Executive Director, Dallas
GreenLight Fund
Dallas, Texas
About GreenLight Fund
Founded in Boston in 2004, GreenLight Fund addresses barriers to economic mobility for children, youth and families in high-poverty urban areas by creating local infrastructure and a consistent annual process to:
- Identify critical needs and barriers for people experiencing poverty.
- Import innovative, entrepreneurial programs that can have a significant, measurable impact.
- Galvanize local support to help programs reach and sustain impact in the city.
In addition to funding, GreenLight Fund provides ongoing support to the organizations it brings to a city (portfolio organizations) through access to a national network of partners and city-specific relationships and knowledge, as well as expertise developed through GreenLight Fund’s experience in other cities, which helps ensure their success and impact.
Currently, in addition to the founding site in Boston, GreenLight Fund has sites in Atlanta, the Bay Area, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Denver, Detroit, Kansas City, Newark, Philadelphia, Miami and the Twin Cities. Since our founding, GreenLight has launched and supported 62 innovative organizations across these sites that reached 748,525 children and families last year.
Dallas is our next expansion city.
Entering 2025, GreenLight Fund is poised for continued growth, with a focus on deepening community impact, growing to new cities, building our learning capacity, building strategic partnerships, and centering equity in all that we do. To learn more about GreenLight Fund’s work, please visit http://greenlightfund.org/.
The Opportunity
GreenLight Fund is currently seeking a dynamic, passionate, and collaborative Executive Director to lead the launch and establishment of GreenLight Dallas. This entrepreneurial leader will build the GreenLight Dallas Selection Advisory Council and run the diligence and selection process which includes identifying highest priority needs, selecting portfolio organizations and supporting expanding organizations as they launch and grow. In addition, they will steward and secure funders and other resources to support GreenLight Dallas and its portfolio organizations and engage a wide variety of constituents in this work.
This is a fantastic opportunity for a results-oriented and inspiring leader to work autonomously to bring a proven model of growing high-performing nonprofits to Dallas and to engage individuals, funders, and companies to create meaningful community impact. Reporting to a Vice President, Site Success, the Executive Director will lead implementation of GreenLight’s Method of Impact in Dallas, partner with peers across the country to find and spread what works and support the national GreenLight network.
Responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:
Programmatic Leadership
- Lead a community-wide Selection Advisory Council to advise on identifying Dallas’s high priority community needs and the vetting and selection of portfolio organizations that can powerfully address them.
- Run an annual selection process to identify organizations with potential to have a significant impact on community needs, including conducting rigorous diligence and deep landscape analysis to understand organizations’ potential for impact and community fit.
- Engage the voice of community members with lived experience navigating poverty in determining priority needs and solutions.
- Serve as an active local board member for portfolio organizations.
- Act as a strategic thought partner to and connector for local portfolio organization Executive Directors and boards on a broad range of strategic and operational issues.
External Relations and Fundraising
- Represent GreenLight Dallas externally and cultivate a network of relationships with community leaders, entrepreneurs, the private-sector investor community, philanthropic partners, government officials, nonprofit and business leaders, and prospective partner organizations.
- Actively steward GreenLight Dallas investors, secure event sponsorships, and lead all stages of the fundraising cycle.
- Secure critical resources, financial and otherwise, for GreenLight Dallas and portfolio organizations, and actively and thoughtfully steward these relationships over time.
- Create and manage events to launch new portfolio organizations in the community and build awareness of and support for portfolio organizations.
Organizational Leadership
- Participate actively in the GreenLight network of site Executive Directors and local and national staff to share best practices, knowledge of promising social innovation, and strategies to build the network and collaborate to find and support GreenLight organizations.
- Help execute the organization’s strategic plan to deepen community impact, grow to new cities, build our learning capacity, build strategic partnerships, and center equity in all that we do.
Candidate Profile
The Dallas Executive Director will be an experienced, innovative, and collaborative leader with compelling presence and exceptional communication and relationship-building skills. While no one candidate will possess every quality outlined for this position, the successful candidate will bring many of the following professional qualifications and personal attributes:
- Authentic passion for GreenLight’s mission and deep commitment to the Dallas community.
- Proven commitment to bringing a racial equity lens to their work and deep understanding of how systems of oppression have affected communities experiencing poverty.
- A successful track record in entrepreneurial environments holding positions of increasing complexity and responsibility.
- Demonstrated experience developing effective working relationships with people from a wide array of backgrounds, leading groups and developing talent, all with a collegial and team-building approach that puts others at ease, engenders trust, and is grounded in community needs.
- Experience and relationships in the Dallas philanthropic, nonprofit and/or business sectors, as well as knowledge of the critical social issues affecting low-income residents in the area.
- Familiarity with nonprofit and/or philanthropy sectors, ideally with knowledge of the social innovation world and results-oriented, evidence-based program design; passion for and demonstrated commitment to social entrepreneurship and social change.
- Strong analytical skills and experience with due diligence and/or grant-making processes.
- Superb verbal and written communication skills and the ability to represent GreenLight Dallas and portfolio organizations in a professional, engaging and dynamic manner.
- A track record of securing financial resources from a variety of sources, building awareness of and support for important endeavors, and successfully cultivating and stewarding donors over time.
- Experience building and managing pipelines, especially with donors and/or programs.
- Creative, collaborative, entrepreneurial, and action-oriented with an eagerness to roll up one’s sleeves and work hands-on to grow organizations.
- Bachelor’s degree is strongly preferred but not required.
Compensation & Benefits
The salary for this position is $140,000. The compensation package includes:
- Health insurance through Blue Cross Blue Shield (80% paid by GreenLight)
- Dental and Vision insurance through Guardian (80% paid by GreenLight)
- Full coverage of all mental health visits through Blue Cross Blue Shield
- Safe Harbor 401k: GreenLight will match 100% of the first 3% of salary and 50% of the next 2%
- Short and long-term disability and life insurance fully paid by GreenLight
- 11 company-wide holiday closings and 3 floating holidays
- Generous PTO and parental leave
- Up to $75 per month of cell phone reimbursement
- Up to $100 per month of WiFi reimbursement
- Up to $1,500 per year for professional development
- Access to Holisticly (40 Holisticly credits per month)
Candidates must be based in Dallas. This position offers flexibility to work from home or hybrid with the expectation of in-person engagements, including meetings, events, and travel.
Greenlight Fund is an equal opportunity employer and strongly encourages applications from people of color, persons with disabilities, women, and LGBT applicants.
Contact
Koya Partners l Diversified Search Group has been exclusively retained for this engagement, which is being led by Cassie Scarano and Ariella Pasackow. To apply, please submit a compelling cover letter and resume by https://talent-profile.dsgco.com/search/v2/21772 by no later than February 15, 2025. All inquiries are strictly confidential.
Koya Partners is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals living with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual living with a disability and need assistance expressing interest online, please email NonprofitSearchOps@divsearch.com. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.
About Koya Partners l Diversified Search Group
Koya Partners, a Diversified Search Group company, is the nation’s premier search firm dedicated to mission-driven leadership. Since its founding in 2004, Koya has had an exclusive focus on mission-driven clients and was founded on the belief that the right leader can transform an organization and have a deep and measurable impact on our world. Koya works with nonprofits & NGOs, responsible businesses, and social enterprises in local communities and around the world.
Diversified Search Group is consistently recognized by Forbes on its top 10 list of “America’s Best Executive Recruiting Firms” and is an industry leader in recruiting transformational leaders for a changing world. The firm is deliberately different in its approach, with best-in-class teams who have decades of experience in cultivating inclusive leaders, understanding the dimensions of diversity, and building equitable teams.
Learn more about Koya Partners l Diversified Search Group via the http://www.dsgco.com/industry/nonprofit-and-social-impact/.
