Charities Pool Resources to Get Discounts on Accounting and Other Services

When Katherine Morrison took over last May as interim executive director of a charity in Washington that provides services to domestic-abuse victims, she learned quickly she needed to cut administrative costs.

Hit by the economic downturn, the group — Women Empowered Against Violence — had used up its reserves and was in debt. “The programs were pretty well funded,” Ms. Morrison says. “The administration was not.”

Ms. Morrison turned to Back Office in a Box, or BOB, a new program of the Center for Nonprofit Advancement, a coalition of more than 800 charities in the Washington metropolitan area. BOB offers low-cost finance and accounting services to the center’s members, connecting them with professionals who can perform tasks like financial reports, invoices, and tax filings for as low as $40 an hour.

Ms. Morrison persuaded the board that it would be more cost-effective to pay for services as needed than to have a full-time accountant on its staff. The group eliminated that position, along with a contract with a part-time certified public accountant, and turned to BOB. The new approach is expected to save the organization nearly $100,000 this year, says Ms. Morrison, who now works as interim executive director at another nonprofit group.

Glen O’Gilvie, chief executive of the Washington center, says 14 groups have so far signed up for BOB and dozens more are working on proposals. Services are provided by Easy Office, a group in Boise, Idaho. BOB clients get discounted rates, access to a certified public accountant on the center’s staff, and training and workshops.

Mr. O’Gilvie says the center had been planning BOB for about a year before it started five months ago, but “the recession certainly accelerated the pace at which we moved to bring it into fruition.”

Next month, the center plans to introduce a similar program for nonprofit human-resource services.