Overview
We are looking for an experienced Executive Director who can guide the Eco-Institute into the next phase of its journey. We seek a creative leader who thinks outside the various boxes that our culture has defined for us. This role calls for someone with a deep commitment to equity and diversity, experience in power-sharing and collaborative leadership, a deep desire to re-connect people to their wild and magical natures, understanding our own healing is part of the collective healing and a track record of “walking the talk.”
The Executive Director’s responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
Implementing the vision of the organization and translating that into practice together with the Board and other staff members,
Recruiting new members to the Board and reporting to them,
Designing curriculum and programs
Setting the yearly budget
Fostering donor relations, shepherding the grant process, and expanding the funding network,
Maintaining support systems for the educational programming
Supporting the well-being and learning growth of all staff members and the wellbeing of The Eco-Institute as a whole,
Consistently representing the Core Values and culture of the organization to prospective participants and staff, partners, supporters, and our wider community.
This job requires creativity, adaptability, patience, excellent organizational and communication skills, collaborative capacities, and a sense of humor. Candidates must be eager, ethical, authentic, trustworthy, systems-thinking, self-directed, motivated, adaptable, feedback-driven, process-oriented, and respectful of confidentiality.
The overall structure of the position breaks down into:
Leadership (35%) : The Executive Director will contribute to the overall strategic visioning and planning on an organizational level, while also maintaining and strengthening staffing procedures and support. The ED will also manage all needs of the Board of Directors.
Finances and Fundraising (35%): In coordination with the leadership team and BOD, the Executive Director will hold responsibility for all financial needs of The Eco-Institute, including operations, programs, and scholarship funds.
Programs (30%): The Executive Director, in collaboration with the Land and Program Director (LPD), will oversee all educational programming and help set priorities and expectations.
Salary and Benefits: Salary is $60,000 plus healthcare or healthcare stipend, 20 days of paid time off (to include vacations, holidays, and sick time), plus a five day year-end holiday break. Other benefits include optional discounted on-site housing, professional development opportunities, flexible working hours, a shared office space, free access to in-house programs, a venue for your own offerings, abundant Community Learning Gardens and other sanctuary resources.
Qualifications:
The ideal applicant possesses:
At least 5 years of experience in Non-profit Directorship, Grant Writing & Fundraising
High level of proficiency with Google Suite Proficiency in or demonstrated capacity to learn various software programs and new technologies
Significant experience developing and directing experiential environmental education programs, ideally in a holistic, place-based setting
Required Skills:
Significant supervisory experience and experience in mentoring and/or professional/leadership development
Significant experience with logistical and risk management, and demonstrated ability to curate dynamic, educational, and engaging programs with an appropriate level of physical and socio-emotional risk
Experience and demonstrated competence in working with individuals from various backgrounds and identities
Outstanding organizational skills
Preferred Skills:
Strong attention to detail and high standards for thoroughness and accuracy. Creativity and adaptability, and the ability to make sound judgment calls
A strong environmental ethic and open mindedness to how environmental ethics intersect with various social and cultural life experiences
A basic understanding of racial literacy, gender identity, classism, and neurodiversity, and a strong commitment to the well-being of marginalized individuals and communities
Work style flexibility
About Eco-Institute at Pickards Mountain
The Eco-Institute at Pickards Mountain is an Earth Sanctuary and Learning Community dedicated to Healing the Human-Earth Relationship, founded in 2005. Our non-profit educational farm and learning center reside on 28 acres in the Piedmont Valley of North Carolina, eight miles west of Chapel Hill, on what is—to the best of our knowledge—ancestral lands of the Occaneechi-Saponi, Eno, Tutelo, Tuscarora, Sissipihaw, Shakori, Saura, and Catawba.
We offer what we strive to practice: skills for community resilience, spiritual ecology, and permaculture. Our foundations have been guided by E.F. Schumacher, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Richard Louv, adrienne marie brown, Charles Eisenstein, Joanna Macy, and Thomas Berry. Our offerings have proven over 15 years to reach children, young adults, Elders, teachers, policy-makers, clergy, and community organizers around the world.
