Charitable work 

By Tom Arnold

Being charitable is paying off for CAs, as organizations seek skilled board members with finance accounting, IT and general business backgrounds.

Nathan Reeve, director of accounting at Ontario Power Generation, sits on the board of Rainbows Canada as treasurer and says that being a board member provides him with the opportunity to tap into new and underused skills. “It certainly strengthens the résumé,” he says. Reeve, who breaks down the organization’s finances “into manageable chunks” for other board members, calls the experience “incredibly rewarding” — the No. 1 reason he and others opt to extend their expertise into the boardroom.

According to William Pace, chief development officer at Altruvest Charitable Services (which launched Boardmatch.org in 2000), many seeking board positions do so to give back to the community. Gord Beal, a principal in continuing education at the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) agrees. Beal, who sits on the board of Project Canoe, says: “My whole experience [as a board member] has been great. It has helped me build confidence in my own abilities and what I can contribute.”

Thanks to such industry demand, operations such as Boardmatch.org and the CICA’s Directors Source (www.directorssource.com) have launched national online sites catering to professionals hoping to attain board positions. It specializes in matching charities to professional help. It caters to professionals wanting nonprofit board positions and has linked more than 1,500 executives, including more than 75 CAs, with nearly 450 charitable organizations in sectors such as the arts and health. Directors Source, on the other hand, finds experts for both for-profit and not-for-profit boards. “Directors Source is managed by the CICA, exclusively for CAs and was developed in response to a growing need for directors with finance backgrounds,” says John Tabone, CICA’s manager of innovation.