Vice President of Finance & Operations

Administer Justice (AJ) is a national ministry headquartered in Elgin, Illinois, empowering vulnerable neighbors with the help of a lawyer and the hope of God’s love through the home of the church. Our vision is to expand access to justice and Jesus through 1,000 gospel justice centers transforming lives in the name of Christ. Before this can happen, we need a talented Vice President of Finance & Operations. You will be part of a team doing what has never been done before - advance gospel justice for the underserved through local churches across America. 

AJ’s VP of Finance and Operations will define the process and implement the financial and human resource systems needed to support substantial growth over the next five to 10 years. They will continue to build and manage effective and efficient systems, including financial, accounting, human resources (HR), legal, information technology (IT), and physical infrastructure. As a member of the senior leadership team, their careful financial and people analysis will provide critical guidance for leadership to make strategic decisions as well as for Gospel Justice Centers to have excellent transparency in center operations, leading to the health and expansion of new sites nationwide.

THE PROBLEM WE ARE ON MISSION TO SOLVE

Today there is a crisis in America. It goes beyond the economy, the pandemic or race relations. When you look carefully, even within your own neighborhood, the crisis leaving a devastating wake - is in our Justice System. America ranks 115th in the world for providing affordable access to justice. Today, 1 in 3 Americans cannot afford the high cost of lawyers. Did you know that one of your neighbors is turned away from legal help every second – that is 120 people in the time it takes to read this page - and 36 million requests this year. While TV and movie characters say “you have the right to a free attorney” that is only true if you are charged with a serious crime - NOT if you are the victim of violence, unfairness or discrimination. Without legal guidance, individuals are 21% more likely to be abused, 47% more likely to experience financial, physical, and emotional loss, and 70% more likely to need public assistance.

OUR HISTORY

In 2000, our current CEO, Bruce Strom, founded Administer Justice to provide volunteer- led legal aid in the Chicago area. Our name comes from a Christmas gift made by Bruce’s wife Helen of daily justice verses. One of those verses comes from Zechariah 7:9-10: “This is what the Lord Almighty said, ‘Administer true Justice, show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’” 

In 2013 Moody published Bruce’s first book, Gospel Justice, which helped launch a separate national legal-aid planting ministry called Gospel Justice Initiative. In the Fall of 2018 Administer Justice and Gospel Justice Initiative merged for greater synergy. In 2019 the board determined to solely use the name Administer Justice. Today, the “new” Administer Justice has the best of both worlds - a robust service infrastructure along with a highly duplicable “business in a box” national rollout model. 

Administer Justice is led by a dynamic 11-member Board of Directors that is committed to our founding Chairman John Robb’s vision for 1,000 Gospel Justice Centers transforming lives in the name of Christ.

In 2021 our CEO solicited two separate million-dollar gifts to hire a stellar team to multiply impact across the United States. Those gifts were intended to be used to advance growth resulting in an intended annual deficit gap while fundraising increases and other growth takes place. One key function of this role is to monitor this gap through a strategic cash flow forecasting and analysis tool.

In 2023 we entered several new partnerships with national leaders like Prison Fellowship to multiply our capacity to expand through more churches in more strategic communities. Our current strategic markets are Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Portland, and Phoenix. At the end of 2023 our CEO published his second book, Persevering Power, with InterVarsity Press. This book, a new podcast called Restore Justice, and new speaking opportunities are fueling continued expansion and to build on this growth a talented VP of Finance & Operations is critical.

THE HEARTBEAT OF OUR MINISTRY: GOSPEL JUSTICE CENTERS

AJ is the only legal aid ministry to uniquely affirm dignity and sustainability, be Biblical and Holistic, and Church-led, Team-Supported, and Neighborhood Based. Each center is Christian demonstrating the love of God and the love of neighbor. Justice for the poor is God’s heartbeat and is the second most prominent theme in the Bible. God’s restorative justice compels us to see our neighbor as a person to be loved, not a problem to be solved. We do ministry with, not for, neighbors in need. 

No one does justice alone and we have a unique 9-role team that serves once a month (typically on a Saturday morning for 4 hours). The advisory session helps the client get answers to important legal questions that often are the cause of stress, fear, anxiety, and despair. In just a few minutes of expert guidance, peace is experienced, and practical help is provided. In addition to the attorney(s), the remaining support team acts as a caregiving group, providing everything from hospitality and prayer to follow-up. A typical center will touch the lives of 40-60 people each year - including single moms, veterans, elderly, immigrants, and other vulnerable neighbors in need. We measure client impact and consistently have 93-94% report the legal need was met and 94-95% report experiencing a greater sense of God’s love and hope for their life!

The only charge for a client is a $30 co-pay providing value to the client. With the average hourly rate for an attorney exceeding $300/hour, this one-time charge is not meant as a barrier but as a means of obtaining buy-in. The $30 comes back to our national support center and enables us to provide the insurance, database, and systems needed to sustain operations without any cost to the local church. We invite individuals called Torchlighters to make a one-time gift of $5,000 to cover the initial costs of opening a Gospel Justice Center. Once opened the site is self-sustaining. A one-time gift provides a lifetime of impact.

We believe strongly in the local church. Clients step into a church on a Saturday who would never visit the church on Sunday, but they return because of the experience they had at the Gospel Justice Center. Most legal issues can be resolved in a single visit, others require additional visits or additional coaching. Every client receives a unique step-by-step plan to address their situation. Every plan is followed up by a client follow-up advocate. This wrap-around care and model is unique and transformative.

HOW WE OPERATE

Our mission is to empower vulnerable neighbors with the help of a lawyer and the hope of God’s love.

Our work centers around four core values for staff to embrace as we each do our PART. This is an acronym for Professional, Adaptive, Result-Oriented, Team Player. We are one team operating in three internal divisions: Engage, Equip and Ensure. This role leads the Ensure division which handles financial strategy, oversees operational finances, human resources, technology, facilities, and the transparent stewardship of resources. Our Engage Team raises awareness and support while expanding impact through communication and ways to get involved. Our Equip Team launches and sustains Gospel Justice Center operations by training volunteers to empower vulnerable neighbors through next-step plans. The VP of Finance & Operations will join a collaborative team of 16 staff and over 1,000 volunteers. Additionally, you will oversee two key vendors with multiple employees servicing Administer Justice in day-to-day financial operations (bill pay, reconciliations, donation receipting, donation compliance filings, and payroll) and IT functions (server hosting, firewall monitoring/protection, device review/updates, and other IT infrastructure monitoring/assistance).

YOUR OPPORTUNITY

Administer Justice is currently seeking a talented full-time VP of Finance & Operations to strategically help advance our fast-growing national ministry. We are looking for an energetic and high-capacity leader who has demonstrated leadership in finance, HR, IT, and operations.  This person is excited for the joy and challenge of applying his or her time, talents, and treasures to make a profound impact in the lives of thousands of vulnerable neighbors as they seek justice and find freedom to the glory of God.

The individual who assumes this role will report directly to the CEO and be an integral member of the senior leadership team, working to make strategic decisions for the organization. They will also be responsible for the following 4 areas:

Finance/Compliance

• Provide SLT with recommendations based on financial analysis and projections, cost identification and allocation, and regular revenue/expense analysis.
• Develop, monitor, and advise on a cash flow forecasting tool.
• Develop plan to assess Cost of Acquistion for a Gospel Justice Center (GJC) as well as return on investment to allow AJ’s National Support Center (NSC) to achieve economies of scale for stewardship of God’s resources and advance self-sustainability.
• Develop, monitor, and implement vendor acquisition and assessment plans.
• Direct and manage the annual budget, audit, 990’s, and other legal and financial compliance matters.
• Develop and direct budget applications to teams for monitoring and daily accounting and finance functions.
• Oversee daily financial matters, payables, and payroll through oversight of Cedarstone, a key vendor handling these functions.
• Partner with CEO and legal counsel to manage multi-state corporate filings and legal compliance.

Human Resources

• Oversee hiring, onboarding, and offboarding processes and assist staff through those processes as needed
• Oversee and assist managers with our quarterly and annual performance review process, including compensation and role description review
• Advance company compliance with HR, update Employee Handbook, and be responsible for effective management of HR functions.
• Evaluate and oversee all benefits negotiations, thus providing the most competitive packages for AJ’s employees.
• Support managers and staff with seeking appropriate Professional Development opportunities
• Help staff ensure proper work/life balance

Data/IT and infrastructure

• Lead and implement AJ’s approach to data architecture, tech stack, system integrations, and governance for constituent management (Bloomerang CRM), financials (QBO), operations (LegalServer and Acuity), reporting (Excel), and communications systems (MS Teams, phones, video conferencing).
• Supervise our Senior Director of Operational Excellence and help oversee the continuous improvement process, as well as securing our non-profit certifications and renewals
• Develop, adopt, and implement new technology tools and practices, while improving upon existing systems. Manage relationships with IT Vendors.
• Partner with the Equip and Engage Team to support their data/reporting needs
• Drive cross-functional collaboration using information systems, technology tools, and efficient workflows to bridge across systems and teams.
• Critically evaluate all formal finance-, IT-, and HR-related procedures, processes, and administration, recommending improvements and automation to the systems in place for efficient management of the systems going forward.

Facilities

• Serve as point of contact for landlord and utilities companies
• Oversee policies and processes for maintaining our office
• Seek out cost-savings in our facilities usage

The impact you will have: When done well you will experience joy from:

• Knowing you were used by God as His instrument in moving His church and His people to advance His heart for justice in a way that has never happened before.
• Seeing the success of the ministry resulting from inspired confidence and trust through full transparency and compliance with all legal, grant, and other accounting policies and practices.
• Knowing the systems and processes you helped implement led to growing sustainability.
• Seeing lives transformed through the expansion of Gospel Justice Centers.

SKILLS NEEDED

The skills needed to ensure the success of the role include:

1. Competent – Solid financial skills and background, nuts and bolts experience in the operations of a business and/or nonprofit, a strategic thinker with a big-picture mentality.
2. Committed – Passionate about the mission of the organization and understands the realities of the nonprofit sector.
3. Communicative – Able to speak in non-financial language, can translate and teach financial literacy, relates well to the board of directors and multiple stakeholders.
4. Strategic – Flexible, thinks outside the box, figures out how to say “yes” and make things possible! The ideal candidate does not simply do the same old thing but will be a specialist who watches new accounting, regulations, technology, and other areas that could impact compliance or operational growth to raise with the CEO and leadership team. 

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE

Success in this role is measured by:

• Financial and data integrity and accuracy with budget, cash flow projections, and reporting.
• Compliance with grant funds, 990s, audit, legal, internal policies for expenditure approval and reimbursements, reporting to Board Treasurer/full board as evidenced by a clean management report from the auditors.
• Consistently identifying cost-savings for the organization, while not compromising growth.
• Consistently improving on staff engagement and culture metrics.
• Successful advancement of Ensure Team goals and objectives.

QUALIFICATIONS

• In a growing, energetic relationship with Jesus Christ and aligned with Administer Justice’s Statement of Faith.
• A collaborative and flexible style, with a strong service mentality. Needs to be seen as a team player who is committed to lifelong learning.
• Bachelor's and/or master’s degree in accounting, Finance, or Business and/or a combination of equivalent education and/or experience preferred.
• The VP of Finance & Operations will have at least five to eight years or more of professional experience, ideally including managing the finance and administration of a high-growth organization (nonprofit experience a plus). She or he will have experience creating and driving the analytic framework across finance (accounting, budgeting, control, and reporting), HR, and IT for planning and managing organizational change in a highly entrepreneurial organization.
• Understanding of QuickBooks Online (QBO), budgeting, cash flows, designated funds, balance sheets, not-for-profit information returns, and audits.
• Flexible and a self-starter; able to multitask while also being highly detail-oriented.
• Strong analytical skills and experience interpreting a strategic vision into an operational model.
• Demonstrated effective interpersonal skills, resourceful and creative problem-solving, conflict resolution, and ethical management. Experience managing multiple vendors/contractors.
• Motivated by good stewardship and seeing the impact that has on the team as they advance God’s Kingdom of justice.

The position is full-time salaried exempt and provides health insurance, 3% matching retirement plan, holidays, paid time off days, cell phone reimbursement and other reimbursements.

If after reading this description, you have interest in the VP of Finance & Operations position at Administer Justice and you feel you meet the qualifications for the role, you are invited to submit the following information for consideration:

• Your resume or CV.
• 3 references (at least 1 ministry, 2 professional peer/colleague). Include phone and email information for each reference. These references will be contacted later in the process and only with your prior approval.
• Take the Predictive Index: https://assessment.predictiveindex.com/5XPY/cd2c123f-f518-4c4f-a260-0f2df286c438?type=candidateba 
• Written response to:

1. Share your personal faith story. How and when did you enter a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? How have you been growing spiritually? How do you stay spiritually refreshed amid a busy life?
2. What specifically about Administer Justice is attracting you to apply for this position?
3. What experiences and/or accomplishments have you had that make you an ideal fit for the position?

Application Deadline 11:59pm on Sunday, May 26, 2024