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Six months ago, John Ing embarked on his fifth run as chief financial officer, this time at Santa Ana-based KidWorks Community Development Corp.
Ing won the Business Journal’s CFO of the Year Award in the nonprofit category last May for his work at the Illumination Foundation, which provides emergency housing programs and recuperative care services for locals dealing with homelessness.
The CFO strengthened Illumination Foundation’s fiscal health during his five-year tenure as revenue jumped 165% to $55.4 million in 2023; it continued climbing last year, rising 13% to $62.7 million.
A week after the awards ceremony, he left Illumination to spend the next few months focusing on family. Then in October, Ing started in his new role at KidWorks.
“I’ve reached a point where I’ve done what I needed to do with Illumination,” Ing said at the time of the awards.
When word of his departure from the foundation spread, KidWorks Executive Director, and longtime friend, David Benavides reached out to ask him about joining the team.
“I think it was the first phone call I took,” Ing told the Business Journal.
The executive added that he aimed to join an organization still focused on vulnerable populations in Orange County.
KidWorks serves the at-risk youth and families of central Santa Ana by providing programs centered on personal and leadership development as well as college and career readiness. Through its “hub-and-spoke” model, the nonprofit operates three community centers that combined serve over 650 children, youth and parents in weekly programs and more than 3,000 community members annually.
“It was an easy decision for me to make,” Ing added.
The nonprofit operates a pre-school on-site at its Santa Ana headquarters on Chestnut, also hosting afterschool programs and tutoring for kids in pre-school and all the way to college.
“The kids that we serve are largely socio-economically disadvantaged. I always say I just need to make an impact on one life,” Ing said. “Just like me, someone made an investment in me when I was growing up.
When Ing first arrived in the United States as an 8-year-old with his mother, they found themselves staying at the occasional shelter or sleeping on an available couch. He credits his high school accounting teacher Patricia Rowely for the choice to major in English to build communication skills before moving into a financial career.
One Child at a Time
Ing noted that KidWorks is about tenth of the size of his previous workplace with 45 to 50 employees currently serving the city of Santa Ana.
One of Ing’s current priorities is to drive the nonprofit’s growth as it looks to expand its services to more neighborhoods.
“Our organization is heavily invested in relationship building with each child that we serve. It’s not a cookie cutter approach to community development,” Ing said. “It’s one child at a time, one family at a time, one day at a time and that requires a lot of just up close and personal attention.”
As CFO, he is focused on establishing systems and processes at KidWorks that will both enable growth and minimize any pain points.
“I look forward to being a meaningful contributor to KidWorks,” Ing said, adding that he wants to help Benavides, “our leadership team and the board dream bigger.”