The Challenge: Advancing Social Change with Limited Resources
Dream Machine Innovation Lab is a nonprofit organization that unites diverse changemakers to address social justice issues. They bring together “unlikely allies and overlooked communities” to tackle problems like poverty, prisons, pollution, and polarization while creating educational initiatives such as their AI Library Project, which brings AI learning to libraries across the country.
When Dream Machine launched in 2023, they faced a common challenge for growing nonprofits: they needed professional financial management to track program expenses and maintain compliance properly. Still, they lacked specialized accounting expertise in their small team.
“When we started, we were a very small team with maybe 10 or less employees,” explains Emily Frappier, Director of People and Finance at Dream Machine. “We knew that no one on the staff had the skill set needed to create monthly financials.”
Finding the Right Solution
The Dream Machine team recognized they needed external accounting support but wanted a solution that would scale with them without paying for unnecessary services.
“I researched different firms that did accounting support and had calls with three different organizations,” Frappier recalls. “The account representative from indinero was very responsive, answered all my questions, and made it clear we could adjust our plan to what we needed.”
This flexibility was crucial for Dream Machine, who needed core bookkeeping and financial reporting but not higher-level services initially. “We knew we didn’t need a high-level CFO at that moment. We wanted to make sure we weren’t paying for services we weren’t going to use.”
The Partnership in Action
Dream Machine established a collaborative workflow with indinero that divides financial tasks efficiently:
- Frappier handles initial documentation through their bill payment system (Ramp)
- Indinero takes over for professional review, classification, and reporting
- Together, they developed a custom financial reporting template for the leadership team
This partnership addresses several critical needs for the nonprofit:
Program Expense Allocation: “We look at every expense to make sure it’s being booked to the correct program. The main thing we like to do is make sure we’re not carrying a heavy admin expense.”
Salary Allocation: “Allocating staff costs into different programs has been something that would have been difficult for me to manage. With indinero’s knowledge and expertise, it’s simple for them to take the breakdowns I give them and allocate the salaries.”
Monthly Financial Reporting: “indinero helps pull everything together into reporting so I can get it to the leadership team. This helps us track our monthly burn and income and determine if we need to make cuts.”
Measurable Benefits
For Dream Machine, the partnership with indinero delivered several concrete benefits:
Cost Efficiency: “If we didn’t have indinero, we would have to hire for the position or have a contractor. It isn’t really a full-time job, so we’d be paying for benefits and other costs that wouldn’t make sense.”
Time Savings: “Having support in financial operations has allowed me to focus on other areas more in line with my skill set. If I had to work more on the finance side, I would have to learn a lot more about financial management processes.”
Access to Specialized Expertise: “indinero is an organization with people who have varying degrees of expertise in different areas. Depending on what challenges come up, someone on their team will be able to help.”
Nonprofit-Specific Knowledge:
“They’re looking at it through a nonprofit eye because the people working on my account specifically have nonprofit expertise. When things come up regarding grants or how to book certain items, that specialized knowledge is invaluable.”
Looking Forward
As Dream Machine continues to grow, it anticipates expanding its engagement with indinero to include more strategic financial planning services.
“My role is shifting, so I think the organization is going to need someone at a higher level on the finance side,” notes Frappier. “We’ll likely be engaging with indinero for budget forecasting and other strategic financial services.”
The Bottom Line
For small to mid-sized nonprofits like Dream Machine, outsourced accounting provides professional financial management without the overhead of full-time financial staff. With indinero’s scalable services, Dream Machine found a partner that could grow with them from basic bookkeeping to more complex financial planning.
“I would definitely recommend this type of outsourcing as opposed to just hiring a bookkeeper or contractor who focuses on one thing. This setup means I can access people with different levels of expertise in different areas, and it’s been very helpful.”
