Watertown Community Foundation Executive Director Jan Singer will be stepping down after leading the organization for five years, and the organization seeks help identifying her successor.
Singer agreed to stay on for five months as the Watertown Community Foundation finds its next Executive Director. Among her accomplishments during her time at the foundation she helped secure major multi-year grants to help the community during the COVID-19 pandemic, and establish the Community Resilience Fund.
The organization has hired a firm to help with the search and has put out a job description (see it by clicking here).
The description begins:
“Watertown Community Foundation (WCF) is seeking an executive director with a passion for
community engagement, strong management skills, and an entrepreneurial spirit. This position
represents a rare opportunity to work at the forefront of building and sustaining a vibrant,
close-knit community in Watertown, Massachusetts. The executive director is single-handedly
responsible for developing and directing the work of the foundation and coordinating with the
board of directors to advance its mission and vision.”
The WCF’s co-presidents sent out a letter saying that they seek help from the public as it tries to find the new executive director.
The Foundation sent out the following letter:
Dear Friends,
We’re writing with an important update about the Watertown Community Foundation and to ask your advice.
First, the update. Our Executive Director, Jan Singer, who has led WCF since 2018, has graciously given us the next five months to find her successor. Jan has driven WCF’s response to the pandemic, including establishment of our Community Resilience Fund that distributed over $100,000 to the community. She secured major multi-year state COVID response grants to assist with housing stability and emergency assistance and chaired a Task Force of city and non-profit leaders to coordinate Watertown’s pandemic response. Jan developed our first partnership with Watertown’s life sciences industry that created a school based STEM grant program and has become a leader in a new statewide organization of community foundations. And, if you noticed our new website or social media presence, that’s her doing as well. Jan has charted a path for WCF that recognizes the range of needs and assets in our community, for which we are all grateful.
Now, we need your advice. The next Executive Director needs to be someone who can build on this foundation as Watertown enters a period of dramatic development, with new residents and businesses, and the significant challenges of ensuring that all our residents – wherever they are from, whatever their language, race, religion, age, or income – may find a home in this community. The next Executive Director may well be someone you know (even you!), and we encourage you to reach out with suggestions.
The formal search announcement has launched. Our search process is being led by Nancy Jackson of EOS Transition Partners.
Thank you for your support of WCF and we look forward to your suggestions and networking assistance.
Sincerely,
Lauren Coughlin Unsworth & Darshna Varia
Co-Presidents, WCF