6 Acquisition International - Global CFO Excellence Awards 2023 May23605 Most Dedicated Immigrant Serving Non-Profit CFO 2023: Wei Dang Since 1988, the team at The Immigrant Education Society (TIES) has played an important role in serving the needs of newcomers and low-income Calgarians. Aimed at immigrants and economically disadvantaged individuals, this community project has had extraordinary impact. In the Global CFO Excellence Awards 2023, the organisation’s CFO Wei Dang was recognised for sterling work in the industry. We caught up with him to find out more. oving to a new place is no easy task, with the challenges of language and culture and community often being hard to handle. Those without a solid foundation can easily flounder through no fault of their own, and this uncertainty can have a detrimental impact not only on the individual, but the community at large. TIES was founded to support people through periods of immense change, providing a sense of belonging. Someone who knows the importance of this better than most is CFO Wei Dang. Wei joined TIES in 2015, following a career of accounting at various organisations including global Big 4 firms and local establishments. Having worked for non-profit organisations (NFPOs) as a client, joining TIES saw him venture into internal management for the first time. Now, instead of acting as an outside agent, he would have oversight over the major expansion of what the team does. Just eight years after joining the firm, Wei has fiscal responsibility for more than 200 employees, 200+ volunteers, and more than 40 programs funded by nearly 20 sources with an operating budget that easily exceeds $12M, more than tripled than 2015. It’s a unique challenge within the industry, but one which Wei has thrived on. “Thanks to TIES’ growth, I have had the opportunity to advance within the organization,” he tells us. “Starting as the Finance Manager in 2015, I was promoted to Manager of Finance and Operations in 2016. By the end of 2017, I became the CFO.” Wei’s addition to the team was related to the passing of the organisation’s founder in 2014. There was a need for TIES to adapt to ensure it could survive such a turbulent time. Back then, TIES had a small, but stable financial structure. It was, however, a structure which could not keep up with the rapidly changing pace of the modern world. “We actively pursued new programs and projects,” Wei explains. Of course, such a path brings its own problems. There’s little surprise that the simple structures that had supported the organisation since 1988 were unfit for purpose with a more ambitious team in 2015. “Each funder and program has unique budget guidelines, reporting templates, and expenditure classifications,” Wei tells us. “This complexity requires our finance team to be well-versed in these guidelines. Furthermore, cost allocation becomes intricate as projects start and end throughout the year, leading to higher training and potential turnover costs.” Managing the various timings of these M projects is an area where Wei has thrived, pushing TIES forward into a bold new future. “In the previous fiscal year alone, our finance team prepared over 200 new or amended budgets and revised forecasts for internal and external stakeholders,” Wei explains. “That’s an astounding 4000% increase compared to 2015.” The various funding solutions that the team has turned to have been restricted to specific projects and programs, while support for administrative purposes and technology development is limited and stringent. To overcome these challenges, the team have been inspired by the CEO’s Adjusted Wooden Bucket Theory. “By tilting the bucket, allowing the long board side to block the water, we can immediately contain more,” Wei explains. “This approach helps us play to our strengths, maximize resources, and reduce the impact of our limitations.” The finance team demonstrates this through hiring staff directly from the various training programs run by the team. Since 2015, TIES’ finance team has expanded from two to six members, and are now able to maintain a variance of less than 0.1% in major program budget, which account for 90% of the firm’s total budget. Having hired the staff, the TIES team has also had to find a way of securing job stability. With projects getting funding as opposed to the organisation as a whole, short-term part-time positions have long been the norm. As such, the finance team has undertaken the effort to consolidate these various positions into full-time roles with benefits. While this sounds straightforward, it has actually involved tackling the challenges associated with the varied start and end dates, differing hours and pay rates, and diverse funding restrictions associated with each project. To meet all the conditions required, the complexity of the finance team’s work has significantly increased. The results, however, meet the needs of TIES better than before, and provides stability for an incredibly strong team. The future of TIES, therefore, is one which looks immensely bright. The organisation is now suitably structured so that the team can focus on what they do best – helping other people. As such, TIES has grown beyond the core services of language and employment training. “We have established a Research Centre and successfully completed over 20 research projects in collaboration with partners from Canada, the United States, and Europe,” says Wei with pride. “Additionally, TIES has established a Mental Health team
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