Elizabeth Hamilton Foley

Through her consulting practice, Elizabeth (Bess) Hamilton Foley has provided organizational development consulting, training, and technical assistance as a finance specialist for a wide range of small and midsize not-for-profit organizations in Washington, DC since 2000. She also worked on multi-year capacity building projects in Cleveland, Baltimore, New Haven and Arizona as an associate with National Arts Strategies. She served as co-administrator of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities’ UPSTART Capacity Building Program from its inception in 2006 through 2014 and was a finance consultant/trainer for capacity building programs for Arlington Economic Development (Virginia) and Montgomery County Community Foundation (Maryland) from 2011-2017. From 2015 through 2019, she was a teaching fellow for courses in finance and governance for the Executive Program in Arts & Culture Strategy developed and presented with National Arts Strategies and the University of Pennsylvania Center for Social Impact Strategy. She has also served over the years on a variety of Washington area nonprofit boards and finance committees. Prior to consulting, Ms. Foley had extensive experience working in finance and administrative staff positions for several nonprofit organizations in the DC Metro area. Ms. Foley officially retired from her consulting practice in 2021 but remains an associate member of the Greater Washington Society of CPAs and a contributor to their website, www.NonprofitAccountingBasics.org. She continues to serve as chair of the Nonprofit Operating Reserves Initiative Workgroup, having contributed to its Nonprofit Operating Reserves Policy Toolkit, http://www.nonprofitaccountingbasics.org/nonprofit-reserves.