May 1, 2017

Haskayne prof starts new accounting volunteering program for not-for-profits

The Student Accounting Volunteer Initiative (SAVI) is looking for partner organizations

SAVI is off to a strong start with overwhelming numbers of students interested in participating in the new pilot program. The Student Accounting Volunteer Initiative (SAVI) will provide not-for-profit organizations in Calgary up to 12 hours per month of volunteer accounting support from 3rd and 4th year accounting students.

Students will benefit from seeing the application of their skills in a real world environment and learning about operations from within a not-for-profit.  They also gain valuable volunteer experience to put on their resumes.  Organizations have an opportunity to receive free accounting support from senior undergraduate students for such standard accounting tasks as journal entries, preparing cheques, recording deposits and reconciling bank statements. 

“The inspiration for SAVI came from serving as treasurer on a small non-profit board,” says Mark Anderson, the Richard F. Haskayne OC FCA Chair of Accounting at the Haskayne School of Business.  “I could see that there were many things that I could do that would be valuable for the organization — cash flow projections, budgets under different scenarios, sensitivity analysis — but time is always at a premium so I ended up spending my time on the must-do things like annual reports and AGLC audits.  I thought about how our students could contribute and get valuable experience at the same time.”

Students volunteers can choose to participate from March to December or September to April. Volunteers attend a required training session and will have an industry mentor and Haskayne accounting prof to support them.

“The response from students to this program has been outstanding,” said Jennifer Krahn, director of the Canadian Centre for Advanced Leadership in Business, a partner on the initiative. “We were hoping to engage perhaps four students in an initial pilot, however after several classroom presentations we have more than 60 students signed up to attend an orientation about the program. I believe we are seeing the high value students place both on practicing skills they are learning as well as giving back to the community.”

The program launches in the fall 2017 semester and are still looking for organizations to get involved. Interested not-for-profits must have an office location and the organizations must provide clear assignments, training, direction and supervision to their student.

Krahn adds that the program offers students the opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way within the community early in their careers.  Using the skills they learn at school, they will see both the value of their growing expertise and how it they can use it to support community initiatives. It also gets students involved in their profession in a meaningful way even before they begin a full-time career, potentially building a habit of contribution to the not-for-profit community.

“We believe that members of not-for-profit organizations will have a valuable impact on our students. They bring vision, experience and a passion for what they do  and we believe this is an important contribution to our students,” she said.

To apply or learn more, please contact Program Administrator Lorina Rigaux.