Years ago, in a museum, I saw a cuneiform tablet with faint impressions of symbols that looked like various farm products lined up in rows. I was excited to see an actual specimen of the technology that people used to transact business thousands of year ago. Today we use silicon instead of stone, but the fundamental activity is the same. We accountants use the language and the tools of the trade to communicate information about business activity in both the for-profit and nonprofit arenas.
During my 25-year tenure as a nonprofit CFO I learned to partner with people from all levels of the organization to accurately record revenue and expense, to support efforts to bring in new funding, to use budgets as a roadmap for meeting the mission, and to oversee clean audits.
But that’s just part of the story. I also learned that for a CFO, forward thinking means asking what might go wrong and how I can stop it from happening. If the CEO is the engine of the bus, the CFO is the insurance, the maintenance, and sometimes the brakes. All are needed for a vehicle that can go places safely. At times during my career I felt like I spoke a language that others didn’t understand, but I also knew that my contributions were vital to the survival of the organization
The job of CFO is rewarding for the person who cares equally about the mission and the good name of the organization. While a college degree is the price of admission for CFOs of larger organizations, much of the training manual for all nonprofit CFOs is on-the-job experience. My goal is to share with anyone who keeps the books for a nonprofit what I learned during my years in the trenches.