Executive Director, Vancouver
About Little Mountain Neighbourhood House Society
Little Mountain Neighbourhood House Society (“LMNHS,” the “Society”) is a community-rooted, non-profit organization that has been serving Vancouver’s Riley Park–Little Mountain neighbourhood for nearly half a century. LMNHS operates on the unceded, ancestral, and traditional Indigenous territories belonging to the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
What began in 1978 as a small storefront run by a handful of volunteers and three staff has grown into one of Vancouver’s most trusted and beloved neighbourhood houses. Today, LMNHS serves close to 5,000 individuals each year — newcomers, children and youth, families, and older adults — across a rich range of programs spanning child care, children and youth services, family resources, settlement, older adults, mental health, and Food Hub. With a budget of approximately $6 million, the Society is supported by a dedicated staff team of over a hundred people, a committed Board of Directors, and more than 300 volunteers who contribute over 10,000 hours of service annually.
Neighbourhood houses take a holistic approach — caring for the whole person, the whole family, and the whole community — offering the tools, knowledge, and connections that empower people to improve their own quality of life and share their gifts with others. Over its history, LMNHS has been a quiet but influential incubator, originating programs that have gone on to be adopted city-wide, provincially, and federally. The Society leads the Vancouver Neighbourhood House Settlement Consortium of eight houses and plays a central role in the 40-plus-member Midtown Service Providers Network, and it enjoys a strong reputation with government funders, community partners, and fellow neighbourhood houses built over decades.
Our Vision
To connect, engage, and empower community members to create a vibrant, inclusive, and caring neighbourhood.
Our Mission
To develop and facilitate social, educational, cultural, and recreational programs and initiatives that strengthen neighbourhood life for a diverse group of community members by sharing our community core values — diversity, responsiveness, integrity, engagement, accessibility, caring, excellence, and empowerment.
To learn more, please visit LMNHS’s website.
The Opportunity
After a remarkable tenure of nearly three decades, LMNHS’s long-serving Executive Director is retiring, and the Society is seeking its next leader to guide the organization into an exciting new chapter. To support a smooth handover, the outgoing Executive Director will remain closely involved through a structured transition and onboarding period, co-created with the incoming leader, to support them in the first months of their tenure.
This is a rare opportunity to take the helm of a financially stable, deeply respected, and warmly relational organization at a genuinely transformational moment in its history.
In September 2026, LMNHS will move into a purpose-built new home at 157 East 36th Avenue — two floors of a vibrant, six-storey community building that pairs neighbourhood house services with 48 affordable housing units above. The new facility will dramatically expand the Society’s capacity, with 89 licensed child care spaces, a fully licensed community kitchen, program spaces for settlement, older adults, children and youth, family resource, childminding, food distribution, mental health support, and rental spaces for the community. For the first time, child care and the rest of the organization will share one roof, creating new possibilities for connection, collaboration, and community-building for years to come.
The incoming Executive Director will lead LMNHS through this milestone transition while honouring the culture, relationships, and low-barrier, everyone-is-welcome philosophy that make the Society special. Working alongside an experienced and committed six-member senior leadership team and an engaged Board, the new leader will have the opportunity to shape a shared vision for the future, deepen community and Indigenous partnerships, strengthen the Society’s revenue base and operational foundations, and invest in a talented team — all while building on a legacy of resilience, care, and impact.
The new Executive Director will help advance the following priorities:
Set the vision for the next chapter. Create the space and lead the generative, strategic thinking needed to define where LMNHS is headed over the coming decade, in partnership with the Board, staff, and community.
Activate the new home. Continue the transition into the new facility, ensuring programs, staff, and community members feel welcomed, settled, and connected in the new space.
Strengthen financial sustainability and funder relationships. Develop a proactive, diversified revenue strategy — including fund development, earned income, and space rentals — that positions the Society for long-term stability and growth, and strengthen relationships across funders and levels of government.
Invest in the team and its infrastructure. As the organization’s senior people leader, support professional growth and role clarity across the team, and continue building the systems, policies, and tools that match the organization’s scale and standards for service.
Deepen community Sustain LMNHS’s convening role in the sector and build new, values-aligned partnerships,
Deepen decolonizing practices and strengthen reconciliation with Indigenous communities. Build on established and emerging decolonizing practices and Indigenous relationships.
Key Responsibilities
Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Executive Director provides overall strategic, operational, financial, and community leadership for the Society. Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:
Leadership
Fostering an organizational climate that influences the success and sustainability of the Society’s operations and its role in the community.
Engaging with staff, external stakeholders, and the Board in a collaborative manner to accomplish the Society’s objectives.
Identifying and implementing changes to the organizational structure and the level and capacity of staff, financial, physical, and digital resources to meet the current and future needs of the Society.
Program Management
Planning, developing, managing, and evaluating programs and services that reflect the policies and priorities approved by the Board.
Deploying the effective use of human, financial, physical, and digital resources, and managing an annual operating and capital budget.
Analyzing current and potential programs to determine their outcomes, risks, opportunities, and fit within the Society’s portfolio of activities.
Financial Management
Overseeing and being accountable for the financial stability of the Society, and providing proactive, effective management of its grant funding mechanisms.
Developing and maintaining sound financial practices and internal controls, and preparing an annual budget for Board review and approval.
Engaging with the Board in financial planning for future and strategic purposes, including fundraising as required.
Ensuring adequate funding is available over the short and medium term to permit the Society to carry out its objectives.
Human Resources Management
Overseeing all aspects of the Society’s employment relationships with staff and its engagement with volunteers.
Investing in appropriate and effective training and support frameworks so staff have the capacity to contribute successfully to the Society’s operations.
Identifying and managing talent to ensure succession planning for both key staff and the ED role, and providing effective conflict management.
Fostering a healthy organizational culture that encourages teamwork and collaboration.
Regulatory and Legal Compliance
Overseeing and being accountable for compliance with the regulatory standards and legal frameworks that impact the Society.
Maintaining compliance with contractual obligations to grant funders; standards for worker and client safety; employment standards legislation and collective bargaining agreements; and privacy legislation.
Ensuring the requirements to maintain the Society’s registered charity status and its obligations as a not-for-profit are met.
Board Relations and Governance
Maintaining an effective dialogue with the Board to support the governance and collaborative oversight needs of the Society.
Providing timely, relevant information and documentation in a usable format that assists the Board in policy reviews and decision-making.
Working closely with the Board to help recruit, train, and sustain a strong and balanced set of directors.
Being proactive in the development and presentation of strategic initiatives to the Board.
Strategic Planning
Working in concert with the Board to develop or refine future objectives for the role of the Society in the community, the nature of its operations, and the shape of the organization.
Defining specific goals and outcomes for the delivery of programs and for the management practices and organizational needs of the Society.
Conducting scans, surveys, and research on emerging issues, including government policies, that impact the Society’s operations and objectives.
Consulting with internal and external stakeholders, the local community, and the Board to identify the changing needs and conditions of the constituencies the Society serves.
Preferred Qualities & Experience
LMNHS welcomes candidates from a range of backgrounds and will prioritize those who demonstrate most of the following:
Progressive senior leadership experience in the non-profit or community-based sector — ideally within a neighbourhood house or a comparably complex, mission-driven organization. Candidates with relevant transferable experience are also encouraged to apply.
Strategic and visionary perspective: setting a clear vision for where LMNHS is headed over the next five to ten years and leading the strategic conversations that get the organization there.
Hands-on people and HR leadership. With no HR Director in place, the Executive Director serves as the organization’s senior people leader (with some fractional support) — directly accountable for employee relations and related policies, team development, and workplace culture.
Strong financial and fund-development acumen: the ability to read and manage budgets and be a genuine thought partner to the Director of Finance, alongside a track record of diversifying revenue through grants, earned income, philanthropy, and partnerships.
Fluency and experience working with boards — LMNHS has an engaged, working Board, and the Executive Director plays an active role in supporting it, partnering closely with the Board President and committee chairs, and leading governance and strategic-planning processes directly. The ideal candidate is energized by this kind of close board partnership and comfortable being hands-on with it.
A background in social work, human services, or a related field is an asset — someone who understands the practice and values that underpin this work, not only its management.
A warm, humble, and compassionate leadership style paired with a visible, accessible presence — a leader who listens deeply, honours the organization's history, stays connected to frontline programs and staff, and builds trust before driving change.
Proven relationship-building skills across government, funders, community partners, and diverse community members, with credibility across political lines.
The steadiness and resilience to lead through change and address difficult conversations directly, constructively, and with care.
A strong leadership generalist who leverages and develops the strengths of an experienced director team rather than creating dependency.
A demonstrated commitment to equity, diversity, inclusion, cultural humility, and reconciliation.
Lived experience of, or a genuine connection to, the communities LMNHS serves is considered a strong asset.
Compensation & Search Process
This Executive Director position is a senior strategic leadership role, with meaningful potential to shape the future of a cherished community organization at a pivotal moment in its history.
LMNHS offers a salary budgeted between $125,000 and $140,000, depending on experience, in addition to a benefits package and pension plan. This is a full-time role based in Vancouver, and the incoming Executive Director will move with the organization into its new home at 157 East 36th Avenue in the Riley Park–Little Mountain neighbourhood.
The search process may include conventional longlist, shortlist, and committee interview stages. Finalists will be asked to provide comprehensive recent references and to complete a background check. We expect to process our first review of applications by October 5, 2026.
Candidates with relevant lived experience or who are representative of a historically marginalized group are encouraged to apply and to self-identify in their cover letter. Please consider your lived experience as an asset in your application. We encourage candidates who require any accommodations to contact us directly with related questions, which can be addressed in confidence as appropriate.
LMNHS is committed to conducting this search in a manner consistent with the values of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. The Society is committed to building a workplace that embraces diversity and values the unique perspectives and experiences of individuals from all backgrounds, including but not limited to people of colour, individuals of Indigenous descent, those with lived immigrant experience, members of the LGBTQ2SIA+ community, individuals with disabilities, and those from other historically marginalized groups.
To apply, please forward your resume and cover letter to info@mosaicsearch.ca.
You are also welcome to email Dave Namkung (dave@mosaicsearch.ca) or Alana Briggs (alana@mosaicsearch.ca) with any related questions.
