On the Importance of an Organizational Financial “Conscience”

Over the years watching nonprofits, ministries, and churches financially crash, I have become convinced, that even the smallest of organizations MUST have someone competent to serve as a "financial oversight officer" or a financial leader (under the pastor, ED, or CEO) who is the financial strategist and financial conscience for the organization, (a term that came from a friend who fixes organizational messes). This person, he or she, may be the Executive Director, but if the ED has no financial sense, the organization must have a person who thinks in terms of financial strategy and risks and who can even push back against his boss, the ED, and even educate the leader. 

This person may be a volunteer or part time. He or she does not need to be the financial processor (bookkeeping and accounting—that can even be farmed out, including the generating of the reports), but there must a person reporting to the CEO (or the CEO himself) who has the savvy and the interests of the financial strategy and well-being of the organization on board in some manner. 

I do not recommend a separate board member because then the board has two people reporting to it, introducing authority and accountability confusion.