Executive Director - Raikes Foundation
About the Raikes Foundation
At the Raikes Foundation, we believe the future of our country depends on young people—and that lasting change happens when they are at the center of shaping it. When youth have what they need, they don’t just succeed—they lead the way toward a stronger future for all of us.
For more than 15 years, we have worked with young people and community leaders to remove barriers and expand opportunity. Our work began with youth homelessness and education, and now also includes strengthening democracy—because a strong democracy ensures youth have the voice and power to influence the systems that shape their lives.
Today, our work centers on three areas:
• Housing Stability for Youth: Ensuring every young person has a safe, stable place to call home.
• Education: Building a fair and future ready public education system that enables all young people to thrive.
• Resourcing Democracy: Expanding youth voice and power in the democratic processes that impact their futures.
Our work is guided by three principles:
• Ask who is least well served to identify and address barriers to opportunity.
• Think and act with a systems mindset to drive lasting change.
• Build trusted partnerships that align around shared outcomes.
As a spend-down foundation, we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to act boldly and with urgency. We are committed to using our resources and influence to create lasting change, while planning for the impact to continue well beyond our capital’s sunset in 2040. When young people thrive, our country thrives.
Position Summary
Serving as a strategic thought partner to Tricia and Jeff Raikes, the Executive Director (ED) refines and advances their philanthropic vision in partnership with expert staff and external stakeholders. The ED translates the Trustees’ vision into adaptive strategy and execution, while surfacing new ideas and opportunities. They also ensure clarity of decision-making authority and governance protocols across trustees, senior leadership, and staff, fostering alignment and transparency.
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Reports to: Tricia and Jeff Raikes, Trustees.
Leadership responsibility: Partner with four direct reports – Senior Director of Youth Serving Systems; Senior Director of Resourcing Democracy; Senior Director, Communications; and the Chief of Staff – and support the Foundation’s overall staff of fifteen.
Location: Seattle, Washington, with 25-40% travel.
Responsibilities
Foundation Strategy
• Through a strong and trusted relationship with the Trustees, they translate their valuesand vision into bolds
scenarios/options, strategies, capital allocation and financial modeling, priorities, and operational plans that achieve
annual as well as medium- and long-term impact that will outlive the Foundation.
• Enable robust and rigorous dialogue, as a thought partner to the Trustees and programleaders, to:
◦ Ensure strategies are adaptive, reflective, and achieve durable systems change across the communities the Foundation serves, and the change the Trustees seek through their giving.
◦ Advise colleagues who are subject-matter experts, partners, and key stakeholders as they navigate a dynamic, disruptive landscape and seek to advance innovative, field- and systems-level solutions.
◦ Ensure that strategies consistently integrate youth and lived experience as cocreators in shaping solutions.
• Deliver regular, well-organized update materials and agendas that support transparency and progress. In addition, the ED ensures proactive and relational communication with Trustees beyond formal meetings, fostering continuous alignment and trust.
Organizational Leadership
• Monitor the programmatic and operational activities of the Foundation; identify areas for cross-learning, communication,
and collaboration between programs in coordination with the Senior Leadership Team.
• Ensure annual plans and project workplans align, with appropriate resource levels.
• Support the Chief of Staff and colleagues in the North Forty office (executive office, HR, finance) to invest in efficient operational infrastructure and strengthen the organization, applying continuous improvement and adaptive learning practices that draw on technology, private sector, and philanthropic best practices.
• Establish and communicate clear role boundaries and decision rights that enable distributed leadership while maintaining trustee alignment.
• Partner with trustees on long-term design of the organization as we drive for sustained impact beyond sunset.
Team Development and Culture
• Attract, nurture, coach and motivate a highly capable, talented, and leader-full team. The ED organizes the senior leadership team as true strategic partners and peers in strategy, integrating their expertise into decision-making and strengthening cross-team alignment.
• The ED acts as a coach and multiplier, ensuring senior directors have the space, authority, and support to lead fully in their domains.
• Model and foster a collaborative, inclusive culture grounded in equity, learning, and
curiosity.
External Partnerships
• Represent the Foundation in tandem with, or as surrogate for, the Trustees. The ED is also expected to be a visible leader in the philanthropic and social impact sectors, engaging in influential conversations and representing the Foundation at national and sector-leading forums.
• Inspire and motivate others to engage in the mission and values of the Raikes Foundation; identify partnerships and opportunities for collaboration.
• Catalyze both public and private co-investment and field resourcing through partnership development and aligning others’ resources with Foundation strategies.
• Partner closely with the Communications team to develop strategies and approaches that extend and amplify the Foundation's profile, influence, and impact.
Leader Profile
Experience, Skills and Knowledge
The Executive Director will bring significant C-level or organizational leadership experience, with a compelling track record across as many of the following as possible:
• Recruiting, developing, managing, retaining and inspiring a high-performing team of individual contributors, subject-matter experts and managers.
• Brings a coaching orientation, empowering leaders to grow in their roles and amplifying their expertise.
• Welcoming strong senior staff engagement, and effectively empowering all staff, as both a culture carrier and someone who earns trust; operates at an appropriate pace
and anticipates issues.
• Demonstrates a collaborative spirit by working closely with leaders across matrixed environments, fostering effective partnerships and shared purpose throughout the Foundation and North Forty office.
• Strategically supporting colleagues and leaders (partners, founders, donors, clients) to think expansively and stretch their own reach and influence.
• Driving timely decisions and accountability across departments and teams. They resolve issues without prolonged delays and navigate conflict constructively, balancing inclusivity with forward momentum.
• Synthesizing complex information and developing strategic options as well as financial
projections and models that support investment decisions.
• Tracking and reporting programmatic and financial results, as well as supporting strong
governance and operational excellence.
• Engaging with and supporting strategic communications and narrative work.
If coming from the fields of effective philanthropy or social change, the Executive Director will ideally, and additionally, bring experience in:
• Achieving measurable impact using philanthropic tools to affect change through
policy/advocacy, influencing a field and co-investors, and/or innovative grantmaking.
• Framing and designing solutions that have turned into systems-change initiatives.
Leadership Attributes:
• A deep personal and professional commitment to equity with a sophisticated understanding of the systemic, structural, and historical challenges that impact youth, especially youth of color and LGBTQ youth.
• Embodies the Foundation’s values, nurtures a healthy organizational culture, is accessible/present, and builds trust internally and externally. They maintain consistent presence with Trustees, SLT, and staff—both in-person and virtually—and avoid bottlenecks by empowering staff and facilitating smooth information flow.
• Balances being a relational leader with the ability to challenge thinking, offer original perspectives, and lead from the front when needed.
• A calm, collaborative, and pragmatic approach that balances creativity with grounded judgment; engenders trust and conveys passion, commitment, and a strong values orientation. Brings a high degree of emotional intelligence and a leadership style driven by curiosity, active learning/rigorous inquiry, maturity, gravitas, and judgment.
• Exceptional multi-channel communication skills (in-person, written, virtual), with the ability to synthesize and translate complex concepts and information into clear, engaging, and concise materials, presentations, options, and recommendations.
Compensation and Benefits: Compensation is commensurate with experience and includes an annual performance review.
The position is full-time, with a salary range of $325,000-375,000. Typically, new staff are hired between the minimum and mid-point salary of each range, which we refer to as our hiring range. Exceptions to this are made for specific roles or candidates.
In addition, we offer fully paid medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and their children. We also offer paid vacations, holidays, sick leave, retirement contributions, paid life insurance, and short-and long-term disability.
Hybrid Work Policy: Seattle staff are expected to work in person two to three days per week, with flexibility for travel and remote work as appropriate. Additionally, there are 2-3 scheduled “home days” per month, where staff convene in the Seattle office for organizational learning, cross-team collaboration, and Trustee engagement. This hybrid approach may evolve in consultation with, and agreement of, the Trustees.
We are committed to racial equity, LGBTQ inclusion, and supporting leaders with lived experience and expertise.
To apply: Applicants are asked to promptly send their resume and a tailored cover letter to RaikesFoundation@viewcrestadvisors.com. The final deadline to apply is October 24, 2025.
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