Director of Finance

WHO WE ARE:

Purposeful is an Africa-rooted global hub for girls’ activism. For millennia girls have played a critical role in struggles for freedom and liberation. From Africa’s anti-colonial movements to the Arab spring to climate justice organising and everything in between - their resistance has always sparked and sustained transformational change. And yet, too often girls are separated and sidelined from resources and shut out from decision-making spaces, their power deliberately obscured and hidden from view. Centering the political power of young feminists across the world, we work so that girls and their allies have access to the resources, networks and platforms they need to power their activism and remake the world.

As an Africa rooted, global hub for girl activists, Purposeful works to shift the allocation of resources, policies and programmatic practices with and for girls and young feminists across the world. This includes re-distributing resources in highly flexible and innovative ways, including to girls shut out from traditional banking infrastructure. We leverage learnings from our own practice to support others to move from protectionist to power-building approaches that promote the collective liberation of girls. Working in partnership with civil society and development communities we hold learning space, convene practitioners, build national coalitions and co-create collective advocacy voice. Across all that we do, we work to make girls political power visible so that their organising and activism is resourced in healthy and sustainable ways for the long term.

CONTEXT OF THIS ROLE:

Purposeful is looking for a visionary Finance Director with a deep commitment to feminist principles and praxis as we work to resource the resistance of girls and young feminist on the Continent and across the world. You will be joining our team as we enter into an exciting new period of consolidation and scaling. After 5 years of rapid growth we are repositioning our global component companies under a new governance model and implementing a new finance system, ready to go live in our new financial year on 1st September. With a refreshed governance plan soon to be led by a US parent, you will hold responsibility for financial control and management of the group organisation, holding our main subsidiary in Sierra Leone and a smaller company in the UK. In this role you will work closely with the Senior Finance Managers based in Sierra Leone and Kenya, and form a key part of the Purposeful group Executive Leadership Team. You will be responsible for ensuring a robust and deeply feminist approach to all our work to move money directly to girls and young feminist, including oversight and performance of the group finance team, aligning group accounting policies and procedures, building on the newly implemented NetSuite financial system, as well as acting as the key strategic finance decision maker within the organisation.

In this role you will report directly to the Co-CEOs, and directly manage the Senior Finance Manager in Sierra Leone, Senior Global Management Accountant in Kenya and the Finance and Admin Coordinator in the UK.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Embed a feminist approach to finance across the group
• Provide strategic information for Purposeful exec decisions based on the organisation’s financial health and risks and opportunities based on spend against budgets, income pipeline, FX movements and cash flow
• Responsible for overseeing (including mitigating risks) and innovating new ways of enabling girls and young feminist grantees to access money and resources in rural areas without traditional banking infrastructure
• Responsible for annual pay review process with the Purposeful exec leadership team
• Responsible for organisational risk and mitigation procedures and maintaining up to date risk register with support from other Heads of functions across Purposeful
• Provide strategic direction and vision for the finance function
• Ensure appropriate finance policies and procedures are in place across the group, revising them as Purposeful work evolves
• Guide teams and external stakeholders towards paperless working in line with the current finance function’s vision to achieve this within 2 years.
• Lead the annual budget setting process for 23/24, with support from the financial planning and analysis team
• Provide financial oversight of the group finance function, ensuring accurate ledgers in US, Sierra Leone and UK entities and timely consolidated management reports including cash flow forecasts
• Be the main point of contact with UK and US auditors and provide high-level oversight of the Sierra Leone audit process, and be responsible for the production of the group accounts, audit file and responses to audit queries, as well as periodic review of audit services and retendering as necessary.
• Ensure compliance with laws, regulations and reporting requirements in the US (New Jersey State), UK (Charities Commission, Companies House) and Sierra Leone (various ministries, SLANGO)
• Understand and plan for up and coming changes to financial / external reporting standards across the group, including training the wider finance team on implications and new processes or accounting policies required
• Liaise with UK and US banks on AML requirements, fraud prevention and other compliance requirements as they occur. Provide strategic oversight for Sierra Leone banking arrangements. 
• Be the point of contact with US and UK banks, including approving international payments across bank accounts.
• Review of commercial contracts Purposeful enters into, including negotiations where necessary
• Responsible for compiling board financial reports in line with quarterly board meetings
• Ongoing review of FX movements and currency review
• Oversee and review donor reports, ensuring they fully reconcile to financial systems and donor codes are closed down in systems once the final report is accepted. 
• Ensuring key training and support given to the global finance team in line with development plans / goals;
• Ensuring that all key financial reporting deadlines to funders are met, and ongoing grant reporting timelines are reviewed and understood by key stakeholders;
• Responsible for managing global grants in and out and updating cash flow forecasts and pipelines on the Salesforce or Netsuite platforms
• Provide oversight of a growing portfolio of mission-aligned investments including supporting the CEOs and Board of Trustees around investment decisions and managing external investment advisors and fund managers
• Quarterly travel to Sierra Leone / Kenya to work with the finance team if based outside of Sierra Leone. Additional travel for annual leadership meetings and team retreats.

SKILLS & EXPERIENCE:

• Political commitment to redistributing power in grant-making practice
• Knowledge and experience of US GAAP and IFRS reporting requirements is essential 
• ACA, ACCA or CIMA qualified with at least 5 years post qualification experience
• Strong attention to detail;
• Extensive expertise working in a multi-donor base fundraising organisation including managing funds from Private Foundations, Multi-laterals and Governments
• Understanding of donor contract negotiation processes including with bi-lateral agencies
• Experience in innovative approaches to high-trust based grant-making, including outside of traditional banking systems
• Understanding of program, project and cost centre reporting;
• Understanding of UK Charities SORP reporting requirements is desirable.
• Experience of working in a start-up environment where a hands-on attitude is required.
• Experience of NetSuite Financials First is desirable