Hybrid Senior Project Accountant – Nonprofit

Community Initiatives – Oakland or Los Angeles, CA (Hybrid) About Community Initiatives

Community Initiatives is a nonprofit service organization with offices in Oakland and Los Angeles, providing over 150 nonprofit projects with fiscal sponsorship services including tax‑exemption, accounting and financial oversight, risk management and insurance, legal compliance, grants management, payroll, and human resource services.

Our fiscally sponsored projects (FSPs) represent a wide range of nonprofit sectors––including arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services, and public affairs. While many of our projects are in the San Francisco Bay Area and Los Angeles County, others operate in various states and international locations. This is currently a hybrid role working at least one day/week in our office in downtown Oakland or downtown Los Angeles.

The Senior Project Accountant position is an advancement from the Project Accountant (PA) position and in addition to embracing PA duties, includes several additional tasks. The position recognizes the tenure and knowledge that a PA has developed and provides opportunities for the employee to develop the additional skills needed to advance further in and help lead the organization. Here are some key attributes desired for this role:

• Strong foundation and knowledge of nonprofit accounting and the ability to transfer this knowledge to others, both fellow employees and clients/projects.
• Skilled in client‑facing discussions, particularly with larger (>$500K revenue) projects including the ability to effectively communicate accounting to non‑accounting personnel.
• Skilled in handling customer service issues including de‑escalating situations and developing resolutions with minimal additional support from managers.
• Share in performing tasks also done by their managers such as payment platform processing (which may require significant research).
• Ability to help lead as well as identify projects such as process improvement or systems implementation.
• Train new PA’s and be a mentor to other PA’s to help resolve their issues (indirect supervision).

This is a hands‑on growth position responsible for the accurate and timely provision of accounting services to support and enhance Community Initiative’s projects, which are the equivalent of clients. This role requires two key skills; one is a strong foundation in nonprofit accounting and the second is client‑facing experience, specifically the ability to effectively communicate accounting to non‑accounting project personnel. The role will have a positive working relationship with our Client Services Team as well as provide support for other positions within the administrative section of the organization.

The position reports to the Assistant Controller.

Key qualities we seek are candidates who are qualified staff accountants plus proven customer service skills. Specifically, candidates must be comfortable speaking with leaders of supported projects, some of whom may have an MBA or Ph.D., and some who have much less financial literacy. Experience working with nonprofits is a strong plus and having hands‑on experience with our general accounting system Intacct is also valuable.

Experience with online payment platforms is a plus.

• First contact for clients regarding finance and accounting issues
• Explains financial statements to clients that have limited or no understanding of them
• Compiles and analyzes client financial information including annual budget data
• Develops revenue/expense analyses and reports
• Ensures financial information has been recorded accurately
• Performs reconciliations of all accounts, including balance sheet accounts
• Prepares balance sheets, profit and loss statements and other financial reports
• Builds financial models to predict future revenue and expenses to help with financial planning working directly with our clients.
• Prepares project portfolio and company‑wide journal entries
• Supports the accounting month‑end close process
• Prepares special reports as requested by the Clients and Finance and Accounting Team
• Analyzes revenue and expenses for…