Using AI to Enhance Your Nonprofit’s Information & Impact | | |
AI can be a valuable tool for nonprofits. It's particularly helpful for analyzing data presented in financial statements. In areas like fraud detection, AI can help identify patterns across large datasets. It can also help draft content used for promotional pieces and grant applications. Effective AI use can reduce time spent on completing these activities. However, it cannot replace the human judgment required to ensure accuracy, context, and completeness.
Leadership plays a critical role in providing clear policies defining when staff should and should not use AI, as well as providing training on how to use it effectively. View AI as an enhancement to staff, not a substitute for them. This is especially true for messaging in grant writing, where relationships, nuance, and organization-specific messaging are essential. Be cautious of using messaging written entirely by AI because this could hurt, not help organizations in securing funding. With appropriate policies, training and oversight, nonprofits can leverage AI to support their work while keeping people, purpose, and community impact at the center.
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| Comprehensive, Customized & Clear: Financial Reports That Tell Your Complete Story | | |
You wouldn’t decide to buy a house while wearing a blindfold or without going inside. And as a nonprofit leader, you shouldn’t make decisions without a clear and complete set of financial statements.
At NPO Accountants, we create custom financial reporting packages using best-in-class reporting software — not just the statements, but clear summaries, visual charts, easy-to-understand KPIs, and an executive summary that presents the story behind the numbers. We handle the complex software setup and ongoing management so your team doesn’t have to.
Delivered on a monthly basis, our reporting package gives management and boards the information they actually need so they can make informed decisions.
Too many organizations are looking at an incomplete picture and as a result are making decisions blindly. The right financial reporting package turns the numbers into actionable intelligence.
Want to see a sample packet to discover what’s possible? Email us at info@npoaccountants.com.
| | Tick Tock – Get Ready for Your 990 | | |
No, not that TikTok. If your nonprofit’s year end was December 31, your 990 due date clock is ticking. Your 990 is due by May 15 unless you file an extension. Getting ready for 990 preparation doesn’t have to be a daunting task. In fact, as long as you're keeping up with your books each month, then year-end close will be relatively smooth.
Your accounting staff should be handling much of the financial reporting requirements. If they have your books set up with 990 preparation in mind, they should be able to provide reports your CPA needs to prepare the main form and any needed schedules with relative ease. Financial information aside, the best use of your time prepping for your 990 is to review and update your program service accomplishments. This is sometimes a missed opportunity for an organization to tell their story. Think of the 990 as a marketing piece that will serve to inform the public, but also to invite and entice funders. Use quantifiable deliverables such as number of people served or dollar value of services provided.
On the flip side, you’re not writing a book here. Think in terms of 4-6 well written sentences. Be careful. If your program descriptions are unnecessarily long and just a puff piece, the reader may lose interest, especially if they have to navigate all the way to the end of the 990 to continue to read Schedule O. Short and sweet using meaningful data is the recommended best practice.
| | Tune In February 20 to Hear Lisa Stevenson on Nonprofit Nerd® Impact Unleashed Podcast | | |
In this episode of Nonprofit Nerd®: Impact Unleashed, Lisa Stevenson sits down with Jarrett Ransom for a candid, practical conversation about the financial realities nonprofit leaders face every day. Together, they unpack common financial pitfalls, why nonprofit-specific accounting expertise truly matters, and how clear, accurate financial reporting supports long-term sustainability.
Lisa shares insights on board education, fiduciary responsibility, and how financial data, when understood and communicated well, becomes a powerful leadership and trust-building tool. This episode reframes finances as more than compliance or spreadsheets; they are a strategic asset that helps nonprofits make confident decisions and deepen their impact. Tune in on February 20!
| | Employee Spotlight: Get to Know NPO Partner Kristyn Kozar | |
Career Highlights: I started my career in the arts. I have a BA in Art History & Nonprofit Management. After a few years in the arts, I met my now business partner, Lisa Stevenson, who was my then employer’s CPA. I quickly realized how much I enjoyed nonprofit accounting and pivoted into the profession. I sought my Master of Accounting at the University of Utah and pursued my CPA license while working at NPO Accountants (then Stevenson CPA). In my tenure with the firm, I’ve performed each role: moving from bookkeeper to accountant, firm manager to partner and everything in each department in between.
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What Kristyn loves about her work: I‘m a solutions-oriented investigative individual who appreciates efficiency. I enjoy collaborating with clients to determine their pain points and then developing and deploying customized solutions that save them time and help them understand the importance of our work as it relates to their mission and continued success.
When I’m really in the trenches, I love that I get to crunch numbers for clients; finding that one transaction that is the answer to our reconciliation or reason the numbers don’t seem to make sense and making sense of them.
What she wishes clients would do more of: I would love to see a day where clients reached out more often and earlier with questions (even ones they don't think we can answer). Sometimes we don’t have the answer, but often times, we have context, know of a similar circumstance, or have seen another client through a transaction that relates. It's always better to ask so we can be aware of forthcoming transactions or organizational changes and provide guidance beforehand rather than after the fact.
Clients also tend to be concerned with confidentiality or are organization-conscience. I love to see when clients are open with other organizations. It creates the most amazing space for collaboration across the sector and typically leads to improvement for all.
| | Playing tennis with her husband | | Vacationing in Grand Cayman | | When she's not working: My husband and I play tennis almost every week and travel as often as we can. We try to plan one big international trip per year, with smaller stateside travel throughout the year to keep us busy planning and looking forward to something. We recently got scuba-certified and did our first open ocean dive when we traveled to Grand Cayman over the Christmas holiday. | | |
Bucket list item: Attend each of the four tennis Grand Slams at least once. We attended the US Open in New York last year, so we have three to go!
Fun fact: As an accountant specializing in the nonprofit sector, I have met so many amazing people and am fortunate to be behind the scenes supporting the wonderful people who are out there making a difference and serving our communities.
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