The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is a member of the foundation’s senior leadership team and a strategic partner to the CEO and the board. The CFO is responsible for the financial health and integrity of the foundation, oversees its investment assets and facilities, drives Lumina’s financial strategies, and ensures that internal fiscal processes and systems support informed decision making and increased operational effectiveness. In addition, the CFO is responsible for ensuring that the finance team partners effectively throughout the organization, continually evaluates and refines business processes, and uses technology to create a strong culture of partnership and service. This individual maintains ongoing responsibility and accountability for Lumina’s organization-wide outcomes and metrics to ensure high performance and advancement of the foundation’s emerging work, including impact investing initiatives. The new CFO will play an essential role in setting the strategic direction for the foundation’s next chapter.
The CFO will serve as corporate treasurer and maintain overall strategic responsibility for the following elements of the finance and accounting function, including:
The CFO will articulate, design, and monitor Lumina’s investment strategies as aligned with the policy direction of the board’s Investment Committee. This individual will guide and maintain a strategic relationship with Lumina’s chief investment advisory firm and oversee external investment strategies to ensure that investment actions are consistent with Lumina’s investment policy statement and philosophy. The CFO will also provide investment analyses and translation of critical investment information to Lumina stakeholders.
LIV is Lumina’s impact investing strategy for advancing racial justice and equity and making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. The CFO will oversee sourcing, structuring, underwriting strategy, and negotiating impact investments made through LIV.
The CFO will advance Lumina’s commitment to ending systemic racism and barriers to learning beyond high school for Black, Hispanic, Latino, and Native American individuals. To that end, the individual will further Lumina’s specific practices that promote racial and ethnic diversity in hiring, contracting, grantmaking, inclusive decision-making, and achieving fair and just outcomes. The CFO must also effectively communicate Lumina’s commitment to racial diversity and equity to internal and external partners.
Lumina Foundation is being assisted in this recruitment by Spencer Stuart. Interested parties should submit comments, nominations of others or information in support of their own candidacy to the confidential email address of the Spencer Stuart team: LuminaCFO@spencerstuart.com.
Read the Position and Candidate Specification [PDF]
Lumina Foundation (“Lumina” or “Foundation”) is an independent, private foundation committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all. Lumina envisions a system that is easy to navigate, delivers fair results, and meets the nation’s talent needs through a broad range of credentials. Our goal is to prepare people for informed citizenship and success in a global economy. With an endowment exceeding $1.4 billion, Lumina is the largest philanthropy in the United States focused solely on increasing the proportion of adults in the United States with education and training beyond high school. The foundation is working toward a goal of 60 percent of working-age people in the United States with college degrees, certificates, and other quality credentials by 2025. Since its founding in 2000, Lumina has made grants totaling more than $1 billion. Lumina is headquartered in Indianapolis, with an office in Washington, D.C.
Lumina Foundation provides equal employment opportunity for all, regardless of race or ethnicity, gender or gender identity, health conditions, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other bases protected by local, state, or federal law. Lumina also prohibits retaliation and harassment of any individual based on these characteristics.
This Equal Employment Opportunity policy governs all aspects of employment at Lumina, including recruitment, selection, job assignment, compensation, corrective action, termination, and access to benefits and training. Job assignments, promotions, transfers, upgrading, terminations, and other changes in employment status, compensation, and training may be based on job-related criteria that may include, but are not limited to, past work performance, length of service, and willingness, capacity, and ability to perform the essential functions of the job.
