Finance Director

Turn complex finances into confident decisions—and help strengthen an organization serving Milwaukee’s children and families.

Next Door is seeking a strategic, collaborative, and solutions-focused Director of Finance to serve as our senior internal finance leader.

This is not a traditional back-office accounting role. Next Door has outsourced much of its transactional accounting and financial operations to an external finance partner. The Director of Finance will ensure that this model works effectively by providing strong internal leadership, managing the vendor relationship, supervising our Lead Grant Accountant, and maintaining organizational ownership of financial quality, compliance, and decision-making.

The Director will also serve as a trusted advisor to our President, translating financial statements, grant requirements, forecasts, and emerging risks into clear information and practical recommendations. The right person will understand that strong nonprofit finance is about more than producing accurate reports—it is about helping leaders make thoughtful decisions that protect resources and advance the mission.

About Next Door

Next Door’s mission is to ensure that children in Milwaukee have the strong start they need to thrive in the first five years of life. Next Door achieves its mission through high-quality early childhood education, family support, Wisconsin’s largest home visiting program, partner sites throughout Milwaukee and critical programs such as our Books for Kids program.

Our work is supported by a complex mix of federal, state, local, and private funding, including Head Start and Early Head Start. Strong fiscal leadership is essential to ensuring that these resources are used effectively, responsibly, and in accordance with funder requirements.

What You’ll Do

Serve as a strategic financial advisor

You will be the President’s primary internal financial advisor, helping her and other leaders understand the organization’s financial position and make informed decisions.

You will:

• Translate complex financial information into clear implications, risks, options, and recommendations.
• Prepare and present financial dashboards, forecasts, budget-to-actual analyses, and decision scenarios.
• Identify emerging financial concerns early and help leadership understand the underlying causes and available responses.
• Support decisions related to staffing, funding, programs, contracts, organizational investments, and strategic priorities.
• In collaboration with the outsourced vendor, present financial information to the Executive Team, Finance Committee, Board of Directors, and other stakeholders.

Lead Head Start and federal grant fiscal compliance

You will serve as Next Door’s internal fiscal leader for Head Start, Early Head Start, and other government-funded programs.

You will:

• Maintain a strong working knowledge of Head Start fiscal requirements, Uniform Guidance, award terms, and other applicable regulations.
• Oversee compliance related to cost allowability and allocation, personnel costs, procurement, cash management, equipment, indirect costs, non-federal share, in-kind documentation, and financial reporting.
• Partner with program, Human Resources, Development, and operational leaders to ensure that spending and staffing decisions align with approved funding and grant requirements.
• Coordinate the fiscal components of grant applications, continuation applications, budget revisions, monitoring reviews, audits, and corrective action plans.
• Identify potential compliance concerns or questioned costs and ensure they are resolved promptly.
• Help build financial and grant-compliance knowledge throughout the organization.

Direct Head Start or Early Head Start fiscal experience is strongly preferred. We will also consider candidates with substantial federal grant finance experience who demonstrate the ability and commitment to rapidly build Head Start expertise, including completing an intensive Head Start fiscal management institute or comparable training.

Manage our outsourced finance partnership

You will be Next Door’s primary relationship owner and on-site manager of our outsourced fiscal vendor.

You will:

• Establish clear responsibilities, workflows, deadlines, service expectations, and escalation processes.
• Oversee work performed by the fiscal vendor, including the monthly close, financial reporting, general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll accounting, cash management, reconciliations, fixed assets, audit support, and tax filings.
• Review the accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and usefulness of the fiscal vendor’s work.
• Resolve issues directly and escalate recurring or significant concerns when necessary.
• Ensure that the fiscal vendor understands Next Door’s programs, grants, cost-allocation methods, reporting needs, policies, and decision-making timelines.
• Maintain a clear division of responsibility between internal staff and the outsourced team.
• Assess vendor performance and recommend changes to processes, systems, scope, staffing, or contractual expectations when needed.

Strengthen financial controls and reporting

You will ensure that Next Door’s financial systems and reports are accurate, reliable, compliant, and useful.

You will:

• Oversee the integrity of the general ledger and the preparation of financial statements, grant reports, reconciliations, and management reports.
• Lead the annual organizational budget process and periodic reforecasting.
• Monitor cash flow, banking activity, debt, reserves, investments, and other significant financial matters.
• Design and continuously improve internal controls for an environment in which responsibilities are shared between Next Door and an outsourced provider.
• Ensure that appropriate approvals, access controls, reconciliations, documentation, segregation of duties, and review processes are consistently followed.
• Coordinate the annual financial statement audit, Single Audit, Form 990 preparation, funder reviews, and other external examinations.
• Oversee responses to audit findings and corrective action plans.

Lead and develop internal finance capacity

You will directly supervise and support Next Door’s Lead Grant Accountant.

You will:

• Establish priorities, expectations, and clear areas of responsibility.
• Review work and provide coaching, feedback, and professional development opportunities.
• Build effective documentation, backup coverage, and continuity plans.
• Establish a consistent finance operating cadence, including close calendars, grant reviews, budget meetings, and issue tracking.
• Create a service-oriented finance function that balances strong compliance with practical support for program and administrative teams.

What Success Looks Like

During the first year, the Director of Finance will:

• Establish a productive and accountable working relationship with the fiscal vendor.
• Create a clear division of responsibilities between the outsourced provider and Next Door staff.
• Improve the timeliness, accuracy, and usefulness of financial reporting.
• Provide the President and other leaders with greater visibility into financial performance, forecasts, risks, and decisions.
• Strengthen Head Start and federal grant fiscal compliance.
• Build consistent budgeting, forecasting, close, grant-review, and issue-resolution processes.
• Develop and support the Lead Grant Accountant.
• Increase financial understanding and ownership across the organization.

What You Bring Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business administration, or a related field.
• At least seven years of progressively responsible experience in nonprofit accounting, financial management, or grant finance.
• Experience working with organizations that receive funding from multiple public and private sources.
• Strong knowledge of federal grant requirements, Uniform Guidance, generally accepted accounting principles, nonprofit financial reporting, budgeting, internal controls, and audit preparation.
• Experience supervising and developing accounting or finance staff.
• Ability to manage and evaluate work performed by an outsourced accounting provider, consultant, or professional-services partner.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze complex financial information and explain it clearly to executives, program leaders, committees, and board members.
• Strong judgment, organization, problem-solving, project management, and relationship-management skills.
• Ability to ask informed questions, identify risks, establish accountability, and drive issues through resolution.
• High standards of integrity, discretion, accuracy, responsiveness, and follow-through.
• Proficiency with fund accounting systems, spreadsheets, reporting tools, and related financial technology.

Preferred qualifications

• Direct Head Start or Early Head Start fiscal management experience.
• Experience with federal monitoring reviews, audits, non-federal share requirements, in-kind documentation, cost-allocation plans, or federal grant applications.
• Experience leading finance within an outsourced or co-sourced operating model.
• Experience with Sage Intacct or a comparable nonprofit fund accounting system.
• CPA, CMA, master’s degree, or comparable advanced training in accounting, finance, or business administration.

How You Lead

The strongest candidates will be:

• Clear communicators who can make complicated financial information understandable and actionable.
• Strong relationship managers who can work effectively with executives, staff, board members, vendors, auditors, and funders.
• Comfortable with accountability and willing to address missed deadlines, inaccurate work, unclear ownership, or recurring problems.
• Curious and adaptable, with the ability to quickly learn Head Start requirements and the operational realities of early childhood programming.
• Mission-focused, recognizing that financial stewardship directly affects Next Door’s ability to serve children and families.
• Practical problem-solvers who can protect compliance without creating unnecessary barriers for program teams.
• Confident but collaborative, bringing informed recommendations while listening carefully to operational and program perspectives.

Work Environment

This position requires regular on-site presence to support the President and organizational leaders, supervise staff, and manage the relationship with the fiscal vendor. Limited remote work may be available based on organizational policy and business needs.

The Director must be able to travel between Next Door locations and attend occasional off-site, evening, board, committee, audit, or monitoring-related meetings.

Compensation and Benefits

Next Door offers a comprehensive benefits package, competitive wages and general paid time off, paid others and a culture of continuous improvement backed by professional development opportunities.

Join Next Door

This is an opportunity to shape how finance supports a complex, mission-driven organization at an important moment in its development. The Director of Finance will help Next Door build a strong, accountable partnership with its outsourced finance provider while ensuring that leaders have the information and guidance they need to make sound decisions.

Most importantly, this role will help ensure that Next Door’s resources are protected and used effectively in support of Milwaukee’s children and families.

To apply, please submit a resume and cover letter describing your relevant nonprofit, federal grant, Head Start, financial leadership, and outsourced-provider management experience.