Mark B Lackie CPA

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I am the executive director of NOWCastSA, a nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism news local website in San Antonio, Texas. We do a lot of live streaming, even before Zoom, and some people compare us to a local system.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Mark B Lackie, PC?

I needed a lot of help for accounting and bookkeeping. I was not sensitive to our 990s because we haven’t existed as an organization since we filed them in 2010. The most important thing for me is that our financials and 990s be transparent to donors. In addition, people could see how and where we spend our money, so they can make decisions about us as a credible, trustworthy nonprofit.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Mark (Owner) does a number of different accounting and bookkeeping tasks, including helping me reconcile our books. He has taken care of a very important and big deliverable: our annual IRS 990 tax forms, something nonprofits are required to file every year as a report of the organization with numbers and descriptions. We post them and made them on our website for people to examine.

We are a tiny organization with a lot of contractors and freelancers. Mark is also taking care of my annual 1099, which is the tax form file for contractors.

Additionally, Mark gets us a better deal for our QuickBooks because he is a certified QuickBooks nonprofit. I subscribed through him.

What is the team composition?

We have one main point of contact, Mark.

How did you come to work with Mark B Lackie, PC?

I needed to get a personalized service of someone who was kind, patient, and interested in a small firm. I also wanted to learn accountable activities. I believe I put a question among other nonprofit executive directors and leaders, and I found Mark.

He probably got the job because he said that our “about page” was his dream page for a nonprofit, so he shared it with other nonprofits and showed them how to do it. He mentioned that we are a news nonprofit organization, so transparency and accountability are as important as the “about page” on our website.

How much have you invested with them?

We have spent less than $5,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

The collaboration started in October 2016 and it’s still ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

Mark made me realize that I wasn’t taking into consideration the volunteers of our organization because they weren’t part of the payroll. When I started listing and adding up the hours of time of volunteers. 

The number of volunteer hours calculated by the 990s made a big impact on me and on the nonprofit in terms of valuing people — Mark said that we could value volunteer time at $25 per hour. We were able to appreciate the contributions that volunteers made toward the organization, and I understood why they make the process special. 

How did Mark B Lackie, PC perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate mostly by email and sometimes by telephone. Mark is always very responsive if I have a crisis or a question.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Mark helps me meet the deadlines. He made a good effort filing the 990 tax form on time and they remained to have a good standing with the IRS. Mark met our obligations in terms of disclosure to donors.

He has a wicked, wonderful sense of humor. For a guy who deals with numbers, he really enjoys puns and messed up newspaper headlines.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there aren’t any areas where Mark could improve. 

Any advice for potential customers?

If you need help as a nonprofit organization, I highly recommend Mark.