Yvonna Stevens, Chief Financial Officer & EVP Finance, International Youth Foundation
The IFR4NPO Country Champion in USA, Yvonna Stevens recently hosted a meeting for anyone with an interest in non-profit financial reporting. We asked Yvonna to share her reflections.
We have seen positive interest in the project so far, particularly considering all that is going on at this time. Participants mentioned being excited about several benefits of the initiative, notably consistency, comparability, and efficiency.
US based grantors to entities abroad have huge influence over the accounting and reporting of their grantees, and the project has been hearing voices from all over the world imploring grant makers to get behind this initiative for their sakes. Also INGOs with HQ in US and offices around the world will be impacted. Because domestic non-profits follow FASB Guidance, this project has less direct immediate relevance to NPOs here, much is FASB is looking to contribute to and learn from the international collaboration and input from US based stakeholders in particular.
A key takeaway is that we have a unique opportunity to have diverse perspectives and input included to inform the development of this Guidance to ensure it meets our needs. We should actively participate in the consultation process kicking off in 2021.
I learned that in addition to international non-profits, I want to do more to intentionally seek out increased participation of community-based, small and BIPOC-led NPOs in the USA to ensure that they are included and their voices and perspectives inform this transformational initiative.
We are so grateful to Yvonna Stevens and all our Country Champions for their wonderful voluntary service in reaching out to stakeholders all over the world! You can find details of the meeting, including a video recording here.
