Finance Manager, Finance (MF)

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

The Finance Manager at The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is based in Chicago, overseeing budgeting, forecasting, and financial reporting within the Office of Finance.

You will drive dashboards, KPI reporting, and ERP configurations to improve internal controls and data accuracy. You will partner with IT and other teams to support Workday ERP, ensure compliant processes, and guide end‑users with training materials and documentation for financial systems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance; CPA preferred.
• 6–8 years of finance experience in relevant sectors.
• Strong ERP systems knowledge and financial reporting ability.
• Excellent written and verbal communication with cross‑functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Create and maintain reporting tools and dashboards for strategic decision making.
• Lead budgeting, forecasting, and variance analysis processes.
• Oversee ERP system administration and data integrity across modules.
• Collaborate with IT on system integrations and end‑user training.
• Prepare reports for internal leadership, audits and tax filings.

Skills

Communication skills

Financial analysis

Attention to detail

Finance leadership

Education

Bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance

CPA

Tools

ERP systems

Microsoft Excel

Workday

Job description

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation supports creative people, effective institutions, and influential networks building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. MacArthur is placing a few big bets that truly significant progress is possible on some of the world’s most pressing social challenges, including over-incarceration , global climate change , nuclear risk , and significantly increasing financial capital for the social sector . In addition to the MacArthur Fellows Program , the Foundation continues its historic commitments to the role of journalism in a responsible and responsive democracy, as well as the strength and vitality of our headquarters city, Chicago .

MacArthur is one of the nation's largest independent foundations. Organizations supported by the Foundation work in about 50 countries. In addition to Chicago, MacArthur has offices in India , Mexico , and Nigeria .

Office of Finance

The Office of Finance is responsible for all accounting, banking, payroll, budget, internal control, tax, audit and financial reporting for the Foundation. The Office is also responsible for maintaining the financial enterprise systems and end user support and training on those systems. The Finance Manager is an integral part of the Financial Planning and Analysis team within the Office of Finance, who has developed a broad knowledge of practices, rules and regulations applicable to private foundations and the nonprofit field. This position supports the established financial policies and procedures in the conduct of everyday operations and is knowledgeable of Foundation policies and procedures regarding all aspects of accounting and finance. The Finance Manager assists the Director, Financial Planning and Analysis in the maintenance and support of accounting, budget and financial systems and related processes; creates and maintains ad hoc reporting within the ERP system related to both financial and operational data for use by end users across the Foundation; and supports the accounting operations for Lever for Change, an affiliate entity of the Foundation. In addition to supporting the financial planning and analysis functions within the Office of Finance, the Finance Manager drives change and provides insight into leveraging existing financial systems to improve current processes related to operational transactions, budgeting, and projections, with active contribution of ideas, opinions, and skills toward the achievement of common goals, and partnership with other knowledgeable experts as to what is best for customers and the Foundation. He/she utilizes reporting capabilities within the ERP system to analyze data at a large scale, is able to critically review a process and its subcomponents and assess which components should be changed to effectuate improvements in the process to increase efficiency, and recognizes when a process has changed and tests the accuracy of the change.

Job Description

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Create and maintain effective reporting and analysis tools to allow for more informed and strategic decision making, including dashboards and scorecards for executive level users. Utilize ERP system to generate key performance indicators and maintain financial modeling tools.
• Create and maintain departmental and functional dashboards for program and department staff to allow for transparent business processes, comprehensive reporting of financial data, and ease of navigation within ERP system.
• Create and maintain accounting and financial reports within the ERP system to accommodate increased automation of reporting internally within the Office of Finance and externally based on customized needs of end-users across the enterprise.
• Responsible for system administration of budget and financial accounting/ERP applications, including systems configuration, workflow and reporting. The system administrator must possess a comprehensive understanding and working knowledge of the finance applications and be able to use the systems to process financial transactions in compliance with Foundation policies and external regulations.
• Partner with Information Technology to support and manage system integrations across all financial applications and ensure appropriate documentation of process flows for internal control purposes.
• Support Director, Financial Planning and Analysis in the annual budget development cycle including but not limited to budget planning, forecasting and variance analysis, spending plan modeling, payout forecast, funding source forecasting and reporting to Executive Leadership Team and Board Budget Committee.
• Support Director, Financial Planning and Analysis in preparation of instruction, training and support to all financial system end-users. Prepare clear and concise training materials and documentation for financial systems to be used by end-users.
• Participate in internal and external Workday user groups to assist and contribute to the overall management of the Foundation’s ERP systems, participate and contribute to the short-term and long-term ERP strategy, implement support strategies, business processes, and ensure security and data integrity for the Workday application.
• Serve as budget administrator for Finance cost center; prepare annual administrative expense budget and update monthly administrative expense projections.
• Responsible for approving grant supplier changes in the Workday application and serve as backup for grants accounting function including weekly processing of grant payments and approvals.
• Support Lever for Change staff in recording operational transactions and review financial activity on periodic basis to ensure all transactions are properly recorded and in line with accounting standards; process operational reclass transactions as necessary. Exercise sound judgment to either promptly resolve outstanding issues or request additional input from supervisor.
• Support Lever for Change general ledger accounting and reporting required for external audit and tax return preparation, including allocation entries as necessary. Process and reconcile all intercompany activity between Lever for Change and Foundation including cash settlement between the two entities; ensure accurate elimination of intercompany activity for financial statement purposes.
• Process revenue transactions for Lever for Change and ensure compliance with ASC standards, including all accounts receivable transactions and customer invoicing related to competition fees and payments of gifts and grants. Responsible for the presentation of grant and contract revenue on internal reporting, audited financial statements, and tax reporting.
• Manage weekly upload of Lever for Change wire payments via retail banking system, including resolution of grant payment issues with bank, re-issuance of wires, and resolution of wire payment instruction issues.
• Responsible for cash management of the Lever for Change bank account including tracking of settlement, recording cash activity, reconciling variances, and informing operational team of potential cash flow issues. Collaborate with BMO representatives and Foundation banking specialist to troubleshoot banking issues in the ERP system and maintain integrations with the bank. Maintain settlement controls and verify compliance with approved board resolutions.
• Responsible for account reconciliations for Lever for Change general ledger accounts, including but not limited to cash, prepaid assets, receivables, deferred revenue, and intercompany accounts.
• Responsible for all Lever for Change corporate card and airline account entries in the general ledger including analysis of prepaid and unclassified travel accounts.
• Maintain current policies and procedures for Lever for Change accounting system reconciliation with general ledger.
• Create, maintain, and support ad hoc reports within the ERP system to be used to compile the annual financial statements, tax return, and budget reporting for Lever for Change.
• Manage all aspects of accounting for program-related investments (PRI), including processing all transactions; producing management, tax and audit reports; tracking loan guarantees, analyzing the bad debt reserve; tracking equity investment valuations and collecting K1 data; enhancing and troubleshooting reporting structures in the accounting and grant systems, and ensuring the data integrity of the transfers across systems.
• Serve as Finance subject matter expert in collaboration with Legal Department, Grants Management team, and Impact Investments team on system implementations and updates to policies, procedures, workflow, and system design changes related to PRIs.
• Responsible for PRI analysis as needed in partnership with Impact Investments team including PRI receivables aging, external communication with borrowers on payment issues, and underlying data for the Impact Investments annual report and other ad hoc analysis as needed.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

The position is based in Chicago, Illinois.

Physical Requirements and Work Environment:

The work environment is an office setting. Intermittent physical activities will include bending, reaching, sitting, and walking during working hours. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable a person with physical disabilities to perform the job.

Qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree in accounting or finance required; CPA essential; at least six to eight years of finance related experience required
• Comprehensive understanding of technology in relation to systems and implementations; expert level knowledge of accounting systems and applications, ERP systems, Microsoft Office Suite and other business-related software
• Solid understanding of transaction analysis and recording of financial transactions with supporting documentation
• Knowledge of not for profit accounting standards including revenue recognition, grant and contract accounting, and financial statement disclosures.
• Understand and apply the principals of an appropriate control environment. Complies with policies and procedures in order to minimize errors (and prevent fraud) by employees, customers, vendors and management, and to protect the Foundation's assets.
• Responds quickly and accurately to requests for information from Foundation employees and external parties such as consultants and auditors.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; comfortable speaking and presenting to large groups and translating financial and accounting data into "layman" terms