Our nonprofit is seeking a volunteer to provide a financial statement review so that we can continue focusing our resources on closing the school readiness gap through educating parents and caregivers rather than overhead expenses. We are a two-person nonprofit that exceeded the $300,000 threshold this past fiscal year but remained below $500,000.

EPEL (Elgin Partnership for Early Learning) is an early childhood community collaboration in Elgin, Illinois. EPEL is a community-driven collaboration dedicated to promoting positive early childhood outcomes in the Greater Elgin Area. Only 24% of children enter kindergarten with needed readiness skills. EPEL was formed to lead the work of changing the early childhood community system that works for all families not just some. We work to ensure that families have access to equitable early learning programs and resources, fostering smooth transitions from birth to kindergarten to help close the school readiness gap for future best outcomes in life. Formed in 2012, we operate with a collective impact model to realize our vision: that all young children and their families in the Greater Elgin Area have equitable opportunities to thrive.

As a small early childhood collaboration with two employees, EPEL is 90% grant-funded, requiring us to manage a tight budget while prioritizing our mission. After surpassing the $300,000 threshold in growth this past year, we now require an audit to maintain compliance. We are seeking an accounting firm or CPA to perform this audit so that we can continue focusing our resources on closing the school readiness gap, rather than on overhead expenses. Grant funds are very project/solution-oriented and not for audits and other needs that non-profits need to write for additional funding. EPEL contracts an accounting firm that does our monthly financials but the firm doesn't perform the reviews. The collaboration has all receipts, expenses, and related materials for an audit organized in Google folders therefore we don't think our audit will take as long as most organizations.