Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
United Negro College Fund

Background

The United Negro College Fund (UNCF), headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia, is the nation’s largest, oldest, most successful and most comprehensive minority higher education assistance organization. UNCF's mission is to enhance the quality of education by providing financial assistance to deserving students, raising operating funds for member colleges and universities, and increasing access to technology for students and faculty of historically black colleges and universities.

The UNCF provides operating funds, scholarship awards and technology enhancement services for 39 historically black colleges and universities. To date, they have funded scholarships and internships for approximately 65,000 students matriculating at more than 900 institutions. Among the 400 scholarship and fellowship programs administered by UNCF, the most significant program is the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS), the world’s largest private scholarship, funded in 1999 by a $1 billion grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, providing 20,000 talented, minority students with an opportunity to complete their college education over the next two decades. Seven years later, in response to the extraordinary success of the program, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation granted an additional $500 million to the United Negro College Fund GMS program. In spring 2006, UNCF launched the Institute for Capacity Building (ICB), a $125 million initiative to strengthen the capacity of the 39 member institutions in the areas of fundraising, enrollment and retention, academic programming and faculty development, financial management, historic preservation of campus facilities, executive leadership, and governance.

Noted UNCF alumni include Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Nobel laureate and civil rights leader), Dr. W.E.B. DuBois (writer and scholar), John Lewis (civil rights leader and U.S. Congressman), the Honorable Hazel O’Leary (former U.S. Secretary of Energy), Dr. David Satcher (former U.S. Surgeon General), and Dr. Marian Wright Edelman (founder and president, Children’s Defense Fund).
 

Current Situation

A 43-member Board of Directors governs the United Negro College Fund, led by a Board Chair who heads the Executive Committee. The Board of Directors, meeting three times each year, directs the affairs of UNCF, advises on long-range strategy development, and approves all budgets, fundraising and performance goals. The day-to-day operations of UNCF is led by a President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who oversees a staff of 180 and manages a senior executive team that includes an Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer; Executive Vice President for Development; a Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer; a Vice President of Government Affairs, General Counsel, and Secretary of the Corporation; a Vice President and Transformation Officer; a Vice President of the Gates Millennium Scholars; and a Chief of Staff. UNCF administers approximately 24 field offices at various locations in the United States within in four regions (Northeast, South, Midwest, and West).

The United Negro College Fund is organized as a non-profit entity established to assist its 39 member institutions of higher education to raise funds from the public for their mutual support, and administer grants, scholarships, and other programs benefiting students, member and non-member institutions, based on donor stipulation. UNCF following an accrual basis of accounting, is exempt from income taxes under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All participating member institutions receive distributions of unrestricted support and revenues, net of expenses, pursuant to a formula. The total disbursement to the 39 member institutions in 2006 was approximately $27 million.

At the end of 2006, UNCF recorded net assets of $278 million (with an endowment of $49 million), and estimates overall 2007 expenses of $155 million, of which $70 million supports the Gates Millennium Scholars Program. UNCF’s core budget for operations, scholarship administration, and fundraising is $31 million. Its revenue base consists of a mix of private and public support from corporations, corporate foundations, private and community foundations, legacy donors, churches, groups and unions, individual donors, special events and sponsorships, corporate and public employee campaigns.

Specific Role

The Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (EVP/CFO), a dynamic and engaged member of the senior management team, oversees the day-to-day finance, accounting, and IT operations of UNCF. The EVP/CFO oversees a staff of 16 and manages a budget of $5.9 million ($2.7 million for finance/accounting and $3.2 million for IT) and six direct reports: controller, deputy controller, senior accountant, portfolio manager, director of information technology, and administrative assistant. The EVP will play a pivotal and robust leadership role at UNCF, working closely with the President and CEO. This official will be responsible for strategic planning, annual plan development, monitoring, and benchmarking, program design and evaluation, operation excellence, dashboard development, and overall organizational transformation.

Finance/Accounting

The EVP/CFO manages all financial affairs of the organization which subdivide into three core functions: the controller function, the treasury function defined as portfolio management and the internal audit function. There are two senior managers: the controller and the portfolio program manager. The controller manages the controller function which includes A/P and A/R, management of the General Ledger and reconciliations. The portfolio program manager manages the various short, mid and long term portfolios for UNCF.

The EVP/CFO manages all financial plans and policies, accounting, and monitoring of all budget to spending matters; develops and manages organizational financial standards and analyzes, consolidates and directs all cost accounting procedures; issues reports on the organization’s financial stability and growth; directs and analyzes studies of general economic, business and financial conditions and their impact on the organization’s policies and operations; and analyzes operational issues impacting functional groups and the entire institution, and determines their financial impact.

The EVP/CFO works closely with the President and senior team as a senior advisor for providing sound financial advice and planning for new initiatives. This official provides appropriate services to the Board of Directors, and other committees of the Board in conjunction with the Secretary of the Corporation, serving as the staff liaison on the Board Finance and Investment Committees. The EVP/CFO oversees the interests of the organization in the monitoring and reporting of expenses for building operations and serves on the Building Operations Committee. The EVP/CFO oversees and directs the preparation and issuance of the corporation’s annual report; acts as primary liaison with external public accountants and outside banking relationships, and holds appropriate internal briefings with the President and senior executive team and with Field Operations and National Programs, and provides a financial report to the 39-member Presidents on the distribution formula and financials.

Information Technology (IT)

The director of Information Technology reports to the EVP/CFO and provides technology vision, strategic leadership regarding the technology needs of UNCF. This official oversees the planning, development, and implementation of an IT platform that offers best in class technology support to the President/CEO, the senior management team and the entire UNCF organization. The Director of IT is responsible for the information and data integrity of the enterprise and its groups; for all Information Technology functions of the enterprise, including all data centers, communication networks (voice and data), computer program development, and computer systems operations (currently using three primary enterprise solutions: Pledgemaker for fundraising and donor management, FundWare for accounting, and ADP business solution for payroll)

The IT director also works closely with and supports relationships with member institutions and affiliates; promotes and oversees relationships between UNCF IT resources and vendors; approves, coordinates, and controls all projects related to selection, acquisition, development, and installation of major information systems for member institutions and affiliates, as required; and negotiates IT service level agreements with user organizations and monitors IT systems performance to assure service levels are being met.

Additional Responsibilities

The management responsibility includes the development of specific annual performance objectives (made jointly with President/CEO) for quality, timeliness, and efficient service, by evaluating performance objectives of the entire department and implementing appropriate measures when disciplinary action is warranted. The EVP/CFO may be assigned other duties and projects by the President/CEO that is necessary to improve the performance and service of the organization.

Major Objectives

UNCF expects the new EVP/CFO to accomplish the following major objectives over the next 12-18 months:

• Successfully lead a finance, accounting, and IT team that will provides best in class financial and technology support to the President/CEO, the senior management team and the UNCF system in a responsive, open, and timely manner;

• Build a world-class, robust finance operations, consistent with the mission and goals of UNCF;

• Plan, develop, and implement a new accounting system that will provide the senior management team with robust financial analytics;

• Leverage and enhance the IT platform of UNCF to industry best practices that incorporates business priorities, minimizes costs, improves reliability, and incorporates a multi-year plan for handling servers, networks, and software;

• Establish better integration between the budgetary process and financial management including a more interactive, multi-year budget planning for all departments and an archival process for historical budget data, accessible to all senior staff;

• Develop a comprehensive reporting system that ensures financial integrity, including internal controls and compliance with UNCF’s policies and governmental requirements;

• Provide UNCF with a more efficient and timely procurement process;

• Assess the overall performance of the department and determine best practices to improve productivity and responsiveness

Professional Qualifications

The following qualifications are preferred in the new EVP/CFO:

• An advanced degree in finance and accounting (MA or MBA), a CPA, ten or more years progressively responsible experience in nonprofit financing and accounting, with a strong background in information technology;

• A client- and customer-focused finance and accounting leader with a demonstrated ability to manage a significant business applications function in a complex business environment;

• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively across a complex organization like UNCF and partner with internal and external stakeholders to meet business goals;

• Experience in implementing core business and IT solutions;

• In-depth knowledge of best practices and trends in nonprofit finances, investments, basic accounting, audits, disbursement policies, and accounts payable functions;

• Ability to influence a broad spectrum of constituencies, achieving outcomes through influence rather than direct authority;

• Proficient in the use of personal computer and maintains working knowledge of applicable software programs (i.e., word processing, spreadsheets, e-mail, etc.).

Personal Characteristics

The following characteristics are preferred in the new EVP/CFO:

• Passion and values that align with those of United Negro College Fund’s mission;

• An engaged, self-confident professional who values new ideas and perspectives with a strong interest in innovative best practices regarding superior customer service;

• Keen intellect with interest in technical IT and business software applications;

• Strong analytical, interpersonal, and communication skills;

• Comfortable working within a team context with diverse members;

• Leadership ability that inspires people to achieve;

• Drive, coupled with energetic, entrepreneurial qualities;

• Healthy respect for colleagues, employees, and superiors;

• Goal-oriented, project-oriented, and achievement-oriented;

• Strong sense of honor and integrity;

• Politically astute, able to communicate on multiple levels;

• A warm, personal style with a good sense of humor.

Compensation

Compensation will be commensurate with skill and market.

Application

Please forward resumes and appropriate material immediately to:

Anna Koivisto
The Boulware Group
625 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 422
Chicago IL 60611-3172
Phone: 312-322-0088
Fax: 312-322-0092
E-mail (preferred): resume@boulwareinc.com
Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.