Charlottesville, Virginia

The Organization

The Community Foundation was established in 1967 with a mission to improve the quality of life in Charlottesville and the surrounding counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa, Nelson, and Orange. This region of more than 310,000 people includes a variety of rural and urban environments, and is home to a complex, and at times, deeply painful American history. The region’s changing demographics present opportunities for greater inclusion, and the Community Foundation is deeply committed to being a community-centered, equity-forward organization that ensures our region is one where everyone can belong, contribute, and thrive. As a tax-exempt, nonprofit public charity, the Community Foundation works with local residents, nonprofits, and public and private organizations to facilitate philanthropy through several hundred donor funds and scholarships while making local investments through its own discretionary resources.

The Community Foundation provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristics protected by federal, state, or local laws. This applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruitment, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, leaves of absence, compensation, and professional training. We encourage applications from candidates who have lived experience with the social challenges that we seek to address and with the communities that have experienced adverse effects of unequal social and economic systems.

Position Overview

The Charlottesville Area Community Foundation is seeking a Director of Finance to play a central role ensuring the Community Foundation maintains strong financial health, sound fiscal stewardship, and organizational integrity and compliance in order to deliver on our mission to improve quality of life as a community-centered, equity-forward organization. This role works closely with two other accounting professionals who execute thousands of transactions annually and ensure accuracy, compliance, and timeliness. The careful and expert oversight of our financial and accounting functions enable the Community Foundation to reliably facilitate the philanthropy of generous contributors and to ensure the sustainability of our assets to deliver on our mission now and into the future. Our community members, particularly those marginalized by unequal systems, are counting on us to make a lasting difference through our partnerships and programs so that we can become a region in which all people can belong, contribute, participate, and thrive.

The Director of Finance helps ensure our foundation can keep our commitment to leave our community a more inclusive and equitable place for those who come after us. We are looking for a team member whose financial acumen, attention to detail, knowledge of leading financial and accounting practices, and analytical skills are coupled with a deep connection to social progress, personal integrity, and skilled supervision.

Our team believes that candidates who demonstrate and seek to develop the following qualities will find our organization an environment in which they can thrive:

1. Growth Mindset – to be willing and able to grow and change and do things differently. Go beyond what training or experience or upbringing has taught us and be open to having what we think we know challenged. Be humble, curious, and open-minded to explore ideas or opportunities that are new to us.
2. Innovation Orientation/Sense of Possibility – to bring to the work a “how can we” or “how could this be possible” as opposed to “we can’t” mindset. We can be in legal and ethical compliance and also question the way things have always been done and our assumptions about them in service of making change and progress.
3. Authenticity & Vulnerability – to be able to bring yourself and share yourself with the team. While we each can make choices about personal boundaries and parts of our lives and selves that we prefer to keep private, we can be genuine and true to ourselves with each other. This is crucial to building trust.
4. A Spirit of Solidarity & Differentiation – to recognize and value our shared fate and invest in each other’s success. At the same time, we appreciate each person’s uniqueness and do not equate experiences or assume that having similar identities (such as race, gender, or position) makes us the same.
5. Direct Communication – to speak our own truth and listen deeply to each other in order to really negotiate and engage in genuine relationships. We give and receive feedback thoughtfully and respectfully, recognizing that this is critical for individual and collective growth and accountability.
6. Responsibility for Learning – to do the personal work to dismantle internalized ideas about self and others, to see the larger system and our individual locations in it, and work together as effective change agents.

Role and Responsibilities

The Director of Finance reports to the President & CEO and has primary responsibility to oversee and direct financial, accounting, auditing, and budgeting activities. The Director of Finance ensures excellence in financial and asset management and oversees organizational compliance with relevant laws and tax obligations. The Director of Finance partners closely with other colleagues across the team to ensure that the foundation’s programs and social impact activities have the financial resources and sustainability to achieve their strategic goals.

Responsibilities include:

• Ensuring the accounting function, including accounts payable and gift processing, follows leading practices and generally accepted accounting principles; establishing systems to ensure the analysis and monitoring of financial activity
• Developing and maintaining internal financial management policies and procedures, performance measures, and dashboard.
• Ensuring compliance with all applicable financial, accounting, legal, and regulatory requirements and leading-practice standards
• Ensuring a system of strong internal controls; developing and overseeing changes when necessary
• Analyzing, interpreting, and effectively communicating financial data and information to internal and external stakeholders
• Overseeing the development of monthly, quarterly, and annual financial statements and financial analysis; ensuring the timely reporting of investment activity to donors and fundholders
• Ensuring accurate and timely investment reconciliations and earnings allocations
• Overseeing and coordinating the annual audit; ensuring timely preparation and filing of the annual form 990
• Overseeing organizational budgeting and reporting, working with other colleagues to prepare annual budgets and routine expenditure reports
• Ensuring compliance with Governing Board–approved investment policies; building knowledge of leading practices in mission-aligned investing
• Developing and monitoring the implementation of long-range financial plans in conjunction with the President & CEO and foundation leadership, including strategies for financial sustainability that align with organizational direction and goals
• Supervising and developing the Controller and Accounting Assistant positions, bringing cultural competency and equity practices into supervision
• Working closely with the Director of Programs to implement community investment approaches that advance foundation goals
• Working closely with the Director of Operations to ensure appropriate and proactive alignment between the finance and administration functions
• Working with the Governing Board and committees as required
• Serving as primary contact on behalf of the foundation for banking relationships and investment managers
• Building knowledge and skills of a variety of charitable-giving products and approaches as well as the unique complexities of the community foundation business model
• Participating actively in team culture-building and equity learning work of the team
• Other duties as assigned by supervisor

Minimum Education, Work Experience, and Skills 

• Bachelor’s degree in business or a related field; Master’s degree or above in an applicable discipline and/or a CPA preferred
• Seven or more years, or the equivalent, of directly relevant work experience at a Senior or Director level, with 3-5 years of management experience
• Strong understanding of US GAAP and a working knowledge of FASB and IRS regulations / standards as they apply to nonprofit agencies
• Experience in and knowledge of the nonprofit sector, foundations, and investment management preferred
• Excellent computer skills, especially accounting related software, Word, Excel, Outlook and relational database programs and aptitude to learn new programs quickly; experience with fund accounting systems (iPhi, FIMS, Foundant) preferred

Compensation & Benefits 

This is a full-time, salaried non-exempt position with a salary range of $110,000 to $127,000. The Community Foundation offers a robust employee benefits package, including flexible work hours and location, 100% of employee health insurance paid, the opportunity to participate in a 401(k) with up to 6% employer match, and 200 hours of personal time off in the first year of employment plus a generous office closure and holiday program. This role includes opportunities for professional development and growth.

How To Apply

Qualified applicants should submit a resume AND a cover letter describing candidate qualifications and relevant experience with contact information to: careers@cacfonline.org. Applications will be accepted through January 4th, 2023.