Hi, I’m Jericha! I’m an accidental arts accountant. I started as a part-time bookkeeper when I was a young artist just trying to make ends meet. If you had asked me fifteen years ago if I wanted to work in finance when I grew up, I would have laughed out loud…but here I am. Over the years, I shifted from plain bookkeeping to working more and more on the systems, tools, and concepts that make up most of nonprofit finance. These days, most of my work centers on making the core pieces of the financial puzzle less stressful and more accessible for other arts & culture workers.

As an artist myself, I understand firsthand what it’s like to try and advocate for your work, and the stresses of trying to fit your unique story into the rigid form of grant budgets and for-profit accounting software. As a consultant who’s worked with hundreds of individuals and organizations, I’ve seen over and over again the ways in which arts & culture workers are almost never given the resources, technology, systems, or support they need to succeed, even though they’re constantly expected to know more about finance and budgeting than most for-profit businesses are. I’ve seen how the lack of access to relevant, accessible tools & training creates widening equity gaps in funding and resources. And my goal is to change that, whenever and wherever I can.

MY APPROACH: FINANCE AS A TOOL FOR ADVOCACY

At the core of my approach is the plain fact that I love helping people bring their creativity and vision into the cold world of finance. Finance is essentially storytelling with numbers, a useful tool for articulating your dreams and helping you course correct when things don’t go as planned. At its best, it’s a strong and solid tool to help you advocate for the incredible work you’re doing. And while I firmly believe that no amount of financial training can solve structural inequality or magically overcome the challenges that artists face under capitalism, I also believe that artists have more than enough brilliance, insight, and creativity to make finance work for them once they get the support and tools they need, instead of the other way around.

As a consultant, I bring this conviction to the coaching, accounting support, and financial empowerment training I provide to the amazing artists, arts & culture organizations, fiscally sponsored projects, and funders I am privileged to work with. My  clients include theater and dance companies, orchestras and choirs, visual artists, drag performers, clowns, arts service organizations, social practice artists, fiscal sponsors, grantmakers, and more. Whether you’ve got a tiny project or a million-dollar organization, I’m here to make financial work feel less of a burden. (If I do a really good job, you might even find it exciting.)

WHAT I DO

If you’re getting started with a new project or organization, struggling with half-working systems or incomprehensible tools, navigating internal transitions, or just trying to thrive and make art under the constraints of capitalism, I can help you understand and articulate your needs and work with you to design systems that genuinely support you and the vision you’re bringing into the world.

If you’re an individual artist, I offer coaching & support calls that focus on budgeting as a tool for dreaming, help you set up systems to manage your expenses and get ready for tax time, and share tips and suggestions for approaches that might work for you. (I don’t offer individual tax preparation, as I’m not a CPA! But I have compiled some tax resources for individual artists here.)

If you’re with an organization, I offer a wide range of services, including budget creation and oversight; tailored Quickbooks installation and maintenance; staff and board training around bookkeeping, using and leveraging financial tools and reports, and demystifying financial jargon; restructuring & cleaning up existing accounting systems to better meet your needs; budgeting tools, tips, and templates; and help with complex financial questions, audit and tax prep, restricted income tracking, grant management, fiscal sponsorship, and much more.

I also support fiscally sponsored projects who need help with financial management or want to get the most out of their sponsorship, as well as funders and grantmakers seeking to increase the equitability of their funding process.

Finally, I’m currently in the planning stages of a couple of larger-scale special projects that I hope will have lasting impact in the nonprofit sector. If you’re interested in hearing more about what I’m up to, feel free to sign up for my newsletter!

WHO I AM THE REST OF THE TIME

When I’m not helping clients or getting on and off my soapbox about the lack of financial resources for arts & culture workers, I’m usually cooking, dancing tango with my husband, wandering around in the woods with my foraging basket, or working on designing large, strange, dreamy immersive spaces.