Community IT Voices: Bill Evans, Retiring CFO

Community IT Innovators Nonprofit Technology Topics

In today’s interview, Carolyn talks with Bill Evans, who is retiring as CFO after 14 years.

After a long career at Verizon where he held both operations and finance roles, Bill realized he was ready for a new challenge, and started looking around for a nonprofit where he could assist with his finance expertise as a CFO. Community IT is a 100% employee-owned business, an ESOP, and the job opening that turned up at the moment when he was looking for a challenge required him to learn about ESOP administration and serve as the ESOP Trustee. He has also served as Community IT’s board secretary and will remain as an external board member in 2024.

“When you use the term “culture,” … in fact, ESOP becomes part of the culture, but there are cultures which facilitate an ESOP arrangement. There are many companies that may become ESOPs for reasons that are not necessarily a culture fit. In Community IT’s case, David Deal, the founder and longtime CEO, …his vision was for a participatory egalitarian type of business that had employee involvement from A-Z. When he introduced the ESOP concept, it really was an extension of what was already there… It’s important to recognize that ESOP doesn’t create culture. The culture has to start from a different point and ESOP becomes something that enhances that and moves it forward [as it has at Community IT].”

- Bill Evans, Retiring CFO, Community IT Innovators
Join us for our series featuring interviews with Community IT employees. In this series, we talk about nonprofit technology career paths, career resources, skills, and certifications. We will also touch on mentoring opportunities as you start out on your career and ways to give back if you are further along. If you are wondering what it is like to work at a place like Community IT, you can learn about it here.

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