Q&A with Chief Financial Officer Cecilia Kadane.
Tell me about the nonprofits you volunteer with?
The first is the East Missouri Foundation, whose mission is to give away money to charitable organizations. It was created in 2014 from the sale of some large assets so we’re in the fortunate position of not having to fund raise or solicit donors. In 2016 we started giving money away, and by the end of this year, we’ll have given away almost $4 million. And because we’ve done a good job managing/investing our assets, we have more money today than we started with. That’s a good thing! We’ve given money to food banks, veterans organizations, traveling nurse organizations, and organizations that assist senior citizens. On an annual basis we give money to 60-75 charities. We designate three times per year the groups who will be recipients and each time we do there’s at least 20-25 organizations that receive funds.
What is your role in that organization?
I’m the Assistant Treasurer on a Board with 14 members from different walks of life, many of whom are retired. We only have two committees: One is the Benevolence committee that finds organizations to give money to; the other is the Financial Investment committee that makes sure our investments are growing and I’m on the financial investment committee. I was one of the founding members of the foundation and am now one of three remaining founders.
What is the other nonprofit?
I am also involved with Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts, which is a nonprofit that offers other organizations or self-employed musicians and artists with free legal or accounting advice. This organization has been around for a very, very long time. I contacted them years ago after reading an article in the newspaper and volunteered to provide accounting advice. It is a simple process for someone in the arts to ask for assistance: An entrepreneur who needs advice will apply online, and based on their need(s), the Board will match that individual with the appropriate lawyer or accountant volunteer such as myself.
What are your favorite parts with each of these volunteer opportunities?
On the arts side, you are matched with some interesting people. I remember meeting someone with a choral group and a young man who was recording music. You’re just not aware of all these things that are going on in the world that people are doing. I’m able to help this group of people that I would never meet or associate with otherwise. I would personally never fall into the arts/craftsy category: I can’t sing; I can’t play an instrument; I don’t paint. So through this organization I come in contact with people who I would never run into otherwise.
From the foundation side, I have learned about charitable organizations that I never knew existed. They all do great work . We can give them $25,000 and they are so thankful; you would have thought it was $1,000,000! There are so many needy organizations that are doing really good work but aren’t well known.
Is there anything about your volunteerism that has influenced your work at HERA?
With the Foundation, my job is to be a good steward with our investments/cash. Because we are not going out raising money, if we want our foundation to be around for the next 20 years it’s our job to make sure the money is invested appropriately. We have metrics for what we consider appropriate, so we meet with our financial managers on a quarterly basis. That’s the same thing I try to do for HERA. Our firm has investments and I’m making decisions on those with our investment professionals.
On the arts side, I help people better understand expenses and how to classify them, and that knowledges comes directly from my work experience. Helping people understand expenses – I still do that after all these years.