Operations and Finance Officer

European Network Against Racism Foundation
  • Location
    Brussels, Belgium
  • Sector
    Non Profit
  • Experience
    Mid Career
  • Posted
    Aug 25

Position description

ENAR Foundation was established in 2009 by ENAR to solidify the funding base of the European anti-racist movement and to support innovative actions in support of building a racism-free Europe. In recent years, ENAR Foundation’s portfolio of activities has expanded such that it is time to establish ENAR Foundation’s first executive team reporting to the Director of ENAR Foundation. 

ENAR Foundation is therefore looking to recruit an Operations and Finance Officer to serve as the custodian of our Foundation’s finances and administrative operations. From managing the effective implementation and disbursement of funds allocated to beneficiaries to ensuring payment of our suppliers, we will look to you to execute financial management processes and procedures, as well as ensure our suppliers and beneficiaries are paid in a timely fashion and our accounting meets auditing standards to reassure our stakeholders. 

We want you to be our champion of rigour within our organisation, ensuring that as we help grow a strong anti-racist civil society across Europe and demonstrate how to achieve it through our projects, we do not lose sight of our legal and financial obligations. 

You’ll be working as part of a small start-up team responsible for implementing an ambitious strategic work plan and thereby grow and solidify ENAR Foundation’s capacity to act for systemic change whilst supporting ENAR and its grassroots members to empower and enable them to advocate and support marginalised communities. Our hope is to attract sufficient funding in the coming years to grow the team. In short, our dreams are big, but there’s a lot to get done before we get there! We are searching for a financial and budgetary wizard, a proficient finance and administrative professional who will be able to ensure our operations meet our fiduciary responsibilities and also build the foundation to successful organisational growth. An individual who is not afraid to get stuck in the weeds of operational work but is also a capable and rigorous but also able to bring a start-up mentality to our finance and operations activities. 

The selected candidate will be able to set up and maintain strong financial processes and reporting procedures, ensure that the organisation meets fiduciary requirements and able to meet the highest standards to reassure donors of effective financial management of its donations. The candidate will be able to establish budgets collaboratively for our programmes in compliance with our overall organisational strategy. 

Your Responsibilities 

As Finance and Operations Officer, we’re looking to you to: 

Oversee the finances of the Foundation 

  • Develop and lead the Foundation’s finance strategy and its implementation with the team • 
  • Oversee all aspects of financial due diligence of grants by examining and analysing financial statements, budgets, and other information of grantee organisations to assess risk related to operations, trends, costs, revenues, financial commitments, and obligations; 
  • Evaluate due diligence process on grants and identify value enhancement and streamlining opportunities;
  • Develop consistent standards and guidance for due diligence reviews; 

Ensure excellence in the day-to-day management of the Foundation 

  • Oversee budgeting, forecasting, financial statement preparation and tax filing preparation functions for the Foundation and ensure these are cost and time efficient; 
  • Propose and develop internal policies and guidelines to ensure the optimal and efficient use of the Foundation’s financial resources; 
  • Design and implement internal controls for the safeguarding of financial assets; 
  • Lead on the evaluation of upgrades or changes to current financial systems in partnership with IT and make recommendations to the Director; 
  • Serve as the primary relationship manager to the Foundations service providers, including off-site accountants, auditors, tax advisors, etc. to ensure timely and high-quality product delivery and processing; 

Ensure effective reporting to stakeholders 

  • Act as a consultant/advisor to management and the Board on finance projects and issues; • 
  • Collaborate across the Foundation to achieve consistent business alignment with finance policies and processes; 
  • Coordinate the delivery of financial training to EF staff; 

Be a collaborative superstar 

  • Collaborate across the organisation to plan and deliver effective development strategies to grow our network of contacts, and donor interest, 
  • Collaborate in the drafting and submission of proposals to donors as well as reporting, 
  • Ensure effective alignment of the overall organisation strategy, finance, development, and programmes strategy in collaboration with Management Team 

Qualifications

As envisaged, we think the ideal candidate will have some or all of the following qualities: 

  • Academic degree in Accounting, Finance or related field and professional qualification; 
  • 3-5 years professional experience with proven ability 
  • Experience in a global finance position a value-add; 
  • Demonstrated technical knowledge of budgeting, planning, reporting, audit, tax filing and compliance; 
  • Experience participating in and leading cross-functional projects for an organisation; 
  • Experience in analysing financial aspects of projects led by not-for profits; 
  • Excellent understanding of non-profit and/or governmental financial reporting and budgeting; 
  • Good understanding of legal entity structures and related tax implications for an entity operating in Belgium desirable; 
  • Outstanding organisational abilities and a commitment to efficiency and meeting tight deadlines; 
  • Excellent interpersonal skills; desire and ability to work in a collaborative team environment; 
  • Excellent verbal and written communications skills; 
  • Excellent written and spoken English required, other languages especially French and Dutch are an asset. 
  • Experience in the not-for-profit sector a plus.

Application instructions

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