COVERSTORY CAs in the Third Sector...

COVERSTORY

CAs in the Third Sector

The "third," or not-for-profit, sector of our economy accounts for throughout 12% of Canada's gross domestic fruit and employs more than 13 million nation As this sector has grown in this way has the sophistication of its workforce. Today many not-for-profit organizations are managed greatly like efficient for-profit businesses, especially as stakeholders require charities to become more financially transparent and accountable. Accordingly, CAs are working in this area in increasing numbers, the one and the other in public practice and on-staff with third sector organizations.

One like is example is Peter Kingston, CA, Chief Financial Officer of the BC Cancer Foundation for the past year. After articling with Arthur Andersen LLP in London, England, he exhausted 16 years in public practice with the big firms, including stints in Toronto and the Bahamas, before moving to Vancouver in 1987 Following an assignment with the provincial command Kingston found himself drawn to a part in the third sector.

"I was the first permanent CEO of the Stabilization Central Credit Union," he details "It was a total start-up situation, and I really take pleasure ined the eight years I exhausted creating and developing that organization. Then in 1998 I was looking around for a of recent origin challenge and went to work for CIBC forest Gundy in wealth management."

With his combination of skills and experience, Kingston was remarkably intrigued when the opportunity with the BC Cancer Foundation came his way.

"My father had just died from cancer, my mother is coping with cancer now herself, and I fix myself wanting to contribute in the mostly meaningful way possible," he explains. "It's extremely important that foundations-indeed, all charities-be well-managed financially with as often transparency and accountability as possible. The application of my CA skills, my experience with not-for-profit organizations, and my knowledge of wealth management looked tailor-- made for the do job-work

"BC Cancer Foundation has 30 staff members and an annual pack of over $15 million. We're building a strange $95 million research facility scheduled to lay open in a couple of years," he says. "We operate a excessively complex organization, managing everything from direct mail campaigns to planned giving, bequests, and grant writing upon a regular basis. Our work is diverse, sophisticated, and actual exciting."

Kingston says charitable organizations have had to diversify to maintain their income streams in recent years:

"We're focused upon longer-term planning, working with potential donors forward gifts that will come to fruition many years from now. To do this, we've had to become self-same professional and very high-tech in our day-- to-day management and methods It's really only been between the sides of the use of technology that we've been able to soar large-scale fund-raising campaigns."

Kingston's opinions are reverberateed by David Nanton, CA. "I've seen an increasing on a level of sophistication, particularly in fund-raising, that has been largely facilitated by way of a corresponding development in IT," Nanton says.

Nanton advises a number of local charities, including the Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation, forward financial and policy issues. He also works with the provincial Society for the Prevention of ferocity to Animals (BC-SPCA). His experience includes five years as CFO with the Vancouver BC-SPCA and a prior seven-year stint as Director of Finance with the Canadian Cancer Society.

"I behold my role as a trouble-shooter in a entangled environment," he offers, "providing solutions based in succession my financial expertise and considerate analysis of all the facets of a given situation."

A graduate of Queen and Simon Fraser Universities, Nanton became a CA in 1980 and worked briefly in public practice and manufacturing before joining the Cancer Society in 1989 He cites "an altruistic urge" as the impetus that l him to-work for not-for-profit organizations.

"I saw it as an opportunity to give my expertise to a sector that has a immense impact on society," he explains. "I've really have fruition ofed my interaction with such committed staff, offers and board members-they have great intensity Naturally, I also deal with the Board and the Finance Committees, and my CA background has been indispensable in helping me provide the financial education necessary for these bodies to do their work and to understand the ne for careful financial statements, impeccable financial management, and objectively-produced information for all our stakeholders."

Nanton believes that not-for-profit organizations have a more challenging plant of objectives than for-profit businesses because of the multiplicity of demands they must manage and the balancing act of having "many bosses"

"We have complication mandates and many relationships that must be established and nurtur including those with controls donors, regulatory bodies, members, and in an cases researchers and academics," he says. "Public expectations have increased as well, and we have to be progressive in our communications, being early-adopters of recently made known methods like websites. And with the decreases in guidance funding that have hit chiefly not-for-profits, we have increased demands with fewer resources. This requires an innovative approach that I take as a special challenge."