Furthering a Tradition of Grassroots Giving Rex Foundation Executive Director Job Description April 2013 From the Beginning: The Rex Foundation was born of the Grateful Dead’s generosity and desire to provide support to creative endeavors in the arts, sciences, and education. In the fall of 1983, the Rex Foundation was established as a non-profit charitable organization by members of the Grateful Dead and friends to further this tradition. Since our founding, the Rex Foundation has granted $8.8 million to over 1,000 worthy recipients. The Rex Foundation Mission: The Rex Foundation aims to help secure a healthy environment, promote individuality in the arts, provide support to critical and necessary social services, assist others less fortunate than ourselves, protect the rights of indigenous people and ensure their cultural survival, build a stronger community, and educate children and adults everywhere. Guiding Principles and Values: We respect traditional wisdom cultures. We respect individual rights and differences. We are willing to take risks and trust people. We help people who are helping others and are trying to make a difference. We help people develop bold new solutions to problems. We benefit the broader community and the broader good. We practice inclusiveness and open-mindedness. We support organizations committed to grassroots action. We seek to identify entities doing good work that might otherwise be overlooked. Our support helps beyond direct funding by boosting the visibility of the recipient’s work. We want to be a catalytic agent of change, where our involvement helps leverage greater impact. We are non-partisan. We promote an active, informed citizenry. The Foundation is an efficient conduit for supporting the community. Being part of the Rex Foundation is enjoyable. We carry on the best of the spirit of the ’60s to create a more harmonious world. Position: The Executive Director (ED) will have overall strategic and operational responsibility for our staff, programs, expansion, and execution of our mission with an emphasis on fundraising and grassroots grant making. She or he will develop deep knowledge then execute our core fund raising and grant making programs, operations, a nd business strategies. She or he will bring joy and passion to Rex, and lead us into a new chapter of making the world a better place. Responsibilities: Leadership & Management: • Ensure ongoing programmatic excellence, rigorous program evaluation, and consistent quality of finance and administration, fundraising, communications, and systems; recommend timelines and resources needed to achieve the strategic goals. • Actively engage and energize Rex’s allies, artists, volunteers, board members, constituents, partnering organizations, and funders. • Develop, maintain, and support a strong Board of Directors: serve as ex-officio of each committee (Communications, Events, Finance & Grants), seek and build board involvement with strategic direction of the organization. • Ensure effective systems to track progress, and regularly evaluate program components, so as to measure successes that can be effectively communicated to the board, funders, and other constituents. • Inspire and lead part time staff and consultants as needed to execute our mission. Fundraising & Communications: • Expand our core fundraising activities by creating musical events with a philanthropic soul, drawing on every available resource and technology to create community building programs that support our mission. • Work with board members to create and execute a development plan for generating major gifts from individual, institutional, and community connections. • Deepen and refine all aspects of communications - from social media to web presence to external relations with the goal of strengthening our community. • Use external presence and relationships to garner new opportunities. Planning & New Business: • Working closely with the Board and key allies, continue to support the evolution of the Rex Foundation into a philanthropic change maker in the 21st century. • Cultivate new opportunities by establishing new relationships with allies, artists, funders, and community leaders. • Be an external local and national presence that communicates program results with an emphasis on the successes of the local program as a model for regional and national replication. Qualifications: The Executive Director will be thoroughly committed to Rex Foundation’s mission. All candidates should have proven leadership, management and production experience. Concrete demonstrable experience and other qualifications include: • A proven track record of effective fundraising, preferably in the music industry. Leadership skills in cultivating artists and in developing and producing musical events. • Excellence in organizational management with the ability to manage staff and consultants. • Ability to set and achieve strategic objectives, including managing budgets. • Past success working with a Board of Directors with the ability to cultivate existing board member relationships. • Strong commitment to grassroots non-profit programs, including the ability and desire to cultivate relationships and engage with a wide range of grassroots stakeholders and cultures. • Strong written and verbal communication skills; a persuasive and passionate communicator with excellent interpersonal and multidisciplinary project skills. • Ability to work effectively in collaboration with diverse groups of people. • Ability and willingness to work in the SF Bay area and to travel domestically. • Passion, idealism, integrity, positive attitude, mission-driven, and self-directed. Application: Interested applicants should submit their cover letter and resume with contact info to: [email protected] Multimedia submissions, references and testimonials are welcome. Web links are preferable, if necessary, disks can be mailed with cover letter and resume to: To Shed Light Rex Foundation P.O. Box 29608 San Francisco, CA 94129-0608 Rex Foundation will acknowledge receipt of each application. Applicants will be contacted directly if selected as a candidate. Please, no phone calls..