Cat Kiesel Email & Phone Number

I have been in the bookkeeping/accounting field since 1997. The first seven years was spent in a property management company where I mastered all of that position's job duties/skills available and decided a change of scenery was warranted. In 2004 I was hired on at Community Foundation for Southern Arizona (CFSA) where I fell in love with the nonprofit world.While at CFSA, I have worked from Accountant, to Senior Accountant, to Accounting Manager. I have learned about the various accounting intricacies specific to community foundations (including fund accounting, FASB accounting, GAAP accounting, and annual audits). I have been able to grow into a managerial role where I not only get to apply my love of time management and efficiencies but I also get to manage, develop, and coach staff.I have been through two database conversions where I have assisted with clean up, dual entry, mapping, reverse-engineering, trouble-shooting, and etc. and have been a power user for each of these databases, always joining teams to continue to develop the database and processes.I firmly believe in process efficiencies and have always led the department's SOPs process.When the department needed to hire three additional staff, I hired,trained, and coached each one while also coaching a fourth. We not only stayed on top of the day-to-day items but also brought month-end processes down from two weeks to three days.CFSA administers approximately 250 annual designated grants that require due diligence, database entry, and check writing. I worked with/coached a single staff person to create efficiencies bringing the process down from six months to three months.During the 2020 COVID pandemic, I created electronic processes to go paperless so that our staff could work remotely. We still use these processes to work hybrid. (includes electronic folder organization, file naming conventions, and etc)I have led the CFSA annual audit for my entire tenure here. During this time, I developed a "fun" approach to audit with an annual theme to boost staff mood and to get full staff participation (outside of the finance department). The auditors have actually appreciated and enjoyed it as well. Themes we have utilized are Circus, Pirates, and Alice in Wonderland.