Ellen Sturgis has over 30 years of nonprofit experience in finance and administration for small to medium sized organizations in a variety of sectors. She is currently an independent consultant offering interim services as well as expertise in redesigning financial and operational systems. Ellen has worked with organizations with budgets of up to $5 million and in staff from 5 to 125 in the full range of nonprofit sectors from cooperatives to land trusts to the arts and human services. Ellen, a lifelong resident of Massachusetts, has an MBA in Finance from Boston College, and holds a BA from Hampshire College, where she now serves as a Trustee. She is Chair of the Selectboard in the town of Stow, and also serves as a Corporator for Middlesex Savings Bank, and a member of the Leadership Council for MassCreative.
Most recently, Ellen served as Interim Director of Finance & Administration during a family leave at Thousand Currents. Primarily responsibilities were to complete the annual audit, including organizing meetings with the Finance Committee and Board, and to launch the FY22 budget cycle, including redesigning the templates for program managers. While there, she applied successfully for an increase in the settlement limit for international wires from $75,000 to $750,000, which led to faster funding of international partners. In late 2019/20, she served as Interim Executive Director for Greater Boston PFLAG, redesigning the staff structure to clarify job responsibilities and capitalize on the skills of the relatively new employees. From 1995-1997, she served for a worker owned international fair trade company as their first CFO; from 1998-2007, she served as the first COO of a regional land trust, implementing a range of operational systems for a fast growing organization; she also served as Interim Executive Director. Ellen moved from interim ED to full time at a local performing arts center (2015-2018, revitalizing its programming, fundraising and community collaborations, resulting in an operating surplus after several years of deficits. Ellen has led multiple nonprofit finance workshops for Boards and senior management, focused on demystifying financial statements and encouraging leadership to ask for the information they need to meet their mission. She launched Night Heron Consulting in the fall of 2018.
LinkedIn: Ellen Sturgis