Having served as a nonprofit executive during leadership transitions and turbulent times, Dorothy helps social-purpose organizations grow from strength. In particular, she supports social-purpose leaders in building their comfort levels in financial management, talent development and governance. She combines quantitative skills with instinctive facilitation talents. With the team, she works to synchronize across key dimensions and functions — across budgets and long-range plans, the accounting and data systems, grant spend monitoring and funding requests as well as people-centric workflows and policies. Her approach to budgeting and financial modeling draws on cross-functional team input, addresses cost allocations and produces effective grant application proposals. Her clients are able to boost their operations while also deepening their understanding of what drives their costs and how funding of various kinds fits with their plans.
In the governance area, she advises on board recruitment and functions including having a comprehensive set of updated policies. With a deep understanding of the challenges of talent management in our remote and hybrid world, she works with clients to foster a talent pool that can respond to evolving needs of social-purpose organizations. She also has experience with mergers and fiscal sponsoring.
In addition to her own client work over the last several years, Dorothy is affiliated with BDO providing financial management consulting to nonprofits nationwide and is a business advisor for The Carrot Project helping local farmers in the northeast.
Dorothy is passionate about the power of social-purpose sector, in particular inclusive carbon-reducing economic growth, housing, land use and human services. She has served as Board Chair of Capital for Change, a Connecticut-based Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) which provides community financing for nonprofits, affordable housing development, energy-efficiency and micro-enterprises. She is also the nonprofit liaison for the SEAT program in Connecticut that trains and matches urban minority residents to area nonprofit boards looking for community voice. She has also been a new business coach for several entrepreneurship programs.
Prior to moving to rural Connecticut in 2002, Dorothy worked in venture capital, the telecommunications industry and management consulting in Europe. She graduated with a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from Princeton and earned an MBA from Wharton. Dorothy lives in western Connecticut with her husband, a flock of entertaining chickens, and occasionally joined by their two children pursuing their own careers.
LinkedIn: Dorothy Adams