Director of Community Service Partnerships

Director of Community Service Partnerships

ABOUT US

Interfaith America is a national nonprofit organization based in Chicago. We believe that religious diversity is a foundational American strength and we are building a nation that achieves that promise for the common good. Our mission is to inspire, equip, and connect organizations and leaders to unlock the potential of America’s religious diversity. We leverage our expertise in interfaith leadership in different sectors in American life, activating a public discourse on pluralism with a focus on higher education, workplaces, and civic partners. IA activates leaders and institutions in these sectors with the tools and resources they need to positively engage religious diversity for the common good.

At Interfaith America, we are ever-adapting and changing. We look for people who set audacious goals and love that one workday may not be like the next. We have a strong commitment to pluralism and building bridges across deep differences. Our programs help people build skills to bridge deep ideological divides. Our work is about staying in relationship with one another and contributing to the common good even when we might disagree on fundamental things. We seek to attract and retain a team of staff comprised of a wide variety of views and backgrounds we need to achieve our vision. 

ABOUT THIS POSITION

At Interfaith America (IA), we collaborate with internal and external partners to execute projects that achieve our mission. This role provides collaborative leadership on the direction, implementation, evaluation, and growth of the Team Up Project, a national partnership integrating bridgebuilding and service with leading national partners. Director of Community Service Partnerships will lead a highly collaborative set of teams and partners to leverage the stories, harvest the learnings, and continue to grow this major initiative in its second year and beyond. As needed, this role will lead or contribute to additional time-bound projects as determined by organizational needs and cultural realities, including liaising with a range of national leaders, institutions and networks (e.g., AmeriCorps and other service initiatives) in bridgebuilding and service with an eye to strategic opportunities and partnership.

ABOUT YOU

You are passionate about interfaith cooperation and IA’s commitment that religious diversity is a foundational American strength. You have evidenced skill in engaging ideologically, religiously, and racially diverse individuals and communities in the work of increasing respect for religious and nonreligious identities, mutual relationships, and common action for the common good. You maintain a big picture understanding of the complexity of building a healthy diverse democracy alongside the care and curiosity required for collaborating with particular institutions and leaders contributing to a healthy society. You have experience working with complex coalitions, building new partnerships, and you can steer a project team with confidence while responding to timely opportunities. You hold yourself and your work to a high bar of excellence and take personal responsibility for achieving your goals.

Responsibilities:

Team Up Project Leadership

Strategy Development & Coalition Management:

• Set strategic priorities and guide collaborative processes to build and grow Team Up infrastructure, including leader networking strategies, resource development and growth, curricular tool development, local granting approaches, and coalition management
• Drive execution of Team Up growth areas, including expanding impact of the existing program within partner networks, conceptualizing and creating new tools to support growth, adding new networks to the partnership, activating high-quality storytelling, coordinating leaders across partners and ensuring strong communication across partners
• Ensure high-quality Team Up Project partner collaboration processes and communications to drive time-sensitive and longer-term priorities
• Design and lead regular strategic planning meetings with Team Up Project core partners
• Guide and refine evolutions to the Team Up governance processes
• Supervise team to maintain system of information and document sharing with Team Up Project partners, communicate consistently and clearly
• Accountable for building consensus and securing participation among Team Up partners in future programmatic activities

Impact & Evaluation

• Work with IA Directors and Team Up Evaluation Committee to refine and implement evaluation plan, prepare presentations for external audiences
• Work with IA evaluation team to adapt and administer surveys to participants, analyze, and report out findings
• Manage external consultants supporting Team Up evaluation plan
• Synthesize findings and incorporate learnings into future strategies
• Communicate short-term and long-term Team Up impact to a range of internal and external audiences

Project Implementation

• Supervise program manager
• Oversee learning strategy development for Team Up communities of practice
• Manage strategy for and implementation of any new program elements
• Facilitate training for new partners, new cohorts, affiliate sites, conferences
• As needed, identify, cultivate, and add new partners to the Team Up coalition

Bridgebuilding & Service Storytelling

• Work with Strategic Communications team to develop communication plan for Team Up Project and other stories of bridgebuilding & service
• Supervise team to cultivate stories in reporting from local and state reporters, IA magazine, high quality videos of new and ongoing Team Up Projects and other stories of bridgebuilding & service, travel for story capture
• Liaise across IA and Team Up partner comms teams to incubate and implement shared communications priorities

External Network Stewardship

• Cultivate relationships with new external strategic partners. Speak, write, and present on behalf of IA to peer-level partners (e.g., Directors at partner associations, peers at external third-party orgs, foundation program officers). 
• Incubate new partnerships in the bridging & service space, with attention to new opportunities to advance IA organizational goals within the national service ecosystem
• Understand funding and support fundraising for bridgebuilding and service efforts. Deliver grant requirements, complete reporting on time, liaise with the Advancement Team if deliverables are exceptional or off track, and relate directly to relevant funders on select projects. 

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree 
• Nine or more years of professional experience in a related field, including interfaith work, consulting, democracy and bridgebuilding, education, etc. 
• Proven project management and organizational skills in managing collaborative projects with multiple stakeholders
• High level of religious literacy and fluency in diversity, pluralism, and inclusion.
• Authorization to work in the United States

Preferred Qualifications (not required):

• Advanced degree in Religious Studies, Civic Education, Nonprofit Management, or related disciplines
• Demonstrated ability to hold others accountable while also being adaptable
• Experience in in-person and online training, facilitation, consulting, education, assessment and/or related skill sets 
• Experience with networking and building relationships or coalitions 

Supervisor: Senior Director of Democracy Initiatives

Direct Report(s): Program Manager

Leadership level: Director

Travel: 20% of the time traveling on behalf of IA

Compensation: $100,000 - $110,000, plus excellent benefits. Please read more about our benefits here.

Location: Chicago preferred, will accept applications from IL, DC, MA, MD, MI, NC, OH, VA, and WI

Other Requirements:

The Director of Community Service Partnerships position requires the ability, with or without reasonable accommodation, to: maintain regular attendance; travel across this US; work cooperatively with others; adhere to Interfaith America personnel policies and safety rules; sit and/or stand for extended periods of time; operate standard office equipment, including computers, telephones, photocopiers, and projectors; communicate orally, in writing, and via computers and digital devices; and requires close visual acuity to prepare and analyze data and figures, transcribe, view a computer terminal and other office equipment.

Interfaith America is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and does not discriminate on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, marital status, or any other status protected by applicable law. Reasonable accommodation will be provided as needed to enable qualified applicants with a disability to participate in pre-employment procedures.