Join Our Board of Trustees
Become a pivotal part of our mission to empower communities through cooperative development. Your leadership can drive sustainable change and foster economic resilience across the Northeast.
Currently, we are looking for people who:
- Have the desire and capacity to serve on a board
- Can bring skills and excitement to their board contributions
- Can meet remotely and/or in-person 3-4 times a year
- Believe in economic justice for all
- Have participated in or are interested in cooperative business models
Skills we’re looking for this recruitment season are:
- Legal
- Financial (specifically lending and finance management)
- Nonprofit Board Governance
About the Board Position
Position Title: Board of Trustees Member (multiple openings)
Service Area: Northeast US (New York State and the six New England states)
Your unique skills, expertise, connections, and background are valuable, so before you count yourself out…DON’T! More specific details are below in the “About the Board Position” section; please read them carefully. We strongly encourage Black, Latinx, and Indigenous people to apply.
About Cooperative Fund of the Northeast (CFNE)
The Cooperative Fund of the Northeast (CFNE) is a community development loan fund that bridges socially responsible investors and cooperatives, community oriented non-profits, and worker-owned businesses in New England and New York. Since 1975 CFNE has supported consumer, small producer, housing, and worker-owned co-ops by providing over $100 million in flexible financing, as well as customized technical assistance. This has created or preserved thousands of jobs and affordable housing units, without losing any investor funds.
We work for economic, social, and racial justice by advancing community based, cooperative, and democratically owned or managed enterprises with a preference to assisting cooperatives in low-income communities by:
- Providing financial products at reasonable rates
- Developing business skills
- Offering an investment opportunity that promotes socially conscious enterprise
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Board Member
About the Team
We are a remote team (15 staff members, 9 board members) of cooperative members and advocates located across the Northeast who are invested in developing our communities through thriving cooperative enterprises. We have committed as a leadership team to investing more resources into racial equity, including reexamining our policies, developing new products, and implementing an internal racial equity-focused learning program. We make room for intentional conversations, respect work/life balance, and encourage individual growth. Now, as a growing team, we are presented with many opportunities for programmatic and impact growth. We are excited to reach deeper into communities across the northeast to advance learning, living and justice through cooperatives.
Key Responsibilities for Board Members
Major Board Responsibilities
CFNE is governed by a Board of Trustees who help to ensure mission fulfillment and the long-term financial health of the organization. The Board of Trustees has the responsibility to:
- Determine the mission, purpose, and strategic goals of CFNE and ensure that they are carried out
- Select, evaluate the performance of, and determine compensation for the Executive Director
- Provide fiduciary oversight
- Support the ED and staff in carrying out the mission and strategic goals of CFNE
- Assess and improve our own performance as the governing body
Other Board Responsibilities
In addition, the bylaws and other organizational documents grant the board the authority and responsibility to:
- Determine the location of the fund office
- Determine the number of trustees
- Select trustees, fill vacancies, remove trustees
- Determine offices, elect officers
- Meet at least 3 X a year
- Use consensus decision making
- Designate committees, define their responsibilities, appoint committee chairs and committee members
- Disclose conflicts of interest
- Determine whether to pay or settle any claims or liabilities
- Authorize the ED to purchase Directors and Officers insurance
- Approve/amend bylaws
- Appoint trustees of the Cooperative Capital Fund
Individual Trustee Responsibilities
Individual trustees (“board members”) of the Cooperative Fund of the Northeast have these additional responsibilities and expectations:
- Maintain high standards of ethical conduct and professional behavior and uphold CFNE values and operating agreements
- Act in the best interest of fund
- Disclose conflicts. Avoid actual and perceived conflicts of interest
- Maintain confidentiality when required
- Consider the interests of all stakeholders
- Use sound judgment
- Follow the code of conduct policy
- Prepare for and attend board meetings
- Contribute time and skills by serving on one or more committees
- Contribute leadership by having a willingness to serve as a board officer and/or committee chair
- Promote the fund
- Keep informed
- Recognize lack of individual authority
Join Us in Making a Difference
Ready to contribute your skills and passion to a cause that matters? Apply now to join the board of the Cooperative Fund of the Northeast and help us drive positive change in our communities.