Girls Who Code is an international nonprofit committed to closing the gender gap in technology.
Feargus Legett, Chief Financial Officer of Girls Who Code, and Rosie Keegel-Idigbe, Grants and Contracts Manager, discuss the organization’s strategic partnership with BTQ Financial, a division of Consero Global, and how leveraging BTQ Financial’s expertise has allowed Girls Who Code to focus on its core mission.
Nonprofit Challenges
Nonprofits operate with limited budgets, directing most resources toward programming rather than overhead functions such as finance and accounting.
Other key challenges include:
- Budgetary constraints
- Attracting and retaining quality financial staffing
- Managing complex grants and government contracts
“Nonprofits have lean budgets… resources are constrained for things like finance and accounting that are part of overhead. From a financial management perspective, that presents a real challenge,” says Feargus.
Why Girls Who Code Chose BTQ Financial as a Finance & Accounting Partner
Girls Who Code’s partnership with BTQ Financial, now over three years strong, has provided expertise, technology, and scalable services tailored to their needs.
- Access to high-level financial talent
- Technology platforms enabling effective sharing of financial information across stakeholders
- Scalability of financial operations aligned with organizational growth and needs
“Our partnership with BTQ Financial has really allowed us to tap into talent. We’ve also been able to access technology and a platform that allows the sharing of financial information across the organization to all stakeholders,” noted Leggett.
Key to Success: Effective Communication
Leggett and Keegel-Idigbe emphasized the importance Girls Who Code and BTQ Financial place on effective, ongoing communication to ensure a successful partnership.
- Continuous engagement through Zoom, Slack, and weekly meetings
- Seamless integration, making BTQ Financial feel like part of GWC’s internal team
- Dedicated internal liaison managing the engagement
“I’ve been really impressed with how seamless the communication has been. We’re constantly on Zoom calls.”
“We slack each other all the time… and I found just that constant flow of communication to be really effective for our collaboration,” says Keegel-Idigbe.
Enhancing Decision-Making Through Data
Outsourcing financial functions to BTQ Financial has notably improved GWC’s decision-making capabilities through access to accurate and timely financial data.
- Availability of crucial metrics such as cost per student, overhead rates, and actual program costs
- Better budget stewardship thanks to transparent, up‑to‑date numbers
“BTQ’s Finance as a Service has really helped Girls Who Code enhance its decision-making through accurate data and timely data,” said Feargus.
Additional Tips for Successful Outsourcing
When outsourcing a critical function like finance & accounting, Legett advises that organizations don’t necessarily need extensive finance expertise, but they do require operational insight and internal advocacy.
- An operations-minded internal champion who deeply understands the organization’s operations, goals, and staff
- Ability to provide outsourced teams with necessary organizational context for successful integration and collaboration
“You don’t need to be a CFO… what you need to be is an operations-minded person that really knows the organization inside out,” offered Legett.
Why consider BTQ
Girls Who Code’s three‑year partnership with BTQ Financial shows the power of outsourcing finance for mission‑driven organizations.
“(BTQ) established relationships with key stakeholders here and they feel a lot like part of the organization as opposed to an external vendor,” said Legett.
BTQ was founded to serve nonprofits exclusively with grant compliance, donor transparency, and program‑centric reporting.
- Mission alignment: BTQ measures success by the social impact its clients deliver, not by billable hours.
- Nonprofit‑specific tool kit: Workflows, dashboards, and controls are pre‑configured for restricted funds, federal grants, and board‑level reporting.
- True partnership model: Dedicated teams embed with staff, speak the language of programs, and flex capacity up or down with the funding cycle.
- Freedom to focus: With back‑office complexity handled, executives can redirect time and dollars toward advancing core programs and advocacy.
Take the next step: If your nonprofit is juggling multiple grants, stretched finance staff, or delayed data, schedule a discovery call with BTQ Financial. A brief conversation could reveal how a mission‑driven finance partner can help you amplify impact.