Russell C. Pomeranz
President & CEO
Russell Pomeranz has thirty-five years of experience leading the finance and administrative departments of non-profit organizations as well as non-profit Boards and Finance Committees. He has worked and consulted for a variety of impactful mission driven organizations including criminal justice and foreign policy think tanks, social services including settlement houses, education and arts organizations including museums as well as workforce development institutions. Pomeranz founded the Claverack Advisory Group in 2011 as a consulting firm that focuses on the critical connection between a non-profit organization’s financial function and its programmatic, strategic, and financial trajectories. In consulting roles his responsibilities have included serving in Interim CFO positions, leading business and strategic planning engagements, managing organizational budgets given mission ambitions, telling financial stories to Boards and CEO’s offering situational consulting, financial coaching including investment pools and spending rates, as well as conducting trainings and workshops. Clients have included small to large non-profits, spin-offs, foundations, government agencies all in various stages of organizational drive and financial position
Before establishing a consulting practice, Pomeranz was the COO/CFO of the Vera Institute of Justice, a $25 million criminal justice think tank. During his tenure at the Vera Institute, he helped incubate and ultimately spin-off a number of financially viable non-profits, including Esperanza, alternatives to incarceration for youth. He also created and established the Vera Development Department which grew unrestricted revenues from $50,000 to $1,000,000 in the span of three years. Prior to that, Pomeranz was the Director of Finance at the Council of Foreign Relations, a $30 million foreign policy think tank with a $150 million investment pool. He also served as CFO at Spence Chapin Services to Families and Children and held senior finance and administrative positions with Meet The Composer and the International Center of Photography. Pomeranz’s non-profit career began at the Maret School in Washington D.C., where he was the Business Manager and taught Geometry and Economics. He has served as an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Administration at NYU Wagner where he has taught Finance for Social Entrepreneurs. He has also been an Adjunct Professor at Columbia‘s School for Public Health.
Pomeranz is Chair Emeritus of the Workforce Professional Development Institute (WPTI) and President Emeritus of the Columbia County Historical Society, having served on the latter’s Board for nine years. He is on the boards of Jobpath (Treasurer), and Economic Mobility, and is also on the Advisory Board of the Berkshire Taconic Center for Non-Profit Excellence. He served on the Non-Profit New York Excellence Awards Selection Committee for four years.
He has been published in The New York Times, Chronicle of Philanthropy, Wall Street Journal, Register Star, The CPA Journal, Blackbaud Institute as well as with JMT Consulting. He has conducted numerous webinars for Blackbaud as well as a podcast connecting the finance function to communications capacity. He has continually advocated and articulated the importance of the financial function and the CFO role in the successful delivery of non-profit missions. Pomeranz has presented widely on many nonprofit financial issues and has served on numerous panels, including the Better Business Bureau, NYSAE, the American Federation of the Arts, VCG Governance Matters, Variety, NYU Reynolds REAL program, Blackbaud financial function leadership keynote, and the JMT Innovate Conference. A graduate of the University School in Cleveland, Ohio, Pomeranz holds a degree in Economics from Haverford College and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
