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, serious challenges persist. The COVID-19 pandemic
continues to pose 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, substance misuse, and public safety issues continue to
challenge the overall health and well-being of traditionally
underserved and marginalized communities.[1] 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
across the state. 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

1. Advocacy
2. Capacity Building

Advance Health and Well-being

1. Primary Care
2. Adult Recovery
3. Thriving Young People

Support Community Solutions

1. Community Solutions
2. Locally focused Work

Reimagine Systems

1. Food Access & Security
2. Affordable Housing
3. 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.

[1] Colorado Health
Institute, 2023 Colorado Health Access Survey (updated February 22,
2024), (https://www.coloradohealthinstitute.org/research/colorado-health-access-survey-2023);
Colorado Health Foundation 2023 Pulse poll (https://www.copulsepoll.org/results).