Chief Financial Officer (New York)

Background

Sephardic Community Center is pleased to partner with DRG to conduct this search.

The Organization

The Sephardic Community Center is a cornerstone institution serving generations of families across the Brooklyn Sephardic community. It's not just a recreational space; it's a cultural and social cornerstone where people gather, connect, and grow. The Center provides cultural, recreational, educational, athletic, social, fitness, camp, early childhood, teen, adult, and senior programming, while preserving and advancing the traditions, values, and communal life of the Sephardic community. Families have been coming for decades, and many see it as an extension of their homes.

The Center operates a complex, multi-program organization with a significant physical plant, year-round and seasonal staffing, membership and program revenue, philanthropy, grants, donor pledges, receivables, debt obligations, restricted and unrestricted funds, and close engagement with board and community leadership. It\'s bustling nearly every day, with Saturday nights drawing over 200 teens, and Sundays packed with over 1,000 kids in various programs.

The Center’s goal is to meet the community\'s needs whenever possible. The incredible programming for all ages and the deep sense of belonging makes The Center indispensable to its members.

The Position

The Chief Financial Officer will serve as the Center’s senior financial leader and a key member of the C-suite leadership team. Reporting directly to the CEO, the CFO will be responsible for the financial stewardship, accounting operations, cash management, forecasting, budgeting, internal controls, compliance, audit, debt reporting, systems improvement, and financial reporting of the organization.

The Center is seeking a crisis-capable, operationally strong CFO who can bring calm, clarity, and action to the office of the CFO. The successful candidate must be technically strong enough to ensure the numbers are accurate and experienced enough to translate those numbers into sound decisions.

The CFO must be able to walk into complexity, organize the facts, identify risks early, create a plan, and communicate clearly: where we are, what could break, what needs to happen next, and who owns it.

The right candidate will create visibility before issues become emergencies, build confidence in the numbers, and help the organization operate with financial discipline.

Role Overview

Ongoing Responsibilities

• Serve as the senior financial advisor to the CEO.
• Lead the Center’s accounting, budgeting, forecasting, cash management, audit, compliance, controls, reporting, and financial planning functions.
• Bring a proactive financial management mindset to the organization, not just an accounting mindset.
• Help the CEO and leadership team evaluate the financial implications of program expansion, staffing decisions, pricing, facility needs, capital projects, debt obligations, membership trends, camp operations, grants, and fundraising priorities.
• Make regular recommendations to the CEO and other executive leaders based on financial data.
• Provide practical financial guidance to program leaders that supports program quality, participation, affordability, revenue growth, and sustainability.
• Lead, manage, and develop the finance team.

Budgeting and Financial Planning

• Lead the annual budget process in partnership with the CEO and department leaders.
• Develop clear budget assumptions and a process for review, approval, monitoring, and reforecasting.
• Build and maintain full-year forecasts and scenario models.
• Provide department-level reporting that helps leaders understand revenue, expenses, margins, staffing, and variance drivers.
• Develop practical financial tools and analysis to support decisions around pricing, participation, scholarships, staffing, program economics, and resource allocation.

Accounting Operations

• Oversee day-to-day accounting operations, including general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, bank reconciliations, credit cards, restricted funds, and financial close.
• Ensure timely monthly and quarterly closes, with accurate reconciliations and supporting documentation.
• Ensure financial statements are accurate, complete, and prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards.
• Improve coding, documentation, reconciliations, approval processes, and close discipline.

Cash Management and Forecasting

• Maintain disciplined oversight of cash balances, near-term cash needs, receivables, payables, payroll, credit card exposure, debt service, and liquidity requirements.
• Maintain a rolling cash forecast and communicate cash risks clearly and early.
• Partner with Development and program leaders to connect pledges, grants, receivables, registrations, and other revenue streams to actual cash timing.
• Manage banking relationships, debt compliance, covenant reporting, liquidity reporting, and required certifications.

Reporting and Governance

• Prepare robust financial materials for the CEO, leadership team, Finance Committee, Treasurer, and Board of Directors.
• Ensure reports are accurate, timely, useful for decision-making, and written in plain language, with clear variance explanations, risks, options, and recommended actions.
• Support board-level discussions around budget, cash flow, debt, capital needs, audit, compliance, and long-term financial sustainability.

Audit, Compliance, and Risk

• Lead the annual audit process and serve as the primary liaison to external auditors.
• Ensure timely preparation of audited financial statements, Form 990, compliance certificates, lender reporting, grant reporting, and other required filings.
• Partner with the Finance Committee and, where applicable, the Audit Committee to address findings, recommendations, internal control issues, and risk areas.
• Maintain relationships with banks, auditors, insurance providers, benefit providers, lenders, investment advisors, and other external financial partners.

Development, Grants, and Fundraising Support

• Partner with Development leadership to improve financial tracking of pledges, donor receivables, campaigns, restricted gifts, grants, and capital commitments.
• Provide accurate reporting on pledge aging, collection status, campaign commitments, grant timing, restricted funds, and cash implications.
• Support fundraising strategy through financial modeling, reporting, use-of-funds analysis, and campaign tracking.

Technology, Systems, and AI-Enabled Workflows

• Lead improvements to finance-related systems, reporting tools, dashboards, workflow automation, and data quality.
• Use modern tools, including AI-enabled workflows where appropriate, to improve reporting, forecasting, reconciliations, documentation, analysis, scenario planning, and staff productivity.
• Ensure technology is used responsibly, with appropriate attention to confidentiality, internal controls, auditability, and accuracy.

Key Priorities

• Cash Flow and Liquidity Discipline: Build and maintain a reliable rolling cash forecast, including a 13-week cash flow model or equivalent planning tool.
• Financial Reporting and Board Visibility : Establish a reliable monthly and quarterly reporting cadence for the CEO, leadership team, Finance Committee, and Board, that focuses on financial projections.
• Budget Process and Department Accountability: Implement an annual budget process with clear assumptions, deadlines, templates, and department ownership.
• Internal Controls and Financial Discipline: Evaluate and strengthen controls across accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll, credit cards, bank reconciliations, restricted funds, revenue recognition, grant tracking, approval workflows, and vendor management.
• Systems, Data, AI, and Process Improvement: Assess current finance systems, data flows, reporting tools, and manual workarounds. Improve the use of Sage and related tools to produce cleaner reporting, stronger workflows, better data integrity, and less reliance on manual spreadsheets.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, or related field required.
• CPA and/or MBA strongly preferred.
• Minimum of 10 years of progressive finance and accounting experience.
• At least 5 years in a senior financial leadership role.
• Experience managing the finance function of a complex multi-program organization required; nonprofit, community center, school, cultural institution, membership organization, camp, or mission-driven organization experience strongly preferred.
• Strong technical accounting knowledge, including nonprofit accounting, restricted funds, revenue recognition, grants, audit preparation, internal controls, and financial statement presentation.
• Strong technology orientation, including experience improving financial systems, reporting tools, dashboards, workflow automation, and data quality.
• Comfort with modern productivity tools and AI-enabled workflows strongly preferred.
• Strong Excel and financial modeling skills required.
• Experience managing and developing finance staff.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, able to communicate complex financial information to a wide variety of stakeholders.
• Familiarity with Sage or similar nonprofit accounting systems, pledge an]]>