For Karin MacBride, the new director of finance for United Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks, the bottom line has always been an interest in much more than just the bottom line.

"With accounting, there's always the basics — preparing the financials, paying the bills, doing the audits," MacBride said as she sat at her desk in the federation's Lawrenceville office. "But every position I've had has extended beyond the accounting role. I've been very involved on the business side, and I would hope to accomplish that here also.

"In all the roles I've had, I've been the person who crossed between the financial side and the business side of the organization," she said. "It makes you more marketable — being able to understand how to take the financial data and make it useful to the business people so they can make more educated decisions. In a broad sense, that's what I've always done, seeing the needs and being able to step in and fulfill that."

On the job at federation since June, MacBride brings to her role a solid background as a CPA. After graduating from Rider University in Lawrenceville, she held a number of responsible positions in the corporate world — as controller and chief financial officer of CashFlex, a remittance processing company in Langhorne, Pa.; as senior vice president of finance for American Business Financial Services, a sub-prime mortgage company in Bala Cynwyd and Philadelphia; and as chief financial officer for Talley Management, a company for nonprofits in Mount Laurel. She lives in Moorestown with her husband, Mark, a mechanical engineer, and their 15-year-old son, Dylan.

"My expertise is really taking small companies and growing them," she said. "That's my strength. I'm able to help business people understand how the decisions they make impact the financials of a corporation."

Her work at Talley opened up a window onto the world of nonprofits, MacBride said, and she began looking for a position that would not only offer her more flexibility to spend time with her family but also give her an opportunity to give back to the community.

"Being with an organization that worked with nonprofits opened up for me a view of nonprofits and how what you did had a direct impact on people," she said. "When you're raising money in a nonprofit and giving it right to a program, you can see how the work you've done helps other people. It's rewarding.

"For me, it begins to become about legacy," she said. "When I look back at my life, I want to see what I've done and what impact it's had. I'm hoping to have done something that will better the world. I guess I want to be able to look back and feel that my life has had some meaning — that I helped somebody, sometime, somehow."

When the position opened up at federation, MacBride said, she could see that it was a good fit. "Going back to my strengths in helping companies to grow," she said, "I could see how at federation I could use my past experience to help them get to the next level."

As federation's director of finance, MacBride is responsible for preparing the financial statements and budget, as well as the year-end audit and the funds distribution report. In addition, she handles the payroll, helps with day-to-day system issues, assists with computer programs, updates software, and makes sure that federation is in compliance with state regulations.

Beyond that, MacBride is researching user-friendly donor-database software for federation and exploring the possibility of writing personnel and accounting manuals for the organization. "There's really no history I can find about how we do these things," she said. "It's all there, but it's just in people's heads. It's not written down.

"I want to make things less cumbersome and more efficient, and bring in technology to make people work smarter, not harder," she added. "I bring a new perspective that there's other ways of doing things."

MacBride also hopes to bring her perspective to the campus project — realizing the dream of establishing a Jewish Community Campus of Princeton Mercer Bucks.

"One of the reasons I was interested in coming here was the whole campus project," she said. "If you're going to truly grow the federation to encompass a campus, you're talking about involving more people. You're talking about raising a lot more money. So I'm hoping to be able to take some of the knowledge I have in growing a business to be able to offer some insights on how they can be more productive in their ability to serve the community."

In all of these endeavors, MacBride said, she knows the work will be rewarding.

"I think that's where I am right now — wanting to be able to have an impact," she said. "I think there's a huge potential for this organization to be able to raise more money. I'm feeling really positive about it. I can see the potential."