Chief Financial Officer

Innovations for Poverty Action

New Haven, Connecticut, or New York, New York

SUMMARY

Innovations for Poverty Action, a consortium of development economists and researchers working to eradicate global poverty by merging innovative action with solutions-based evidence, seeks nominations and applications for their first Chief Financial Officer. Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) is led by specialists with Ph.D. level training who have made frontier contributions to the analysis of economic development and poverty programs. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) will, among other things, help to develop a financial infrastructure to ensure the appropriate allocation of funding from donors directly to projects, overseas offices, and counterparts all over the world. Combining what has been established in the organization’s early stage with a deep knowledge of a variety of donor and organizational structures, the CFO will be in a unique position to help build a financial systems framework for the organization’s continued growth and expansion. The ideal candidate will have fluency in myriad financial tasks including designing and implementing quality assurance, managing compliance and reporting mechanisms, overseeing an audit process and developing financial modeling and budget planning and tracking. S/he will be a sophisticated team player capable of implementing practices and collaboratively building a system that can meet the organization’s growing financial needs.    

MISSION AND HISTORY

Innovations for Poverty Action applies rigorous research techniques to develop and test solutions to real-world problems faced by the poor in developing countries. IPA is driven by the belief that innovative action paired with rigorous evidence is necessary to address issues of global poverty. IPA partners with frontline organizations to develop and test innovative solutions to poverty through randomized evaluations. Combining technical rigor, immediate policy interest, and a solid understanding of the needs of the poor, IPA’s work thus helps donors, policymakers and practitioners better allocate resources and improve operations.

The organization’s primary objectives are to:

• Develop innovative solutions to poverty and policy problems worldwide by using frontier knowledge from economics, psychology and public health.

• Evaluate public policies by conducting randomized controlled trials. This provides the highest quality and most reliable answers to what does and does not work. IPA’s evaluations seek to generate insight into why particular strategies work – not just whether they work – to make the findings useful for scale-up and replication in other settings and countries.

• Replicate evaluations in multiple settings. While individual evaluations are helpful, much more can be learned about what to do after seeing replications of interventions in multiple settings, and learning when ideas are most effectively implemented. IPA conducts repeated evaluations of similar interventions.

• Communicate through a two-pronged dissemination strategy. First, individual studies and sets of studies are written in non-technical, accessible styles for development practitioners, policymakers, investors and donors. Second, IPA produces synthesized articles that frame key policy issues and presents reliable evidence to help guide development practitioners, policymakers, investors and donors towards better decisions and allocation of resources.

• Scale-up replication of effective solutions to other areas of the world in need including hands-on, technical assistance as well as extensive communication efforts.

Founded in 2002, IPA produces research led by development economists at Yale University, Harvard, M.I.T., Chicago, Berkeley, NYU and Northwestern. IPA has eight full-time and one part-time staff members based in the United States, 60 field researchers conducting projects in 20 countries, and a budget of $5MM funded largely on a project basis. IPA is a small, nimble organization that capitalizes on big ideas with a purposefully lean infrastructure to implement change. With a growing staff and significant investment in its future, including a five-year, $5MM Financial Access Initiative funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, IPA is poised to continue growing and adding value on a world-wide scale. 

OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES FOR THE CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Reporting to the President, the Chief Financial Officer will be charged with assessing IPA’s financial infrastructure and developing processes to capture data, to streamline systems that span the globe and to organize the flow of financial resources in a smooth and linear fashion. In broad terms, the organization’s first CFO will:

Appraise the organization’s financial position and determine areas for infrastructure growth and development. Assessing the start-up financial systems and working closely with the President, the CFO will develop and implement quality assurance, compliance and reporting systems, determine the organization’s cost allocation methodology and inform the growth of the national headquarters’ finance department. In addition, s/he will oversee and direct all financial activities including the successful completion of financial and funder audits. S/he will design and implement a cash management system and evaluate the need for obtaining credit or investing surpluses.

Develop and implement fiscal policies and procedures and internal controls to support sound financial management. Managing a local accounting staff of three and an overseas staff of eight, the CFO will need to quickly gain an understanding of the unique systems being utilized by each of the 20 countries and develop one comprehensive system to enable tracking of key data points which vary country and by funding source. Greater connection between headquarters and the internationally based field offices is required and will have to be established by the CFO.

Develop an internal accounting system for invoicing and allocating grant funding. IPA’s funding is currently received through three different types of grants: cost reimbursements, deliverables (papers, reports, survey, data, etc.), and flat grants each of which require unique reporting. One comprehensive system is needed to simultaneously track relevant outcome measurements, expenses and account allocations and also to create the capacity to generate relevant information to donors, board members, field offices and researchers.

Guide effective communication and foster a customer service orientation among the U.S.-based and international field offices to enable and support mission focused work. The CFO will need to coordinate with professors and grant managers to ensure deadlines are met and grant details are heeded. The CFO will be a creative thinker who can work within broad grant-related categories including reimbursements and the tracking of budgets-to-actuals. S/he will establish efficient, user-friendly communication and reporting structures to enable collaboration with field office staff for the tracking and monitoring of expenses to prevent cost overruns.

QUALIFICATIONS 

The Chief Financial Officer will be a strong manager with superb financial savvy and the capacity to serve as a thought partner to program staff, executive leadership and partner organizations. With a minimum of three years of experience in a finance-focused leadership position, the ideal candidate will possess many of the following professional and personal characteristics:

• Fluency in and experience with developing, overseeing, utilizing and evaluating financial systems and structures and managing audit and 990 review processes preferably within a non-profit organization of similar or larger size and complexity. Experience with fund accounting is required as is knowledge of financial tracking systems and processes.

• Strong organizational skills with the capacity to function well in a fast-paced, evolving organization. A team player with the management skills to oversee complex projects and the can-do attitude to complete tasks in a deadline-driven environment.

• The proven ability to lead, develop and mentor staff through organizational transitions. Acumen in developing work plans and in coaching staff members to maximize their potential and their outputs.

• Exceptional oral and written communications skills. Excellent interpersonal skills and a management style that combines respectful collaboration with disciplined productivity. The ability to communicate and to work effectively with myriad constituents including domestic staff, international program staff, board members, executive leadership, auditors, donors and researchers, among others.

• The ability to communicate technical and complex budget and financial information to non-financial professionals and constituents.

• Technological savvy with hardware and software, particularly with QuickBooks. The knowledge base and capacity to leverage technology to improve financial management systems, reduce costs, increase access to information and enhance efficiency in tracking and reporting structures.

• Experience managing and supporting the complexities of international financial operations (preferred).

• A Bachelor’s degree (required). Preference will be given to candidates with a Masters of Business Administration or a CPA degree.

• A zeal for IPA’s mission to reduce poverty globally including a corresponding willingness to take on tasks that fall outside of the CFO scope upon occasion. A steadfast belief that solutions to poverty, if properly addressed, evaluated and replicated, can change the world.

• A sense of humor and the flexibility to adapt to the evolving realities of a small, but globally impactful non-profit. 

APPLICATIONS AND NOMINATIONS

More information about Innovations for Poverty Action may be found at:
http://www.poverty-action.org

Nominations and applications are due by June 4, 2008. Due to the pace of this search, candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Applications including a cover letter describing your interest and qualifications, your resume (in Word or pdf format), salary history and where you learned of the position should be sent to:
ipa-cfo@nonprofitprofessionals.com.  In order to expedite the internal sorting and reviewing process, please type your name (Last, First) as the only contents in the subject line of your e-mail.

Innovations for Poverty Action is an equal opportunity employer.