A chat with Executive Fellowship faculty, Elizabeth Schaffer.
We invited Elizabeth Schaffer—a nonprofit leader, consultant, trainer, and author—to tell us about herself and her work with the OneJustice Executive Fellowship.
Elizabeth is a longtime faculty of the Executive Fellowship. She coaches nonprofit leaders in the process of improving the quality of their organizations’ financial data and analysis, and also assists in enhancing organizations’ decision-making abilities. She is the co-author of Financial Leadership for Nonprofit Executives: Guiding Your Organization to Long Term Success (Fieldstone Alliance Press), a book that we use in our program, and an absolutely essential resource for all nonprofit leaders.
Please join us in welcoming Elizabeth!
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Thank you for joining us, Elizabeth! Tell us a little more about yourself and what you do.I am currently the Chief Financial & Operating Officer of the Global Fund for Women – the largest foundation exclusively funding international women’s rights organizations. I have been involved with nonprofit financial management for over 20 years, as a finance director, consultant, trainer, and author.
We are so happy to have you as an Executive Fellowship faculty. Tell us why you are involved in the Fellowship program.
The fellows cohort is consistently smart, dedicated, and engaged.
I especially love teaching in the program because so many folks introduce themselves by saying: ‘I’m not good at finance,” and then go on to really, really understand the content – and bring it back to their organizations. Without question, my best student is Julia!
As a nonprofit financial management coach, what is your top advice to nonprofits hoping to develop and strengthen their financial leadership?
Trust your instinct, not necessarily the numbers on the paper. If what you have at hand does not seem correct, challenge it!