On Thursday, May 5th, Orange County professionals gathered to celebrate the top Chief Financial Officers and Rising Stars within their community. Our Boys & Girls Club was there to support our Chief Financial Officer, Ashley Harris, as she celebrated her nomination for Outstanding CFO of a Not-for-Profit Organization at the Orange County Business Journal CFO of the Year Awards.
When Ashley joined our Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Orange Coast during the peak pandemic in May 2020, she knew that one of the first things she had to do was digitize the Club’s internal processes to keep the Club’s program and services running as smoothly as possible. Within her first year, Ashley led our Club’s finance team through a process implementation that allowed us to perform our financials almost 100% remotely – an absolute necessity with pandemic conditions. Not only did Ashley modernize the Club’s finance processes, but she also finished the year’s budget with a surplus – a crucial factor that came into play with the recent onset of record inflation.
By overseeing financial reporting, cash management, forecasting, GAAP compliance, audit readiness and financial oversight for our Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Orange Coast Foundation, Ashley’s work ensures our Club can continue to provide services to over 9,500 youth in Orange County no matter what their zip code or background is.
If anyone understands the importance organizations like the Boys & Girls Clubs have on youth, it’s Ashley. When she was a kid, Ashley was a member of the Boys & Girls Club of Trenton/Mercer County in New Jersey. As a high school senior, she won the Club’s Youth of The Year Award, and she gained a life-long mentor with this honor – a mentor who inspired her to get into finance.
Ashley has a strong passion for millennial financial success and wealth building for people of all backgrounds, and a significant amount of her participation in professional industry associations and community organizations correlates with financial education.
In 2016, Ashley authored her first book, “It’s Not You, It’s Your Money” to provide a roadmap for young adults to have a positive and proactive relationship with money. Ashley was also featured on Charles Schwab’s segment “Money Matters: Make it Count” where she discussed the importance of financial literacy and the impact that learning about money as a teenager had on her interest in personal finance and her career path.
Ashley is a member of Forbes Finance Council, Howard Alumni Association, National Association for Black Accountants (NABA), and Toastmaster Los Angeles. She also volunteers with Salvation Army Angel Tree Project and remains active with Boys & Girls Club of Trenton/Mercer County.
It is with great pleasure that we announce Ashley Harris as this year’s CFO of the year for a Not-for-Profit Organization from the Orange County Business Journal!
We are grateful for Ashley’s leadership and dedication to our Boys & Girls Club and are excited for your future accomplishments as we work together to ensure our members have equitable access to opportunities so they can pursue greatness!