Employee Spotlight

At Village for Vets, strong financial stewardship is central to our mission. Audrey Lee, Chief Financial Officer, has been with the organization for a year and a half. During that time, she has steadily guided our finance team and helped strengthen internal controls as we have grown. With more than 20 years of experience in accounting, spanning corporate software firms, private schools, and nonprofits, she also led the capital campaign for the California Science Center facility that housed the Space Shuttle Endeavour. Under Audrey’s leadership, 94 percent of every dollar donated or received in grants goes directly to support Veterans, a standard of efficiency she is determined to maintain as we expand.

Q: What led you to nonprofit finance?
There are some people who are perfectly fine with making a good salary, but for me something was missing in the corporate world. The nonprofit mission fills that hole. It gives me satisfaction to see my work on the back-end support Veterans on the front end. I love seeing Veterans get housed. That moves me and drives me every day.

Q: What are your priorities for the finance team at Village for Vets?
Finance is one of those departments where, if no one notices you, that is a good sign. My goal is to move forward technology-wise, streamline our processes, and strengthen internal controls. I am always looking for better solutions to make things more efficient and accurate. I would love to eventually bring AI into our systems and make sure we are ready to scale as we take on more grants and pledges.

Q: What challenges do you see ahead?
Our challenge is to grow our private funding. As we grow, every dollar needs to go in and come out of the right bucket. Managing private funding is more complex, but it is also the area where we can make the most impact. I want to support fundraising efforts so that every program, especially those serving Veterans directly, has the resources it needs.

Q: What would you like donors to know?
We take painstaking effort to make sure that every dollar is spent on our Veteran clients and to get Veterans moved into permanent housing. That is at the heart of every decision we make.

With Audrey’s leadership, Village for Vets is building the financial systems and capacity to grow responsibly. As she reminds us, increasing private fundraising is essential to sustaining and scaling our mission. You can be part of that growth by supporting Village for Vets today.