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 also thrive on spotting the differences between GAAP
and TAX and working to get organizations on top of
these issues so they don't end up being ambushed by
unforeseen results in one or the other arena depending
on how any transaction is structured or characterized.

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 (now Adler &
Colvin), a premier San Francisco law firm providing tax
and corporate counsel to a wide variety of nonprofit
organizations.

From June 2007 through July 2009 I was Director of
Client Services for Leventhal Kline Management, Inc., a
small philanthropic advisory services (nonprofit back
office management) firm in the Bay Area.

Sometime in the first half of 2010 I hope to begin a new
full-time position after a nice self-funded sabattical.

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 have presented for the annual AICPA Not-for-Profit Industry
Conference held in Washington DC in June every year since
2002 - seven consecutive years, and am in my eighth year
on the planning committee (for June 2010), which is a
tremendous honor and from which experience - and group of
smart colleagues - I continue to learn incredible amounts of
information and refine my own workshop techniques.

I have presented three times, and was on the planning
committee once (2004) for the annual AICPA Not for Profit
Financial Executive Forum held in November on the West
Coast (moving from San Francisco to Anaheim in 2009).  In
2004 I spoke on GAAP v. TAX issues, participated in two
panels at the 2006 conference, one on policies & procedures
and the second on Challenges Facing CFOs; I co-presented
a session on the management practicalities and
recordkeeping & reporting issues of tandem organizations ((c)
(3)/(c)(4,56)) at the 2007 conference.

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
held in the Spring, and twice for the New York State Society
of CPAs' annual Exempt Organizations Conference in
December.

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 specific details, you may want to see my c.v. (résumé)
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).  For my work as a trainer, I have compiled a
list of my formal public presentations, not including
presentations tailored for a single organization or network.
Who am I?
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 is 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 have 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 - I continue to
    study and track the "new 990" which one colleague describes as coming at us like a "freight train on meth" (I won't
    name her, though the description cracks up everyone I know who's got to struggle with the beast

  • 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 implementation

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

  • prepare better, more clear QuickBooks-based reports that are more professional and suitable for a nonprofit (do
    yours still say "profit and loss"? (hint: they shouldn't) 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
SERVICES & EXPERTISE