Glossary / FASB

What is FASB?

Financial Accounting Standards Board.

Simple definition

Financial Accounting Standards Board. The independent organization that establishes Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) in the United States. Key nonprofit standards include ASC 958 (Not-for-Profit Entities) and ASU 2016-14.

Why it matters for your nonprofit

Boards, auditors, and funders expect clarity on FASB because it affects how you report resources, stay compliant, and explain your financial story.

How it shows up in daily work

You will see FASB in board packets, grant reports, and donor conversations. The goal is to record activity once and report it consistently—without rebuilding spreadsheets every month.

Common mistakes

  • Treating restricted resources like general cash because the chart of accounts is not set up for funds.
  • Letting finance and development use different definitions for the same funds.
  • Waiting until year-end to fix coding errors that should be caught monthly.

How Alignmint helps

Alignmint ties fund accounting, donor records, and reporting in one place so terms like FASB show up correctly in your books—not only in a policy memo.

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