Podcast: What it’s like to start a nonprofit

By Jessica Salerno, OSCPA senior content manager

Volunteering in your community is meaningful, but if you’ve ever wanted to do more to help others, your accounting skills put you in a unique position to do so.

“Way back when I was 14 I knew I wanted to start a nonprofit; I just didn’t know what that would look like,” said Candice Hayes-McInnis, CPA, on the latest episode of the State of Business podcast.

After the 2008 recession she decided to focus on offering financial literacy education to help people on their journey to financial freedom. Hayes-McInnis recently founded her own nonprofit, PROVIDOM, to achieve that goal. She runs PRODVIDOM in addition to her role serving industry CPA members as OSCPA’s corporate learning manager.

In the beginning, she sought out materials to learn more about nonprofits, such as what it’s like to structure a board and how to file for 501(c)(3) status. She said it’s been informative to step into the various roles PROVIDOM needs.

“As a founder and nonprofit owner and operator I have to now think of many different things,” she said. “Not only am I worried about how we’re providing tax preparation services, but now I have to figure out how to market that and what the title of the workshop should be to make it persuasive to the audience.”

Before coming to OSCPA, she worked in public accounting, and previously spent time at Deloitte and Clark Schaefer Hackett. Hayes-McInnis said her background in accounting has helped her in understanding the need for documentation and explaining to donors how funds are allocated.

“As grueling as taking the CPA exam was, it groomed me for long hours and doing what you have to do,” she said. “That’s the entrepreneur life, that not everything works in a 9 to 5. You find time, to rest but at the end of the day what needs to get done gets done.”

Listen to the entire episode now to hear more about how her accounting background influences how she runs PROVIDOM, her advice for those who want to start their own nonprofit and much more.