Phase 1: Compliance Rescue & Organizational Stabilization
Reversing existential compliance failures and rebuilding operational integrity from the ground up
After joining a faith-based nonprofit in Cleveland in 2017, I moved to the role of CFO in 2018. I inherited an organization on the verge of losing its 501(c)3 status — with years of unfiled 990s, unpaid workers compensation obligations, and charitable solicitation registrations missing across approximately 14 states. Working concurrently across multiple regulatory fronts, I stabilized the organization, resolved active enforcement exposure, and rebuilt its financial and compliance foundation.
What Made This Complex
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501(c)3 status at immediate risk of revocation due to multiple years of unfiled 990 returns
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Concurrent active compliance exposure with the IRS, Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation (BWC), and secretaries of state across approximately 14 states
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Disorganized financial records with over-generalized entries in Quickbooks — had to update three years of financial records from source documents that existed only as unsorted bags and boxes of uncoded receipts
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Staff composed primarily of mission-driven individuals with very limited business, financial, or compliance backgrounds
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A partner organization had already lost its tax-exempt status, requiring a separate reinstatement process
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No established systems, processes, or institutional knowledge to build from
How I Approached It
Rather than treating each compliance failure as an isolated problem, I mapped the full scope of organizational exposure before prioritizing action. The organization needed triage, not just fixes — and the sequence of interventions mattered as much as the interventions themselves.
Prioritized:
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Immediate assessment of 501(c)3 revocation risk and filing timeline requirements
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Physical reconstruction of financial records from unsorted source documents to support three years of 990 preparation in coordination with an external accountant
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Concurrent engagement with the IRS, Ohio BWC adjudication process, and multi-state charitable solicitation registration
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Successful abatement of over $14,000 in IRS failure-to-file penalties
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Grace-forward communication and education with well-intentioned staff who lacked compliance awareness
Constraints & Tradeoffs
Every workstream was urgent simultaneously. Prioritization required judgment about which exposures carried the greatest organizational risk, while managing the reality that the staff responsible for day-to-day operations had no frame of reference for regulatory compliance. Moving too fast risked errors in filings that could deepen exposure; moving too slowly risked escalating enforcement action. The work required technical precision and relational patience in equal measure.
Outcome
Over the course of several months in 2018, resolved all active compliance exposure across the IRS, Ohio BWC, and multi-state charitable solicitation requirements. The 501(c)3 status was preserved. Over $14,000 in IRS penalties were abated. Workers' compensation obligations were resolved through adjudication. A partner organization's revoked tax-exempt status was subsequently reinstated in 2020–2021. The organization emerged from the stabilization period with a functional compliance foundation for the first time in its history.
Prior to departure, I trained my successor — a capable administrator who has since assumed the interim Executive Director role — and collaborated with him on a forward-looking strategic framework for the organization. I also established the architectural standards and initial framework for a Notion-based single source of truth for organizational policies and operational information. The tool consolidation and broader rollout to organizational staff was underway but not yet complete at the time of departure.
What This Illustrates
Organizational rescue under pressure requires mapping the full system before acting — and the discipline to work multiple critical fronts simultaneously without losing sight of the human context surrounding the technical failures.
Phase 2: Operational Systems & Workflow Modernization
Building practical data and workflow systems from the ground up in a resource-constrained nonprofit environment
Following the compliance stabilization of a faith-based nonprofit in Cleveland, I designed and built a suite of operational applications on the Zoho Creator low-code platform to replace fragmented manual processes, improve organizational visibility, and support a staff of mission-driven individuals with very limited technical backgrounds. The work began with a registrar and client engagement system for a newly launched education and resource center serving immigrants, and expanded across the organization's core operational functions.
What Made This Complex
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Staff of 14 operating across diverse functions with very limited technical backgrounds
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No existing data infrastructure — operations ran on disconnected tools, spreadsheets, and manual workarounds
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Reporting to national leadership relied on metrics reconstructed from memory rather than reliable data systems
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Volunteer teachers and external volunteer teams required systems accessible to non-organizational users
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Evolving operational needs required a platform flexible enough to grow without requiring constant rebuilds
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Resource constraints demanded practical, maintainable solutions over technically sophisticated ones
How I Approached It
Rather than purchasing off-the-shelf solutions that staff wouldn't adopt or that couldn't reflect operational realities, I researched low-code cloud-based database platforms and selected Zoho Creator with Deluge scripting as a flexible, customizable foundation. I built each application around how people actually worked, prioritizing adoption and usability over technical elegance.
Prioritized:
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Designing around actual workflows rather than imposing new ones on non-technical staff
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Building a registrar and client engagement system as the initial foundation for the education and resource center
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Expanding to donor management, community operations, workflow automation, and financial helper tools
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Developing volunteer coordination tools including pre-trip registration, waiver collection, invoicing, dietary requirements, and skills inventory for ministry placement
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Creating reporting infrastructure that generated reliable, consistent metrics for national leadership visibility
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Maintaining simplicity and adaptability as organizational needs evolved over time
Constraints & Tradeoffs
The central tension was between capability and adoptability. A more technically sophisticated solution might have provided greater functionality but would have exceeded the capacity of a non-technical staff to use and maintain. Every design decision prioritized practical daily usability over impressive architecture — because a system nobody uses solves nothing. Building on a low-code platform also meant working within its constraints, requiring creative use of Deluge scripting to bridge gaps between what the platform offered natively and what operations actually required.
Outcome
Delivered a suite of operational applications used by 14 organizational staff and volunteer teachers across education, resource center operations, donor management, volunteer coordination, and community engagement functions. For the first time, national leadership had access to clear, reliable metrics on community impact, volunteer hours, people served, and partner organization engagement — replacing the nonprofit sector's common practice of reconstructing impact data from memory. The systems remained in active use throughout my tenure and formed the operational data backbone of the organization's reporting and day-to-day functions.