hua foundation is seeking new directors to join our board!

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 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.

We’re a dedicated team at an exciting stage of growth for the organization. Over the past few years, our work has broadened across the Asian diaspora to lead initiatives such as the anti-racism + solidarities resource collection, to the Reorienting our Trama Program, the Language Access Project and the delivery of the Asian Canadian Community Organizing course in collaboration with UBC’s Asian Canadian Asian Migration (ACAM) Studies. 

The board provides strategic guidance to lead this work. Additionally, in the past year the board has focused on examining human resource processes for the expanding staff team, as well as leading the integration of BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) within the work of the organization. We 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 fighting 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 early summer. We want our board to be representative of our vision and evolved mission. Our goal is to continue to broaden our board’s representation of cultures and lived experiences across the Asian diaspora, including those whose identities intersect along systemically underrepresented geographies (i.e. Southeast, South, Central and/or West Asia); as well as religions, nationalities, class, cultural or ethnic origins, sex, age, dis/ability, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression. We also highly encourage applications from those who self-identify as ‘youth’. 

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 2-hour board meetings 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 (there is typically with a two-month hiatus over the summer, as well as a strategic planning retreat held once a year);
• 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;
• Lead and participate in key governance task(s) that occur outside of regular board meetings, such as strategic planning, retreat planning, individual consultation and advisory conversations with the executive director, board recruitment, organizational policy and structure development and refinement, etc.; 
• 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;
• Participate in team and individual professional development activities;
• Represent hua foundation and advocate for the work we do and what we want to achieve; and, 
• Support hua foundation fundraising activities, which could include sending donor emails, promoting fundraising events within your networks, and attending community events and fundraisers as a hua foundation representative.
  

Commitment

The board currently meets on a weekday evening (Pacific Standard Time) once a month. Currently, we are alternating between in-person and virtual meetings. In-person meetings will take place at 312 Main St, Vancouver BC, V6A 2T2. The time commitment is an average 4–6 hours/month. 

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

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;
• 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; 
• 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;
• Familiarity with Vancouver and BC contexts; and,
• Ability to meet in-person in Vancouver for meetings, retreats or events.

Ideal qualifications

We are looking for candidates that contribute 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 governance experience; 
• Experience working with racialized communities in a social change context;
• Strong fluency with contemporary public discussions about anti-oppression, race, racism and addressing inequity; and/or,
• Experience working in or with non-profit, charities, or other parts of civil society.

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 yourself, 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 Sunday, April 14th at 11:59PM.

If you have any questions or would prefer applying in a different format or approach, please reach out to board members: Joyce joyce@huafoundation.org and Crecien crecien@huafoundation.org.

Note on Confidentiality:

Your application and any personal information listed above will be collected in a form submission on hua foundation’s Google Workspace. Any information submitted through this form will be kept private and confidential, accessible only to the 2024 Board Recruitment Committee (consisting of the current hua foundation board of directors, executive director, and director of community capacity and strategic initiatives).