St Paul, Minnesota (Hybrid)
Springboard for the Arts (Springboard) seeks an experienced leader to serve as its next Executive Director. The Executive Director provides overall leadership and strategy for Springboard by articulating a shared vision and purpose for the organization, working with organizational leadership to create a collaborative and effective organizational culture, and leading the teams responsible for fundraising, external relations, programming, staffing, and operations. The Executive Director is a visible advocate for artists, and participates in local and national thought leadership through writing, speaking, and representing Springboard in local, state-wide, regional, and national conversations and working groups. The Executive Director reports to a 9-12 member Board of Directors, leads a 21-member hybrid staff based in offices in Saint Paul and Fergus Falls, MN, and manages the operating budget of over $5 million and more than $14 million in net assets.
Equity is foundational to Springboard’s work, whose priority communities include Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), LGBTQIA+ artists, artists with disabilities, and artists living in rural places and underinvested urban neighborhoods.
About the opportunity
Springboard is undertaking a planned leadership transition to strengthen its long-term sustainability and position the organization for its next stage of impact.
Over the past five years, Springboard’s operating budget has grown by almost 50% driven by major initiatives including piloting one of the longest-running Guaranteed Income programs in the U.S., scaling its Emergency Relief Fund through a statewide partnership with MN’s regional arts councils, transforming a used car dealership into its new Saint Paul offices and public space, and establishing the national Creative Change Coalition. After operating at this increased scale, the board and staff recognized the need to focus the organization and right-size operations for long-term health.
As part of this shift, Springboard’s Creative Change Coalition (CCC) is moving into a related but independent structure that the current Executive Director, Laura Zabel, will lead. This evolution enables both organizations’ work to thrive with greater focus, dedicated leadership, and operational flexibility, while keeping artists at the center of all decisions.
With the current Executive Director transitioning to leadership of the CCC, Springboard seeks a new Executive Director to fully lead its strategy, culture, operations, fundraising, and local partnerships and programming. This new position will report to the Springboard Board of Directors and be responsible for leading Springboard in the future.
About Springboard
Founded in 1991 as Resources and Counseling for the Arts, Springboard for the Arts is a nationally recognized artist-led community and economic development organization: by artists, for artists. Its mission is to support artists with the tools to make a living and a life, and to build just and equitable communities full of meaning, joy, and connection. From its dual offices in Saint Paul and Fergus Falls, Springboard delivers resources locally and nationally tailored to creative workers, and pilots bold ideas rooted in local contexts, assets, and needs.
Springboard’s guiding principles center on the belief that how the work is done is as important as what is done. Springboard collaborates with and within existing resources and systems, especially outside of the traditional arts sector, both because there is abundant potential in these relationships, and because systems will be improved by engaging artists. Springboard builds bridges and mechanisms to connect artists as partners in system change. The goal of Springboard’s work is not a product, but rather the relationships that are sparked and will grow through working together. Beyond Springboard’s own work, the organization helps artists and organizations collaborate with each other and others in their communities.
Springboard incorporates the expertise and experience of artists to create effective, responsive, and relevant programs and tools to support the interests and needs of artists and communities. Springboard uses the broadest definition of who an artist is, and builds its work through an intentional and creative process using collaboration, communication, iteration, and play. Springboard’s focus is on local artists in their own communities—an intentional strategy rooted in equity, anti-displacement, and repair of historic economic and cultural extraction.
Springboard’s programs are deeply practical, providing direct resources and supports for artists and creative workers’ lives and livelihoods, while also focusing on longer term system change to build power and improve conditions for our communities.
Springboard works nationally, regionally, and locally. In its two homes, Fergus Falls and Saint Paul, Springboard is a “doer.” In other places, Springboard focuses on strengthening and supporting local ecosystems by connecting people, convening networks, fostering collaboration, sharing tools and resources, and advocating for community-driven work.
The Springboard staff currently works on a hybrid schedule in an open office format with the requirement of three days in the office for most staff. The requirements of the position mean that the Executive Director is mainly an in-person position in the Saint Paul office location.
About the Executive Director’s responsibilities
The position’s job duties are summarized below:
Strategy and operations: The Executive Director leads the vision, strategic, programmatic, financial, and management operations of the organization, including regularly updating Springboard’s strategic framework and its broadly-owned guiding principles. The Executive Director works with the Operations and Finance Director to ensure that the operations of the organization meet the programmatic needs of the mission.
Programmatic leadership: In partnership and collaboration with program directors, the Executive Director identifies opportunities and needs for new programming, evaluates the relevance and impact of existing programs, and ensures that Springboard’s programs are aligned with its strategic framework, guiding principles, and the mission of the organization. The Executive Director prioritizes listening to local and community voices, responsiveness to current events affecting our communities, and building durable collaborations with other organizations and leaders, both in and outside of the arts community.
Financial management: The Executive Director ensures that financial strategy and resource allocation support programmatic goals, organizational values, and mission impact, working in close collaboration with the Operations & Finance Director on financial management and operational execution. Together, they oversee the organization’s financial health, including the operating budget, balance sheet, capital assets, and contractual commitments, ensuring the ethical, effective use of resources and the responsible attraction and stewardship of financial support.
Board relations and governance: The Executive Director serves as the primary interface between the Board and the organization, ensuring that directors receive accurate and timely information and tools to support informed decision-making, strategic planning, and organizational growth. Working closely with Board leadership, the Executive Director collaborates in recommending, achieving, and maintaining the ideal composition of the Board and its committees, and fosters a culture of engagement that encourages active participation from each board member.
Fundraising: The Executive Director builds on a track record of resource-building with creativity, equity, and an abundance mindset. Springboard’s diverse funding mix—anchored by strong foundation and public support—centers long-term, trust-based relationships. Working closely with the Advancement Director, the Executive Director plays a key role in sustaining and expanding these partnerships, engaging directly with funders, and helping to shape strategy for growing individual giving.
External relations: The Executive Director plays a primary role in representing Springboard to stakeholders including artists, community leaders, donors, foundations, the press, and others who support and engage with the organization. The Executive Director engages with local and national critiques of philanthropy and nonprofit structures, challenges these structures to be more human-centered, and is open and willing to implement new practices. The Executive Director provides intellectual leadership and insight in developing future direction and programs for the organization. They are responsible for the clear and innovative framing and articulation of Springboard’s mission that influences program design, implementation, and overall communications strategy.
People and culture: The Executive Director creates an organizational culture of equity, abundance, health, joy, and accountability, and actively fosters a collegial and collaborative environment internally. As the primary liaison to the board, the Executive Director builds and sustains an effective partnership with board members in service to Springboard’s mission. In collaboration with the Operations & Finance Director, who leads the organization’s people and culture functions, the Executive Director and Operations and Finance Director together ensure that Springboard attracts, supports, and retains a talented and diverse staff; that roles are clearly defined and appropriately resourced; and that teams are supported to work effectively and collaboratively in service of the organization’s programs and long-term growth and durability. The Executive Director serves as a thought partner and collaborator to the three Program Directors.
Relationship with affiliated entities: Springboard manages an active fiscal sponsorship program, serving as an umbrella for 150+ artist-led projects. Springboard also manages a number of re-granting initiatives that operate independently from Springboard’s daily operations and programming. Most recently, Springboard has formed an independent entity for the Creative Change Coalition which will be led independently by Springboard’s former Executive Director, Laura Zabel. The Coalition delivers national network, storytelling, and capacity-building programs, and leads specific independent national initiatives. Though these projects are led and managed outside of Springboard’s regular operations, Springboard’s Executive Director serves as Springboard’s key advisor to the leadership of these projects, and coordinates national positioning, funder-facing communications, and public narrative to ensure their alignment and clarity with Springboard’s core work and mission.
Qualifications sought
The Board of Directors seeks a candidate who is aligned with Springboard’s mission and values, and who has demonstrated vision and strategic leadership experience and abilities, including the following skillsets:
- Systems thinking and ecosystem-building work
- Innovative and entrepreneurial thinking in pursuit of an organization’s strategic vision
- Operational and financial management; fundraising and resource generation
- Relationship- and network-building
- Equity-centered culture-building
- Fostering an organization with a creative, collaborative, and strategic orientation
- Knowledge and appreciation for the capabilities, potential contributions, and mindsets of artists and those with creative practices
- Working for and with a board of directors
- Nimbleness and flexibility, particularly in service to response to community needs
Priority expertise
Minnesota lens: Strong relationships in Springboard’s immediate neighborhoods and communities and across Minnesota. Awareness of the issues and opportunities in these places; commitment to long-term relationship building with formal and informal leaders. Understanding the dynamics and importance of urban-rural solidarity in Minnesota and elsewhere.
Fundraising and communications: Springboard is financially healthy and has built successful long-term funding relationships while also attracting new individual and institutional donors. Springboard’s financial model is dependent on an Executive Director who is actively involved in fundraising, prospecting, and relationship-building across many sectors and types of donors.
Evidence of commitment to equity, inclusion, and access: Springboard’s work is rooted in addressing the recurring inequities that exist in the arts, the nonprofit sector, and broader economic systems.
Community development experience: Springboard’s Executive Director position is not a traditional role as leader of a cultural or arts organization. Experience and comfort in the fields of community development, economic security, local economies, and social justice are vital to the development of Springboard’s programs and relationships.
Engaged in creative practice: Alongside comfort with community development work, having a deep appreciation for and belief in artists is key to successful leadership of Springboard’s mission achievement and work. A practicing artist, broadly defined as anyone who has an intentional creative practice, is preferred.
Organizational care and feeding: Springboard is a growing and changing organization with a large staff of creative and innovative artists. The organization requires a leader who cares deeply about system design and implementation and values-aligned organizational structures, and who is committed to mentorship and support of its leaders.
Compensation and benefits
The salary range for this position is $175,000 to $195,000 plus excellent benefits, and an annual salary increase at the discretion of the Executive Committee of the Board.
The benefits package includes:
- 100% health insurance coverage for employee and 50% employer-paid for family members
- 100% dental insurance for employee
- 403(b) plan with 5% employer contribution match
- Generous paid time off, sick leave, vacation, sabbatical, semi-annual office closures, and holidays
- Flexible work schedule
- Creative, artist-led work environment
The position is in-person and based in Springboard’s Saint Paul office. The position requires some travel, including time working from Springboard’s Fergus Falls office (approximately four times per year) and occasional national travel for meetings, convenings, and relationship building. The role requires minimal to light physical effort, including sitting or standing in an office environment and using a computer.
The application process
Interested candidates may contact 8 Bridges Workshop directly by email to find a time to discuss the position. Inquiries will be handled in confidence. Scheduling a preliminary call is not required if candidates wish to start the application process immediately. Please email us at SpringboardSearch@8bridgesworkshop.com if you want to chat before applying.
When ready to apply, candidates are asked to submit their materials through the Springboard website portal. The application requirements include a cover letter and current resume. As noted above, candidates may submit materials when ready, with or without a preliminary call.
The selection process will include preliminary review by 8 Bridges followed by the Search Committee, and will include telephone or Zoom interviews; reference checking; and semi-finalist and finalist in-person interviews. The process will also include submission of writing and work samples, and, for the finalists, an opportunity to meet with staff at Springboard.
Please submit your application through the Springboard website portal no later than 5:00 p.m. Central Daylight Time on June 2, 2026
Equity is the Foundation for all our work
Springboard has adopted the following equity statement about its work:
“Springboard’s scope is to provide infrastructure, ecosystem and support to artists and communities across Minnesota, the Upper Midwest and the nation. Springboard is for everyone. We know that to be truly ‘for everyone’ means we need to address the recurring inequities that exist in the arts, nonprofit sector and broader economic systems that have prevented ‘everyone’ from equitable access and opportunities. We do this through this framework:
Across all our programs we start with our intention to increase accessibility and to prioritize communities that are under-resourced. As a baseline all our programs prioritize:
- People who are BIPOC and Native
- People who are LGBTQIA+
- People in rural places and underinvested urban neighborhoods
- People with disabilities
“We acknowledge that there are additional communities that experience systemic marginalization and extraction, including because of gender, religious belief, geography, and poverty. While these identities may not be defined in our prioritized groups, our goal is to always ask “Who benefits?,” “Who is being left out?” and “How can we make this program more accessible to more people?”
Thank you!
Thank you for your interest in the Executive Director position at Springboard for the Arts. If you need additional information please reach out to SpringboardSearch@8bridgesworkshop.com.
Helpful links
Springboard “About Us” (website)
