Request for Proposals: Executive Search Services for People’s Solar Energy Fund

Request for Proposals: Executive Search Services for People’s Solar Energy Fund

People’s Solar Energy Fund (PSEF) invites qualified executive search firms to submit proposals to support the recruitment and hiring of its next Executive Director. We’re especially interested in firms that have run successful searches for mission-driven organizations with a track record in climate justice, clean energy, community finance, loan funds, enterprise development, or community wealth building. 

This search comes at a pivotal moment as PSEF is in the middle of a leadership transition and rolling out a new strategic direction. We need a partner who can run a rigorous, equitable, values-aligned process, one that reflects our member-centered governance and capital strategies, and that recognizes we don’t see ourselves as a traditional nonprofit. Our next leader will need real enterprise instincts, not just nonprofit management experience. 

Organization Overview

People’s Solar Energy Fund is a member-organized nonprofit advancing a just transition through community-rooted clean energy, shared ownership, and non-extractive capital strategies. Our work sits at the intersection of climate justice, community development, democratic governance, and equitable energy investment, and our next Executive Director will be expected to lead both the day-to-day organizational management, fundraising, and bringing in new members and partners.

PSEF is currently focused on strengthening internal systems, advancing our 2026–2029 strategic plan, aligning capital products and fundraising around community energy models, and identifying the leadership needed to guide the organization through its next phase of growth and impact. The Board is searching for a leader who can navigate complexity, build trust across staff, members, governance bodies, and outside partners, align them around a shared direction, and lead the design of innovative capital solutions our members need to build community-owned power. 

Purpose of the RFP

PSEF seeks a search firm to partner with our Ad Hoc Executive Director Search Committee to design and manage a national search for our next Executive Director. The selected firm will help refine our search strategy, advise on candidate profile and market positioning, recruit and assess candidates, support evaluation process, and guide the Board through finalist selection and offer stages.

The ideal partner will bring strong executive search experience, a stakeholder engagement practice built on mutual trust and shared decision-making rather than checkbox compliance, and the cultural fluency needed to recruit a leader for an organization rooted in justice, shared power, community accountability, and practical enterprise development. We are especially interested in firms who understand how to assess candidates for both executive leadership capacity and alignment with movement-facing, member-informed organizational models, as well as experience with funds, lending programs, loan pools, community investment vehicles, nonprofit finance, or mission-driven capital deployment strategies.

Scope of Collaboration

The selected search firm will work in close partnership with PSEF’s Ad Hoc Executive Director Search Committee, which will provide direction to the search process, review materials, and bring recommendations to the full Board. The firm should propose a communication and decision-support approach that keeps the committee closely engaged throughout the search while using committee member time efficiently.

The firm will also engage PSEF staff for organizational context, culture, role clarity, and strategic implementation insight, and will coordinate with the Board as a whole at key milestones such as approval of the candidate profile, finalist interviews, and final hiring decision. The full Board holds final hiring authority, even though day-to-day search coordination will occur primarily through the Ad Hoc ED Search Committee.

Strategic Plan Context

It is our desire that the search is grounded in PSEF’s adopted 2026–2029 Strategic Plan, which centers on five strategic priorities: Organizational Excellence, Member Readiness, Investing in Members, Fundraising Infrastructure, and Movement Alignment/Synergy. The next Executive Director will be expected to lead implementation of this roadmap during a period of internal strengthening, strategic focus, and disciplined growth.

Proposals should explain how the firm will help us refine a candidate profile capable of implementing the Strategic Plan, including enterprise thinking, non-extractive capital deployment, fundraising growth, and stewardship of a member-led Commons. Proposals should also address how the firm will assess candidates’ ability to align capital products, member support, governance practices, and external positioning with the Strategic Plan’s direction and implementation milestones.

Scope of Work

Proposals should address the firm’s approach to providing the following services:

• Launch and planning support, including kickoff meetings with Board leadership and the search committee, clarification of roles, refinement of search timeline, and confirmation of decision-making process.
• Communications guidance related to candidate-facing materials, search launch sequencing, confidentiality practices, and efficient proposal review methods that respect committee time and capacity.
• Position development support, including review and refinement of the Executive Director job description, candidate profile, compensation framing, and recruitment messaging based on PSEF’s mission, strategic plan, leadership context, and capital/fund management needs.
• Search strategy and recruitment, including active outreach, network-based sourcing, and national recruitment of diverse, highly qualified candidates with relevant nonprofit, movement, enterprise, and finance-related leadership experience.
• PSEF may also identify specific networks, organizations, and individuals for the firm to include in its outreach. The selected firm will be expected to supplement these contacts through its own networks and original candidate research.
• Candidate screening and assessment, including interviews, semi-finalist evaluation, reference approaches, writing or work sample recommendations if applicable, and presentation of a well-vetted candidate pool.
• Assessment of fund and lending competencies, including the firm’s approach to evaluating candidates with experience in loan funds, revolving funds, community finance, capital deployment, underwriting oversight, financial institutions, or management of mission-aligned pools of capital.
• Assessment of strategic implementation competencies, including the ability to lead organizational excellence, member readiness, investment strategy, fundraising infrastructure, and movement alignment in line with PSEF’s Strategic Plan.
• Equity-informed process design, including practices that support fairness, mitigate bias, advance candidate diversity, and reflect PSEF’s justice-centered values throughout outreach, screening, and selection.
• Search committee and Board support, including meeting facilitation, interview planning, decision support, finalist coordination, and consultation through offer and acceptance.
• Transition and onboarding advice, including recommendations for successful onboarding and leadership transition planning once a finalist is selected.
  

Executive Director Role Context

The Executive Director role is a full-time, exempt position reporting to the Board of Directors, with remote U.S.-based work and regular travel for board meetings, member convenings, funder meetings, conferences, and annual in-person gatherings. The role requires a leader who can provide strategic direction, organizational management, leadership in designing innovative capital solutions, fundraising and external relationship leadership, team support, and strong partnership with the Board during a period of transition and implementation.

PSEF expects candidates to bring a combination of senior leadership experience, commitment to justice and democratic practice, ability to navigate nonprofit governance, and fluency in at least some of the following areas: clean energy, climate justice, community development finance, loan funds or loan pool management, member-based organizing, movement-aligned partnership building, financial institute enterprise thinking, and mission-driven capital strategy. The search firm’s proposal should explain how it would assess for these dimensions and how it would help position the opportunity to attract candidates who are both highly capable and mission-aligned.

Desired Qualifications for the Search Firm

We encourage proposals from firms that can demonstrate the following:

• Significant experience conducting Executive Director, CEO, or comparable senior leadership searches for mission-driven organizations.
• Experience in placing leaders who have experience managing funds, loan pools, community investment strategies, or other mission-driven financing structures.
• Experience in recruiting leaders able to implement multi-year strategic plans in organizations balancing governance, movement relationships, fundraising, and capital deployment.
• A strong track record of recruiting diverse candidate pools and supporting equitable, inclusive search processes.
• Experience in working effectively with a committee-led and Board-approved process and provide clear guidance to volunteer search committee members.
• Strong project management, communication, and candidate stewardship practices.
• Experience in providing a right-sized approach appropriate for PSEF’s scale, values, leadership context, and budget sensitivity, including transparent pricing or rate information.
• Familiarity with organizations working in social justice, climate, environmental sustainability, clean energy, philanthropy, community development, community finance, lending, loan funds, enterprise strategy, financial institutions, or movement ecosystems.

Proposal Requirements

Please include the following in the proposal:

1. Firm overview, including mission, areas of specialization, years in operation, and relevant experience below. No more than one page. 
   • Description of experience conducting executive searches for Executive Director, CEO, or similar senior leadership roles in mission-driven organizations.
   • Description of any experience relevant to climate justice, environmental organizations, clean energy, community development, philanthropy, enterprise development, community finance, loan funds, revolving funds, financial institutions, or movement organizations.
   • Description of the firm’s experience recruiting candidates with oversight of funds, lending programs, loan pools, underwriting, capital deployment, or other relevant financial management responsibilities.
   • Description of the firm’s experience recruiting candidates responsible for implementing strategic plans that involve organizational systems, fundraising growth, capital deployment, member support, and governance alignment.
2. Description of the networks, sectors, and candidate communities the firm anticipates engaging. Explain how the firm will identify and reach candidates beyond its existing database, established contacts, and traditionally recruited nonprofit leadership networks.
3. Proposed approach to the PSEF search, including key phases, methodology, stakeholder engagement, and how the firm would tailor its process to PSEF’s member-centered and enterprise-oriented context.
4. Proposed communication and engagement plan showing how the firm will work closely with the Ad Hoc ED Search Committee while also engaging staff and the full Board at the appropriate points.
5. Proposed timeline, including estimated duration for planning, recruitment, screening, finalist interviews, and offer support.
6. Proposed team, including who would lead the engagement and the roles of any additional staff.
7. Approach to diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and bias mitigation in executive search work.
8. Fee structure, including search fee, anticipated expenses, optional add-on costs, payment schedule, rate information, and any guarantee provisions if a placement is unsuccessful or ends early.
9. Description of deliverables, candidate reporting, communications practices, and expected cadence of updates to the search committee or Board.
10. At least three client references for comparable executive searches, preferably including clients whose selected candidates have been in the role for at least one year.

Questions for Responding Firms

PSEF asks each firm to respond specifically to the following questions:

1. During the past five years, how many Executive Director, CEO, or comparable senior leadership searches has the firm completed?
   1. Of those searches, how many involved organizations working in climate or environmental justice, clean energy, community development finance, lending or loan funds, cooperative governance, community wealth building, or member-led movements?
2. Has the firm recruited an executive responsible for overseeing loan funds, lending programs, underwriting, investment vehicles, or mission-aligned capital deployment? Yes / No
   1. If yes, list up to three comparable searches, including the position title, organization type, and year completed.

1. What percentage of the firm’s executive placements completed during the past five years remained in their positions for at least 12 months and 24 months? If exact information is unavailable, provide the best available data or an approximate range and explain how outcomes are tracked.
2. Recruitment reach: Does the firm conduct original candidate research and direct outreach beyond its existing database and established contacts? Yes / No

List up to eight networks, sectors, or candidate communities the firm anticipates engaging for PSEF’s search.

1. Candidate-pool development: For comparable searches, approximately how many candidates does the firm typically contact, present for initial consideration, recommend as semifinalists, and recommend as finalists?
2. Equity and diversity practices: Does the firm track the diversity of its candidate pools? Yes / No
3. Fees: Provide:

Total anticipated professional fee

Optional or additional costs

Payment schedule

Length of placement or replacement guarantee

Whether a replacement search would require an additional professional fee: Yes / No

1. Challenge: What is the most significant challenge the firm anticipates in recruiting PSEF’s next Executive Director and how would the firm address that challenge?

Anticipated Process and Timeline

Submission Instructions

Proposals must be submitted through PSEF’s application portal by Wednesday, August 26, 2026 using this link. 

Responding firms must complete: 

1. Complete all required questions in the application portal. 
2. Upload one PDF proposal addressing the Proposal Requirements. 
3. Upload any requested supporting materials. 
4. Identify the firm’s primary contact, 

Responses must follow any stated word limits. All required questions must be completed directly in the application portal, even when information also appears in the proposal.

Only complete submissions received by the deadline will be considered. Email submissions will not be accepted unless PSEF approves an alternative as an accessibility accommodation. Firms will receive an automated confirmation after submission.

For technical issues with the application portal, please contact ceyda@psef.network before the submission deadline.

PSEF may request clarification or invite selected firms to an interview or presentation with the Ad Hoc Executive Director Search Committee. PSEF reserves the right to modify the process, request additional information, negotiate the scope or cost, or decline to select a firm.

Selection Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on the following factors:

• Experience in enterprise-oriented strategy" alongside "Executive Search for mission-driven organizations
• Demonstrated success in executive search for mission-driven organizations with enterprise-oriented strategy experience.
• Alignment with PSEF’s mission, leadership context, organizational values, strategic plan, and finance-related leadership needs.
• Understanding of justice-centered, community-rooted, enterprise-oriented, and mission-driven capital environments.
• Quality and clarity of proposed search methodology.
• Strength of project team and client references.
• Commitment to equitable candidate recruitment and assessment.
• Overall cost, pricing transparency, and value.