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.