Climate House (CH) is a soon-to-launch cultural institution meets think tank, using culture, research, and creative practice to develop new approaches to climate action. CH is preparing to launch its institutional platform alongside two inaugural programs: a Los Angeles watershed-focused project and an international/European project.
The founder/executive director is currently carrying much of the executive production, development, fundraising, communications, partnership-building, and organizational-development work, with limited project support. CH needs a small group of senior volunteer collaborators who can meaningfully share this work during the launch phase.
CH has identified four preliminary roles: an Executive Launch Producer to support institutional launch and coordination across programs; an Executive Los Angeles Producer for the first LA program and next-phase LA development; an Executive International/European Producer for the first international project and future work, ideally EU-based; and a Prospecting/Advancement Collaborator supporting fundraising preparation, relationship development, prospecting, and select external communications.
These are working concepts, not finalized roles. The central need is to define the role design: what each person owns, their core responsibilities, decision rights, realistic volunteer hours, boundaries, and how they interface with the founder/executive director and one another.
This project focuses on that foundation. Recruitment channels, vetting tools, onboarding, project-management systems, and compensation structures are not part of this engagement and will be addressed in a follow-up project once the roles are defined against real organizational needs.
Create a practical Climate House Volunteer Launch-Team Role Framework for three to four senior volunteer collaborators. The final deliverable should be concise, decision-ready, and usable by a founder-led organization without large HR infrastructure.
It should include:
* A recommended structure for the four proposed roles, including whether roles should be recruited simultaneously, sequenced, combined, narrowed, retitled, or deferred.
* Clear role ownership, responsibilities, interfaces, and coordination relationships across institutional launch, Los Angeles programming, international/European programming, advancement, partnerships, and communications.
* Right-sized role charters for each role, including:
* Role purpose and contribution to the launch
* Essential responsibilities for the first phase
* Stretch responsibilities that should not be assumed of volunteers
* Tangible expected outputs
* Recommended weekly volunteer-hours range and initial engagement period
* Needed experience, capabilities, networks, and working style
* Core boundaries and out-of-scope work
* A simple decision-rights and founder-interface framework that distinguishes:
* Decisions retained by the founder/executive director
* Decisions that may be delegated
* Decisions requiring consultation or joint approval
* Cross-role coordination and escalation points
* Appropriate parameters for external representation, partnership discussions, fundraising conversations, commitments, and public communications
* A realistic volunteer-engagement model, including recommended prioritization, review points, and indicators that a responsibility should remain with the founder, be deferred, or require paid/contracted capacity.
* Lightweight reusable templates: a one-page role charter, responsibility/decision-rights matrix, founder-volunteer working agreement, and role-prioritization checklist.
