Children’s Healing Art Project
CASE STUDY:
CHILDREN’S HEALING ART PROJECT (CHAP) BENEFITS FROM ALL-IN-ONE FINANCIAL SERVICES OF GOOD STEWARD FINANCIAL COMPANY
Executive Summary
For 10 years, the Children‘s Healing Art Project (CHAP) had relied on a small bookkeeping firm for financial services. When Barb McDowell stepped in as CHAP‘s executive director in 2018, she had no reason to question the services. The firm got her up-to-speed on the state of the nonprofit‘s finances and provided ongoing stability.
A few years later, the bookkeeper the firm had assigned to CHAP decided to leave the company to focus on her family. When she left, CHAP found itself in a difficult place—with no one to oversee the organization‘s finances.
That’s when McDowell reached out to Good Steward Financial Company, LLC. The team surprised her with just how quickly they learned the organization, its terminology, its programs, and its financial needs. Today, CHAP is back on track, with an executive director who can fully devote her time to leading the nonprofit while Good Steward facilitates the finances.
The Story of CHAP
CHAP’s mission is to bring the healing power of art to children who are facing medical or mental health challenges. It’s the only non-profit organization in Oregon dedicated to bringing the healing power of art directly to children and families facing any medical challenges.
Services include weekly hospital visits, art clubs at the CHAP studio for kids who aren’t in the hospital, and support for families through art and creativity. No matter the diagnosis, disability, or mental health challenge a child is facing, the CHAP team finds joy in serving them.
“We visit hospitals. We do outreach. We have art clubs here at our art studio, and we support the families too,” says McDowell. “The work we do is a joy.”
“THE BIGGEST FACTOR IN MAKING OUR DECISION TO GO WITH GOOD STEWARD WAS THAT THEY KNOW NONPROFITS.”
Barb McDowell
Executive Director
The Challenges Facing CHAP
For about 10 years, CHAP worked with a small bookkeeping company that had assigned a remote bookkeeper to their account. When she left the company, the remaining staff no longer could continue servicing CHAP.
“With the previous bookkeeper, there was a lot of continuity,” says McDowell. “It was like our finances ran on autopilot. The bookkeeper was terrific to work with. She knew us well. When I joined CHAP, she trained me to get me up to speed on the financials. But when she left, it was really difficult. Things on my end needed to either just stop or I needed to figure out how to make them happen —how to run reports, how to get everything that was needed to our board of directors for our monthly meetings. It was all very challenging.”
Why CHAP Chose Good Steward Financial Company
Before choosing Good Steward, McDowell spoke with one other nonprofit executive—someone she knows personally who’s also connected to Good Steward—and several other bookkeeping services.
“I interviewed them, and Jasmine was terrific,” says McDowell. “I love that Good Steward only focuses on nonprofits. That was a big selling point for me because nonprofit financial management is so different from for-profit bookkeeping. I’d talked to some startups that would have cost less, but I didn’t want to risk them not knowing nonprofit management. Talking to Jasmine left me feeling a sense of calm because she was confident that her team could get up to speed quickly. They knew exactly what they were doing.”
How Good Steward Financial Company Responded
Because CHAP had been without a bookkeeper for four months, the nonprofit had a backlog that needed attention.
“The team moved quickly to enter everything,” McDowell explains. “We talked about how to communicate the accounting codes so we know where everything either comes from or goes into. They set up a shared document that I can go into any time to log our petty cash or problem-solve issues that come up. Before working with GoodSteward, we’d been doing so much on paper and then scanning the paper for the bookkeepers. It’s been amazingly helpful to have the books so organized. Good Steward also issues invoices, something we’d been doing by scanning a piece of paper with the invoice information on it. Now, our organization looks more together and more professional.”
“IT’S AMAZING TO ME HOW QUICKLY THE GOOD STEWARD TEAM LEARNED OUR TERMINOLOGY AND OUR PROGRAMS. THEY GOT UP TO SPEED QUICKLY.”
Barb McDowell
Executive Director
The Results
Since working with Good Steward Financial Company, CHAP has found its rhythm again, freeing Executive Director McDowell to run the organization without concerns about the state of its finances.
“The Good Steward team is amazingly responsive,” says McDowell. “They pay close attention to the details and keep us organized. They go in and get the reports they need when they need them. With Good Steward, it’s one-stop shopping for all our financial services.”
