Greetings Reuse Fans,
Six years ago, CJ was one of four organizations that came together to form the Environmental Finance Collaborative (EFC). Tree Pittsburgh, Nine Mile Run Watershed Association, GTECH (now knows as Grounded) and CJ were strongly motivated to pool our resources to share a “high level Chief Financial Officer” to improve financial management across all areas of our organizations; from cash management to “clean” audits and excellence in reporting financial information to our Boards of Directors and funders. Smaller nonprofits do not have the financial resources to hire a CFO, but through support of the RK Mellon Foundation, we were able to afford a level of financial expertise none of us could not afford on our own. After the initial grant funding, all of our organizations (including a fifth-Bike Pittsburgh-who joined the EFC a year after we launched- support the shared CFO position as part of our operating expenses.
CJ is sad and excited to share with you that Kevin Gieder, the first EFC shared CFO is moving on from his position at the end of this month. He has been invaluable to the nonprofit organizations who make up the EFC and he has made a significant and meaningful contribution to greatly improving all areas of CJ’s operations. Our Board loves the clarity of his financial reporting! He has also proven to be an extremely effective evangelist for the shared CFO model by directly playing a role in launching a similar collaborative to assist a group of Pittsburgh arts organizations and the second EFC with its own shared CFO! The first EFC (with a new member-as Bike Pittsburgh has moved on from the EFC) is interviewing for its next shared CFO, but we all know that no one will ever really replace Kevin and fortunately he is sticking around the Burgh! We wish Kevin the greatest success as he continues to provide Pittsburgh’s nonprofit sector with sound financial advice and thoughtful guidance.
