Position Announcement: Executive Director

Reports To: Board of Directors

Location: Bay Area, CA

(Mainly remote; strong preference for candidates  located in/willing to relocate to the Bay Area)

Apply By: November 8, 2024

Hidden Leaf Foundation seeks a relational, values-aligned, and emotionally intelligent leader to serve as its next Executive Director (ED). The ED will advance Hidden Leaf’s mission, which is to promote inner awareness within liberatory movements in order to advance a more just, ecologically healthy, and compassionate society. As a small and collaborative family foundation, the ED will report to a three- to four-member Board of Directors (which includes both family and independent members), lead a three-person staff team, and work closely with next generation family members as well as movement and institutional partners. The ED will bring understanding of the Foundation’s priorities as well as personal commitment to a path of inner awareness that enhances organizational and societal effectiveness. Openness to ongoing experimentation and learning alongside skills and desire to evolve grants, investments, infrastructure, and storytelling will bolster the ability to thrive in this role.

The Foundation

Hidden Leaf Foundation was inspired by Dave Brown – a humanitarian, businessman, and philanthropist – whose decades-long pursuit of spiritual discipline and awareness led him to an interest in philanthropy. The creation of Hidden Leaf in 1988 was an outcome of Dave’s desire to support organizations doing good work that emanated from and was informed by inner awareness. When he passed in 2013, Dave endowed the Foundation with 90 percent of what he owned. This decision flowed from his commitment to mindfulness and social change; he envisioned a place where his family could come together to be in conscious relationship to wealth and to the world.

Dave’s three children – Tara Brown, Karie Brown, and Kristen Stinnett-Brown – served on the initial board and worked closely with him to shape the Foundation through individual commitment to and professional experience in social justice and environmental work. In 2001, Tara stepped forward as Hidden Leaf’s first Executive Director growing the Foundation and solidifying strategy. Early grants provided crucial support and credibility to social change leaders wanting to bring awareness practices (such as centering, meditation, deep listening, yoga, and mind-body work) into their organizations. Hidden Leaf’s investment enabled them to experiment, learn, and begin to articulate the impact of these practices while helping to build the field now called “Transformative Social Change.”

In 2018, after 17 years at the helm, Tara stepped down from staff leadership while maintaining her commitment to Hidden Leaf as a member of the board. With clear intention and commitment to community, Hidden Leaf embarked on a new era with the hire of its first non-family and woman of color ED, Supriya Lopez Pillai. Under Supriya’s leadership and in partnership with the board, Hidden Leaf further evolved the mission, vision, values, and work:

• Centralizing its belief that when organizations, leaders, movements, and philanthropy cultivate inner awareness and personal and group transformation, tending to the spiritual as well as the strategic, the power we build with others and the changes we engender are deeper, more lasting, and more likely to heal the historical injustices that shape our current relationship to the Earth and to each other.
• Embracing a trust-based approach by providing general operating support grants, ensuring low-barrier access to funds, and making long-term grant commitments.
• Committing to a five-year grantmaking cycle for core grantees and increasing program payout from a little more than 5% to 8% with overall annual giving going from $1.2 million in grants in 2018 to approximately $4 million in grants and community investments in 2024.
• Embarking on an exploration of an integrated capital approach that more closely aligns the endowment and giving with the mission by supporting community investments and deep impact investments.

Hidden Leaf has a strong track record of relational and respectful partnership at the leading edge of progressive, spirit-centered, and movement-focused philanthropy and the time is ripe to strengthen the Foundation and the field. Transformative practices have taken root, a five-year grantmaking program is in place, and Hidden Leaf has now supported hundreds of critical frontline and intermediary organizations to make radical changes in how they engage with each other, allies, and adversaries. With Supriya’s transition, Hidden Leaf embarks upon a new season and the dedicated board, staff team, and partners are ready to embrace evolution with a dynamic new leader in place.

The Opportunity

Hidden Leaf is excited to engage an innovative, inspirational, and highly collaborative ED motivated to work as a true partner to a committed and supportive board; a dynamic and dedicated family; and a thoughtful and effective staff. The next ED will honor Hidden Leaf’s spirit and history, building upon strong relationships with grantees and partners. The ED will also bring wisdom, grace, skill, and rigor towards enhancing Hidden Leaf’s grantmaking, investing, convening, evaluation, storytelling, and advocacy for practices that strengthen organizations working toward a just and sustainable world. The ED will lead the Foundation toward increased capacity, visibility, and impact, while holding operational, financial, personnel, and programmatic oversight responsibilities.

Specifically, the ED will:

Provide Institutional Leadership

• Ensure ongoing alignment with Hidden Leaf’s founding values and vision.
• Continue to center and strengthen a focus on transformative path and practice in Hidden Leaf’s way of working with staff, board, and key advisors as well as with grantee and funder partners.
• Guide strategy and program development, including an integrated capital approach to giving that centers personal, collective, and social transformation through sustained practice and attention to spirit.
• Develop strong, reflective, collaborative relationships with staff, board, advisors, grantees, and philanthropic and nonprofit leaders.
• Build Hidden Leaf’s profile by representing the Foundation at conferences and convenings and serving as a voice for movement-centered and values-aligned philanthropy.
• Deepen Hidden Leaf’s work in funder organizing particularly around transformative practice and aligned investing. 

Partner with the Board

• Partner with the board in assessment and evolution of strategy, making recommendations that help develop and set the next strategy as Hidden Leaf is currently three years into a five-year grantmaking program.
• Oversee the staffing and management of board committees and working groups to inform Hidden Leaf’s work in a values-aligned manner.
• Work with the board to refine board structure and composition including continued engagement of independent community members, shaping pathways for integration of the next generation of Brown family members, and refining or creating committees and working groups as needed.
• Determine Hidden Leaf’s capacity to continue giving at an 8% payout level and recommend the Foundation’s next strategic commitment.

Partner with Staff to Plan, Design, and Oversee Impactful Grantmaking and Investments

• Review the impact of Hidden Leaf’s first commitment to a five-year grantmaking cycle, which will come to completion at the end of 2026.
• Ensure continued commitment to a trust-based philanthropic approach – including but not limited to low-barrier, long term, general operating funding – and to full spectrum giving – including grants, community investments, deep impact, and traditional investments.
• Assess and adapt grantmaking and integrated capital (including community investments and deep impact investments) priorities in keeping with Hidden Leaf’s evolving strategies.
• Refine guidelines and procedures ensuring they are responsive to grantee and field partners and advance transformative social change.
• Facilitate learning from Hidden Leaf’s initial community and deep impact investments and strengthen and grow ongoing investments.
• Develop the communications support to share the story of Hidden Leaf’s five-year grantmaking and integrated capital strategy.

Map, Build, and Grow Funding for the Field of Transformative Change

• Assess, in partnership with key stakeholders, the current state of the field, exploring how best to fill gaps, build grantee capacity to measure effectiveness, and share what works through convenings and research.
• Step more fully into Hidden Leaf’s role as a field builder and funder organizer, particularly with regard to transformative social change and mission-aligned investing to build a new economy.
• Lead Hidden Leaf’s philanthropic advocacy through compelling communications and an organizing plan to increase understanding of transformative change among foundations and foster strategic alliances that leverage Hidden Leaf’s knowledge and experience.
• Evolve and deepen Hidden Leaf’s communications strategy including advancing narratives from grantees and investment partners.

Ensure Excellent Operational, Administrative, and Financial Management

• Manage and help develop Hidden Leaf’s virtual staff team and collaborate with and hold accountable professional advisors and consultants.
• Assess staffing structure and capacity and identify opportunities for expansion or additional consultant support as needed.
• Oversee and professionalize Hidden Leaf’s financial, administrative, and grantmaking systems, refining them as needed to promote efficiency, information sharing, and data collection.
• Draft, manage, and monitor an annual budget of approximately $3.3 million, ensuring that the board receives timely, clear, and accurate financial data.
• Manage investment portfolio logistics, maintain advisor relationships, and help shape investment strategies reflective of goals and values.
• Prepare for and lead the development of Hidden Leaf’s next grantmaking strategy, including determining the appropriate payout level

The Ideal Executive Director

The successful candidate will bring their experience as a transformative nonprofit or philanthropic practitioner, strategist, and field-builder; a personal commitment to inner awareness; and previous experience applying practice within social change organizations and/or movements.

Core leadership attributes and characteristics desired include:

• Highly collaborative, inclusive, and relationship-oriented with the ability to strengthen and develop meaningful relationships with board, staff, grantee partners, peer funders, and beyond.
• Deeply focused on racial equity and justice, consistently centering and working toward a vision where power and resources are shared equitably and everyone has the space and support they need to realize their potential, build community, weather hardships, and fulfill their dreams.
• Authentically values-aligned with a passion for leading from the inside out, centering spirit, sharing power, moving forward collectively, and seeking justice.
• Emotionally intelligent with the ability to understand and navigate your own and others’ emotions with ease, empathy, and a positive growth mindset.
• Inspirational and courageous with a desire and ability to catalyze innovative thinking and approaches within the organization and the field.
• Intrinsically curious and analytical with understanding of and excitement about Hidden Leaf’s approach, while raising questions and sparking new ideas.
• Highly adaptive and facilitative with the ability to navigate through moments of ambiguity, friction, and change; accommodate different styles of learning and leading; and work with different levels of engagement across stakeholders.
• Remarkably clear and focused with the ability to communicate relevant information concisely across mediums and audiences; to keep the mission and vision central; and to stay the course through roadblocks or distraction.

Core lived and professional experiences and expertise desired include:

• Philanthropy as a Movement Partner: Understanding of and alignment with the role of progressive philanthropy within the movement ecosystem as a partner to liberatory movements sharing power, prosperity, and collective consciousness with grantee partners and philanthropic peers.
• Transformative Practice: Demonstrated commitment to transformative practice – individually, organizationally, and within society – in service of strategic social change that helps build more effective organizations and movements. Understanding of the unique benefits and challenges of a transformative path with the ability to sit in and help others navigate through questions, complexities, and conflicts that may arise.
• Direct Movement and/or Philanthropic Experience: Demonstrated hands-on leadership within social and environmental justice movements ideally in organizing, advocacy, community building, grantmaking, and/or alternative investments with deep understanding of the opportunities, challenges, and power dynamics inherent in movement work and philanthropy. Experience with private/family philanthropy, generational transitions, and/or boards/stakeholders with varied expertise and engagement levels is a plus.
• Organizational/People Management and Team Building Experience: Experience reporting to and working closely with a Board of Directors; leading and developing a small team; and building and enhancing organizational culture, practices, and systems aligned with the principles of transformative social change. Demonstrated and nuanced understanding of cultural competency – promoting diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging – and comfort making informed recommendations and leading collaborative decision-making.
• Diverse Stakeholder Facilitation Experience: Adept at engaging multiple perspectives and facilitating challenging conversations based on prior experience within coalitions; informing and inspiring nonprofit and funder allies; and/or engaging with multigenerational family philanthropy.
• Communications Savvy: Aptitude for delivering clear, compelling messages to inform and/or influence diverse audiences and experience advancing the work of an organization, movement, or initiative through external storytelling.
• Finance and Investment Interest: Aptitude for and comfort with organizational and grantmaking budget management at or near a scale of at least $2-3 million alongside intellectual curiosity and excitement around shifting capital and power through a range of traditional, community, impact, deep impact, real estate, and other alternative investment strategies.

The Location, Work Culture, Compensation & Benefits

The ED will work predominantly virtually from home or from a small office. For ease of communication and developing relationships with board, staff, grantees, partners, and contractors, Hidden Leaf is prioritizing applications from candidates based in the greater Bay Area. Highly qualified and values-aligned candidates from other markets who are willing to relocate or regularly travel to the Bay will be considered and should articulate how you would make yourself available for in-person interactions and to attend to relationship-building with the many board, staff, family, grantee, movement, and investment partners based in the Bay Area.

The anticipated annual compensation range is $230,000 to $270,000, commensurate with experience. All candidates with the experience and skills to fulfill the role – regardless of compensation history or background – are encouraged to apply.

Comprehensive benefits provided to all staff include health, dental, and vision insurance for employees and dependents; a retirement plan with employer contribution; generous paid time off and leave policies; a paid sabbatical of three months after five years; and annual discretionary grant and professional development budgets. 

The Application Process

Hidden Leaf is partnering with Walker & Associates Consulting (W&A) – a Black- and woman-owned strategic management consulting and executive search firm promoting equitable community impact – to facilitate this search. To apply, email a thoughtful cover letter describing your interest in the position; your individual and/or organizational experience with transformative practice; and your aligned values and experiences relative to the role, along with your resume and a list of three references (references will not be contacted without your advance notice) to hiddenleaf@walkeraac.com by Friday, November 8, 2024 at 5:00 pm PT. Use the subject line: ED Application. Please submit PDF or Microsoft Word files only, preferably with all materials in one combined file. Resume review begins immediately, and early applications are encouraged. Questions or Nominations? Contact Jeannine N. Walker at jwalker@walkeraac.com.

Hidden Leaf is an at-will equal opportunity employer that deeply values diversity, inclusivity, and kindness in the workplace. We strongly encourage and seek applications from women, people of color, and bilingual and bicultural individuals, as well as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. Applicants shall not be discriminated against because of race, religion, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, color, marital status, medical condition, or any other classification protected by federal, state, or local law or ordinance. Reasonable accommodation will be made so that qualified disabled applicants may participate in the application process. Please advise in writing of special needs at the time of application.