Non Profit CFO AwardTate and TryonWest, Lane and Schlager

Press Release

Contact:
Taresa Schmidt, Director of Marketing
West, Lane & Schlager
202-835-7288

DC Area CFOs honored at 2008 Nonprofit CFO of the Year Awards Luncheon

(WASHINGTON, DC) - Five area executives were honored at the 2008 Nonprofit CFO of the Year Awards Luncheon, hosted by Tate & Tryon and West, Lane & Schlager at the Mayflower Hotel on November 18, 2008.

The third annual awards ceremony honored financial executives in the Washington, D.C. area for their contributions in exceptional leadership, operational excellence, and a commitment to promoting improved accountability and financial reporting practices.

The Rising Star Award was presented to Stephanie Murphy, Chief Financial Officer of the Air-conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute. Murphy was nominated by Stephen Yurek, the President of AHRI.

It’s hard to imagine that Stephanie has only been with AHRI for a little over a year,” said Yurek. “She has accomplished in one year what would take many people in her position several years to accomplish.”

A few weeks after Murphy began her position her organization announced an upcoming merger. Murphy was responsible for merging two different accounting systems, accounting software programs, budgets, and accounting staffs.

“Rather than take an easier route, Stephanie seized the opportunity to revise poor practices, establish new and more efficient procedures, and to organize her expanded staff to optimize their individual contributions into a dynamic team effort,” said Yurek. 

With Murphy’s leadership, AHRI collected 100 percent of their certification payments and over 85 percent of membership dues, a feat never accomplished by either of the previous organizations.

“Both our staff and members have commented that because the new procedures are more practical and more efficient,” said Yurek, “they now have numbers they can trust.”

The Innovator of the Year Award was presented to Jack Deeds, Chief Financial Officer of Search for Common Ground. Deeds was nominated by Yasir Usman, Solutions Manager at Terpsys. Usman worked with Deeds to implement the use of new software as a platform for the finance department’s operations. 

“Jack provided a vision that led to the implementation of many solutions,” said Usman. “and a number of applications that led to tremendous time and cost savings for the organization. For example, the timesheet application that Jack envisioned and rolled out has impacted the lives of staff in a way that has really made the process of reporting time against a project code extremely easy, as opposed to the chore it used to be.”

In addition, the field report application implemented by Deeds transformed the way the Finance Department operates by developing and capturing a more efficient way for field offices to report transactional data, cutting data reporting delays from months to hours and enhancing the ability of management to track and control budgets.

“Jack has really transformed his organization by bringing them to the 21st century.”

The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Eileen Frazier, Chief Operating and Financial Officer at The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. Frazier was nominated by Misha Galperin, the Federation’s Chief Executive Officer.

Frazier, who has been with The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington since 1995, has been instrumental in finance, IT, human resources and fundraising efforts.

“In the past year,” said Galperin, “Eileen led the development of a new allocations model, whereby our grant-making budget is based on cash collections through the end of a calendar year, rather than on pledges though the end of the fiscal year. In the year when many donors will have a difficult time paying off their pledges – this will ensure that we don’t over promise and under deliver to our beneficiaries.”

Frazier also led the development of a system, “where IT and telecom services are provided to 19 of our beneficiaries through our office, improving the quality while reducing the cost of this essential infrastructure component,” said Galperin. “She initiated a new approach to acknowledge our donors’ contributions, overhauled our budget development process and related it to organizational goal-setting.”

Frazier also led the audit committee to develop a new charter consistent with best practices for nonprofits in light of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Also in 2008, she led the team that designed and produced one of the most successful public events in the history of the DC Jewish community – a festival at the National Mall that attracted upwards of 50,000 participants and over 100 community organizations.

“Eileen is the most valuable member of The Federation’s professional staff, “said Galperin. “She is a role model, an innovator, a creative yet stabilizing force in the organization and in our community.

Honorable mentions went to Thomas Duffy, Chief Financial Officer of the Archdiocese of Washington, and Christopher Liedel, Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of the National Geographic Society, for their innovative work during the past year. Judges felt that their actions were exemplary and experience worthy of recognition.

Nominations were reviewed and evaluated by an independent judging panel comprised of:

  • Chief Judge Andrew S. Lang, CPA, President of Lang CPA Consulting, LLC
  • Donald T. Williamson, Director, Kogod School of Business Graduate Taxation Program, and Accounting Department Chair, American University’s Kogod School of Business
  • Harvey J. Berger, Retired partner, Not-for-Profit Tax Services, Grant Thornton LLP
  • Kathy McKinless, CPA, consultant for the Archdiocese of Washington
  • Richard Newman,  Esp. Partner, Arent Fox
The event was held in conjunction with the Greater Washington Society of CPAs, 2008 Not-for-Profit Organization Symposium, and featured keynote speaker Lois Lerner. Lerner is the Director of Exempt Organizations in the Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TEGE) division of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Lerner began her IRS service in 2001 as Director of Rulings and Agreements in the Exempt Organizations function of TEGE. In January 2006, she was selected as Director of Exempt Organizations.Sponsors of the event include Anybill, Arent Fox, Chevy Chase Bank, Convergent Wealth Advisors, rand construction corporation and Syscom Services.

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