The National Association of Black Accountants Is Where Black People in Accounting and Finance Find Scholarships, Firms and Networking Opportunities

If you are working in accounting or finance, you should check out the National Association of Black Accountants.

Why it was founded explains what it does now. When nine Black financial professionals started the association in New York in December 1969, there were 136 African American CPAs in the entire country out of roughly 100,000. NABA set out to change that number. Everything it offers today still comes back to the same three obstacles: paying for the credential, reaching the firms that hire, and knowing someone already inside.

The credential help is the most immediately useful. Applicants accepted into its Diversifying the Accountancy Pipeline Program receive CPA exam prep at no cost and can sit for the CMA exam free, which removes the largest expense on the path to those letters.

Scholarship money runs alongside it. NABA says it awards over 150 a year, ranging from $2,500 to $10,000, and that it has given more than $11 million to students since the program began. Because its membership page lists student membership at no cost, a student can join and apply for that money in the same week.

The network is what members talk about longest. NABA counts over 32,000 members across more than 150 professional and student chapters, and the chapter is where a student meets the manager who forwards their resume, and where an accountant several years in finds the people who know which firms actually promote.

Its regional conferences put students in front of recruiting firms with on-site interviewing, and its corporate partners include the Deloitte Foundation, EY, CLA and the Center for Audit Quality, which has committed $1 million over five years to HBCU student support. For members already working, there is continuing professional education and Spectrum Live e-learning plus a career center with talent matching.

Membership details are at nabainc.org/join.