Elaine Lai joined Children’s Council of San Francisco in September 2020. She brings over 25 years of experience in working with both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors in the areas of accounting, budgeting, financial reporting, auditing, tax, strategic planning, financial analysis, GAAP principles, commercial real estate, alternative investments, grantmaking requirements and strategic human capital management. After graduating from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting (with honors), Elaine worked with a local CPA firm specializing in audit, accounting, and taxation.

Elaine previously worked as the Controller for over 15 years with Koret Foundation, plus several years within the fast-paced start-up world for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and retail companies helping to structure successful finance teams, accounting systems, procedures, and processes from the ground up. 

Most recently Elaine worked as the Director of Finance with Community Housing Partnership (now HomeRise) in the San Francisco Tenderloin, where she was instrumental in developing a strong finance team that was responsible for very complex accounting, budgeting, and financial reporting for over 50 city, state, and federal grants, as well as low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC) for 14 properties serving the homeless across San Francisco.  Elaine is an active volunteer, fundraiser and enjoys planning and promoting fundraising events to support early childcare, seniors, newcomers with limit​ed English skills, and low-income families for health and social services programs.