t forget to make sure the “margin analysis” incorporates all indirect costs)
3. Create a diagram with four quadrants as shown below
4. Put each program in the quadrant that aligns with its ranking

HIGH MISSION – HIGH MARGIN: THIS IS WHERE YOU WANT YOUR PROGRAMS OPTIMALLY
LOW MISSION – LOW MARGIN: ANY PROGRAMS IN THIS QUADRANT SHOULD BE EVALUATED FOR ACTION STEPS

We want to partner with you to provide critical financial data for decision-making like this Mission to Margin exercise. With the expert accounting team and cutting edge technology that QBSS brings, you don’t have to worry about basic day-to-day processing (even when working in quarantine!) – instead you have the time and information you need to ensure sustainability.