Q&A with Katie McDonald, Senior Director of Finance

Briefly tell us what you do at The Freshwater Trust.
As the Senior Director of Finance, I am charged with financial stewardship of The Freshwater Trust. I oversee the finance team, manage the organization’s budget, and prepare financial forecasts and other reports to help internal and external stakeholders better understand our financial health. In addition, I develop and implement financial risk management strategies and controls to ensure that our funders’ contributions are properly safeguarded and that we follow all relevant financial guidelines and regulations.

What’s the most important thing you’re working on right now?
My work touches many areas of the organization. Right now, I am working with our project managers to better understand how their projects are expected to perform in the coming year so that I can develop next year’s budget. Each of our projects is different. Understanding the unique contributions that our work will have to our rivers and the organization’s finances helps me build a budget that is fiscally responsible and mission-aligned.

What’s something that’s happening at the organization right now that you are excited about?
We have several exciting efforts underway right now to pilot a coordinated watershed funding approach. These efforts will leverage together funds from multiple sources and deliver them in simple packages to targeted projects that, when implemented at scale, can majorly improve the health of an entire watershed. These projects bring together staff from many departments in our organization. Projects are prioritized utilizing our analytics, designed by our program staff, and then structured and enabled by our policy and finance folks to create a genuinely innovative watershed solution. It is a truly exciting time to work for TFT.

What do you love about working for The Freshwater Trust?
My favorite part about working for TFT is the people, the mission, and the exciting work. I am honored to work with such driven, smart, kind, and thoughtful people. Our staff are continuously working on new innovative approaches to solve challenges our freshwater ecosystems face, and working with them to further that mission is what gets me up every day. From a technical standpoint, TFT’s innovative approaches provide engaging and interesting financial problem-solving opportunities, which I find fun.

What was the last book you read or movie you watched?
I recently re-read The Martian by Andy Wier. It is a science fiction book that follows an American astronaut stranded on Mars. I love the comedy, the science-based reasoning, and the ingenuity that the author uses to show the very uplifting and human response to the problem as the world mounts an impractical rescue mission to save him. (Yes, I know it was a movie—I just like the book better.)

Where was the last place you traveled?
I traveled to Northern Ireland to visit my grandmother’s family (whom I had never met). They were the loveliest, welcoming people, living in a beautifully sparse and old land. I would love to return someday.

Katie enjoying the great outdoors.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I would like to lean more into the innovative conservation funding space, becoming an expert in conservation finance, and helping other organizations understand how to put more money on the ground toward high uplift projects that create verifiable impacts on our freshwater challenges. I believe that TFT’s real success is in convincing others to implement data-driven solutions, and I hope to continue my work shepherding TFT’s finances while doing my part to expand the impact of our approaches by sharing them with others.

What’s your best advice for someone considering a job in your field?
Don’t underestimate the value of critical thinking and relationships. The accounting field is full of technically savvy individuals who spend hours in spreadsheets crunching numbers, but tomorrow’s finance professionals need to understand the why behind the numbers, creatively problem-solve, and summarize information so that stakeholders can make informed decisions that drive operational success.