Tiffinie's take: from a Texas food bank to the Community Foundation

The parallels between her former work at a food bank and now the Quad Cities Community Foundation are very clear to accounting associate Tiffinie Newman. “It was food, and now it’s money—that’s the basic difference,” said Newman, who moved to the Quad Cities from Victoria, Texas after her husband was transferred here. Newman started her job at the Community Foundation in February.

In the accounting department, she assists with account payables and payroll processing, scholarship transactions, and maintains the electronic files for the organization’s financials. She also provides accounting support to the Community Foundation’s Geographic Affiliate Funds.

In Texas, Newman served for five years as the office manager at the Food Bank of the Golden Crescent. The organization helped distribute donated food, paper products and household goods to people in need. “I’ve worked in government, retail and nonprofit and I really like the nonprofit work the best,” Newman said. “There’s more to see and do and you have a little bit more freedom in how you help people.”

Her work at the food bank gave her insight into the needs of the community. “It opened my eyes to how bad the economy was,” she said. “For the elderly, they were making decisions to eat or buy their prescriptions and for the parents of the kids, they were deciding whether to pay the electric bill or buy food. It opened my eyes to the seriousness of the issues.”

She feared she wouldn’t find work that she was passionate about after the move. “I’m very grateful to have landed at the Community Foundation because I wanted to stay in the nonprofit arena.”

Newman has three daughters, 27, 16, and 10, and lives in Camanche, Iowa with her husband of 30 years, Vinnie.