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Executive Director

  • Company: Clarifi
  • Location: Philadelphia, PA
  • Date:
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About Clarifi  

Founded over 50 years ago, Clarifi is the Delaware Valley’s largest provider of financial and housing empowerment services for low- and moderate-income residents of Southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. We believe that everyone—regardless of income, zip code or background—deserves judgment-free financial resources tailored to their unique situation and goals. Through our certified financial counseling, housing success, and direct assistance services, we help our clients overcome financial crises and build intergenerational wealth.

At Clarifi, we are driven by the belief that social justice cannot be achieved without financial justice – and the opportunity for all people to build assets and wealth beyond just income.  We layer resources, services and technical assistance that bolster financial security and access to affordable housing in the communities we serve.  

Currently, we invest in the following ways:

Financial Empowerment 

Our judgment-free, relationship-based approach to counseling helps clients achieve their self-set goals through a personalized action plan and unlimited sessions at no cost to them. 

Housing Success 

We help clients find and stay in a safe, secure, and sustainable home through our trauma-informed counseling, advocacy, and case management, as well as a wealth preservation program that makes home repair more accessible and affordable.

Direct Assistance 

We combine our certified counseling with cash grants to help families unlock economic mobility – not only for themselves, but for the next generation.

Equally important to what we do is how we do it.  Our core values, outlined below, dictate our approach to our clients and each other.  

Core Values

We empower individuals to achieve financial resilience and positively impact their communities.

  • Justice: We recognize the historic inequities of the past and their systemic effects on the present. We strive to uplift diverse voices from marginalized communities, and acknowledge that justice requires courage, persistence, and humility.
  • Community: Our work, like the lives of our clients, is deeply anchored to where we live. We are dedicated to serving the many diverse communities that make up Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley.
  • Integrity: We have high expectations for ourselves and embrace accountability. We are not afraid to admit when we are wrong and to learn from our missteps. 
  • Empathy: Our work is human-centered and so is our approach. We recognize that each client is a unique individual with unique experiences and needs. We believe the path to empathy is paved with vulnerability and trust.
  • Pride: We are proud of our clients, our staff, our board, our work, and our volunteers. We celebrate our differences, commonalities, and successes.
  • Tenacity: We partner with our clients to provide resources, support, and guidance, but it is our clients’ passion, ingenuity, and hope that gets them across the finish line. They inspire us to be tenacious and gritty in our approach as we support them on their financial journey.

Importantly, Clarifi is affiliated with GreenPath Financial Wellness, a national nonprofit credit counseling organization that empowers thousands of people to lead financially healthy lives.  By sharing services and resources, this affiliation has helped Clarifi maximize its impact and grow its services.  

To learn more about Clarifi, please visit https://www.clarifi.org/.

The Opportunity

Clarifi is seeking a strategic, community and business-minded leader to build upon the organization’s history of success and expertise and lead it to its next phase of impact.

The Executive Director is responsible for the achievement of all operational and strategic goals, including capital raising, strategic growth, financial sustainability, program outcomes and impact, board relations, talent development, and community relations and engagement. This leader will work in a collaborative manner with the Board of Directors and a highly experienced and capable team to ensure that Clarifi continues to meet community needs while ensuring organizational sustainability.

The ideal candidate will be a proven and respected leader with the skills to maintain excellence in the content and delivery of Clarifi’s existing programs and the creativity and entrepreneurialism to continually innovate to drive growth. The Executive Director will engage in effective working relationships with community partners, representatives of local, state, and federal governments, other nonprofit organizations, foundations, and other socially minded investors and will work to Identify opportunities for strategic collaborations that will benefit Clarifi. They will be responsible for gaining buy-in for the organizational strategy from a wide variety of stakeholders including GreenPath, the Board, staff and others and then inspiring all to execute on that approach. This is an exceptional opportunity for a visionary leader, with a deep commitment to improving communities, to grow and expand Clarifi’s impact in the future.  

Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate will have the following professional and personal qualities, skills, or characteristics:

Strategic & Visionary Leader 

An effective “big picture” leader, the Executive Director will build on Clarifi’s successful history to evolve a vision for increased impact in the future. The Executive Director will be a strategic thinker with a demonstrated ability to work with a Board of Directors and the team to establish a vision and execute on it in a continuously changing landscape.  Experienced in collaborative strategic planning efforts, they will be excited to explore opportunities for increased impact and demonstrate a track record of thinking creatively to grow organizations all while balancing financial performance with positive community impact. With a keen focus on outcomes, the Executive Director will bring a data orientation and experience sharing evidence-based insights with funders, Boards and others. They will be adept at managing multiple stakeholders and will bring experience creating alignment and common goals. The Executive Director will bring an empathetic approach to leadership, with a genuine understanding of the communities and individuals Clarifi serves, as well as a desire to continually learn and listen. A collaborator and team player, the Executive Director will be courageous, inclusive, and lead with humility.

External Relations/Fundraising 

The Executive Director will be an inspiring spokesperson and have the ability to effectively convey Clarifi’s mission to a diverse range of constituents to generate support and inspire action.  Enthusiastic and trustworthy, this leader will inspire confidence in clients, community partners, elected officials, business leaders, and funders, and will be able to establish mutually beneficial partnerships that further the work. The Executive Director will bring an established network in the industry and/or region and be skilled at diversifying revenue for an organization and advocating for policy change that will positively impact Clarifi and the communities it serves.  They will enjoy interacting with all stakeholders and consistently seek out opportunities to be a connector. Most importantly, the successful candidate will bring the ability to build support for a common vision across diverse stakeholders both internally and externally.

Passion for Mission 

The Executive Director will believe strongly in the power of financial empowerment to transform underserved communities and the importance of addressing the multiple hurdles perpetuating economic injustice. The ideal candidate will have a history of working collaboratively with communities and uplifting the voices of the historically marginalized. The Executive Director will embrace financial justice as an operating principal and embed this commitment in all aspects of the organization, both internally and externally.

Organizational Leadership

The Executive Director will have a track record of motivating, developing and retaining a strong team to achieve impact through teamwork and by leveraging individual strengths to meet overall goals.  They will understand the importance of effective operational and financial administration and will instinctively anticipate emerging opportunities or challenges. A seasoned leader, the successful candidate will have a strong business orientation with the ability to use data to drive key decisions and achieve strategic objectives.  The successful candidate will have the ability to set priorities decisively, delegate responsibilities, assure accountability to allocate resources to ensure results. With a specific eye toward sustainability, the Executive Director will bring a focus on long-term financial planning and organizational resiliency. The Executive Director will bring a strong knowledge of governance and experience working alongside a Board of Directors to meet aggressive goals.

Knowledge of Philadelphia Region and/or the Financial Justice Ecosystem

Given the importance of relationships in this work, the Executive Director will bring an established network of potential supporters and connectors. With an existing knowledge of the financial health space, or the ability to develop it quickly, the ideal candidate will demonstrate an ability to build coalitions in support of a mission. Knowledge of the Philadelphia region and key players in the funder, nonprofit, corporate and governmental and political structures that do, and might, support Clarifi will be a strong plus.   

Compensation & Benefits

Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. The target salary for this role is $200,000 with a generous benefits package and bonus potential. The exact salary that will be offered to the Executive Director will be determined based on a consideration of the successful candidate’s skills, experience, and geography and aligned with Clarifi’s compensation policies.

Contact

Koya Partners, the executive search firm that specializes in mission-driven search, has been exclusively retained for this engagement. Erin Reedy and Shannon O’Neill of Koya Partners have been exclusively retained for this search. To express interest in this role please submit your materials by filling out our Talent Profile or email Erin Reedy and Shannon O’Neill directly at [email protected] and [email protected]. All inquiries and discussions will be considered strictly confidential.