CEF is a unique and exciting place to work—we value relationships and center leadership from people with lived experience with homelessness and poverty and Black leaders. This may not be conventional but it is equitable. Below, we’ve shared key elements of our organization’s structure and culture.

The Executive Director

CEF is led by an Executive Director. She facilitates collective visioning for organizational strategy, internal operations, and communications, and serves as a connector within the organization and with the broader community. The Executive Director reports to the Board of Directors, and is accountable to the whole organization and to our local communities.

Staff Teams

CEF’s programmatic and operational work is carried forward by staff teams. This collaborative structure creates connective hubs to steward operations and develop programs across both of our offices. These include:

• Member Services Leadership Team
• Resources & Financial Coaching Team
• Community & Advocacy Team
• Chapel Hill (“Crew”) & Durham (“Posse”) Office Teams

CEF’s staff team, in turn, supports over 50 volunteer leaders to drive the organization’s operations and build capacity across a wide range of areas such as Member support, volunteer recruitment, Advocate training, Latinx member services, housing and employment resources, and financial coaching—just to name a few!

Centering Lived Experience and Black Leaders

The CEF team is actively working to dismantle white supremacy, including in our leadership structure. CEF centers and uplifts the voices and ideas of people with lived experience with poverty and homelessness and Black leaders. We engage in active listening, building mutually-supportive relationships, and personal growth and learning in order to dismantle how whiteness shows up in our work and organization. Although we respect consensus-based decision-making, we understand that it can unintentionally center white voices. Instead, we actively strive to build supportive spaces where people can offer direct and honest feedback while recognizing who the decision-maker is.

CEF’s most precious resource is the compassionate and capable people who roll up their sleeves and work together to support our community in relational, creative, and practical ways. This includes our staff, Board, Advocates, Members, and supporters. Leadership at CEF is increasingly distributed across all of these groups in distinct ways, and we are working to foster additional leadership opportunities, especially for Members. 

As we grow, CEF is striving to grow our employee benefits to support the health and wellbeing of our employees. Current benefits for full-time employees include:

• 100% employer-paid health insurance, with optional employee-paid dental and vision plans 
• Supplemental insurance benefits paid for by CEF, including short-term and long-term disability insurance coverage
• Generous PTO and leave benefits, including:
  • 12 days of vacation leave
  • 12 days of holiday leave
  • 12 days of sick/wellness leave
  • 6 weeks paid parental leave
  • 4 weeks sabbatical leave after four years at CEF
• 1-to-1 match on retirement, up to 4% of salary, after 90 days of employment at CEF
• $50,000 Term Life Insurance, paid by employer
• Professional development stipend 
• Flexible, family-friendly work schedule, open to crafting work schedules outside of the traditional 9:00-5:00 workday.