Chief Accounting Officer (CAO) — Volunteer

Chief Accounting Officer (CAO) — Volunteer

PromiseFinance | Accounting, Financial Reporting, Controls & Financial Stewardship

Organization: Mentor A Promise (MAP)

Division: PromiseFinance

Location: Remote — United States

Type: Executive Volunteer Leadership Role

Commitment: Approximately 5–10 hours per week

Minimum Commitment: 6-month commitment required

Reports To: Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Leads: Accounting function and accounting team within PromiseFinance

Works Closely With: CEO, Executive Team, Board/Treasurer as appropriate, PromiseGiving, PromiseOperations, PromiseTrust, PromiseShield, program leadership, and external accounting/tax professionals as applicable

About Mentor A Promise

Mentor A Promise (MAP) is a New York City–based nonprofit supporting children and youth ages 5–18 experiencing housing instability through mentorship, education, literacy, social-emotional learning, creative expression, career development, and community-centered opportunity.

As MAP grows, strong financial stewardship is essential to protecting the organization, maintaining public trust, supporting responsible decision-making, and ensuring that resources entrusted to MAP ultimately advance its mission.

About PromiseFinance

PromiseFinance is MAP's financial management and stewardship division.

The division supports the organization through accounting, financial reporting, budgeting and financial analysis, internal controls, compliance coordination, revenue and expense accounting, financial systems, audit readiness, and responsible stewardship of organizational resources.

PromiseFinance should do more than record what happened.

It should help MAP understand:

What happened?

Is it accurate?

Is it properly supported?

Are our controls working?

What does it mean?

What requires attention next?

Role Overview

Mentor A Promise is seeking an experienced and highly principled Chief Accounting Officer (CAO) to lead MAP's accounting function and strengthen the financial infrastructure required for a growing nonprofit organization.

The CAO is MAP's senior accounting executive responsible for the integrity of the organization's books and records, accounting policies and procedures, financial close, financial reporting, internal accounting controls, audit readiness, and accounting-team development.

This is not simply a bookkeeping role.

The CAO must build an accounting function capable of producing reliable financial information, identifying problems early, maintaining appropriate documentation, strengthening controls, and giving leadership confidence that MAP's financial records accurately reflect the organization's activities.

The central question is:

Can MAP trust its numbers—and can we demonstrate why those numbers should be trusted?

Key Responsibilities

Accounting Leadership

• Lead MAP's organization-wide accounting function.
• Establish clear accounting responsibilities, workflows, standards, and review processes.
• Develop accounting policies and procedures appropriate for MAP's size, complexity, and growth.
• Provide technical accounting guidance to the accounting team.
• Review significant or unusual accounting matters.
• Strengthen the quality, timeliness, consistency, and documentation of accounting work.
• Build an accounting culture centered on accuracy, accountability, transparency, and continuous improvement.

General Ledger & Financial Close

Oversee the integrity of MAP's general ledger and financial close process, including appropriate review of:

• Cash and bank activity
• Revenue and contributions
• Grants
• Accounts payable
• Accounts receivable, where applicable
• Expenses
• Prepaid expenses
• Accruals
• Fixed assets
• Donated goods and services
• Restricted and unrestricted activity
• Payroll or personnel-related accounting, where applicable
• Earned revenue and other organizational activities
• Journal entries
• Account reconciliations
• Supporting schedules

Develop a disciplined monthly and year-end close process with clear responsibilities, deadlines, supporting documentation, review, and resolution of outstanding items.

Financial Reporting

• Oversee preparation and review of accurate and timely financial reports.
• Ensure financial information reconciles to underlying accounting records.
• Develop appropriate management reporting for executive leadership.
• Help leadership understand significant variances, trends, unusual transactions, and accounting issues.
• Support financial reporting to the Board and appropriate committees.
• Ensure reports distinguish appropriately among accounting results, budgets, forecasts, and management estimates.
• Improve reporting as MAP's operations become more complex.

The objective is not simply to distribute financial statements.

It is to produce financial information leadership can responsibly use to make decisions.

Nonprofit Accounting

Provide leadership regarding accounting matters specific to nonprofit organizations, including:

• Contribution revenue
• Conditional and unconditional contributions
• Donor restrictions
• Net assets with and without donor restrictions
• Grant accounting
• Donated goods and services
• Functional expense classification
• Program, management/general, and fundraising expenses
• Restricted funds and releases from restriction
• In-kind contributions
• Special events and fundraising activities
• Earned-income activities
• Appropriate documentation and substantiation

The CAO should ensure that the accounting treatment reflects the actual substance of MAP's activities rather than simply the easiest way to record a transaction.

Internal Controls

Build and continuously improve MAP's financial-control environment.

This may include controls surrounding:

• Cash receipts and disbursements
• Bank access
• Purchasing
• Expense approvals
• Reimbursements
• Vendor setup
• Payment authorization
• Credit/debit card activity
• Journal entries
• Account reconciliations
• Revenue recognition
• Contributions and grants
• Restricted funds
• Financial-system access
• Documentation retention
• Month-end close
• Financial reporting

Where complete segregation of duties is difficult because of MAP's volunteer structure or organizational size, the CAO should identify the risk and establish appropriate compensating controls and independent review.

The goal is not bureaucracy.

The goal is to make errors, misuse, unsupported transactions, and financial irregularities harder to occur and easier to detect.

Accounting Policies & Documentation

Develop and maintain appropriate accounting documentation, including:

• Accounting policies and procedures
• Chart-of-accounts standards
• Month-end close procedures
• Reconciliation standards
• Journal-entry procedures
• Revenue-recognition guidance
• Expense-classification guidance
• Documentation requirements
• Approval matrices
• Accounting calendars
• Year-end procedures
• Financial record-retention practices
• Accounting-team SOPs

MAP's accounting knowledge should belong to the organization—not exist solely in one person's memory.

QuickBooks & Financial Systems

Provide leadership over MAP's accounting systems and related financial workflows.

Responsibilities may include:

• Maintaining an appropriate chart of accounts
• Improving accounting-system configuration
• Establishing user roles and access
• Reviewing bank-feed activity
• Maintaining appropriate classifications
• Strengthening reconciliation processes
• Improving supporting documentation
• Identifying duplicate, incorrect, stale, or unusual transactions
• Establishing reliable financial workflows
• Coordinating integrations with other systems where appropriate

Work with PromiseShield, PromiseStack, and other appropriate leaders regarding financial-system access, cybersecurity, privacy, and data governance.

Revenue & Earned-Income Accounting

As MAP develops publishing, merchandise, creative products, licensing, e-commerce, royalties, sponsorships, and other potential revenue streams, provide accounting leadership regarding how these activities are recorded and reported.

Work with MAP's legal, tax, finance, and executive leadership as appropriate on matters involving:

• Sales and earned revenue
• Royalties
• Licensing
• Cost of goods
• Inventory
• Sales tax
• Unrelated business income considerations
• Sponsorships
• Contributions versus exchange transactions
• Refunds and returns
• Payment-processing activity
• Revenue-sharing arrangements

The CAO provides accounting leadership but should not independently make legal or tax determinations requiring qualified legal or tax counsel.

Grants & Restricted Funding

Partner with PromiseGiving and program leadership to strengthen grant financial management.

Responsibilities may include:

• Reviewing financial terms of grants
• Establishing appropriate accounting treatment
• Tracking restricted funding
• Supporting grant budgets
• Monitoring expenditures against restrictions
• Reconciling grant activity
• Supporting financial grant reporting
• Maintaining appropriate supporting documentation
• Identifying potential compliance issues early

Fundraising records, accounting records, grant records, and program records should tell a consistent financial story.

Audit & Year-End Readiness

Build MAP so that audit and year-end preparation become ongoing disciplines rather than annual emergencies.

Responsibilities include:

• Maintaining organized supporting schedules
• Preparing reconciliations
• Supporting confirmations and documentation requests
• Coordinating accounting components of external audits or financial reviews
• Maintaining audit-ready records
• Tracking accounting findings and recommendations
• Developing corrective-action plans where necessary
• Following through on remediation
• Supporting preparation of information required for tax and regulatory filings

Work appropriately with independent auditors, accountants, tax professionals, legal counsel, and organizational leadership while respecting auditor independence and professional boundaries.

Tax & Regulatory Coordination

Support MAP's compliance with applicable financial reporting and tax obligations in coordination with qualified professionals.

Potential areas include:

• Form 990 preparation support
• State charitable filings
• Payroll-related reporting
• Sales-tax matters
• Unrelated business taxable income
• Contractor reporting
• Contribution reporting
• Financial information required for regulatory filings

The CAO should recognize the boundary between accounting leadership and legal/tax advice and escalate specialized matters when appropriate.

Build & Lead the Accounting Team

The Chief Accounting Officer is expected to build a strong accounting function rather than personally perform every accounting task.

Potential team structure may include:

Chief Accounting Officer

↓

Director of Accounting

Director of Accounting Audit / Internal Accounting Review

Accounting Team Lead

Senior Accountant

Staff Accountants

Bookkeepers / Accounting Assistants

Accounts Payable / Receivable Support

Financial Reporting Support

The exact structure should evolve with MAP's needs and available talent.

The CAO will:

• Recruit and onboard accounting volunteers.
• Establish clear responsibilities.
• Delegate appropriately.
• Review work proportionate to risk.
• Develop team members.
• Provide constructive feedback.
• Create appropriate backup coverage.
• Prevent critical accounting processes from depending on a single individual.
• Build future accounting leaders.

The objective is not to become MAP's accounting department. It is to build MAP's accounting department.

Financial Integrity & Ethical Leadership

The CAO occupies a position of significant trust.

They must be willing to raise concerns when something does not appear right—even when doing so is inconvenient.

The CAO should promote an environment where:

• Questions are welcomed.
• Documentation matters.
• Corrections are made transparently.
• Material issues are escalated promptly.
• Financial information is never manipulated to create a preferred narrative.
• Unsupported transactions are investigated appropriately.
• Conflicts of interest are disclosed.
• Organizational resources are treated as resources held in trust for the mission.

The CAO should never allow pressure for speed, fundraising, growth, or favorable results to override sound accounting.

Cross-Functional Leadership

The CAO will collaborate across MAP while maintaining appropriate financial controls and independence of judgment.

Key partnerships may include:

CEO / Executive Team: Financial reporting, risk, priorities, significant transactions, and organizational decisions.

PromiseGiving: Grants, contributions, donor restrictions, fundraising activity, and financial reporting.

PromisePrograms: Program expenses, grant-funded activity, budgets, and financial documentation.

PromiseOperations: Purchasing, vendors, reimbursements, administrative processes, and operational controls.

PromiseTrust: Legal, governance, contracts, regulatory matters, and organizational risk.

PromiseShield: Financial-system security, access controls, privacy, and data protection.

Cross-functional collaboration should improve decision-making without weakening financial controls or blurring accountability.

Executive Leadership Expectations

As a Chief at MAP, the Chief Accounting Officer is expected to:

• Attend weekly Chiefs meetings prepared to contribute.
• Meet regularly, including weekly as appropriate, with the CEO regarding priorities, challenges, risks, and opportunities.
• Take ownership of the accounting function by setting direction, solving problems, and driving progress.
• Communicate regularly with Directors and accounting-team members.
• Establish measurable priorities and follow through on commitments.
• Surface significant accounting, control, compliance, or financial risks early.
• Help recruit, develop, support, and retain volunteers.
• Build a healthy, accountable, mission-driven team culture.
• Collaborate constructively with fellow Chiefs and organizational leaders.
• Exercise independent professional judgment when financial integrity is at stake.
• Model accountability, confidentiality, integrity, respect, and sound stewardship.
• Keep MAP's mission at the center of financial decision-making.

Ideal Candidate

Strong candidates may have experience as a:

• Chief Accounting Officer
• Controller
• Assistant Controller
• Director of Accounting
• Senior Accounting Manager
• Audit professional
• Nonprofit accounting leader
• CPA or senior accounting professional
• Finance executive with substantial technical accounting experience

The strongest candidates will demonstrate:

• Significant accounting leadership experience
• Strong knowledge of GAAP
• Understanding of nonprofit accounting and financial reporting
• Experience with month-end and year-end close
• Financial statement preparation and review
• Account reconciliation and general-ledger oversight
• Internal-control design and evaluation
• Audit preparation and coordination
• Strong technical accounting judgment
• Experience with QuickBooks Online or comparable accounting systems
• Ability to build policies, procedures, and accounting infrastructure
• Strong analytical and problem-solving ability
• Ability to communicate financial matters clearly to non-accountants
• Experience leading and developing accounting teams
• High ethical standards and professional judgment
• Commitment to MAP's mission

CPA designation is strongly preferred but not required if the candidate demonstrates substantial accounting expertise and leadership experience.

Experience with nonprofit organizations, grant accounting, restricted contributions, Form 990 support, and growing organizations is highly valued.

What Success Looks Like

Success means MAP can answer fundamental financial questions confidently and with supporting documentation.

• Monthly closes occur consistently.
• Bank and balance-sheet accounts are reconciled.
• Financial reports are timely and reliable.
• Restricted funds are properly tracked.
• Transactions are appropriately documented.
• Accounting policies are written and followed.
• Internal controls become stronger.
• Leadership understands significant financial issues.
• Problems are identified early.
• Audit and year-end records remain organized.
• Accounting knowledge is distributed across the team.
• Team members understand their responsibilities.
• Financial systems can support MAP's continued growth.
• The accounting function becomes less dependent on any single individual.

Ultimately:

MAP should be able to trace every meaningful number back to a defensible financial record—and explain what that number means.

Why This Role Matters

Every dollar entrusted to Mentor A Promise carries responsibility.

Some dollars come from people who believe in the mission.

Some may come from institutions expecting MAP to fulfill specific commitments.

Some support programs, technology, books, creative work, operations, or the people and infrastructure required to serve children effectively.

Accounting is how an organization creates a reliable record of that responsibility.

When accounting is weak, leadership makes decisions with incomplete information, risks remain hidden, compliance becomes harder, and trust can be damaged.

When accounting is strong, the organization can grow with greater confidence.

The Chief Accounting Officer helps make that possible.

Protect the integrity of the numbers, and you help protect the integrity of the organization.

Commitment

• Approximately 5–10 hours per week
• Minimum 6-month commitment required
• Remote within the United States
• Weekly Chiefs meeting participation
• Regular meetings with the CEO
• Regular communication with accounting leadership and team members
• Active leadership and development of the accounting function
• Consistent follow-through on financial reporting, controls, and accounting priorities
• Completion of applicable MAP onboarding requirements

What You'll Gain

• C-suite accounting leadership experience within a growing nonprofit organization
• Opportunity to build and strengthen an accounting function
• Direct collaboration with MAP's CEO and Executive Team
• Experience strengthening nonprofit accounting, internal controls, financial reporting, and audit readiness
• Opportunity to recruit and develop accounting professionals
• Exposure to a growing organization with traditional charitable funding and emerging mission-aligned revenue activities
• Opportunity to help establish systems and standards that can serve MAP for years
• Professional references and letters of recommendation
• The opportunity to apply deep accounting expertise directly to an organization serving children and families

How to Apply

Interested candidates should apply directly through Idealist and submit:

• Resume or CV
• Cover letter
• Relevant accounting credentials, including CPA designation if applicable

Applicants should describe their experience with accounting leadership, nonprofit or fund accounting, financial reporting, internal controls, audit readiness, and building or improving accounting processes or teams.

This is a volunteer, unpaid executive leadership position with Mentor A Promise.

At this time, MAP volunteer opportunities are limited to individuals based in the United States due to legal, data-privacy, compliance, operational, and organizational requirements.

Build the controls. Strengthen the team. Protect the numbers. Steward the mission.