Administration and Management
What you must know
This domain covers the organizational machinery that lets programs exist: structure, budgets, personnel, policy, and partnerships.
Know governance versus management: the board sets mission, policy, and fiscal oversight; the executive and managers implement. Know organizational charts, span of control, and chain of command.
Know budgets: line-item (by expense category), program or functional (by program), and zero-based (every expense justified each cycle). Know direct versus indirect costs, in-kind contributions, and cost sharing - funders ask for these. Know basic grant mechanics: request for proposals, proposal, scope of work, deliverables, reporting, and compliance.
Know strategic planning: mission, vision, values, environmental scan (SWOT), goals, strategies, action plans, and monitoring. Know quality improvement (Plan-Do-Study-Act), risk management, and quality assurance.
Know human resources: job descriptions, recruitment, supervision, delegation (give authority along with the task and a deadline), performance appraisal, and staff development. Know coalition and partnership management: memoranda of understanding, defined roles, shared decision-making, and sustainability planning that does not rest on a single grant.
Traps: confusing line-item with program budgets; describing board roles as operational management; defining sustainability as simply getting another grant; mistaking legitimate indirect costs for waste; delegating a task without authority.
Rule of thumb: Mission, strategy, budget, staffing, monitoring. If a proposed activity has no budget line and no assigned owner, it will not happen.
Worked example: A director inherits a grant ending in twelve months. She builds a line-item budget, adds an in-kind hospital match, diversifies with a local foundation, and signs an MOU assigning partner roles - sustainability planned before the cliff, not after.