Vice President of Community Investment & Impact

Colorado is home to a diverse population of nearly six million people who reside in vibrant urban and rural communities throughout the state. The economy is growing, and the state is world-renowned for its natural beauty and opportunities for outdoor recreation and adventure.

There are significant bright spots in the overall health and health care landscape in Colorado. The social safety net is strong and resilient, and while public insurance levels have dropped since the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, over 95% of Coloradans currently have some form of public or private health insurance coverage. Moreover, the current public policy environment to advance health, health care, and health equity is favorable.

Despite this, myriad challenges persist. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pos a threat to vulnerable populations, and significant residual inequities that emerged during the pandemic remain. Mental health and well-being concerns have increased, and social factors that influence health such as the cost of living, racial disparities, housing affordability, homelessness, food security, opioid use, and public safety issues continue to challenge the overall health and well-being of traditionally underserved and marginalized communities. Much work remains to be done.

The Colorado Health Foundation (CHF) is dedicated to improving health outcomes for Coloradans from all walks of life. As the largest foundation in the state of Colorado and the third largest health philanthropy in the country, CHF plays a key role in the development, evaluation, and dissemination of innovative and effective approaches to overcome these challenges. Under the leadership of CEO Karen McNeil-Miller, the Foundation’s strategy has evolved while remaining steadfast in its commitment to advancing health equity and racial justice.

The Vice President of Community Investments & Impact (VP, CII) role represents an exciting opportunity for an individual who has a passion for advancing health and well-being and a deep appreciation of the important role of philanthropy and of CHF in strengthening the organizations that are working to advance health equity in Colorado. CHF seeks an inspired and inspiring, skilled and experienced, values-driven leader to join the team at an important moment for Colorado, and for CHF.

The VP, CII is a key contributor to the executive leadership team of the Foundation and is responsible for the collaborative deployment and impact of grants and community investments, which totaled in excess of $100 million in 2023. The VP, CII will report to and work closely with the Chief Impact Officer, who oversees the development and execution of programmatic strategies at the Foundation related to grantmaking, impact investing, learning and evaluation and policy advocacy. The VP, CII will lead the Community Investment & Impact department, directly supervising three portfolio directors. The CII team is a 23-person staff comprised of portfolio directors, senior program officers, program officers, and program assistants.

ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW

HISTORY

Founded in 1995 as a joint venture of the nonprofit hospital system HealthONE and the for-profit Hospital Corporation of America, the organization officially rebranded as the Colorado Health Foundation (CHF) in 2006. The rebranding came with the adoption of a new vision to make Colorado the healthiest state in the nation, as well as a new strategy to organize their priorities into three community outcome areas: Health Care, Health Coverage, and Healthy Living.

2011 was a major inflection point at CHF, as the foundation sold its equity stake in HCA-HealthONE to HCA for $1.45 billion. With the sale, the Foundation’s assets grew to $2 billion and the board of directors established that CHF would continue to operate in perpetuity. The organization also used this moment to embrace systems change work beyond the grantmaking it had already been doing.

From 2011 to 2016, CHF continued to evolve and refine its grantmaking strategy as it shifted from being a public charity to a private foundation. This shift included the creation of Healthier Colorado, an independent 501(c)(4) meant to serve as the voice of Coloradans in policy debates pertinent to the health of the state’s residents.

In 2015, Karen McNeil-Miller assumed the role of President and CEO at CHF.  During her tenure, CHF has implemented major strategic changes to ensure that CHF can meet the current needs of the moment. The organization adopted a broader definition of health and program staff began implementing a new Community Engagement IMPACT Model to guide the Foundation’s work in communities. The organization now makes grants that align with 10 priority areas. Crucially, the organization committed itself to health equity as its North Star. It has since expanded on this by dedicating itself to racial justice as the key mechanism by which it seeks to achieve health equity. CHF relocated to its current location in uptown Denver in 2016.

MISSION & VALUES

The Colorado Health Foundation operates on the belief that health and well-being can be in reach for everyone. The mission of the organization is to improve the health of Coloradans by collaborating with organizations and communities across the state to break down the many systemic inequities that stand in the way of health, because when every Coloradan has the power to be healthy, our entire state is stronger. The organization envisions a future where all Coloradans can say: “We have all we need to live healthy lives.”

The Foundation’s work and expectations of its partners are rooted in three cornerstones:

• Everything is done with the intent of creating health equity.
• The Foundation serves Coloradans who have less power, privilege, and income, and prioritizes Coloradans of color, because they are most disproportionately impacted by systemic and historic barriers that stand in the way of health and well-being.
• The Foundation is informed by the community and the people it exists to serve.

PRIORITY AREAS

The organization’s four strategic focus areas correlate to 10 priority areas:

Champion Power Shifting

• Advocacy
• Capacity Building

Advance Health and Well-being

• Primary Care
• Adult Recovery
• Thriving Young People

Support Community Solutions

• Community Solutions
• Locally focused Work

Reimagine Systems

• Food Access & Security
• Affordable Housing
• Economic Opportunity

YOUR OPPORTUNITY FOR IMPACT

The VP, CII will play a key role in the following areas:

Foundation Leadership

As a member of the four-person executive team, the VP, CII will actively participate in the leadership of the organization. In this capacity, they will foster a culture of stewardship by advising the CHF board, leadership, and staff on opportunities to maximize impact through grantmaking and community engagement.

Department Management

The VP, CII will lead the 23-person Community Impact and Investment (CII) department and directly supervise three portfolio directors. They will ensure that the department’s people practices align with the approach of CHF as a whole.  They will co-create and model efforts to create a workplace that fosters equity, inclusion, and belonging, promote learning, and enable team members to do their best work.

The VP, CII will ensure that department operations, processes, and guidelines are consistent with organizational expectations. They will ensure that team members have the resources and tools necessary to meet job expectations and will oversee CII department budget development and ongoing management.

External Relations

The VP, CII will represent the Foundation’s mission, vision, values and priorities internally and externally with partners and in the community and will model professionalism and authenticity in every interaction. They are expected to embody the Foundation’s core values as they develop and manage an extensive and diverse network. The VP, CII will be an active relationship builder and will be expected to leverage their network to support organizational and community strategies to strengthen impact. They will also be expected to develop regular, ongoing feedback loops to learn from the experiences of others to deepen and broaden the work of the foundation.

Grantmaking, Monitoring, and Management

The VP, CII will lead the development of grantmaking priorities and oversee key impact initiatives across the organization. They will lead the review of portfolios, revising and recalibrating grantmaking strategies to incorporate key learnings from grant review, monitoring and evaluation, and other evidence-based sources. They will approve and/or recommend grants within designated thresholds. The VP, CII will develop and foster an internal culture that promotes inclusion and belonging and enables greater learning, reflection, and idea development to ensure stronger grantmaking practices and greater impact. They will work closely with leadership to ensure that efforts related to communications, evaluation, policy, and grantmaking are effective and mutually reinforcing.

Knowledge Development, Learning, and Opportunity Identification

The new VP, CII will lead the creation of systems, structures, and processes for sharing and leveraging knowledge within the team and across the organization to ensure alignment and increase impact. They will contribute learnings at the local, state, and national levels, and translate learnings into opportunities to deepen impact.

The new VP, CII will lead current strategies and explore emerging opportunities to advance the Foundation’s mission. As part of this process, they will identify and track trends among nonprofit grantee partners within the state of Colorado, and within the field of health, and utilize these trends to inform the organization’s grantmaking strategy.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING

While no one candidate will embody all the qualifications enumerated below, strong candidates will possess many of the following professional and personal abilities, attributes, and experiences:

Connection to the Mission

• Strong candidates must, first and foremost, be passionate about creating a future where all Coloradans can say: “We have all we need to live healthy lives.”
• Keen, well-developed awareness of systemic racism and commitment to racial equity as the key mechanism to achieve health equity. Ability to lead teams and organizations through the operationalization of equity, inclusion, and diversity into organizational programs, strategy, operations, and relationships.
• Deep understanding of the diverse communities with which CHF works. On-the-ground programmatic work within these communities and success building trust and advancing community-informed/driven work is a must.

Relationship Building and Communications

• Exceptional skills to navigate relationships internally and externally, and an authentic interest in listening to and learning from others. Ability to establish trust, engage partners and community, and act with intentionality, accountability, and humility.

• Ability to generate innovation, engagement, and empowerment by listening to staff and communities and reflecting their thinking in solutions and practices.

Internal Leadership and Management

• Significant experience in the design of operational systems and processes to support programmatic excellence, and significant experience setting clear and strategic operational visions and translating them into immediate and long-term action plans – particularly in the context of complex organizations with highly interdependent and collaborative teams.
• An agile, mindful, and effective people leader who attracts and retains great talent by building a positive, trusting, and inclusive team culture that inspires all to achieve excellence.
• A thoughtful internal leader who is capable of both deep self-reflection and inspiring others to self-reflect.

• Great performance manager with ability to coach, lead, be open to feedback, be trustworthy, and be a good advisor.

• Demonstrated ability to collaboratively establish and manage toward the progress of end goals while remaining adaptive to changing circumstances and competing priorities.

Strategy, Learning, and Grantmaking

• Capacity to prioritize and implement a broad strategic plan that engenders commitment from all key constituencies.
• Demonstrated experience in grantmaking across a range of interests and in ways that leverage philanthropy’s contribution with larger societal, governmental, or community objectives.

The Basics

• 12+ years’ progressive management and leadership experience in philanthropy and/or health with experience in the nonprofit or public sectors.
• 7+ years of experience leading a team in a supervisory role.
• Advanced business acumen.
• Seasoned public communicator.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office suite.
• Valid Driver’s License.
• Bachelor’s Degree in a discipline that aligns with the expectations of the position is preferred.

COMPENSATION, BENEFITS & WORK LOCATION

It is an exciting time to join the Foundation, with assets including a complex investment portfolio valued at approximately $2.7 billion and annual grantmaking in excess of $100 million. The hiring range for this position is $276,470 - $325,259. A robust benefits and wellness package includes a 401(k) match and generous paid leave.

This is a full-time position in Denver, Colorado except for required travel. The Foundation works on a hybrid schedule of three days in-office (required) and two days remote, with occasional in-person meetings on those days as well. Support for relocation is available as part of a comprehensive benefits package.

TO APPLY

More about The Colorado Health Foundation’s work to advance health equity and racial justice can be found here: https://coloradohealth.org/how-we-work

This search is being led by Allison Kupfer Poteet, Ellen LaPointe, and Andrés Marcuse-González of the national executive search firm NPAG. Candidates may submit their cover letter, outlining their interest and qualifications, along with their resume via NPAG’s website. For any questions about the process or to let us know of your accessibility needs, please email the team at [email protected]. Applications will be reviewed as they are received until the position is filled.

Colorado Health Foundation is an equal employment opportunity employer and is committed to maintaining a non-discriminatory work environment and does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.