Nonprofit Spotlight: Near East Foundation

An Interview with Justin Pritchard, COO of The Near East Foundation

ClickTime has been helping nonprofit organizations track time and manage expenses for nearly 20 years. We have a time tracking platform built exclusively for 501(c) organizations, making it simple to track employee time against programs and grants.

For years, the client-facing team at ClickTime has enjoyed hearing stories from our nonprofit customers, and we decided to share some of them with you through our Nonprofit of the Quarter. This quarter, we shine our spotlight on Justin Pritchard, Financial Controller of the Near East Foundation. During our conversation, we learned about his role in the organization, the mission of the Near East Foundation, and how Mr. Pritchard chose to leave the private sector and join the NEF.

The Near East Foundation (NEF) helps build more sustainable, prosperous, and inclusive communities in the Middle East and Africa through education, community organizing, and economic development. NEF has pioneered innovative solutions to social and economic development challenges impacting communities throughout the Middle East and Africa for the last century, with current programs in eight countries: Armenia, Jordan, Lebanon, Mali, Morocco, Palestine, Senegal, and Sudan. Each office in each country tracks time in ClickTime every day and we are proud to highlight them as the Nonprofit of the Quarter.

Pritchard joined the Near East Foundation (NEF) as Financial Controller 18 months ago, reporting to the organization’s CFO. His role involves aggregating operational and financial data to produce monthly reports that both inform the organization’s donors and stakeholders and are also used for auditing purposes. In short, he keeps the wheels of this organization turning so others can focus on preserving and improving the lives of tens of thousands of people in the Middle East.

For example, the NEF office in Sudan recently trained over one thousand local people to build sewage and water systems in over thirty villages. Now, the young girls in those villages no longer have to spend their entire days transporting water and can instead go to school. Having running water is something that many of us take for granted, but we fail to see how entire generations of children have not received education because of the manual labor it takes to care for their families.

Speaking of nourishment, the ink has not yet dried on the ceasefire agreement for Dara in Syria, yet NEF is already moving on an initiative to train farmers to learn how to pickle their products and then sell them in stores. In addition to business plan writing and literal pickling classes, these farmers will also receive crucial micro-financing to jumpstart their businesses.

This type of real and tangible impact is one of the key factors that led Pritchard to the public sector after a half dozen years performing audits in the private sector. Knowing his work directly affects people outside of his Syracuse bubble allows Pritchard to know he is making a difference when he wakes up every morning.

The other factor that led him to leave the private sector was the NEF leadership. Both the CFO and VP of Operations were highly successful in both the private sector and in other governmental agencies. They both decided to pursue late careers in the public sector to use their skills to help people in need. Having such successful and influential people at high levels of NEF instills confidence in Pritchard that the organization’s trajectory will continue to rise.

Pritchard’s advice to those considering moves to the public sector is to go for it. The money will be there if you find the right opportunity with the right people and work hard. Even if you find yourself making a little less than you would otherwise, the difference is made up in the way you feel every morning when you wake up and every evening when you get home.