Non-Profit Expertise Proves to Be An Invaluable Resource

“As a leader of a non-profit, I trust Milestone to be my advisor when it comes to all of my accounting needs. They have never once let me down.”   Kelly McBride, Domestic Violence Network– Executive Director

Situation

Domestic Violence Network knew the difficulty of finding and training a good non-profit accountant. They needed an expert to improve their financial clarity and accuracy at an affordable rate. All of the financials were also on pen and paper.

Solution

Domestic Violence Network outsourced the accounting to Milestone for both the bookkeeping and controllership levels. Milestone transitioned their accounting to online via QBO, BILL, and Tallie. 

Outcome

Mcbride says, “working with Milestone is smooth and easy. They are readily available and a one-stop shop for all of my accounting needs.” Milestone provides board reporting, cash flow forecasting, and advisory for Domestic Violence Network. 

The Domestic Violence Network (DVN) was founded in 1997 in order to change the culture that leads to domestic violence through advocacy, education, and collaboration. Domestic Violence Network works to educate both adults and youth focused on prevention. These center around consent, red flags, and how to help friends. DVN consists of two networks. The first network is a youth network that helps bring awareness to schools. The second network is an advocate network that brings professionals together to provide best practice training to their community members. 

The Domestic Violence Network also advocates for policy changes in their community as well. For example, they successfully advocated for Indianapolis Public Schools to include Teen Dating Violence in their Title IX policy. 

Kelly McBride has been the executive director of Domestic Violence Network since 2013. The non-profit consists of 9 employees with 12 board members who oversee the organization. 

McBride described the task of finding and training a good non-profit accountant as “extremely challenging.” She described that non-profit accountants need not only baseline accounting knowledge but also knowledge of multiple levels of grants, different laws of compliance, and funder reports. Ultimately, McBride turned to a fractional resource for her needs: “We chose to outsource our accounting because it is cost-effective and Milestone had the expertise we needed.”

Prior to engaging with Milestone, DVN handled most of its accounting via pen and paper. Milestone implemented QuickBooks Online as well as BILL and Tallie to streamline their bill payments and expense reporting. The result for DVN was “an efficient and streamlined process.” McBride also noted that “our audits go so smoothly now.” 

In addition to the day-to-day accounting, Milestone has added significant value in two other strategic initiatives.  In an effort to improve the visibility for decision making, Milestone implemented Fathom forecasting for cash flow management. McBride highlights that this helps decision-making around expenditures and fundraising. She stated, “it’s crucial for a non-profit to understand their cash flow both now and in the future. Because of our forecasting capabilities, I’m able to make informed spending decisions.” 

The second strategic initiative was around board level reporting.  Milestone has significantly improved the reporting capabilities and now provides expenditure and funding reports that help facilitate discussions and provide financial clarity for the board. McBride also highlighted Milestone’s responsiveness to ad hoc reporting requests.  

McBride summed up her appreciation for Milestone by noting: “Non-profit accounting is complicated. Milestone delivers on all of the nuances, but most importantly, they deliver on the relationship as well. Milestone’s team is my team.”