Richard A. Cole

Rick has more than 25 years of experience serving nonprofit organizations. He is Forvis Mazars’ Nonprofit and Education Industry Leader for the New York Metro Area, and is a member of its Higher Education Center of Excellence, which is an internal committee focused on addressing issues important to the higher education industry. Rick focuses on audits and advisory services for nonprofit and higher education organizations. 

Before joining the firm in 2019, he worked at FASB, where he served as a supervising project manager for almost six years. In that role, he was the project manager on Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-14, Presentation of Financial Statements of Not-for-Profit Entities; ASU 2018-08, Clarifying the Scope and Accounting Guidance for Contributions Received and Contributions Made; and ASU 2019-03, Updating the Definition of Collections. He also was coordinator for FASB’s Not-for-Profit Advisory Committee and Private Company Council. Prior to joining FASB, Rick was vice president and controller at a large national museum in New York for seven years and a senior manager with a large international accounting firm where he worked for 14 years and specialized in audits of higher education institutions and other nonprofit organizations. 

Rick was a member of the AICPA’s Not-for-Profit Entities Expert Panel. He is a lecturer at Columbia University School of Professional Studies, in their Nonprofit Management program. He also has been a frequent speaker with NACUBO, EACUBO, the AICPA, and various state CPA societies. He is a CPA in New York and New Jersey and is a member of the AICPA and New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants.

Courses:

• NOPM PS5320: Nonprofit Financial Management