Birch Lake Insights: Paying It Forward Through Leveraging Your Expertise Into High Yield Social Impact

By Pauline Chow

Science tells us that we are biologically reinforced to be useful to others. Developmental psychology demonstrates that even young children display helping behaviors. Toddlers as young as 12-18 months will spontaneously help adults pick up dropped objects — without being asked or rewarded. These behaviors appear before social conditioning, suggesting an innate drive toward cooperation and care. Adults still carry the same wiring, but modern systems often separate work from visible impact. Many jobs obscure how work impact others, or measure success only in financial terms. The instinct to help does not vanish — people often rediscover it later through volunteering or mission-driven work.

As an investor and financial advisor, we are trained to look beyond the present moment. We analyze risk, build structure and help organizations make decisions that support value creation and long-term growth. What is often overlooked is how powerful these same skills can be when applied to nonprofit associations and charitable organizations. For groups driven by mission rather than profit, strong financial guidance is a catalyst for sustainability. Nonprofits operate in a world of constrained resources and rising expectations. Donors demand transparency, boards demand accountability and communities depend on consistent service. Your financial acumen and experience position you to help nonprofits meet these demands with confidence.

Budgets That Translate Mission into Action

A nonprofit budget is more than a spreadsheet — it is a strategic expression of values. Too often, budgets are built reactively, based on last year’s numbers rather than future goals. Financially sophisticated investors and professionals can help nonprofits adopt disciplined, forward-looking budgeting processes that align resources with mission priorities. By introducing program-based budgeting or more rigorous variance analysis, you help leadership understand which initiatives deliver the greatest impact per dollar. This clarity supports better board decisions, improves accountability and ensures limited funds are deployed where they matter most.

Projections That Enable Intelligent and Intentional Planning

Uncertainty is constant in the nonprofit sector. Funding cycles fluctuate, donations are seasonal and expenses rarely wait. Financial projections and cash flow modeling are invaluable tools in this environment. Your ability to model best-case, worst-case and most-likely scenarios allows nonprofits to plan instead of reacting. With clear projections, organizations can time hiring decisions, manage reserves and avoid cash crises before they occur. These tools also elevate board conversations, shifting them from short-term survival to long-term sustainability.

Capital Formation and Fundraising Strategy

Nonprofits raise capital differently than for-profit businesses, but the principles of capital formation still apply. Financially competent and experienced leaders bring discipline to fundraising by helping organizations understand true program costs, overhead requirements and the long-term implications of restricted versus unrestricted funds. You can help leadership articulate compelling financial narratives to donors, showing how contributions translate into measurable outcomes. You can also assist with pricing sponsorships, structuring campaigns and setting realistic fundraising targets. When fundraising is informed by sound financial analysis, it becomes more strategic.

Audits and Financial Controls: Building Credibility

Many nonprofits struggle with financial oversight—not because of poor intentions, but because of limited expertise or capacity. Experience with audits, internal controls and financial reporting can immediately strengthen an organization’s foundation. Helping prepare for an independent audit, improve documentation, or establish clearer controls reduces risk and improves governance. Just as importantly, it builds credibility. Grantmakers, institutional donors and regulators rely on clean audits and transparent reporting. When a nonprofit demonstrates financial discipline, it sends a powerful signal: this is an organization that can be trusted with capital. Your guidance helps create that trust.

Leveraging Relationships In Your Network

Many nonprofits underestimate the value of institutional relationships and personal networks. Your experience working with other entrepreneurs, corporate leaders, capital providers and vendors can open doors to better terms, new financing options and stronger partnerships. Whether it is establishing a line of credit to manage timing gaps, negotiating vendor contracts or evaluating financing for facilities and equipment, your insight reduces cost and risk. These relationships help nonprofits operate more like well-run enterprises—without compromising their mission.

Why This Matters

Using your financial background to support nonprofits is not about charity alone — it is about stewardship. It is an opportunity to invest expertise where it can produce outsized returns in stronger organizations, more resilient communities and missions that endure. By serving as a trusted advisor on boards and finance committees, you turn professional experience into lasting impact. You help ensure that good intentions are supported by sound financial strategy. And in doing so, you reaffirm the highest purpose of leadership: creating independence rather than dependence which ensures your impact lasts beyond your involvement. As we look ahead to the art of the possible around the optimism and enthusiasm of the New Year, resolve to pay it forward to a nonprofit whose mission resonates with you and whose viability and sustainability may quite literally depend on your intervention.

Pauline Chow is a Managing Director and Principal at Birch Lake specializing in collaborating with founder-led businesses to develop strategies for value creation, sustainable growth and social impact. She has been featured in The Secured Lender’s Women In Secured Finance series for exemplifying excellence and distinguishing herself in the industry. Pauline is a member of the Global Executive Board of the Turnaround Management Association, where she serves as the Vice President – Finance and on the Operations Committee. She is a member of the Advisory Board of VALCON, the annual business valuation conference co-sponsored by the American Bankruptcy Institute and the Association of Insolvency & Restructuring Advisors, and will co-chair VALCON 2026. Pauline also serves on the Breakthrough Board of the Cancer Research Foundation (formerly the University of Chicago Cancer Research Foundation Women’s Board) which supports breakthrough cancer research initiatives at UChicago Medicine with strong potential to save lives.