Strategic Finance Director

About DonorsChoose

DonorsChoose is an education nonprofit ensuring every US public school student has the classroom resources they need to learn, grow, and thrive.

Founded by a teacher in 2000, DonorsChoose connects educators with a nationwide community of supporters who believe investing in students today will transform tomorrow. Educators request the materials they know their students need, and donors can choose the classroom, community, or cause they want to support. Since our founding, donors have supported 90% of US public schools. Every request is vetted, resources are delivered to classrooms, and donors can see the impact of their support through transparent reporting and updates from students and teachers. Raising $1.9 billion for classrooms, DonorsChoose has earned top ratings from Charity Navigator, GuideStar, and CharityWatch for its transparency, trust, and impact. Our dedicated team works from across the United States to turn resources into opportunities for students and teachers.

About the Finance Team

The Finance, IT, & Procurement team provides the infrastructure and stewardship that keep DonorsChoose financially strong, technologically enabled, and focused on getting resources into classrooms. The team manages the day-to-day finances while shaping long-term strategies, ensures our distributed workforce has the technology and systems to work seamlessly, and manages vendor relationships. Together, these functions turn financial resources into tangible materials in the hands of teachers and students.

About the Role

DonorsChoose is seeking a tactical, collaborative Strategic Finance Director who will report to the VP, Finance & Accounting. You will work closely with senior leaders to provide insights that drive growth, optimize resource allocation, shape cash and margin decisions, and enhance financial performance across the organization. This is a highly cross-functional role for someone who thrives at the intersection of financial analysis and strategic decision-making. We are looking for candidates who have deep scenario planning and modeling experience – who are able to analyze financial data, build financial models, generate financial forecasts and play a key role in driving business decisions.

About a third of your time will be dedicated towards budgeting, forecasting, and month-end reporting activities as needed while maintaining primary focus on strategic finance and decision support.

Success in this role requires equal parts analytical rigor, curiosity, creativity, and business judgment. You'll build sophisticated financial models from scratch, pressure-test assumptions, synthesize information from multiple sources, and communicate recommendations that help leaders make better decisions. You'll thrive if you enjoy moving between spreadsheets and strategy conversations and are equally comfortable diving into the details and presenting the story behind the numbers.

Responsibilities

Financial Modeling & Business Analysis:

Build and maintain a 3-statement financial model for budgeting, forecasting, cash flow management, scenario analysis, and net asset impacts

Independently develop ROI analyses and cost-benefit frameworks that shape prioritization decisions and track the end-to-end lifecycle of initiatives from investment through post-launch impact measurement

Influence decision-making across senior leaders with actionable financial insights to solve key business challenges and position our organization for growth

Partner across the organization to evaluate deal economics, optimize margins, and improve efficiency

Communicate executive-ready analyses, dashboards, and Board materials that translate complex financial information into meaningful business insights

Budget & Forecast Management:

Lead critical FP&A processes, including annual budgeting process, recurring forecasts, month-end reporting, and preparation of financial reporting for senior leadership and Board presentations

Improve and automate FP&A processes, systems, and reporting as the company scales by using modern tooling (including AI-enabled solutions) to improve speed and accuracy

Guide senior leaders on resource allocation and strategic decisions, occasionally presenting at leadership meetings and playing a critical role in influencing change across cross-functional workstreams

Manage vendor renewal calendars and ensure no material contracts auto-renew without review

Special Projects:

Support the build-out of an internal procurement process, one that establishes a centralized function for spend management, contract reviews, vendor selection, and purchasing process.

Own mission-critical initiatives such as an updated pricing strategy to optimize our margins

Qualifications

Have 8+ years of related work experience in strategic finance, FP&A, corporate development, management consulting, investment banking, private equity, accounting, or another discipline responsible for financial forecasts and analysis

Enjoy turning ambiguity into structured analysis and actionable recommendations.

Build trusted relationships across functions and know how to influence without formal authority.

Have built sophisticated financial models from scratch—not simply maintained existing models.

Are naturally curious, ask thoughtful questions, and are comfortable challenging assumptions with data and sound judgment.

Communicate complex financial concepts in ways that help non-finance leaders make informed decisions.

Problem solver who is comfortable diving into complex scenarios

Balance confidence with humility—you have a point of view but remain open to new information and perspectives.

Tech-savvy and comfortable embracing new systems and tools

Care deeply about education and share our organization’s commitment to racial and economic equity in America’s public schools

Experience working with Adaptive Insights or another cloud-based financial planning software

Comfortable with intermediate Excel/Google Sheet functions (pivot tables, lookup functions, graphs/tables)

Level Expectations

The Strategic Finance Director will independently lead complex analytical work that influences organizational financial strategy and executive decision-making. They own sophisticated financial modeling efforts, develop recommendations with limited direction, and regularly partner with senior leaders across the organization.

While this role does not include direct people management responsibilities, the Strategic Finance Director is expected to exercise significant independent judgment, influence cross-functional decisions through expertise and credibility, and raise the overall quality of strategic financial thinking across DonorsChoose.

Successful team members take work nearly to completion independently, seek thoughtful input at key decision points, and communicate recommendations with clarity, confidence, and sound business judgment.

Compensation & Benefits

Our compensation philosophy ensures that we are both externally competitive with tech-forward nonprofits of a similar size and internally fair in our pay practices. The following ranges represent the target offer range given the scope and experience expectations for this role.

The hiring salary range for this role is $109,180 - $125,660

We have a hiring salary range of $121,540- $142,000 for specific higher cost of labor locations, which include New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, and Washington, D.C.

Once employees are hired, everyone at DonorsChoose is eligible to receive annual performance-based raises as they grow in their role. We are open to a variety of experiences, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced or more senior than this job description as posted. If you don’t check every box listed here, or you know you’d bring additional experience to the table, we hope you’ll submit your