BROADCASTS.com

When does a mission-driven CFO initiate a crucial turnaround of an erstwhile nonprofit that\u2019s been losing money for years and has a legacy pension plan dragging down its balance sheet? Before he\u2019s even been offered the job. At least that\u2019s how you take care of business if you\u2019re March of Dimes Senior Vice President and CFO Dave Damond.

\u201cI came in with a change management plan,\u201d reveals the former KPMG auditor, who was a finance executive with American Red Cross before launching himself into his current role in 2018. \u201cIn fact, when I was interviewing, they showed me what the current table of organization looked like. And I said, \u2018Yeah, that\u2019s wrong \u2013 here\u2019s what it should look like.\u201d

Damond got the job, and immediately implemented his plan, which included replacing a 30-year-old legacy ERP installation with a cloud-based system (within a year), hiring new talent (including a controller) and addressing that drag on the balance sheet as interest rates fortuitously plummeted.

\u201cWe saw a lot of organizations were actually doing buyouts [of defined benefits pension plans],\u201d Damond says while detailing the mechanics of his change plan. \u201cIt was something that we had to jump on right away, and we took that opportunity to offer buyouts to all of our people who were already retired.\u201d The move saved the organization $20 million, adds Damond who also shares his take on cashflow analytics, fundraising KPIs, how he managed through COVID and the AI solutions that his finance group is considering investing in.