Part-Time Executive Director

Position Overview:

Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden connects the community to nature through a diverse and beautiful collection of historical gardens. The Executive Director is the public face of the Garden for donors and members, partner organizations, visitors, officials, board members and the community at large. The position facilitates the Highline Botanical Garden Foundation’s strategic vision for the Garden and leads decisions to drive its growth.

Who we are:

This position supports the growth and preservation of the Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden, a public garden that grows on 11 acres in North SeaTac Park, SeaTac, WA. The Garden honors the horticultural legacy of longtime Burien resident, Elda Behm and of the Seike family, who operated a nursery with an outstanding Japanese garden in Des Moines. It also embraces other notable local horticultural efforts and groups, through the Bill and Carole Hicks Rhododendron and Azalea Collection, the Lins Peony Garden, and through partnerships with local associations, such as the King County Iris Society, the Puget Sound Daylily Society, the Seattle Rose Society, the Species Fuchsia Society, and the Puget Sound Fuchsia Society. The Garden is a community asset that welcomes all visitors and provides a refuge for appreciation of nature’s beauty and of the ordinary local folks who did rather extraordinary things with plants. Some of the ways the community engages with the garden include, but are not limited to, quinceañeras, wedding and graduation photo ops, picnics, weddings, tours, gardening workshops, Music in the Garden, exercise classes, and simply exploring. The garden was created and is managed by the Foundation in coordination with, and with financial support from, the City of SeaTac and the Port of Seattle.

The Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit, has a working Board, currently 8 members. The Executive Director reports to the Board President and works closely with the Board.

Compensation: $29/hr approximately 30 hrs/week.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Executive Director will focus on the following tasks:

Board/governance

• Recruit and onboard new board members that reflect the diversity of the Highline Community and include at least some residents of the City of SeaTac. The two-year goal is 4 new board members.
• Serve as an ex officio board member, attend Board meetings, provide monthly progress reports, maintain strong communications with Board members, and support the work of the Board’s committees
• Develop the Agenda for, and facilitate, the Board’s annual retreat.
• Present the proposed annual budget and fundraising plan at the annual retreat.
• Assist the Board in developing policies and updates to the By-laws that may from time to time be needed.

Communications

• Serve as a primary spokesperson for the Garden. Represent the Garden at the City of SeaTac’s Hotel Motel Lodging Tax Committee, Chamber of Commerce, and the Seattle Southside Regional Tourist Authority and other relevant opportunities to amplify awareness of the Garden.
• Manage telephone, electronic, and written correspondence including thank you notes, annual letters, invitations and event notices, and responses to visitor concerns.
• In coordination with the Foundation’s Board President, maintain regular communication with the City’s point of contact for the Garden and ensure we comply with the Foundation’s MOU with the City.
• Oversee the development and posting of website content. (With Board members and webmaster)
• Maintain and grow the community’s awareness of the garden through public events, social media, newsletters and other outreach (With the Board, the Events Coordinator, and the Events Committee)
• Plan the annual meeting of the Foundation, facilitate the event, and develop and present the annual report to the members. (With Events Committee)

Development

• Develop and implement a plan to diversify and expand the Foundation’s funding. The plan will include an annual budget for maintenance and growth of the Garden, as well as funding for a full time Executive Director, Event and Volunteer/Tour coordinators, and a head gardener.
• Work with the Grant Writer to identify funding needs and potential grant sources and follow through with those sources to secure the actual funds.
• Update and curate the Foundation’s Little Green Light database.
• Raise the profile of the Garden in the community to increase visitor count, paid memberships, and volunteers. (With Events Committee)
• Assist with event planning and implementation for annual plant sale, ice cream social, and other events. (With Events Committee and Event and Volunteer coordinators)

Finance

• Assist Board President and Treasurer in developing the annual budget and monitoring expenditures.

Operations

• Work with the Board and the City to update the masterplan for the Garden.
• Organize, manage, and maintain the Foundation’s Google drive, which is essentially our library of documents and correspondence.
• Work with Gardener, any garden interns, and City of SeaTac to understand and support the maintenance needs of the garden.
• Work with the Signage Committee to develop protocols for plant labeling within the Garden and develop an online inventory and map of the Garden and its plants.
• Maintain/update the Foundation’s project tracker. (With all the project leads)
• Support the board in planning garden additions or renovations, such as installation of new beds, signage updates, and structures.
• Responsibilities may be subject to change. As the garden evolves, so do its needs.

NECESSARY KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

1. Excellent interpersonal relationship skills, including oral and written communication, listening, and ability to work with others.
2. Demonstrated ability to raise money for non-profits. This includes knowledge of funding sources, grant writing and grant compliance, funding strategies, and donor management.
3. Ability to advocate for the Garden and the Foundation and knowledge of strategies to raise their profiles in the community.
4. Demonstrated ability to develop and manage annual budgets.
5. Highly skilled in prioritizing, organizing and planning.
6. Several years’ experience as a leader of a team or head of at least a small organization.
7. Experience and comfort with working with people of diverse ages and from diverse communities.

BONUS KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

Course work in horticulture or landscape architecture, experience working in public gardens, passion for plants and gardening, any experience planting, maintaining, and thoroughly enjoying a garden.

GOALS FOR THE FUTURE

We’d like to preserve and have available on our website the recollections of those who founded the Foundation or were involved with the creation of the Garden and its various components. We would like the ED to lead this project, either hands on producing video interviews, or securing the funding and expertise to implement this project. Explore Seattle Southside has expressed interest in this project and appears to be a promising partner.

Another big area of growth for us is inventorying our plants and making information about them and their locations available on our website. As mentioned above, we have a Signage Committee that embraces this challenge, but it is likely to be the ED who does the bulk of the research and analysis to lead the way to successful implementation.

Our biggest goal, and most challenging to achieve, is the siting, design, construction, and management of a learning/visitor center on our site. We would look to the ED to be our wayfinder on this project, doing the research to find resources to help us at each step and managing the process. While we hope to make significant progress in the next year or two on filmed interviews and the inventory of our collection, the visitor/learning center is a longer term project with an estimated window of up to 7 years.