Workshops and Facilitation | A Bookkeeping Cooperative

We believe that financial education is a powerful tool for organizational success and social change. We aim to build collective confidence around financial decision-making rooted in the wisdom of participants.

Workshops

We facilitate customized financial education workshops for cooperatives, nonprofits, businesses, fellowship cohorts, organizing and capacity-building groups. We design our workshops to address the needs of each group we work with. Contact us to share your specific challenges and learning goals.

For past and upcoming public workshops, see our events page.

some example online workshops:

Length: 2 hours

Developing confidence and clarity around financial resources in our organizations is crucial as we continue to build and fight for a just world. We’ll go over basic financial concepts and the four most common reports: Profit & Loss, Budget, Cash Flow Projection, and Balance Sheet. We’ll also share ways to use these tools to put your values front and center in your organizations. This is an interactive workshop designed for people at all levels of comfort with organizational finances. Whether you feel totally fluent and are looking for ways to more clearly communicate around finances with others, or are an absolute beginner, you are welcome.

Learning goals:

Strengthen understanding of financial reports and how they interact with organizational values
Increase understanding of basic financial terminology
Increase understanding of 4 different financial reports (budget, cash flow, profit & loss, balance sheet) and what information they hold
Increase confidence in asking finance questions
Share experiences, templates and resources
Have fun!

Length: 2 hours

How do we plan for multiple futures in uncertain times? What are our financial goals and values? How can we make budgeting processes more accessible so we can become more powerful together? We will share templates and examples of an organizational budget, ways to present information to your team, and tools for engaging groups in financial decision-making. This workshop is infused with solidarity values and gives time and space for participants to support each other and share their wisdom.

Learning goals:

Strengthen understanding of budget and cash flow and how they interact with organizational values
Increase understanding of basic financial terminology
Increase understanding of budget, cash flow and what information they hold
Increase confidence in asking finance questions
Share experiences, templates and resources
Have fun!

Length: 2 hours

Budgets and budget creation are key elements of both financial management and values alignment. In this workshop, we approach budgets as tools for both group planning and evaluation and as a support for mapping more just futures. We’ll ground ourselves in a basic understanding of what a budget is, discuss how it relates to governance and accountability, and share ways to engage your entire organization in the process. Using a mix of both presentation and hands-on interactive examples, we’ll explore how to use your budget as a living document to guide planning and accountability throughout the year.

Learning Goals:

increase understanding of how to create an organizational budget
strengthen ability to assess the viability of a budget
build confidence in asking finance questions
have fun!

Length: 2 hours

What is success? How can we create shared definitions of success and build alignment around our financial priorities? This workshop supports a group to examine conventional metrics of success with a critical eye, and then define its own metrics of success that integrate the group’s statement of purpose, vision statement, and values. The group will generate a list of success statements that they can then use in their budgeting conversations.

Length: 2 hours

How to ask questions, what questions to ask, and how to engage people in financial information and decision-making is a puzzle for any organization. We’ll share some tools and tips for keeping things interesting and involving members of your group in meaningful and fun ways. There will be charts, scavenger hunts, and games!

Facilitation

Finance discussions can get complicated. Having facilitation support can help you move forward together with more ease and clarity. ABC can work with you to facilitate money-related sections of your meetings and retreats and bring grounding education and games as needed to engage everyone involved.

Annual Budgeting Process Facilitation: ABC can support your organization’s budgeting process from start to finish so that your whole group can participate more fully. Sessions can include: Building Alignment on Definitions of Success, Generating Financial Priorities, Understanding My Organization’s Finances, Collaborative Budgeting, and Scenarios planning for different future possibilities.

Rates

Our standard rate for Workshops, Training, and Facilitation is $275/hour (including preparation, delivery, and follow up). Info on our solidarity rates is here.

Get in Touch

ABC is operating 100% remotely for the duration of the Covid-19 crisis.
This means that:
ABC will not have any workers travel for work.
ABC will not hold any in-person internal or client meetings.
ABC will not plan any in-person workshops or trainings.

We will maintain this policy in alignment and solidarity with the Peoples’ Strike Demand: “No return to work or end to physical distance until health experts determine it is safe.”