“Before working with Chickadee, I recognized the core need for financial accountability and oversight, but lacked the expertise and systems to achieve that. I chose Chickadee for their responsiveness, flexibility, and experience – especially with the nonprofit sector.”
Client Snapshot: Legal Advocates for Nature’s Defence (LAND) is an Ontario-based environmental law non-profit founded in 2023 with a staff of three lawyers. Their mission is “advancing access to justice in Northern Ontario, to protect nature and Indigenous sovereignty.” They do this by providing pro bono legal support to Indigenous land rights defenders in Northern Ontario: individuals and communities that are most impacted by climate and environmental injustices. They incorporated in 2023 and hired Chickadee in 2024, when they were at the end of their start-up phase and moving into intensive financial growth.
THE GAP & CRITICAL NEEDS
LAND had successfully applied to multiple major funders in their first years as an organization, and were just beginning an intensive financial growth phase. Knowing this was a crucial point for the team and operations, the Executive Director (ED) Kerrie reached out to Chickadee for support. Kerrie founded LAND with deep knowledge of the legal infrastructure in Canada for land rights, and a dedication to social and environmental justice. However, like many nonprofit leaders, she recognized the need for expert accounting support to maintain the rigour she sought to uphold for the nonprofit.
Like most nonprofits, LAND’s funders each had different requirements for spending and tracking, and LAND was tasked with staying on top of all their different needs. Additional capacity burdens were put on Kerrie and her team to make sure LAND’s funders got all the information they needed. LAND’s team built basic finance and grant tracking as they went. But once they started tracking every dollar by funder in QuickBooks Online, it was clear they needed to simplify the grant tracking process so staff could spend less time on admin and more time delivering programs. This was a huge job, as LAND had 40 different funders in 2024, supplying over $150K. As a result, LAND’s Chart of Accounts (their list of income and expense categories) and monthly bookkeeping reports quickly outgrew the team’s capacity to code, maintain cash flow reports, and be responsive to new granting opportunities. LAND recognized this capacity need would only grow as they brought in new funders.
CHICKADEE’S APPROACH
Chickadee immediately saw that the cause of their frustration was trying to force a non-accounting grant tracking framework into an accounting framework, and we got to work on cleaning up the coding for their transactions. LAND needed Chickadee to establish a unified approach to grant tracking and reporting, in addition to regular monthly bookkeeping. Over 2 months, we worked with Kerrie to reduce their over 300 income and expense categories into 12 income and 18 expense categories. We also identified their most critical project and grant tracking needs, then migrated that information into areas of QuickBooks that would allow LAND’s operations to scale up.
Simplifying LAND’s Chart of Accounts was our first and most important goal in their eight month Onboarding period. Multiple meetings over the first few months helped us to understand which grants were priority for detailed tracking, as well as how best to align with the CRA’s rules. With this information, Chickadee made sure that the redesigned tracking system satisfied both funders’ requirements, federal requirements for reporting and the organization’s motivation for accounting rigour and oversight. We then aligned the launch of LAND’s new accounting design with the beginning of their fiscal year, for a clear and smooth transition.
Throughout the rebuild process, Chickadee shared best practices for financial operations, grant tracking, and grant reporting. Kerrie was open to learning, and asked great questions about how financial decisions are made, what policies can support those decisions, and how LAND can build better relationships with funders over time with their new systems.
Example of LAND’s Chart of Accounts – simplified (left ) vs. the original (right):
THE TRANSFORMATION
Cue: massive growth! One full fiscal year after their updated Chart of Accounts and grant tracking system, LAND’s operating budget grew from $150K to $600K. Supported by better grant tracking due to Chickadee’s work, they were able to build a relationship with a multi-year stakeholder who committed to two years of funding of $250K each, plus a third year of $100K.
The customized system that Chickadee built with LAND has simplified grant tracking and made reporting easier, which builds trust with stakeholders. Instead of 40 smaller funders, they are able to approach larger funders with more complex requirements so they can maximise their impact.
Chickadee has also lightened the busy ED’s workload during grant reporting season. Since our bookkeepers track expenses by grant on a monthly basis, Kerrie can simply pull up the numbers when it’s time to write the final reports.
Chickadee is particularly proud of our education piece: it is highly rewarding to see Kerrie and LAND’s program staff feel more empowered with financial decisions as they scale up. We are excited to have assisted this wonderful organization in their massive growth phase, and thrilled to continue supporting them to realize their mission!
“I know I have found my fit with Chickadee! They understand who we are, how we practice and why. I can rely on them, feel secure, and supported knowing our financial systems are set up for growth. Our staff can focus where our organization most needs it. Numbers do tell a story, and I am incredibly thankful!”
Take to Your Finances Like a Duck to Water
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