Since 2008, I have been working with charitable trusts helping them to comply with all the different pieces of legislation including tax and Charities register.
I have been on a Community Trust Board involved with domestic violence and addiction recovery services and counselling for 10 years. I have been accountant and treasurer for a school board and other non profits that I have been involved with, including churches, budgeting services and youth mentoring.
I'm currently in my sixth year of service as a board member of Atainz a group representing over 400 accountants nationally.
In my experience, most charities start with little knowledge of tax and financial experience – though they do have bucket loads of desire to help the people the organization is seeking to help.
All charities, like all businesses want to be great employers, they want to be seen as trustworthy with funds given to them. I have really enjoyed helping charities achieve these objectives and many more strategic goals while doing things the right way and always staying legally compliant.
My favorite part of this work is coaching CEO’s one-on-one or through governance workshops that I run.
I love seeing an organization grow enabling it to help more people, change lives and make a difference. It is incredibly rewarding and meaningful work and what I want to be doing for the rest of my life.
"I have had regular monthly coaching with Michelle for two years, I found Michelle kind and thoughtful, also analytical. It is helpful each session to review the numbers, budgeting and discuss forecasting with the different events that are occurring in the trust regularly. Each meeting our discussions resulted in myself as CEO to understand the numbers more and receive helpful tips towards improving our financial reporting to make them more readable and understandable to the board."
