The Asian Pacific Islander Chapter of PFLAG San Gabriel Valley was founded in 2013 to support PFLAG, the first and largest organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for LGBTQ+ people and their families. The API Chapter’s goal is to promote inter-generational and inter-ethnic dialogue among Asian, Asian-American, Pacific-Islander, Southeast Asian, and South Asian LGBTQ+ people and their families and friends.
Recently, the group set out to overhaul its accounting system to better track funds and prepare more targeted reports for taxes and grants. Their first move was to approach Jericho Road Pasadena for expert help. JRP connected them with Mila Milivoievici, CPA, Financial Analyst for the City of Industry.
Mila’s first move comprised four steps: convert the Chapter’s data from Google sheets to Quickbooks; overhaul its accounting system to follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP); set up custom reports; train leadership to use the new system.
Mila enjoyed the challenge. “It’s great to be able to help PFLAG API with something that will be beneficial to them in the long term,” she says. “Quickbooks is easy to use and has a lot of automated functions, which will help them cut data entry and maintenance time and use the information in more effective ways.”
Chapter President Stacia Kato, proud mother of a transgender daughter, is a Senior Business Analyst with the Capital Group. “I found Mila to be a very good match for us,” she says. “She was patient, yet direct with me when she needed to be. I appreciated her leadership, her skill, and her enthusiasm for this work.”
Stacia says the process will make it easier for the Chapter to produce meaningful financial reporting, better steward its funds, and transition Treasurer leadership more seamlessly. “It will allow us to be clearer about our budget, our spend, our need to fundraise, and other critical financial issues,” she says. “Our collaboration was a huge benefit to the organization and a learning experience for me. I’m grateful to JRP for bringing us together.”
Thanks to volunteer Linda Taubenreuther for writing JRP social media posts!