Chief Executive Officer

Overview

Craft3 is one of the nation's leading Community Development Financial Institutions, and the largest CDFI loan fund in the region. We center marginalized people in our work by investing capital in people, businesses, and communities across the Pacific Northwest. Craft3's investments build household and business wealth, amplify community voice and agency, and create lasting networks of trust and mutual support. We work towards a future of shared prosperity across our region.

We are seeking our next Chief Executive Officer, a person who believes in delivering community-driven impacts and systemic changes in our region. We want a collaborative leader who is a strategic thinker, creates inclusive opportunity, and who is relentless in building a customer-focused organization that provides capital for those who need it most.

Craft3 is in a period of transition after years of significant growth. Our next CEO will know how to lead large organizations, manage through uncertainty, and be comfortable making and delegating decisions to strengthen the organization, its people, and systems to deliver maximum positive impact for the communities we serve.

In 2023, Craft3 originated 1,114 loans totaling $76 million.Our history of investing and impact has earned the confidence of over 150 financial partners, nationally and regionally, including mission-driven philanthropic and religious communities, banks, government agencies, and high net worth individuals and families.

Our more than 80 employees are passionate about our mission and accomplished in a variety of fields, including banking, community development, finance, accounting, natural resources, and city and regional planning. While they connect to our mission in different ways, all staff care deeply about using finance to expand opportunities and create a more inclusive world.

Mission and Values

Craft3 is a nonprofit community development organization that uses capital, relationships, and voice to build a thriving, just and empowered Pacific Northwest. We invest in people, businesses, and communities, and work towards a future of shared prosperity across our region.

We have three core strategies:

• Capital: Craft3 invests in underserved communities, businesses, and households to create economic opportunities
• Relationships: Craft3 builds relationships with local and regional partners to create a shared vision for the future
• Voice: Craft3 amplifies the voices of people seeking an equitable and sustainable future

Programsto Build a Stronger Pacific Northwest

Craft3 focuses on three regional challenges: (1) Systemic Racism, (2) the Climate Crisis, and (3) Rural and Tribal Economies. These challenges threaten to hold our region back and hurt us all. We address these challenges by using our core strategies of Capital, Relationships, and Voice. Learn more in our 2023-2027 Strategic Plan. Learn More

As a community development financial institution (CDFI), Craft3 uses capital and financial tools to enable entrepreneurs to invest in their businesses and homeowners to invest in their homes with:

• Business Loans: Too many entrepreneurs with good ideas and strong businesses cannot access capital. Craft3 specializes in working with borrowers, including nonprofit organizations, who are unable to qualify for bank financing. Learn More
• Consumer Loans: Our loans help Pacific Northwest homeowners invest in their homes, primarily through the repair and replacement of septic systems. Learn More

For additional information about Craft3, see the organization's website: www.craft3.org.

The CEO PositionWithin the Organization

Craft3 is in a period of transition after years of significant growth. The new CEO will inherit a strong balance sheet and lead an organization with an operating budget of $17M and a staff of more than 80. The CEO will manage a senior leadership team, referred to as the Leadership Committee, currently consisting of eight direct reports representing major functional areas and business units of the company. Simultaneous to this search, Craft3 is also searching for a permanent Chief Financial Officer and expects to hire its first Chief People Officer by the end of 2024.

The CEO reports to the Board of Directors, which consists of 14 members with deep experience in CDFIs, community lending, and Craft3's mission, core strategies and communities served. The Board is structured with six committees: Executive, Finance, Governance and Nominations, Credit, Strategy and Impact, and Audit and Enterprise Risk Management.

Priorities for the Position

After an initial period of learning about the organization's business model and internal dynamics, and building relationships and trust with the staff, board and community, the new CEO will need to facilitate strong leadership team alignment and share responsibility for defining and executing the following key priorities in their first 18-24 months:

1. Develop a Realistic and Achievable Strategy and Business Model: Drive a strategy planning or program prioritization process to simplify the business model to achieve better operational resilience and organizational stability by identifying product lines, geographies, and/or client bases for strengthening and investment and conversely, eliminating or curtailing activities that, while representing aspirational goals, are spreading Craft3's resources too thinly and require cutting back.
2. Culture and Equity Reset: The CEO should model, improve, and reset the internal culture by strengthening communication and professionalism, fostering an inclusive environment, and promoting open dialogue to create a sense of belonging among all employees and ensure adherence to the organization's stated values of conscientiousness, engagement, and effectiveness.
3. Leadership Structure and Team Building: Guide a strong and effective leadership team helping to integrate new leaders onto the team into the organization to maximize organizational success. Ensure clarity in roles and responsibilities across the organization, with the goals of streamlining decision-making, giving voice and senior visibility to and improving the leadership team's responsive. Collaborate with the Board of Directors to improve governance practices, embrace a board-staff relationship of candor and partnership, facilitate the on-going evolution of the Board, and best leverage the collective wisdom of an established and very involved Board of Directors.
4. Talent Development and Management: Sponsor and collaborate with the Chief People Officer to develop and implement a system to improve the organization's talent development and retention strategies, including but not limited to leadership training, developing supervisory skills, providing clearer career pathways, and fostering better recognition of strong performers while also enforcing a greater degree of accountability and addressing poor performers.
5. Improve Community and Customer Engagement and Connection. Ensure that the organization uses its relationships both internally and externally to develop a deep understanding of what products will work for our target communities, which include predominantly low-income and communities of color across the region. Ensure that Craft3 develops products with good market fit, well-defined implementation plans, and clear processes to retain and strengthen Craft3's brand reputation and to better inspire, serve, and delight those who rely on us, providing solid foundations for our actions.
6. Improve Operational Systems to Become a More Efficient Organization: Sponsor and/or lead a process to improve and standardize operational systems to increase operational efficiency, improve the customer experience and enhance decision-making to reduce redundancy and foster growth with the outcome of most effectively leveraging available technology and organizational resources including but not limited to staff training and development, project management, performance management, financial and lending, and IT systems.

Essential Skills and Attributes

Craft3 is seeking a collaborative CDFI leader who knows how to lead large organizations, manage through uncertainty, and is comfortable making and delegating decisions to ensure forward progress. The new CEO should have experience strengthening and empowering organizations, people, and systems, and demonstrate commitment to leading on all aspects of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. The ideal CEO is a person who believes in delivering community-driven impacts and systemic change in our region, a strong, strategic thinker who creates inclusive opportunity, and who is relentless in building a customer-focused organization that provides capital for those who need it most. The ideal candidate will have the following skills and attributes:

• Senior leadership/management experience: Ten years of senior management experience within the CDFI, community development or a related field; proven leadership capacity at a large organization; high tolerance for ambiguity; ability to balance mission and business objectives. Well-honed track record of leveraging the existing talent in the organization through training, delegating, collaboration and systems development
• Strategic leadership to develop a clear vision and direction by which to guide the organization. Experience in leading/facilitating collaborative planning and decision-making processes to build stakeholder buy-in which communicates the vision and strategy to all. Experience leading the execution of desired strategy through actionable plans and successful implementation and on-going refinement and adaptation.
• Emotional intelligence; excellent people skills: Demonstrated emotional intelligence; track record of inspiring and motivating a team. A trust-builder who empowers others promotes a culture of inclusivity, feedback, and growth, with the ability to manage complex interpersonal dynamics with grace to help people reach their full potential. Experience should demonstrate a style of collaboration, transparency, and integrity in order to foster an atmosphere where ideas can be freely exchanged and the best, most viable ideas agreed and acted upon.
• Exceptional business & financial acumen: Experienced operator with an entrepreneurial track record of developing new and innovative loan products to address unmet credit needs, expanding into niche and under-served markets, and operating complex business models to deploy mission-driven capital. Strong understanding of and/or ability to quickly learn the accounting, finance and lending nuances and constraints in the community development lending arena, including nonprofit capitalization strategies, balancing mission aspirations with financial realities, and adhering to regulatory requirements. Successful track record of managing annual budgets with multiple and sometimes unpredictable funding sources. Experience within the C-Suite of a CDFI is preferred but not required.
• Demonstrated leadership on diversity, equity, and inclusion, in organizational policies, people and programs, including a track record of recruiting, hiring, mentoring, promoting and directly supervising early-, mid- and late-career talent across multiple dimensions of diversity.
• Strong yet collaborative leadership: Steady, decisive, and collaborative leader who can bring people together by building, guiding, and coaching a highly skilled leadership team. Ensures team members are positioned correctly and empowered to lead, and that they or a clearly designated other member of the leadership team get consultation and data from the relevant staff (and others as necessary), makes the decision, and moves on. Comfortable delegating, providing timely and constructive feedback, and holding individuals and the organization accountable.
• Effective communicator and relationship builder: Exceptionally clear and concise communicator with cultural competency to connect with a variety of audiences and across various dimensions of work styles, demographics, levels of understanding, differences of opinions, etc. A personable, approachable leader; a relationship builder within and across staff, board and community members and any other groups affected by the actions of Craft3
• Successful track record of managing change in implementing a structured approach and set of business practices within a complex and large-scale environment comparable to Craft3 to effectively manage the people, processes and technology shifts that occur when an organization undergoes rapid growth in an evolving and highly competitive operating environment.

Job Requirements

• The ability to travel as needed, likely up to or over 20 percent of the time for industry events, customer, and office visits, as well as company events across Oregon and Washington.
• Must be able to pass criminal background and credit checks.

Equal Opportunity Statement

Craft3 is an equal opportunity employer. Diverse staff and perspectives advance our mission and help our organization thrive and grow. We encourage candidates who identify as one or more of the following to apply: Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC); women; LGBTQAI+; veterans; immigrants; working class; rural; and people with disabilities. We are committed to being an inclusive and anti-racist organization and recognize that this takes continued work.

Reasonable Accommodations

Reasonable accommodation may be provided to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions