Description

Head of Finance - Giving What We Can -  Remote, Global - Full-time

Giving What We Can is seeking a Head of Finance to build the financial infrastructure and team needed to scale a multi-entity grantmaking organisation from $40 million towards $3 billion in donations to high-impact charities every year.

If you build the systems and team that allow us to grow even 1% faster YoY, you would be directly responsible for $360M in additional donations going to high-impact charities.

What you'll do
You will own the full financial function of a fast-growing, multi-entity (US, UK, Canada, the Netherlands) non-profit — including budgeting, forecasting, reporting, compliance, controls, and building systems for scale. More specifically, you would be responsible for:

• Day-to-day finances. Accurate and timely reconciliations and book closing, accounts payable, cash and liquidity management, and managing our interest-bearing holdings.
• Managing, growing, and representing the finance team.
• Managing our finance associate and external accountants; maintaining relationships with financial advisors, US/UK auditors, and US/UK/CA treasurers and legal counsel. As we grow, building and developing a team of high performers.
• Budgeting, reporting, forecasting, and strategic financial advice. Serve as a close thought partner to the executive team and boards, delivering budgets, reports, and forecasts hand in hand with strategic advice for our key metrics and organizational strategy.
• Implement, enforce and improve our financial controls. Ultimately responsible for ensuring proper management of $30M+ in annual funds (and growing every year), with appropriate due diligence.
• Payroll across jurisdictions. Ensuring our staff and extended team members all get paid the correct amount on time every time.
• Statutory and regulatory filings. Managing multi-entity audits and all other statutory and regulatory financial filings, coordinating with internal and external stakeholders to deliver on time and implementing improvements as we go.
• Building and improving financial processes and systems. From new AP software and multi-entity reporting to investment and cash management policies — building and improving systems so we can scale radically without financial errors or lapses in oversight.
• Grant finance. Tracking restricted and designated funding accurately, preparing cash balances ahead of grant rounds, and ensuring all grant recipients receive their grants accurately and on time with appropriate information sharing and due diligence.

What we're looking for

• Deep financial management experience. 5–10 years managing finances, ideally accountable for (core parts of) an organization with a >$25M/year budget and/or several entities.
• Meticulous attention to detail. You notice the unexplained variation across months, spot the fund allocation missing in our list of thousands of donations, and every budget and calculation you deliver is squeaky clean — because you meticulously and systematically review your own work and the organization's finances.
• Strategic decision-making. While no material error finds its way past you, you also know where diving into the details is worth our time. You bring strategic cost-benefit analyses to key decisions.
• Deep accountability. Everything in your portfolios happens without prompting, on time, with excellent stakeholder communication. Nothing slips through the cracks; deprioritized responsibilities are communicated proactively.
• Building scalable systems. When you encounter a problem, error, or new request, you assess whether it requires an ongoing process — and if so, you build a scalable system.
• Fluent financial communication. You can fluently translate complex financial matters for stakeholders - including those with no financial background. You keep relevant stakeholders appropriately informed.
• You care about our work. You don't need to be an effective altruism expert on day one, but you deeply care about creating a world without extreme poverty, animal suffering, and existential risk - a world where everyone can flourish. And you want to be a part of the movement that makes this happen.

Preferred experience (we expect you to bring some of these, not all of them):

• Certified accountant or strong technical accounting knowledge (UK, US, or equivalent; IFRS, US/UK GAAP, SORP, etc.);
• Risk management, especially for remote, grantmaking, multi-entity, or rapidly growing organizations;
• People management: growing and managing high-performing teams;
• Scaling financial operations and building the systems to enable it;
• Familiarity with non-profit or philanthropy finance;
• Working with financial providers of a wide variety, including payment processing providers and responsibilities such as renegotiating contracts;
• Managing finances of multi-entity or international organizations across jurisdictions.

If you're unsure whether you meet our criteria, we strongly encourage you to apply or reach out to us

Role overview

• Start Date: As soon as possible
• Hours: 1 fte (~40h/week)
• Location: Global remote, with a preference for UTC-6 to UTC+3, but flexibility for the right candidate
• Travel: 2-4 times per year for staff and leadership offsites
• Contract: Permanent contract with 3 months probation
• Reporting to: James Steijger, Chief Operations Officer
• Application deadline: April 21st, 23:59 UTC

Read more here

Application form here

Requirements

• Deep financial management experience. 5–10 years managing finances, ideally accountable for (core parts of) an organization with a >$25M/year budget and/or several entities.
• Meticulous attention to detail. You notice the unexplained variation across months, spot the fund allocation missing in our list of thousands of donations, and every budget and calculation you deliver is squeaky clean — because you meticulously and systematically review your own work and the organization's finances.
• Strategic decision-making. While no material error finds its way past you, you also know where diving into the details is worth our time. You bring strategic cost-benefit analyses to key decisions.
• Deep accountability. Everything in your portfolios happens without prompting, on time, with excellent stakeholder communication. Nothing slips through the cracks; deprioritized responsibilities are communicated proactively.
• Building scalable systems. When you encounter a problem, error, or new request, you assess whether it requires an ongoing process — and if so, you build a scalable system.
• Fluent financial communication. You can fluently translate complex financial matters for stakeholders - including those with no financial background. You keep relevant stakeholders appropriately informed.
• You care about our work. You don't need to be an effective altruism expert on day one, but you deeply care about creating a world without extreme poverty, animal suffering, and existential risk - a world where everyone can flourish. And you want to be a part of the movement that makes this happen.