This fall, our Managing Director of Finance and Accounting Christina Hadden hit an exciting milestone: her 15-year anniversary with Global Impact! Christina often works behind the scenes, ensuring the financial success of our operations and our clients. But her work touches all aspects of Global Impact Ventures (GIV) – every department, every client, and every service that we offer.
Read our interview with Christina to learn more about her time with Global Impact and what her department has achieved over these last 15 years.
Q: To start off, can you tell us about your job and responsibilities?
A: As the Managing Director of Finance and Accounting, I manage the financial operations across all of GIV – Global Impact, Geneva Global, Capital for Good, and the Global Impact Social Welfare Fund. Outside of our day-to-day finances, I work across all of our financial lines of work, including workplace giving campaigns, corporate philanthropic distributions, fiscal sponsorship, and nonprofit intermediary finance.
Q: You’ve been here for 15 years! What changes have you seen throughout the years – at Global Impact and the philanthropic space in general?
A: When I started with Global Impact, we were solely a federated partner for workplace giving. My first role was as an accountant within our work with the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC), essentially as a project accountant for our workplace giving services
In 2013, we began to venture into different service areas, and I’ve been proud to not just witness but lead our growth in a variety of financial service offerings. We signed our first fiscally sponsored client just over 10 years ago, and we also now facilitate corporate grants to international nonprofits and offer employee assistance funds.
By 2020, the GIV family had grown so much that we started shifting to form two independent departments. I now oversee our internal Finance and Accounting Department, and we have a separate Finance & Business Services Department that works with fiscally sponsored client projects.
It’s been amazing to witness GIV’s growth and ability to adapt and thrive as the philanthropic space changes. We’ve increased our staff, our services, our operations, and most importantly, the impact we’re making on global causes.
Q: What has motivated you to stay with Global Impact? What are your favorite parts of the job?
A: The growth and the opportunities have been key. Outside of GIV, accounting offices across other nonprofits and businesses are fairly standard. GIV is so unique because of the financial services we offer our clients. There’s always an opportunity to learn about a new initiative that we can provide to help our clients further their missions.
Of course, I’ve also loved the people and the culture here. All of my colleagues are dedicated to the work that they’re doing. It’s very fulfilling to know that I’m having a direct impact on the world, expanding the fundraising capabilities of leading nonprofits and empowering businesses to do right by their communities.
Q: What have been some of your favorite projects you’ve worked on?
A: As we’ve grown the GIV family over the years, we now have a 501c3, a 501c4, and a for-profit entity under our umbrella. It’s been a fun new challenge to learn about these new entities. The finance teams were the first department to get fully integrated together so that we could work seamlessly across our entities. It’s a learning curve that we’re still working through, but it’s been very enjoyable to expand the team and learn more about different kinds of organizations, the IRS regulations for each, and the service agreements and analyses we conduct together.
Q: What has collaboration looked like during your time here?
A: The nature of our work allows for a lot of collaboration between departments to serve our clients’ needs. From our roots in workplace giving, to our new employee assistance fund (EAF) work, to Geneva Global’s Speed School program, to fiscal sponsorship, many of our offerings are heavily involved with the finance team. They need our support to provide high-quality service to our clients. While our client-facing teams get to know the needs of each of our partners, my team is in the background, ensuring the finances run smoothly so that our clients can focus on their missions.
Our accounting department is unique from accounting teams at other organizations. I’m not just sitting behind a calculator; I’m helping to facilitate our services and make an impact on mission-driven organizations every day. Our team is facilitating and processing funds to support people in need around the world, making it a very unique and rewarding experience.
Q: If you could offer advice to someone just starting their career with us, what would it be?
A: I always tell my team that learning is endless. When I first started at GIV, I exclusively focused on our workplace giving services. If you had told me 15 years ago that I’d be operating a for-profit and 501c4 across multiple countries as part of my role here, I wouldn’t have believed you. But as GIV has grown, I have grown, too. It’s all about the time and the work that you put into it. If you continue to invest in yourself and be your own biggest advocate, the opportunities will flow naturally.
Q: What do you see as the future of philanthropy and GIV’s role in it?
A: As I’ve seen in my 15 years here, the market is continuously shifting. We’re always leveraging new technology, automating processes, and becoming more efficient to maximize our resources to serve those who need it most. The need to increase our impact is part of what has driven the boom in fiscal sponsorship’s popularity; many mission-driven initiatives are seeing that it is often more time- and cost-efficient to outsource their finances to a trusted nonprofit like us. Similarly, I expect corporate grantmaking and EAFs to grow as organizations are called on more and more to help employees in need.
Thankfully, there will always be people dedicated to making a difference in the world. I know GIV will continue to evolve to meet those challenges and inspire greater giving.
