Program Manager, VGF

Note: The feature on Idealist is limited and can't specify states. This is a remote position, but employee must reside in New York or Florida. Please be sure to specify where you are located.

About iCouldBe

iCouldBe fosters an environment where our mentees have an unlimited capacity to learn, grow and thrive with supportive, dedicated mentors.

iCouldBe’s mission is to provide high school students with an online community of professional mentors, empowering teens to thrive in school, plan for future education and careers and achieve in life. We are a leading expert on virtual mentoring and since 2000 we have supported connections between mentors and over 27,500 high school students from low-income communities.

Mentees build professional relationships, learn critical networking skills and identify and mobilize new networks of adult support to reach academic and career goals. iCouldBe’s virtual mentoring platform, with advanced safety, security and privacy features, eliminates barriers for building relationships. Data science tools and visualizations provide real-time and clear insights to support mentees to achieve program outcomes. iCouldBe collaborates with schools, non-profit organizations and corporations to build partnerships that uniquely leverage expertise and infrastructure to build equitable support systems for mentees.

About the AmeriCorps Volunteer Generation Fund

The Volunteer Generation Fund (VGF) focuses on investments in volunteer management practices that increase both volunteer recruitment and retention. At a time of social need, when Americans of all ages are looking for ways to give back, we need to be ready to engage all those who answer the call to serve. VGF strengthens nonprofit organizations to recruit and retain volunteers to meet critical community needs.

NOTE: The AmeriCorps Volunteer Generation Fund is a three-year federally funded initiative, for which iCouldBe is required to reapply each year. We are in our third year. While we plan to apply for additional funding if a new round becomes available, funding beyond Year 3—which ends on May 7, 2026—is not guaranteed.

Position Overview

As the Program Manager you will utilize management plans to provide ongoing weekly support to teachers and mentors during the academic year. Specifically, you will oversee mentors serving students in U.S. schools, offering individualized support related to training, student engagement, troubleshooting, and technical needs.

You will support and manage 400-450 AmeriCorps VGF volunteer mentors, ensuring they receive the necessary training and support to fulfill their roles effectively. You will also ensure that all AmeriCorps VGF requirements are met and that volunteers feel welcomed, supported, and safe throughout their service.

The ideal candidate can work remotely and independently and in collaboration with iCouldBe leadership and colleagues. You have excellent organizational and time management skills and understand and respect deadlines. You are comfortable learning and working in an innovative and agile tech environment and can adapt and respond to new information and managing multiple priorities as needed.

You will grow professionally at iCouldBe if you are self-motivated and have a creative and innovative mindset. The Program Manager takes initiative, spotlights potential challenges, and leads and engages their team members in finding and implementing clear and achievable solutions to challenges. You care about, respect, and place great value on the voices of the mentees and support mentees’ abilities, intelligence, and autonomy.

Key Responsibilities

Primary duties and responsibilities may include but are not limited to the following:

• Develop deep understanding of iCouldBe’s existing virtual program including the front-end mentee and mentor portals’ curriculum and user experience and the back-end administrative portals’ data science tools and program management tools and reports.
• Manage a portfolio of 400-450 mentee-mentor matches and their teachers and administrators at approximately 9 schools.
• Manage the mentoring process from onboarding to closing, including mentor approval, training, teacher training and mentee registration, program launch, matching, monitoring, troubleshooting, celebrating participation, and providing year-end reports.
• Communicate and set clear program expectations and goals for mentees, mentors, teachers and other program administrators.
• Manage user participation using various program data tools and reports that track participation to celebrate, support or intervene as needed.
• Communicate weekly with teachers and mentors to support them in meeting program goals.
• Co-facilitate online trainings for teachers, mentees, and mentors as needed.
• Prepare presentations, schedule and lead mentor support calls.
• In collaboration with senior staff, develop high-quality virtual training modules for mentors.

Skills and Qualifications

There are innumerable ways to learn, grow and excel professionally. We respect this when we review applications and take a broad look at the experience of each applicant. We want to get to know you and the unique strengths you will bring to the work. This said, we are most interested in the qualifications below:

• Experience with and passion for serving youth and/or promoting mentorship.
• Entrepreneurial self-starter; capable of self-management in a complex environment with multiple stakeholders.
• Leadership experience, including at least four years managing projects to reach challenging objectives.
• Ability to operate within a defined system or model and can demonstrate appropriate problem solving skills and creativity.
• Strong project management skills and proven ability to manage and track multiple projects and to complete initiatives on time and on budget.
• Track record of servant leadership with a generosity of spirit that seeks to learn from and understand others in an effort to achieve excellence.
• Demonstrated ability to create an inclusive team culture by engaging team members from diverse backgrounds and with diverse points of view.
• The ability to generate and deploy creative ideas to build strategic and sustainable relationships.
• The ability to work on routine and weekly administrative tasks (e.g. reviewing communication filters and unlocking mentee activities) that help improve match engagement.
• Experience or strong interest in working for an EdTech organization training and supporting mentors to engage in online and virtual activities and conversations with their mentees.
• Excellent presentation, verbal and written communication skills that can be adapted based on audience.
• Employment is contingent upon the completion of a satisfactory fingerprinting and criminal background check as required by the grant.

Compensation & Benefits

The salary for this position is $62,400 annually. iCouldBe provides our employees with a comprehensive benefits package including 100% employer-paid medical, dental, vision, short-and long-term disability and life insurance. Additionally, employees earn three weeks of vacation, thirteen paid holidays and two paid floating days, ten sick days, and a bonus paid vacation week in late December.

How to apply

This position reports to the Associate Executive Director. If you believe this to be the right fit and are available to begin immediately, please respond with your cover letter and resume.

Location

This is a remote position, but employee must reside in New York or Florida.

Timeline and Hiring Process

While subject to change, candidates selected to advance will progress through a process that includes interviews with the staff and leadership. We are looking to hire a candidate to start the second week of August.

• --------------------------- EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER------------------------------

iCouldBe is an equal opportunity employer. We actively seek to build an organization that reflects the diversity of the population we serve. iCouldBe has a moral belief in the dignity, value and potential of every individual and a practical belief that a diverse, inclusive team will create the best outcomes for our members, partners and the community.

We welcome people of any race, color, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, religion, age, national origin, genetic information, disability, military status, familial status, political affiliation, or any other characteristic protected by law. We do not tolerate expressions of bigotry, oppression, intimidation, hatred, bullying, harassment or abuse, nor will we tolerate threats of harm to anyone.

As users of the iCouldBe website all staff are required to comply with the Code of Conduct & Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy; including actions that are required of the Employee to meet the requirements of AmeriCorps and their position.