shift ed
CASE STUDY:
shift_ed’S GROWTH FUELED BY FRACTIONAL CFO SERVICES OF GOOD STEWARD FINANCIAL COMPANY
Executive Summary
In its early years, shift_ed relied on a fiscal agent to run the books and pay the bills. With no bank account and no formal budget to keep the finances in check, cash flow was limited. In 2019, Wendy Poteat stepped in as the President and CEO and immediately recognized the need to structure the financials and incorporate fiscal accountability.
She reached out to Good Steward Financial Company, LLC, for assistance with designing a budget, itemizing income and expenses, and getting the books in order to allow for 990 reporting. In the years since Good Steward’s role has continued to expand as the needs of the organization have grown.
Today, the Good Steward team functions as a fully outsourced accounting department, with Jasmine S. Galloway operating as a fractional CFO. They manage all of shift_ed’s finances, including payroll. As a result, the organization’s financial records now reflect its overall professionalism. With predictable cash flow and significant reserves in place, shift_ed has multiplied its impact time and again and now operates with a multi-million-dollar budget, reaching more students than ever before.
“THE MORE MONEY WE RAISE, THE MORE PEOPLE WE CAN HELP. WE’VE STARTED LOOKING AT OUR FINANCIALS FROM A BUSINESS MINDSET INSTEAD OF A DEFICIT MINDSET.”
WENDY POTEAT, PRESIDENT & CEO
The Story of shift_ed
The mission of shift_ed is to boldly impact student potential. Located in Greensboro, NC, the organization is making strides by providing support services for Guilford County students from kindergarten through college.
Creating a continuum of care for students with different pathways to social mobility, the tax-exempt business focuses on equity, striving to first help those who need the most support. However, any Guilford County student in need of assistance with high school, college access, or college readiness may qualify. In the Fall of 2023, shift_ed is also expanding to serve students in Forsyth County with future plans for expansion into both Randolph and Alamance Counties.
As a backbone organization, shift_ed is not a direct services provider.
“We run about 15 programs,” says Poteat. “We go into the community and find organizations that are doing work really well… with just a few kids. We invest our revenue into those companies, create contracts between our organization and those companies, and scale their programs to a larger size.”
The Challenges Facing shift_ed
Because shift_ed had depended on a fiscal agent for financial management, the organization had also struggled to maintain adequate cash flow, which stifled its potential for growth.
“I was doing financials, I was doing payroll — all things I should not have been doing,” says Poteat. “I was also trying to run the organization and grow it. But we needed checks and balances. We were paying invoices when they came in. There was no one to tell us what we had coming in and what was going out. We were just trying to stay ahead, and it became too much. We couldn’t grow.”
Why shift_ed Chose Good Steward Financial Company
One of shift_ed’s board members recommended Good Steward to Poteat. He also sat on the board of Cone Health when the health services provider was planning to merge with another. To prepare for the merger, Cone Health had vetted a number of financial agencies to choose who would handle the transition once they merged. Although the merger never took place, the health services provider had chosen Good Steward Financial Company.
“After talking with the Good Steward team, choosing them made perfect sense,” says Poteat.“Because the largest health system in our community had already vetted them, we didn’t have to. IfCone Health was going to trust Good Steward to do the books for a major medical conglomerate, surely we could trust them to help us. At the time, we were a very small nonprofit.”
How Good Steward Financial Company Responded
Good Steward’s team came in and did an excellent job of putting reporting mechanisms in place for shift_ed’s Board of Directors. They trained the staff in basic accounting and cash flow.
“Good Steward cleaned up two years of our books, taking them from the kind of homemade, piece meal bookkeeping that we had to professional financial records,” explains Poteat. “They set up our QuickBooks and attached our bank accounts — all things we didn’t know how to do — and built the foundation for us to grow.Today, we have financial dashboards that allow the Board to see what’s happening in real time and provide the accountability we’d needed.”
“Good Steward Financial Company built the foundation for us to grow. We’ve seen a 300% increase from year-to-year revenue.”
Wendy Poteat, President & CEO
The Results
The services of Good Steward Financial Company have fueled the explosive growth shift_ed has experienced since 2019.
“We’ve seen a 300% increase from year-to-year revenue,” says Poteat. “We have less than 1% turnover rate. When I came here, there were two full-time employees, myself, and a part-time office manager. We’ve grown to 14 full-time employees and three contracts. The organization previously served about 1,000 students each year. Our numbers from 2022-23 are right at 16,000 students.
