This is what we would actually do, in what order, and what it costs.
No discovery call is required to see the number.
What we would go looking for
These are patterns that recur in nonprofit and grant-funded organizations, written as things to
look for. They are not findings from a named engagement.
Reporting obligations across many funders, each in a different format, absorbing finance capacity that is never costed against the award.
Allocation between program and support cost set years ago on a basis nobody can now reconstruct.
Restricted funds carried unspent while unrestricted reserves are drawn down.
Fundraising channels reported by income raised rather than by net contribution.
Volunteer effort treated as free, ignoring the management cost of coordinating it.
The sequence
Five weeks for one operating unit. More units run in parallel rather than in
series, so a group does not take five times as long.
Week 1
Intake and reconciliation7 requests written for nonprofit and grant-funded organizations, alongside the 107 covering the operating spine. We tell you which findings the gaps will limit before any fieldwork starts.
Weeks 2–3
Full pass, not a sampleEvery program in scope is read rather than sampled.
Week 4
Quantification and challengeEach finding sized, and put to whoever owns it before it is written down.
Week 5
Report and walkthroughThe written report, ranked by annual value and by how hard each finding is to act on.
3 core requests written for nonprofit and grant-funded organizations, inside the full intake.
Anything you do not have can be skipped with a reason — skipping narrows what the
review can conclude, and we tell you where before the work starts rather than after.
Funding by source — Restricted, unrestricted, and the terms attached.
Grant portfolio — Award, period, spend to date, reporting obligations.
Cost allocation between program and support — The basis, and when it was last examined.
If any of this is already happening
The review is always worth doing and rarely urgent. It becomes urgent when
something else is happening — and if one of these is, the sequence above compresses
to fit it.
An audit finding, especially a repeat one
A major grant ending and exposing which shared costs it carried
A capital campaign or a merger conversation
A board asking which programs actually cover their costs
A restricted fund balance nobody can explain
Who needs to be in the room
Signs it: Executive director or CFO
Will resist it: Program leads whose individual economics become visible to the board — worth telling them what the
review is for before they hear it from somewhere else.
Has been asking for it: Finance, who already know which programs are subsidized
What it costs
Priced by operating unit — an entity, a location, or a business the accounts are
kept separately for. The second unit costs less than the first because by then the
intake is built, the chart of accounts is understood and the patterns are known.
Purchase order is the primary route — most
buyers this size raise a PO and pay against an invoice on terms. Card and bank
transfer exist for those who prefer them.