Carol Wilson didn’t set out to be a teacher. She set out to make sense of the numbers, and to bring order to the financial chaos that nonprofit organizations often face.

As co-founder of Care Accounting Services, Carol has spent over two decades helping nonprofit leaders build accounting systems that are not only accurate, but understandable.

Now, along with her business partner Carrie, she runs Nonprofit Accounting Academy, an online training program that helps non-profits and their accountants translate complex financial standards into practical, clear, mission-aligned tools.

What’s unique is that it’s not just information and templates. It’s a learning community that continues to emerge and grow around the needs of the participants.

Their work isn’t just about compliance — it’s about connection, alignment, and clarity.

They spotted the challenge that went beyond their specific clients.

They didn’t start with online courses & a community-based website. Like many creators (and clients of ours), they started with direct services in their local community.

When Carol and Carrie started Care Accounting Services, she already had deep experience in nonprofit leadership. But what set her apart was her excitement for the unique challenges of nonprofit accounting. Focusing on a niche opened up a lot of possibility, because patterns start to emerge.

“They need information sliced and diced in so many different ways… it just explodes into a very complicated system very quickly, and a lot of people don’t know how to get their arms around that.”

From charitable gifts to grants to earned income, nonprofits often have multiple sources of income. And they also have the additional challenge of public accountability, requiring proof to the donors that funds have been used as intended.

More importantly, at the heart their work, and now teaching, is a deeper insight that good accounting requires more than math. It requires communication.

“Before you can build a chart of accounts, you have to ask: What does this organization actually do? How do we describe it? What’s our mission? Sometimes these conversations are quite revealing. It gets everyone on the same page.”

“We look at more than the numbers — we read the mission, the website, the old 990s. You have to understand the whole picture before you can build a framework that works.”

Today, they’re expanding their work with Community-Based Courses

Their website brings together executive directors, board members, and staff to define the programs, revenue sources, and impact that form the foundation of their financial systems.

And in their online community, people can meet each other and learn together. This is the highest form of impact and trust. The community breaks through the isolation of being a specialist. Members can share experiences, challenges, and solutions.

This year, Carol is building something new: her first cohort-based course on building financial dashboards for nonprofits. Designed to help executive boards better engage with their organization’s finances, the course focuses on high-level visual storytelling.

“Boards are often asked to read financial reports that are disorganized or too detailed. Dashboards give them the big picture — are we on track? Are we meeting our goals?”

Carol is also experimenting with ways to build relationships among learners. From live courses to “pop-up communities,” she’s creating spaces for nonprofit finance professionals to learn from each other.

“I want people to make connections. To see that they’re not alone in this. That’s where the real transformation happens.”

For Carol, the work is personal.

At this point in her career, she’s not looking to grow a big bookkeeping business anymore. Her focus is on teaching the next generation of nonprofit accountants with the kind of insight she wishes she had when starting out.

We’re lucky we get to be part of supporting Carol and Carrie in achieving this vision by providing website and marketing support. We can’t wait to share more updates about their programs!