How does the role of finance leader differ between a commercial business and a not-for-profit? Join us as Caterri Woodrum, CFO, North Carolina Museum of Art, as she reveals her CFO mind-set and explains why up-and-coming finance leaders must always “step up.”
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Driving Change: The Ah-Hah Moment
The following is an edited abstract from the CFO Thought Leader podcast featuring Catteri Woodrum, CFO, North Carolina Museum of Art, and Jack Sweeney, co-host of MME Thought Leader.
WOODRUM: There were of course lots of them. The top of the list of course was again the impact of an economic recession on the business, all the way around. The earned income was affected obviously and fundraising was significantly affected because your donors were affected when you’re losing major hocks of their portfolios and that’s how they’re giving to you. So, the economic recession created a lot of surprises. Even the expansion was a little bit of a surprise because I learned that there was a revenue stream that was coming from a local city food and beverage grant and basically it comes from taxation in the local area.
But the grant was based on 18 years out so it was already ensuring for 18 years but it was supposed to underpin construction today. That was a challenge because that revenue stream also didn’t have a guarantee. So yes they said we’re granting the money and it’s going to come in in the following sort of way. It’s going to do so over 18 years but at any point in time, that food and beverage taxation doesn’t meet the criteria that it needs to fund this, you’re just not going to get the money.