Who wants to study accounting during the summer? New York University School of Continuing and Professional Studies offers a course entitled “Not-for-Profit Accounting Fundamentals.” Nancy Kelly has been teaching the class which offers a certificate in Not-for-Profit Finance. The class met last Wednesday for a special session.
The six students, along with staff, spent the two hours learning how to read financial statements in order to determine the health of a not-for-profit organization. The class examined the fives lenses with which to look through in order to assess a not-for-profit’s financial health: Profitability, Revenue Dynamics, Expense Dynamics, Composition of Balance Sheet, and Liquidity.
The students come from varying professional backgrounds with some already working in the nonprofit sector and some working in accounting. Nancy Kelly takes accounting, perceived to be a dry subject matter, and makes it interesting. She does this by allowing accounting and finance to tell the story of a not-for-profit organization.