Founding Executive Director — San Francisco, California
Youth RISE Foundation, Inc.
Location: San Francisco, California
Position: Founding Executive Director
Organization: Youth RISE Foundation
Employment Type: Founding Leadership Opportunity
Build Something That Does Not Exist Yet.
Youth RISE Foundation is seeking an exceptional leader to become the Founding Executive Director for San Francisco, California.
This is not a traditional Executive Director position.
You will not inherit an established office, existing staff, local programs, or a decades-old reputation. Instead, you will have the opportunity to help build the Youth RISE presence in San Francisco from the ground up.
San Francisco will serve as Youth RISE Foundation's Innovation & Opportunity Hub—a place where bold ideas, community partnerships, education, workforce development, leadership, and opportunity come together to help young people build stronger futures.
We are not looking for someone to simply manage what already exists.
We are looking for someone willing to build it.
About Youth RISE Foundation
Youth RISE Foundation is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering young people through:
Resources
Inspiration
Service
Empowerment
Our mission is centered on expanding opportunity for young people and supporting pathways to education, leadership, career development, mentorship, community engagement, and long-term success.
As Youth RISE expands nationally, we are launching founding offices across seven major American cities.
Seven Cities. Seven Founding Leaders. One National Mission.
The Founding Executive Director for San Francisco will become one of the leaders responsible for writing the first chapter of Youth RISE in their community.
The Opportunity
The Founding Executive Director is the senior local executive responsible for establishing, launching, and leading the Youth RISE Foundation presence in San Francisco.
You will have meaningful autonomy to develop local strategy and build relationships while operating within the Foundation's national mission, policies, standards, financial controls, and organizational framework.
You will be expected to:
Understand the San Francisco community before designing solutions
Conduct a comprehensive community needs assessment
Identify gaps affecting young people and emerging adults
Build relationships with community leaders and organizations
Develop strategic partnerships
Identify universities and educational institutions for collaboration
Build a local funding and development pipeline
Scout potential office and program locations
Develop locally relevant programs
Recruit and help build the founding team
Establish volunteer and community networks
Build the Youth RISE brand and reputation locally
Launch programming that meets national standards
Lead local operations, partnerships, fundraising, and strategy
Produce measurable outcomes for young people
You will be building the foundation upon which future employees, volunteers, students, donors, mentors, partners, and community members will stand.
What You Will Build
Your work will move through six founding areas:
1. Discover
Before building, you will listen.
You will research:
Youth demographics and community needs
Educational institutions and universities
Existing youth-serving organizations
Service gaps and unmet needs
Workforce and career opportunities
Funding and philanthropy opportunities
Community organizations and trusted leaders
Potential university chapters and partnerships
Key Deliverable:
A credible San Francisco Community Needs Assessment and Local Strategic Plan.
2. Scout
You will help determine what a Youth RISE presence should look like in San Francisco.
This includes:
Identifying potential office locations
Exploring shared and partner spaces
Evaluating program and meeting facilities
Considering transportation and accessibility
Identifying university proximity and collaboration opportunities
Assessing operational needs and costs
We believe the goal is not to build the largest footprint.
The goal is to build the right footprint.
3. Build
You will build the local organization.
This includes:
Community relationships
Strategic partnerships
Volunteer recruitment
Staff recruitment
University relationships
Community visibility
Local systems
Programs designed around actual community needs
A sustainable annual operating plan
You will help establish the culture, credibility, relationships, and systems that future generations of Youth RISE leaders will inherit.
4. Fund
A mission requires resources.
The Founding Executive Director will work closely with Youth RISE national leadership and shared-services functions to help develop a sustainable local funding strategy.
This may include:
Foundation grants
Corporate partnerships
Sponsorships
Government opportunities
Individual donors
Major gifts
Community fundraising
In-kind partnerships
You will not be expected to build funding infrastructure alone.
However, you will be expected to lead the local effort and build meaningful relationships that support the long-term sustainability of the San Francisco office.
5. Operate
Once the office launches, you will be responsible for ensuring it functions effectively.
This includes leadership and accountability for:
Staff leadership
Program implementation
Community relationships
Budget management
Office operations
Risk management
Compliance
Performance reporting
Organizational culture
Strategic execution
A successful office should eventually be capable of operating through systems and leadership—not solely through one person.
6. Serve
Above everything else, this role exists to serve young people.
The Founding Executive Director should consistently ask:
"Does this help us create greater opportunity for the young people we serve?"
If the answer is no, we reconsider the decision.
This is not a role built around titles.
It is a role built around impact.
What Success Looks Like
Within the First 90 Days
You will be expected to work toward:
A written community needs assessment
A local strategic plan
A partnership pipeline
A funding pipeline
Identified priority partners
A preliminary office and infrastructure strategy
A clear launch plan
Within the First 6 Months
The San Francisco office should be progressing toward:
Operational readiness
Established partnerships
Approved programming
Initial funding
Community engagement
Launch preparation and/or program delivery
Within the First 9 Months
The office should be working toward:
A functioning local team
Active partnerships
Program delivery
Sustainable operating systems
National reporting and accountability
By the 12-Month Review
Success will be evaluated through areas including:
Community impact
Partnerships
Program effectiveness
Funding development
Team development
Organizational culture
Operations
Community reputation
Measurable outcomes for young people
Who We Are Looking For
We are looking for a builder.
Someone who can walk into a community, listen before speaking, identify opportunities, and bring people together around meaningful work.
You may come from:
Nonprofit leadership
Youth development
Higher education
Government
Community organizing
Workforce development
Philanthropy
Social services
Healthcare
Education
Public affairs
Business
Entrepreneurship
Community development
We are less interested in whether your résumé follows a traditional path than whether you can demonstrate:
Leadership
People have trusted you to lead difficult and meaningful work.
Judgment
You can make thoughtful decisions, even when information is incomplete.
Compassion
You treat people with dignity and respect.
Execution
You have actually built things—not simply talked about building them.
Integrity
You handle responsibility, relationships, resources, and mistakes with honesty.
Resilience
You understand that meaningful work is difficult, and you know how to continue moving forward.
Experience We Value
We welcome candidates with experience working alongside communities and populations that may include:
Young people experiencing homelessness
Foster and former foster youth
LGBTQIA+ youth and communities
Immigrant and newcomer communities
First-generation college students
Young people experiencing educational barriers
Young people experiencing economic instability
Justice-impacted individuals
Underserved communities
Communities historically excluded from opportunity
Youth RISE evaluates candidates based on their experience, qualifications, leadership capability, and ability to perform the role.
The Ideal Candidate Can Answer:
What have you built that still exists today?
How have you earned trust in a community?
When were you wrong about what a community needed, and what did you do next?
What meaningful partnership have you built from the ground up?
What funding relationship have you helped develop?
How have you helped change the trajectory of a young person or community?
How do you turn vision into execution?
How do you build something that can continue beyond you?
Reporting Structure
The Founding Executive Director is part of the Youth RISE Foundation national leadership structure.
The Founding Executive Director will work closely with and receive support from the national executive office, including functions responsible for:
Operations
Finance
Human Resources
Programs
Learning & Development
Public Affairs
Executive Leadership
The San Francisco office remains part of one national organization and operates within the Foundation's established governance, financial, programmatic, compliance, and organizational standards.
What Youth RISE Provides
Youth RISE Foundation provides the national framework, mission, vision, organizational standards, and infrastructure to support founding leaders.
You will have access to:
National executive leadership
Organizational guidance
Established policies and standards
Program frameworks
Human Resources infrastructure
Compliance and screening processes
Financial controls and support
Professional development
National shared services
Cross-city collaboration
A national network of founding leaders
You will not be expected to build alone.
But you will be expected to lead.
This Role Is for You If...
You see a problem and immediately begin thinking about how to solve it.
You believe young people deserve access to more opportunity.
You know how to build relationships across different communities and sectors.
You can speak with a university leader, corporate executive, community organizer, donor, and young person—and treat every person with the same dignity.
You understand that leadership is not about being the most important person in the room.
It is about making the room better because you were there.
You are comfortable with ambiguity.
You are not waiting for a perfect system before beginning meaningful work.
You want the opportunity to build something that may outlast your own tenure.
This Is Not a Traditional Executive Role
We want to be transparent.
A founding opportunity requires a different kind of leader.
This is not an established office with:
A large existing staff
A mature local donor base
Longstanding community relationships
Fully developed local programs
An established office infrastructure
You will be helping create those things.
That means there will be difficult days.
There will be unanswered emails.
There will be partnerships that do not work out.
There will be funding opportunities that do not materialize.
There will be problems nobody anticipated.
That is what founding means.
You are there to help solve problems that do not have answers yet.
Equal Opportunity
Youth RISE Foundation is committed to building an inclusive organization and considers qualified candidates based on relevant experience, demonstrated capability, and the requirements of the position.
The Foundation is committed to fair and equitable recruitment practices and does not require candidates to disclose personal history or membership in any community as a condition of consideration.
Build With Us.
One day, a young person may walk into the Youth RISE Foundation office in San Francisco looking for opportunity.
They may be looking for:
A mentor.
A career.
A college pathway.
A community.
A second chance.
Someone who believes in them.
Someone will have to build the place where they find it.
Could that someone be you?
Apply to Become the Founding Executive Director — San Francisco
Join Youth RISE Foundation as we build a new model for opportunity, leadership, and community impact.
San Francisco. Innovation. Opportunity. Impact.
Build with us.