Elisabeth Zeller – CEO @ Craft3
Our Herd Freed Hartz executive search team was honored to partner with Craft3 on a nationwide retained executive search to find their new CEO.
CRAFT3’S MISSION
Craft3 is a nonprofit community development organization that uses capital, relationships, and advocacy to build a thriving, just, and empowered Pacific Northwest. The organization invests in people, businesses, and communities, advancing a vision of shared prosperity across the region.
With more than $225 million in total assets, a staff of 84, and offices throughout Oregon and Washington, Craft3 pairs rigorous financial stewardship with an ambitious community development mission. It provides high-impact loans to businesses, homeowners, and nonprofits—especially those unable to access traditional financing. For more than 30 years, Craft3 has delivered financial services across the Pacific Northwest, investing nearly $893 million since its founding in 1994. This investment represents more than 2,000 commercial loans and nearly 10,000 consumer loans to homeowners.
CRAFT3’S STRATEGY
Although capital is Craft3’s primary tool for creating change, the organization operates as more than a lender. Craft3 builds relationships, connects unlikely partners, and elevates the stories of the people and communities it serves. It is recognized nationally for its innovative financial products and its ability to execute customized, high-touch lending solutions at scale. Craft3 focuses on three key challenges facing the Pacific Northwest—challenges that require systems-level change.
RURAL AND TRIBAL ECONOMIES
The region does not provide Tribal and rural communities with sufficient opportunities for economic growth and self-determination, and the broader Pacific Northwest suffers as a result. While forests, fisheries, and other natural resources once fueled significant economic activity, the decline of unsustainable natural resource extraction has left many rural economies struggling and often excluded from the prosperity seen in urban areas. Craft3 works to change this.
SYSTEMIC RACISM
The Pacific Northwest continues to be constrained by racial inequities rooted in a long history of racism and discriminatory practices. These inequities harm the entire region and limit its collective potential. Race continues to shape economic opportunity, life outcomes, and the conditions into which people are born. On average, Black, brown, and Indigenous communities have less wealth, lower educational attainment, shorter life expectancies, and lower rates of homeownership. Craft3 works to change this.
CLIMATE CRISIS
The region faces a growing climate crisis that disproportionately affects minority and low-income communities and threatens overall quality of life and economic growth. Droughts, heat waves, floods, and wildfires are already impacting the Pacific Northwest. These events hit vulnerable populations hardest, and these same communities often lack the resources needed to adapt or to benefit from emerging climate-related economic opportunities. Craft3 works to change this.
Portland Business Journal interview with Elisabeth Zeller as the new CEO at Craft3.
This retained executive search project was led by Karen Bertiger/Partner and Scott Rabinowitz/Partner.
Learn more about Herd Freed Hartz’s track record in:
Non Profit industry executive searches
CEO & Executive Director leadership searches