I work to integrate financial accounting and tax reporting.
 My overarching passion is to make financial information
accessible to nonprofit managers, boards and advisors.  

I received my B.A. from Antioch College in Yellow
Springs, Ohio in 1977, and my M.B.A. from the
University of Portland in 1984.  

From 1987 to 1992, I directed the Financial
Management Training Program of The Youth Project, a
grant making public charity working nationally to support
grassroots community organizations.  

Through this program, I provided technical assistance
and advice on financial management and tax compliance
issues to over one hundred very small, grassroots,
community organizing and issue advocacy organizations
nationally.

From 1990 to 1995, I was CFO of the Association for
Portland Progress, then a sophisticated business league
with an affiliated public charity operating on a combined
six million dollar budget to preserve the successful
dynamics of downtown Portland, Oregon.

From 1996 to 2004, I worked as a nonprofit specialist
(senior paralegal) for Silk, Adler & Colvin, a premier San
Francisco law firm providing tax and corporate counsel
to a wide variety of nonprofit organizations.

Continuously since 1984, I have maintained a private
practice providing advice and training to nonprofits (and
a few small businesses) on financial and tax compliance
issues.

I make a specialty of training.  In addition to training
nonprofit staff and boards, I have been honored to
present professional (CPE) seminars for CPA
associations nationally, and in northern California and
Oregon, as well as for nonprofit management support
organizations in Portland and San Francisco, and the
Foundation Center Library in San Francisco, and the
private seminar firm Lorman Educational Services.  
While at Silk, Adler & Colvin, I taught an extension
course in Nonprofit Management for California State
University Hayward.
I have presented for the annual AICPA Not-for-Profit Industry
Conference held in Washington DC in June six consecutive
years, and am in my sixth year on the planning committee
(for June 2008), which is a tremendous honor and from which
I have learned incredible amounts of information.

I presented for, and was on the planning committee for, the
annual AICPA Not for Profit Financial Executive Forum held in
November in San Francisco in November 2004 and
participated in two panels in 2006; I will co-present a session
on the management and organizational practicalities, as well
as the recordkeeping and reporting issues of tandem
organizations ((c)(3)/(c)(4,56)) at the 2007 conference in
November.

I have also twice presented professional seminars for the
San Francisco Chapter of the Not-for-Profit Interest Group of
the California Society of CPAs, three times for the annual
statewide Oregon Society of CPAs Not-for-Profit Conference,
and in December 2005 for the New York State Society of
CPAs' annual Exempt Organizations Conference.  

My CPA Society seminar topics have covered a range of
public policy advocacy issues, public charity status and the
public support tests, grey areas in ethics, and GAAP vs. Tax
issues in nonprofit accounting.  

My favorite compliment on an evaluation form is "I expected
to be bored and I wasn't."

In 1990 (revised in 1992) I wrote and self-published
Managing for Change:  A Common Sense Guide to
Evaluating Financial Management Health for Grassroots
Organizations, and I wrote a chapter entitled “Navigating
The Tax Implications of Earned Income” in Andy Robinson’s
Selling Social Change (Without Selling Out), Jossey Bass,
2002.  An earlier draft of that chapter is on the Downloads
page of this site.

For more details, you may want to see my c.v. and/or a
summary list of my consulting engagements (which shows all
my clients, location, type of organization, and what I do/did
for them).  I have also compiled a list of my formal
presentations, not including presentations tailored for a
single organization or network.
Who am I?
If you've been reading this site already, you can tell I'm both a geek and opinionated.

My passion is for organizations working in the areas of social and economic justice and personal and
environmental sustainability.  I definitely have a point of view, and am deeply concerned about maintaining and
increasing the effectiveness of the groups I support.  Their voices are vital in our future.  I do this work because I care
about it.

My emphasis was on training and capacity building and plain language explanations for managers, directors
and officers.  Tax, compliance and accounting topics intimidate many people.  Valuable information can be obscure.  This
weakens our sector.  I want to make it accessible.  I handled engagements ranging from one hour to a half-year.  

  • group trainings and seminars for boards, professional associations, coalitions

  • review Form 990 and prepare a memorandum of suggested changes; this often provides a very good starting point
    to identify areas where further advice or guidance may be needed, from me, or from a CPA or attorney

  • review overall structure of the accounting system from final reports back through charts of accounts and cost centers
    (programs, mgt & gen, fundraising)

  • prepare cost allocation policies and assist with specific procedural methodology

  • assist with preparation of a budget model to fit the organization and utilize rational, consistent line items

  • prepare better, more clear QuickBooks reports that are more professional and suitable for a nonprofit (do yours still
    say "profit and loss"? and how about those darned indented subtotals?)

  • assist with training the Secretary and Treasurer and upgrading their areas:  adequate Board minutes, financial
    reports to the Board, Board trainings on financial statements, and living the duties of care and loyalty

  • tax compliance reviews and guidance to improve our positioning and work to ensure that organizations are above
    attack

  • planning and development of new affiliates such as c3/c4 tandems, and even triads where a 527 political committee
    is included or involved (although this area is getting very tricky to undertake without election counsel)

  • training, intervention and clarity on issues where there are problems created by differing advice between GAAP and
    Tax advisors

  • public support tests and public charity status:  explaining the implications and importance, assessing organizations to
    see whether it is a critical issue for them, and if so, assisting finance staff with forward projections and management
    with strategy

  • any and all questions not covered above (I know that sounds cocky, but I promise:  I'm too good at saying "I don't
    know" if an issue is outside my expertise or authority-to-advise.)  From my point of view, financial management
    means three major areas:
  1.   planning & budgeting
  2.   recordkeeping & reporting
  3.   control, governance & staffing
                                                                                       BIO
I am currently Director of Client Services, for Leventhal Kline Management, Inc.  "LKM" is a professional
'philanthropic advisory services firm.'  We out-source a range of services for family foundations and progressive public
charities.  My role is financial management.  The firm's website is www.philanthropicadvisor.com.  This site is me personally,
and 100% my "voice," and they kindly have not asked me to muzzle my opinions...however, you should still blame me, not
LKM, for anything here you disagree with.  I will also continue to do a few projects outside the firm, especially when they fit
outside the firm's strategic growth plans.
                                                                           SERVICES & EXPERTISE