Endless Orange Week

Earlier this month, I participated in #EndlessOrangeWeek, a program where the entire Endless team engages in projects designed to grow our collective learning related to our skills, work and mission.

The project I chose was to continue the coursework needed for the AICPA Not-for-Profit II Certificate. This is a professional certification at its second level.

I chose this because I wanted to hone my technical knowledge of how to create and successfully run a non-profit in the US that is in full compliance with laws and regulations. In order to obtain the certification, I had to attend the following classes:

Tax Compliance

• Form 990 Preparation: Schedules
• Form 990 Preparation: Core Form
• Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) Case Studies
• Maintaining Tax Exemption

Financial Reporting

• Statement of Financial Position
• Statement of Activities
• Statement of Cash Flows
• Statement of Functional Expenses
• Financial Statement Note Disclosures for NFPs
• Interpreting and Analyzing Financial Statements
• Preparing Consolidated Financial Statements

Governance and Assurance

• Aligning Mission and Strategy
• Budget Considerations for Not-for-Profits
• Ethical Issues in Not-for-Profits
• Performance Measurement for Not-for-Profits
• Applying the COSO ERM Framework
• Risk Assessment for NFP

I can definitely say that I learned quite a lot during Orange Week as a result of completing the above courses. I’ve been working in the non-profit accounting universe for 15 years yet there were nuances these classes helped to clear up. For example, common errors found with non-profits’ Statement of Functional expenses is not allocating any costs to fundraising expense when the non-profit has significant contribution revenue. There may also be instances of “joint activities” with “joint costs” where a cost may relate to a fundraising activity but for a particular program.

Being a certified not-for-profit professional at the II level as defined by the AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) provides a level of confidence an non-profit knowledge that I have found quite useful in my day to day work at Endless OS Foundation. It also provided a distinguishing, blue certification badge that anyone can click to look up my credentials online.

Thank you, Endless, for the time and opportunity provided to achieve this goal!