About the role

Teapot Gardens has been organizing community around greenspace in South Los Angeles for six years, and after six long years of community organizing we've won the funding to build out a dream. Public Paradise is a SWANA-inspired tea garden at 4719 W. Washington Blvd in Mid City Heights, a neighborhood with almost no walkable greenspace, being built by hand using ancient earth-building techniques by the volunteers, artists, and neighbors who show up every weekend to make it real. It runs on reciprocity. It's intergenerational. It opens to the public in spring 2027 and belongs to the community that built it.

The Director of Operations is the backbone of this organization. You run the business, build the systems, hold the team, manage cash flow, and make day-to-day decisions on your own. You are a leader who finds clarity and purpose in the complexity of building a cultural institution from the ground up. This role is funded through September 2027 by the City of Los Angeles' LA REPAIR grant, with a planned transition to earned revenue that you are directly responsible for ensuring meets its targets.

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We're transitioning to a horizontal organization in 2028. One of your most important early responsibilities is designing how we operate: our membership model, our reciprocity system, how volunteers earn access, how the space serves the community without gatekeeping it.

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💪🏼 What You Will Own

Grant compliance and reporting: Monthly financial reports and quarterly progress reports to the City of Los Angeles. If we miss the marks, the funding stops. This is priority one.
Financial management: Budget tracking, receipt management, monthly reconciliation in Mercury. Automate the clerical. Keep the financials clean and the board informed.
Business model development: Year 2 projections are assumptions. Your job is to turn them into a real model through market research, pricing calibration, and on-the-ground observation.
People ops: Lead hiring searches, manage the garden intern and USC work-study pipeline, onboard every staff member, and build a feedback culture where everyone knows their expectations.
Volunteer and community infrastructure: Own Garden Sundaze recruitment and organization. Be present at every event. Build toward 40 people per biweekly gathering. Build committees that let the community carry the work.
Membership and space rentals: Build the Zeffy membership system, manage the rental pipeline, and develop the reciprocity model that connects volunteer hours to space access.
Fundraising and grants: Prospect foundations, build relationships, submit applications, reach out to sponsors and in-kind donors. The org's survival past September 2027 depends on what you raise.
Board reports and governance: Monthly board updates tied to data, metrics, and business outlook. Attend almost every board meeting. Help build a stronger board.
Horizontal systems: Design how this org operates: membership tiers, reciprocity policy, space protocols, governance structures.