Community Initiatives is a dedicated fiscal sponsor whose sole purpose is to provide best-in-class infrastructure for nonprofit leaders. We know the right questions to ask to help you develop a sustainable and scalable solution in your community.

At Community Initiatives, we have a broad interpretation of community. Unlike other fiscal sponsors, our projects work on various issues and in diverse geographic areas. They also vary in terms of staff and budget sizes. So, no matter how you define yourselves, be it by identity, geography, or shared experience, you will have a home with us. Community Initiatives’ portfolio of projects range in size and serve a variety of causes, including social justice, the environment, animal rights, education, youth development, capacity building, health & wellness, philanthropy, the arts, and human services.

Our History: In 1996, a group of savvy nonprofit professionals came together under the banner of the San Francisco Foundation with a great idea: to establish a holistic fiscal sponsorship agency defined by efficiency and integrity. As a comprehensive fiscal sponsorship organization, Community Initiatives takes on all legal and fiduciary responsibility for the nonprofit project, its employees, and charitable activities.

For more than 30 years, Community Initiatives has enabled hundreds of projects to achieve greater charitable impact by removing the operational and compliance barriers of running an independent 501(c)(3). We provide comprehensive infrastructure services — financial management, human resources, payroll and benefits, insurance, legal services, grant management, tax compliance, and online fundraising tools, so our partners can focus on their mission, not administration.

By managing the complexity behind the scenes, we free advocates to stay focused, effective, and connected to the communities they serve. This commitment to supporting mission-driven leaders is at the core of our work and reflects our founding purpose: to be in service to great ideas.

Our Mission, and what makes us different: Community Initiatives acts as a thought-partner and provides professional services to nonprofit startups, established initiatives, networks, and collaborations. We sponsor projects for the benefit of communities in service to social change.

Our Vision is to advance the creation of a more vibrant, innovative, and effective nonprofit sector. 

• Empowerment: Deepen the capabilities and knowledge of staff, volunteers, and advisory committee members

• Trust: Be reliable, honest and transparent

• Teamwork: Use the wisdom, expertise and skills of teams to operate effectively

• Integrity: Operate ethically and within legal guidelines while managing risk

• Empathy: Walk in the shoes of projects and staff as we deliver services and manage people

Our Team and Board: Our organizational staff brings together decades of expertise in a wide variety of nonprofit fields, leadership, client services, finance, human resources, communications, and legal support. Our Board members are crucial partners in everything we do. 

Position: Vice President, People & Culture

Location: Community Initiatives has offices in Oakland and Los Angeles, California. The VP will be based in one of these locations with frequent presence across both offices plus necessary business- related travel.

Reporting Relationship: CEO

Website: communityinitiatives.org

As Community Initiatives enters a critical new chapter of organizational strengthening, growth, and culture rebuilding, the organization seeks a strategic, values-driven, and operationally rigorous Vice President, People & Culture to lead its people function and help build the cross-functional infrastructure required for a more coordinated, transparent, and high-performing organization. Reporting to the CEO and serving as a key member of the Executive Management Team, the Vice President will serve as the architect of Community Initiatives’ people strategy while also helping to strengthen the systems, processes, standards, governance, and execution discipline that enable effective collaboration across teams. 

This is a significant builder role for a leader who can bring structure, clarity, trust, and modern people practices to an organization that has experienced rapid growth, evolving service demands, and inconsistent systems, documentation, workflows, and accountability practices. Community Initiatives’ fiscal sponsorship model creates a uniquely complex operating environment, with responsibility for both internal staff and project employees across a diverse portfolio of approximately 120 fiscally sponsored projects and hundreds of employees nationally. The Vice President will need to understand the people, risk, compliance, service delivery, and operational implications of this model and help design scalable approaches that support both organizational staff and project-facing operations. 

The Vice President will provide executive leadership across the full spectrum of Human Resources and People & Culture, including HR strategy, employee experience, performance management, employee and labor relations, total rewards, workforce planning, HR compliance, organizational development, culture, leadership development, HR systems, project employee services strategy, and HR service expectations. This leader will also be responsible for strengthening the operating infrastructure connected to the people function and cross-functional service delivery, including SOPs, documentation standards, administrative workflow standards, escalation pathways, operational metrics, reporting, and continuous improvement of organizational handoffs and coordination. 

In close partnership with HR, Finance, Legal, Client Services, Operations, IT/system owners, and project-facing teams, the Vice President will help establish an execution model that improves visibility, prioritization, and accountability across the organization. This will include oversight of PMO and portfolio governance practices, intake and prioritization processes, dependency management, implementation oversight, cross-functional escalation management, and governance reporting, with external advisory support assisting in the initial setup and transition. While functional leaders will remain accountable for how their departments operate, deliver services, manage resources, and make function-specific decisions, the Vice President will help ensure that the organization has the shared infrastructure, standards, and coordination mechanisms needed to execute effectively across functions. 

Equally important, the Vice President will be a visible, trusted, and accessible people leader who can help repair trust, strengthen transparency, foster psychological safety, and create a more inclusive and accountable culture. The organization seeks a leader with high emotional intelligence, sound judgment, humility, confidence, strong ethics, and the ability to engage constructively on issues of equity, diversity, belonging, performance, and organizational change. This leader will partner closely with the CEO, Executive Management Team, Board of Directors, managers, staff, and external advisors to build a People & Culture function that is service-oriented, legally compliant, operationally disciplined, and deeply aligned with Community Initiatives’ mission of being in service to great ideas.

The Vice President of People & Culture will lead an enterprise-wide people strategy that advances organizational culture, employee experience, talent effectiveness, engagement, compliance, service delivery, operational coordination, and overall organizational performance. 

Partnering closely with the Executive Management Team, Board of Directors, managers, staff, external advisors, and key functional leaders, this leader will translate strategic priorities into equitable, scalable, well-documented, and high-impact people and operating practices that strengthen Community Initiatives’ capacity to deliver exceptional service to nonprofit leaders and its diverse portfolio of fiscally sponsored projects.

• Serve as a key member of the Executive Management Team, contributing to organizational strategy, planning, culture, risk management, and operational execution. 

• Partner with the CEO and senior leaders to define and implement people strategies that align culture, employee experience, performance, service delivery, and organizational priorities. 

• Provide trusted counsel to the CEO, Executive Management Team, and Board of Directors on people, culture, workforce, employee relations, organizational effectiveness, governance, and risk matters.

• Help strengthen Board engagement and communication around people, culture, workforce trends, organizational climate, and employee experience, including regular reporting and transparent updates. 

• Bring a balanced, credible, and constructive leadership presence that helps rebuild trust among staff, leadership, and the Board.

• Develop and execute a comprehensive HR and people strategy centered on culture, engagement, equity, service, accountability, compliance, and employee experience. 

• Oversee HR functions including talent acquisition, onboarding, workforce planning, total rewards, employee relations, labor relations, performance management, organizational development, HR systems, HR compliance, and learning and development. 

• Design and document HR policies, procedures, practices, and service standards that are consistent, transparent, legally compliant, and easy for managers and employees to understand. 

• Establish clear HR service expectations, escalation pathways, and communication protocols for internal staff, managers, and project employees. 

• Strengthen performance management practices, including goal setting, feedback, accountability, coaching, corrective action, and alignment between individual performance and organizational expectations. 

• Lead people-related risk management efforts, including employee relations, investigations, leaves, benefits, compliance, employment law considerations, and project employee matters, in partnership with legal counsel as appropriate. 

• Build modern, people-centered HR practices that support retention, transparency, trust, professional growth, and a stronger employee experience.

• Own and strengthen the cross-functional operating infrastructure and execution model that enables coordination across teams, particularly where HR, Finance, Legal, Client Services, Operations, IT, and project-facing work intersect.

• Develop and implement organizational standards for SOPs, documentation, administrative workflows, service visibility, cross-functional escalation management, decision rights, and execution discipline.

• Create greater visibility into service workflows, handoffs, bottlenecks, escalations, and operational dependencies that affect staff, project employees, and fiscally sponsored projects.

• Establish operational metrics, dashboards, and reporting mechanisms that support accountability, continuous improvement, service quality, and leadership decision-making. 

• Promote consistent practices and shared operating norms while ensuring functional leaders remain accountable for departmental operations, service delivery, resource management, and function-specific decisions. 

• Identify opportunities to improve organizational handoffs, reduce confusion, clarify roles and responsibilities, and strengthen coordination across the Oakland and Los Angeles offices. 

• Lead the development and maturation of PMO and portfolio governance practices, including intake, prioritization, dependency management, implementation oversight, governance processes, and reporting. 

• Partner with external advisors and internal leaders during the initial setup and transition of PMO-related structures and tools. 

• Help establish disciplined processes for evaluating, sequencing, and implementing cross-functional initiatives in alignment with organizational capacity and strategic priorities. 

• Bring a practical change management lens to major people, systems, service delivery, and operating model improvements. 

• Ensure change efforts are communicated clearly, implemented thoughtfully, and designed to build trust rather than disrupt ongoing culture healing work. 

• Design an HR service model that effectively supports both Community Initiatives staff and project employees within the unique fiscal sponsorship environment. 

• Partner across HR, Finance, Legal, Client Services, and project-facing operations to align expectations, clarify responsibilities, and improve the experience of fiscally sponsored projects. 

• Help strengthen service delivery standards, escalation pathways, compliance practices, and communication channels for project employee matters. 

• Understand and manage the employment, compliance, employee relations, and reputational risks inherent in a fiscal sponsorship model with a nationally distributed employee base. 

• Coordinate cross-functional IT and systems work, including technical vendor management, implementation alignment, and partnership with functional system owners. 

• Ensure HRIS, people systems, communications tools, workflow platforms, and related operational systems support efficient, scalable, employee-friendly, and service-oriented processes. 

• Lead vendor management operations and contract lifecycle operations for areas within the role’s scope, while partnering with Legal for legal review, counsel, and risk guidance. Partner with benefits brokers, PEO/payroll providers, HR consultants, technology vendors, and other external partners to improve service quality, accountability, and operational performance. 

• Lead organizational development strategies that repair trust, strengthen culture, reinforce values, and enhance the day-to-day employee experience. 

• Foster a culture of transparency, psychological safety, inclusion, accountability, learning, collaboration, and continuous improvement. 

• Partner with leaders to embed culture into decision-making, leadership practices, team dynamics, performance expectations, and service delivery. 

• Support thoughtful engagement on equity, diversity, and belonging in a way that reflects Community Initiatives’ values, communities served, and organizational context. 

• Strengthen communication, connection, and shared identity across the Oakland and Los Angeles offices and among hybrid/distributed teams. 

• Lead, develop, and mentor the HR team, fostering a high-performing, collaborative, service-oriented, transparent, and accountable function. 

• Assess the current HR team structure, capabilities, workload, and service model to determine what is needed to support scale, compliance, service quality, and future growth. 

• Build the team’s capacity to deliver consistent, high-quality support across employee relations, benefits, leaves, compliance, performance management, project employee services, and organizational development. 

• Model trust, transparency, sound judgment, discretion, high ethical standards, self-awareness, and continuous improvement.

The Vice President of People & Culture will demonstrate a deep commitment to Community Initiatives’ mission, values, and distinctive role as a dedicated fiscal sponsor providing best-in-class infrastructure for nonprofit leaders. The successful candidate will bring a strong appreciation for the complexity of supporting both an internal organizational staff and a large, diverse portfolio of fiscally sponsored projects, each with distinct needs, stakeholders, service expectations, and employment-related considerations. 

This leader will be a strategic and hands-on people executive with the operational discipline to build what does not yet exist. They will bring the ability to move from assessment to design to implementation, creating clear systems, processes, standards, documentation, governance, and accountability mechanisms that strengthen both the People & Culture function and the organization’s broader cross-functional execution model. They will be comfortable operating in ambiguity, right-sizing solutions in a resource-constrained environment, and helping an organization move from informal, inconsistent, or siloed practices to transparent, scalable, and service-oriented ways of working. 

The ideal candidate will have experience leading HR in a complex, mission-driven, multi-stakeholder environment and will understand the intersection of people strategy, compliance, risk, service delivery, systems, and organizational culture. They will bring credibility in employee relations, performance management, employment law, total rewards, HR operations, change management, and organizational development, as well as the judgment to know when to partner with Finance, Legal, Client Services, Operations, IT, external counsel, consultants, vendors, and the Board.

Equally important, the Vice President will be a culture builder and trust builder. Community Initiatives seeks a leader with high emotional intelligence, humility, confidence, strong ethics, discretion, humor, resilience, and the ability to create an environment where staff feel respected, heard, supported, and appropriately challenged. This leader must be able to support healing while also introducing accountability; listen deeply while making decisions; and build a People & Culture function that is accessible, modern, legally sound, and respected across the organization. 

• Minimum of 10 years of progressive Human Resources leadership experience, including executive-level responsibility for people strategy, HR operations, culture, employee relations, and organizational effectiveness. 

• Demonstrated ability to build or transform an HR function, including team structure, service model, SOPs, documentation, compliance practices, performance management, employee relations, systems, and metrics. 

• Experience designing scalable people practices and operating infrastructure in a complex, growing, multi-site, hybrid, or distributed organization. 

• Strong understanding of the full employee lifecycle, including talent acquisition, onboarding, learning and development, engagement, performance management, total rewards, retention, employee relations, and separation practices. 

• Demonstrated expertise in employment law, HR compliance, employee relations, investigations, leaves of absence, benefits, risk management, and sensitive personnel matters. 

• Experience establishing HR service expectations, escalation pathways, workflow visibility, operational metrics, and reporting mechanisms that improve transparency, accountability, and service quality. 

•  Ability to lead cross-functional operating infrastructure work, including SOPs, administrative workflow standards, documentation practices, governance, cross-functional escalation management, and continuous improvement of organizational handoffs. 

• Experience with PMO, portfolio governance, project intake, prioritization, dependency management, implementation oversight, and change management is strongly preferred. 

• Ability to coordinate cross-functional IT and systems work in partnership with technical vendors and functional system owners. 

• Experience managing vendor operations, service expectations, and contract lifecycle processes, with appropriate partnership with legal counsel for legal review and risk guidance. 

• Demonstrated ability to lead culture-building, trust-building, and organizational change efforts in environments that require transparency, healing, accountability, and renewed confidence in leadership. 

• Strong executive presence and communication skills, with the ability to build credibility with staff, senior leaders, the CEO, Board members, external partners, and project stakeholders. 

• High emotional intelligence, sound judgment, humility, discretion, ethical grounding, resilience, and the ability to engage constructively on sensitive culture, equity, performance, and employee relations matters. 

• Experience in nonprofit, philanthropic, fiscal sponsorship, public sector, professional services, or other complex mission-driven environments is strongly preferred. 

• Familiarity with California employment law and experience supporting employees across multiple states is preferred. 

• Relevant professional certifications such as PHR, SPHR, SHRM-CP, or SHRM-SCP are preferred; additional certifications related to compensation, benefits, risk, project management, change management, or organizational development are valued.

Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Public Administration, Sociology, Psychology, or a related field required. 

Master’s Degree, MBA or other relevant advanced degree preferred.

A competitive compensation package will be offered to the selected candidate. 

The base salary range for this role is $250,000 — $275,000, plus comprehensive benefits.