Protect the mission
Provide oversight, guard charitable purpose, and participate in major organizational decisions.
Founding board opportunity · Venice, California
Help build the passage.
Civic Passage is recruiting four founding directors to help govern—and help build—a new kind of community-action institution.
4Founding directors sought
5–8Hours per month, first year
1Concrete workstream to own
0Predetermined interventions
01 · THE PROPOSITION
Service availability is not the same as service accessibility.
Programs can exist on paper while the passage to them fails in practice. People encounter changing hours, fragmented eligibility, referral-only pathways, lost documents, broken communication, and systems no single organization controls.
Civic Passage strengthens the relational infrastructure between people, organizations, and resources—then cultivates the local agency needed to sustain it.
CONNECT PEOPLE→BUILD COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURE→CULTIVATE COMMUNITY AGENCY
THE METHOD
GoodNeighbor Community Action Model™
A grassroots, modular framework that begins with identification and listening—not assumptions about what a community needs.
- 01Identify
Start with an underserved population.
- 02Map
Understand resources and pathways already present.
- 03Recruit
Activate volunteers from the community.
- 04Listen
Build relationships with people and providers.
- 05Interface
Design only the missing connective function.
- 06Refine
Learn, adapt, and develop local leaders.
02 · THE FIRST TEST
Venice is a question before it becomes a program.
The first pilot is mapping where adults experiencing unsheltered homelessness fall out of existing service pathways. Its current stage is discovery and listening—not direct-service launch.
31resource & system rows mapped
25direct, client-facing rows
18priority listening targets
03 · THE INVITATION
A working board for a founding-stage institution.
Civic Passage is seeking four additional directors to join the founder in building a five-person voting board. This is an unpaid volunteer governance role with meaningful startup involvement.
Directors will not inherit a finished organization. They will help establish its governance, standards, strategy, relationships, resources, and the discipline for deciding what should be built.
TIME5–8 hours / month
During the first year, including meetings, preparation, introductions, and follow-through.
ATTENDANCEMonthly meetings
Target at least 80% attendance, plus periodic strategy and working sessions.
OWNERSHIPOne workstream
Take responsibility for a concrete founding priority until broader infrastructure can absorb it.
FINANCIAL EXPECTATIONNo mandatory give/get
Directors help obtain resources through expertise, relationships, partnerships, and fundraising.
WHAT DIRECTORS WILL DO
Govern with judgment. Build with ownership.
Shape the strategy
Help decide what Civic Passage should—and should not—become as evidence develops.
Steward resources
Review budgets, controls, risk, and the responsible use of charitable resources.
Build relationships
Open credible pathways to community members, providers, volunteers, partners, funders, and advisors.
Own founding work
Carry one concrete startup workstream with the reliability expected of a working director.
Challenge assumptions
Use independent judgment—including disagreement with the founder—when the mission requires it.
THE FOUNDING FIVE
Complementary capability over prestige.
One seat carries continuity of the founding model. Four seats add the field knowledge, accountability, and institutional capacity needed to test it well.
Homelessness & human services
Frontline knowledge of navigation, homelessness systems, and preferably Venice or SPA 5.
Community & lived experience
Community-organizing and/or lived-experience knowledge with governance judgment and reliability.
Finance & operations
Budgeting, controls, nonprofit operations, systems thinking, and organizational discipline.
Development & partnerships
Fundraising, philanthropy, partnerships, relationship-building, and responsible growth.
MUTUAL FIT
Builder mentality, without founder deference.
Strong founding directors combine mission alignment, sound judgment, reliability, collaborative disagreement, community orientation, realistic availability, and independence.
Before starting a conversation, ask yourself:
THIS IS
- A real governance responsibility
- A chance to shape the institution itself
- An evidence-led discovery process
- Collaborative work with defined ownership
THIS IS NOT
- A ceremonial or résumé-only title
- Approval of a finished founder-designed plan
- A requirement to personally fund Civic Passage
- A promise of a predetermined Venice service
A NOTE FROM THE FOUNDER
“I believe that if there was an interface between these organizations and the people they serve there could be a more equitable access to aid.”
Matthew J. Salerno Founder · From the original GoodNeighbor Community Action Model
THE PROCESS
Begin with a conversation, not a commitment.
Initial conversations are deliberately exploratory. Both the candidate and Civic Passage should have enough information to make a thoughtful decision before any formal appointment.
- 01Explore
Examine the problem, methodology, Venice pilot, and your questions.
- 02Test mutual fit
Discuss availability, conflicts, contribution, and the work you could realistically own.
- 03Review governance
Consider formation documents, bylaws, policies, and final role expectations as completed.
- 04Formalize deliberately
Appointment occurs only through the appropriate organizational action.
FOUNDING BOARD OPPORTUNITY
What passage could you help build?
If the question matters to you—and you are prepared to govern, challenge, and build—start an exploratory conversation with Civic Passage at Board@civicpassage.org.
Email the founding board