Director of Impact

The Director of Impact serves as a part of the organization's senior leadership team and is responsible for developing and managing high quality programs to drive improvements in literacy and social-emotional learning. They also play a critical role in long term program strategy and expansion. To achieve these goals, the Director of Impact maintains and builds strong relationships with shelters, schools, and community partners; oversees expansion of current HOPES programs offering as well as new program initiatives; oversees strategies to enhance family connection initiatives; oversees data collection and analysis; and they oversee the program budget. The Director of Impact is responsible for supervising the program team, volunteer team, as well as college and university Interns. The Director of Impact reports to the Executive Director.

Core Impact Responsibilities

• Create yearly program calendar, recruitment calendar, and curriculum schedule in collaboration with program and volunteer team members
• Develop key learning objectives related to literacy and social emotional learning skills and support curriculum development to ensure program goals are met
• Lead and support staff in achieving program KPIs and impact goals
• Develop and implement processes to improve data collection, analysis, and sharing to relevant stakeholders, including grant impact reports for funders
• Oversee and lead staff in effectively recruiting, hiring, and training part time staff and program volunteers
• Conduct bi-weekly site visits for observations to ensure programs are being implemented with fidelity
• Support with strategy development and execution of family connection programming
• Develop and implement continuous quality improvement frameworks to enhance impact of program offerings to students and families
• Develop semesterly program training for on-site staff and volunteers, as well as continuous skill building workshops to further staff development

Leadership: People & Partner Management

• Provide leadership and ongoing management to program team, volunteer team, and student interns
• Lead cross-departmental meetings to ensure effective collaboration and focus on shared goals
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with shelters, schools, community, and university partners
• Lead annual partnership evaluations and update Memorandum of Understanding with partners as needed
• Oversee and support staff with implementation of key grant administration tasks to ensure compliance and accurate tracking of key metrics
• Network in the community to build new connections for program partnerships including enrichment partners, collaborators for training, potential program sites and volunteer recruitment efforts
• Plan and adhere to the budget for HOPES programming in collaboration with the Executive Director and Board of Directors
• Attend Board Meetings as needed, and provide ongoing communication to broader HOPES community via program reports for Board of Directors and newsletter articles
• As needed, represent the organization at community events and conferences; including leading activities, workshops, and trainings

Collaboration with other Staff Members

• Executive Director Develop strategic long term program expansion goals and innovative program offerings to broaden and deepen impact with students and families
• Marketing & Outreach Manager - develop outreach plans to support partnership development, program expansion, as well as families connectedness to the organization
• Development Manager – fundraising campaigns, and specific program impact data needed for grant proposals and reports

Required Events

• Annual Staff & Board Strategic Retreat
• Annual Lincoln Park Zoo Trip
• Annual Seeds of HOPE Gala
• Annual Partner Appreciation Event
• Quarterly Full Staff Offsites

Experience and Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, Education, Non-profit management, or related field preferred
• Three or more years of nonprofit leadership with experience managing high functioning teams
• Experience scaling and growing programs while designing and piloting new programs
• Experience analyzing and interpreting data to improve program quality
• Effective budget management skills, including budget analysis, forecasting, and fiscal decision-making
• Strong organizational abilities including planning, delegating, and project development
• Experience developing and leading training.
• Proficiency with Google Drive and other collaborative tools
• Strong relationship management skills
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment

Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk, in meetings, and working on a computer
• Occasionally lifting and carrying of objects up to 15 pounds

Work environment

• This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets and fax machines.
• Transportation to the office and for site visits is necessary.
• Hybrid role: work in office or visiting program sites 3 days/week, remote home office 1-2 days/week.

Benefits include monthly transportation stipend; employer cost share for voluntary health, dental and vision benefits through Blue Cross Blue Shield IL; ten days vacation and ten days personal/sick time annually (prorated based on start date); and simple IRA retirement plan with up to 3% of salary organizational match.