Everyone in finance wants to feel that their job has a purpose and contributes to the greater good, whatever industry or sector. But for those in non-profits, that purpose is even more tangible since the finance operations of nonprofits are almost always directly tied to Americans that are most in need.
In a recent How I Got Here discussion, FEI’s Olivia Berkman spoke with Judson Center’s Lenora Hardy-Foster about her career in finance for nonprofits. The Judson Center has been serving southeast Michigan for nearly 100 years with services for abused and neglected children and local residents with developmental disabilities, severe emotional impairments and autism spectrum disorder.
Below are highlights from the discussion.
Providing Critical Non-Profit Services During the Pandemic
There were a couple programs that were very challenging that we could not serve, and live autism would've been one because it requires face to face encounters. We provided virtual services to the parents of those children to help them because we didn't want the child to fall behind. Those in-person autism services were completely closed for about three months.
As soon as we got the okay here in the state of Michigan we could at least – with some type of modification – reconvene some face to face. That was one of the first programs that we opened back up and the children were so happy to return.The training and all of the clinical treatment that we provide really helps make a difference in the life of a child with autism. So we pivoted and we did everything that we could to make sure the people we serve were still receiving the services that they needed.
Getting Out of The Numbers “Comfort Zone”
On Moving From CFO to CEO
The number one benefit of having a CEO that was a CFO is that they clearly understand the financial position of a business. They understand what experience in all of the financial tools, from developing budgets and how different service lines or divisions are tracking revenues and expenditures. A CFO can bring a lot of knowledge to the table as a CEO.
You can always have a CEO from the business and products side, but they don't understand the financial side as much as a CFO and they can also bring risk into the company.