Director of Finance

The Director of Finance is the lead financial position within Light a Single Candle Foundation and will report directly to the Chief Executive.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Manage all aspects of the Light a Single Candle (LASC) and Poppa Tango Enterprises, LLC (PTE) Financials
• Manage cash flow and make cash forecast recommendations to maintain adequate reserves
• Responsible for establishing and monitoring cost effective internal controls for financial transactions
• Function as an integral part of the LASC executive team to assist in annual budgeting and long-term planning
• Responsible for timely filing and compliance with all federal and state applicable laws and regulations
• Responsible for preparing and conducting the financial review audit and 990, while working with an outside auditing firm to ensure no insignificant auditor adjustments needed
• Maintain and evaluate the insurance coverage carried by LASC
• Execute all grant distributions from the LASC Board of Directors and the Planning and Grants Committee and manage the allocation of disbursements to plan. Track any grant returns.
• Manage the LASC Finance Committee and coordinate committee meetings
• Responsible for Investment Fund Performance by closely managing our investment partners, following the results quarterly, making recommendations to the finance committee, and delivering quarterly summary reports on the results
• Managing all aspects of the Investment Partner Annual Meeting, including meeting set up, agenda, materials, etc.
• Review budgets with all our Community Transformation (CT) Principal and Implementing Partners to provide support to the budget making process and to establish cost parameters for all our CT interventions. Communicate with the Partners on our cost expectations to allow for efficiency.
• Ability to analyze the costs range of the various CT Phases and Interventions for our Principal and Implementing Partners, to allow them to carry out their work for each Community with an intent to establish the low and high-cost experiences
• Aid our Principal and Implementing Partners to support their pursuit of efficiency and cost effectiveness with each community in the CT Pipeline
• Work with our Measurement & Evaluation (M&E) staff to establish targets for return on investment (ROI) to be achieved, and in the confirmation of the actual ROI from the execution of the Intervention
• Annually review all Partners' Annual Reports, Audits, and Financials to assure their financial health and soundness.
• Perform community audits regularly to review the entire process of CT for each community from Phase Ill through to the finish line to assure accuracy and transparency with each community's financial expenditures.

Qualifications:

• This role will work from and be located in the LASC office in Chesterfield, (St. Louis area) Missouri USA.
• Ability to travel to areas that LASC services, as well as to conferences
• Bachelor’s degree in accounting with an emphasis in finance or finance degree is required
• 5 years of professional financial oversight and analysis in the Non-Profit sector
• Experience in coaching and developing partner and customer financial and budgetary skills
• Budget review and preparation skills and experience
• Project and cost review experience
• High level of competence with Excel
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with a demonstrated ability to work with multiple projects at a time
• Highly organized, excellent attention to detail

Personal Characteristics:

• Compassion for serving the poor
• Embraces a model of empowerment, accountability, partnership, and hope in executing the work of sustainable poverty recovery
• Self-motivated, works well independently, and desires to participate in creating a positive team environment
• Excellent verbal, written, and follow-up skills
• Strong and professional work ethic, flexible, and adaptive to change
• Enjoys networking and identifying solutions in response to challenges
• Can manage and succeed in providing support to multiple projects & partners simultaneously
• Willingness to be a key part of the organization’s leadership team

Wage and Benefits:

• Will be competitive and dependent upon earnings history, skills and qualifications
• A salary range of $100,000-$110,000 with annual performance and salary review
• Paid vacation and holidays, health insurance, and retirement plan benefits included

Light a Single Candle Foundation was founded in 2002 and its focus is sustainable poverty recovery, food security, income development and sustainable community transformation.  About 100 projects were funded through our community partners in 2023.  Internationally we work in El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica.  In the USA we serve in St. Louis, MO.  In addition to our Founder/President and his spouse who take an active role in the leadership of the organization, this new role will be our 8th employee.  The work of the foundation continues to evolve as we learn, with increased focus on a more comprehensive and sustainable poverty recovery community development model. www.lightasinglecandle.org 

Applicants will start to be called September 10th, 2024.