Quail Springs is inviting applications from dedicated, impassioned, highly-organized, and socially-minded individuals to join our vibrant staff and community as our next Executive Director. We are searching for a person who is ready to creatively lead Quail Springs into its next powerful stage of development and maturation: one who can artfully guide our actions into a concrete strategy to make vital shifts in our community and organization. This is an exciting opportunity to put your non-profit leadership and organizational skills to use in supporting a world-renowned permaculture education facility and ever-growing non-profit through our next phase of growth and development towards social, food, ecological, and community justice.
We are looking for an ED with strong financial, social, and fundraising skills who will be able to quickly understand a complex working environment, be a solutions-thinker, and be able to address challenges in creative ways. A passion for environmental and social justice is the basis of your relationship with Quail Springs.
We are also seeking someone who has a deep passion and love for the responsibilities of and potentials for stewarding the land and increasing agro-ecosystem health and resilience; someone who can envision ways for QS to be more deeply embedded in this land, while also seeing the bigger-picture impact QS has regionally and internationally; someone who is able to rally residents and staff to work together on a bigger vision and mission, feeding into a well-defined 200-year plan; someone who is able to find creative ways of how to make living and working here sustainable -- in a social, ecological, and economic sense.
The following is an expanded view of some of the responsibilities and tasks undertaken by the Executive Director. The list is not exhaustive but represents a smattering of areas of focus.
Leadership and Visioning the next iteration of Quail Springs
-Assist in the strategic planning process for both long- and short-term planning on all organizational levels
-Creatively weave the permaculture ethics and principles into the organization and community
-Support the process of the Permaculture site redesign
-Be a leader within the context of community
Representation & Outreach
-Represent, resource, and promote the non-profit organization in the greater community
-Work closely with Quail Springs resident community in program development, budgeting, marketing and implementation with special emphasis on outreach to the Cuyama Valley Community
-Maintain legality of nonprofit status and for all tax exemptions, local, state and federal
-Oversee the employee relationship process including hiring, evaluation, records, payroll, etc.
-Be part of the design and implementation of fundraising strategies together with the development officer or team
-Strategize and have a large role in Phase II of the Capital Campaign
-Play a part in the research, writing or editing of grants for, among other things, programing, ecological restoration/wild tending, farming and related activities, core support, and the capital campaign
-Ensures responsible fiscal management through budgeting, bookkeeping, cash flows, & reporting
-Provide information for and review annual 990 tax forms
Staff Support and Development
-Supporting staff to successfully be in their roles and in creatively and pragmatically moving the different aspects of Quail Springs forward. For example, in areas such as:
Ecological and Social Restoration/Justice
-Creative collaboration with other organizations working on social justice and environmental issues.
⎯Augmenting the understanding of and implementation of social justice within the community and organization
⎯Determine feasible ways to increase access to those groups for whom nature-based education is not typically accessible
-Work with site stewards, including farm team, in managing the demonstration site for long term goals
You are emotionally intelligent, a strategic planner, a fair and balanced leader, financially savvy, and have a keen sense of organizational management. You are inspired rather than discouraged by challenges, one who enjoys interacting with people of all identities and who loves the outdoors, is inspired by nature and appreciates the vision of inspiring society at large about an alternate future in which the principles of permaculture are widely valued and accepted. You are physically and emotionally resilient and at home living on the land in sometimes changing levels of comfort (extreme cold, extreme heat, and off-grid living).
Deadline to Apply: April 30th or until position is filled
To Apply: follow the link below to request an Application Package that gives more details about the position, the organization, and the community.