hua foundation is a non-profit that empowers youth from the Asian diaspora to fully participate in advancing social change through exploring our racialized identities and building resilience in our communities. We’re a small (but growing!), feisty, and dedicated team at an exciting stage of growth for the organization.

We envision a world where young people are empowered and equipped to imagine, design and fully participate in their futures. Our mission is to strengthen capacity among Asian diasporic youth, in solidarity with other communities, to challenge, change and create systems for a more equitable and just future.

Over the past few years, our work has broadened beyond the East Asian community to working with contractors, collaborators, and community organizations across the Asian diaspora – from our Race & Equity portfolio and deliverables like the anti-racism + solidarities resource collection, to the C-19 Response Coalition, to our work with the City of Vancouver’s Single-Use Item Reduction Strategy multilingual stakeholder engagement. We have and continue to learn how to work across Asian communities in ways that support self-determination and centre community needs, and more importantly, we are committed to reorienting how we relate to each other, including pushing back against the homogenization of our cultures and experiences.

We’re seeking a few new volunteer members for our hua foundation board of directors to join us starting Spring 2022 (April/May). We want our board to be representative of our vision and evolved mission. In efforts to broaden our board’s representation of cultures and lived experiences across the Asian diaspora, individuals with Southeast, South, Central and/or West Asian identities are encouraged to apply. We also encourage you to apply if you identify as a youth (under 26).

If you would like to learn more or have any questions, please reach out to Miranda, board co-chairs, at miranda@huafoundation.org.

Board director duties

We are a governance-type board with occasional requirements to contribute operationally. As a member of our volunteer board of directors, you will:

• Participate in monthly board meetings with hua foundation’s executive director to monitor the performance of hua foundation, participate in visioning and strategic planning exercises, approve the workplan and budget, and monitor related financial and operational performance;
• Help steer hua foundation’s strategic direction, balancing our vision for racial equity with organizational sustainability in a non-profit context;
• Help guide the executive director in advancing hua foundation’s role and work in the community, with partners, and with youth;
• Participate in the evaluation of the executive director’s performance, management, and organizational activities;
• Contribute your strengths, knowledge and expertise to the board and organizational governance, strategic direction, and emerging issues and opportunities; and
• Represent hua foundation and advocate for the work we do and what we want to achieve.
  

Commitment

The hua foundation board currently meets in the evening (Pacific Standard Time) during the first week of the month (but this is subject to change and adjust to multiple schedules). All meetings are conducted virtually at this time. When public health restrictions (eventually, hopefully) lift, there may be in-person meetings and socials held in Vancouver. 

Board directors are appointed for two-year terms, with the option to renew terms and serve a maximum of eight consecutive years.

Time commitment is an average 4–6 hours/month:

• You will be expected to prepare for and attend ten 2-hour board meetings each year, typically with a two-month hiatus over the summer, as well as one half- to full-day strategic planning retreat held once a year.
• You may be asked to lead or participate in key governance task(s) that occur outside of regular board meetings, such as the executive director’s performance evaluation, strategic planning, retreat planning, individual consultation and advisory conversations with the executive director, board recruitment, organizational policy and structure development and refinement, stakeholder engagement, etc. 
• You will be expected to support hua foundation fundraising activities, which could include sending donor emails, promoting fundraising events within your networks, and attending occasional (virtual and eventual in-person) community events and fundraisers, as a hua foundation representative.
• Candidates should be familiar with Vancouver and BC contexts and be willing to meet in-person in Vancouver for retreats or events (health restrictions permitting).

Required qualifications

The candidate must meet the following criteria to demonstrate values alignment with our organization:

• A commitment to hua foundation’s mission and vision;
• Lived experience of racialization, racial discrimination, and bi-/tri-cultural identity formation;
• Nuanced understanding of the Asian diasporic experience and community issues;
• A commitment of time and capacity (note that this is a volunteer position, and board directors are appointed for two years);
• Strong critical thinking ability and courageousness in asking tough questions;
• Emotional maturity;
• Commitment to represent hua foundation’s values and approaches;
• A passion for collaborating with a close-knit group of community minded individuals; and
• A commitment to social- and systems-change, particularly from an anti-oppressive and justice-based lens and how it plays out in and among racialized communities that experience discrimination and marginalization.

Ideal qualifications

We are looking for candidates that tick some of the following experience and expertise below.
Note: You don’t need to meet all the criteria to be considered.

• Professional specialty in one of the following areas: systems change, working with youth, social justice, management, legal, strategy, evaluation, nonprofit governance, fundraising. We are particularly interested in capacity in communications, media relations, finance and accounting, human resources, and charity board and governance experience; 
• Experience working with racialized communities in a social change context;
• Strong fluency with contemporary public discussions and debates about anti-oppression, race, racism, and addressing inequity; and/or
• Experience working in or with non-profit organizations, charities, or governments.

To apply, please prepare the following for submission via our intake form.

• Name, pronouns
• Email address
• Phone number
• Your social media handles (optional)
• A 500-word (max) expression of interest, in .PDF format. Tell us about you, how you align with our values (listed under required qualifications), how your background could contribute to the board (listed under ideal qualifications), and your interests in joining the hua foundation board of directors. 
• An up-to-date resume or CV in .PDF format.

The application closes Tuesday, February 8th at 11:59PM.

Note on Confidentiality:

Your application and any personal information listed above will be collected in a form submission on the cloud platform Airtable. Any information submitted through this form will be kept private and confidential, accessible only to the 2022 Board Recruitment Committee (consisting of the current hua foundation board of directors, executive director, and manager of operations).

If you would prefer applying in a different format or approach, please reach out to Miranda, board co-chair, at miranda@huafoundation.org.