Project Manager

ABOUT CRADLES TO CRAYONS:

Cradles to Crayons (C2C), founded in 2002, provides children living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive—at home, at school, and at play. We supply clothing, shoes, diapers, school supplies, and more, free of charge. Our vision is that one day all children will have the essentials they need to thrive.

Two in 5 kids in the United States are currently facing Clothing Insecurity, going without basic essentials like pants, shoes, diapers, and school supplies during their critical development years. Three of the top 10 reasons kids miss school are rooted in Clothing Insecurity—just one example of the significant short- and long-term social and economic costs when these needs go unmet. Cradles to Crayons keeps Clothing Insecurity at the core of our mission and is the only large-scale nonprofit organization to focus on this resource gap. Since its founding, Cradles to Crayons has distributed more than six million customized packages of essentials to children in Massachusetts, Greater Philadelphia, Chicagoland, and nationally, through Giving Factory Direct—a first-in-kind online product donation platform launched in 2021.

Cradles to Crayons takes a three-pronged approach to mitigating Clothing Insecurity:

1. In-person Engagement—through tens of thousands of children and adults volunteering at our Giving Factory warehouses to sort and package high volumes of new and like-new donations from our communities for our Service Partners to distribute to the children they serve.
2. Online Product Donations—Giving Factory Direct matches product donors directly to children who need the items they have to donate, with service partners in 5 US cities including New York and San Francisco.
3. Advocacy and Awareness—Cradles to Crayons is uniquely positioned to raise Clothing Insecurity as a national issue through awareness campaigns, data/evaluation, and legislative outreach.

Cradles to Crayons’ strong financial health and ongoing effectiveness and reliability have helped it earn a Four-Star Rating from Charity Navigator every year since 2009. C2C has a budget of $20M for FY26 and a total staff of approximately 100.

POSITION OVERVIEW:

The Project Manager will lead the development and execution of a project management strategy that supports Cradles to Crayons’ organizational goals and long-term planning. Reporting to the Chief of Staff and working closely with the Senior Leadership Team, this role manages a portfolio of high-impact projects, drives cross-functional collaboration, and ensures alignment with the organization’s mission and strategic priorities.

The ideal candidate is a skilled project leader with a systems-thinking mindset, strong communication skills, and a passion for operational excellence and social impact.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Reporting to the Chief of Staff and in collaboration with the Senior Leadership Team, create and execute a strategic project management strategy and framework to strengthen and improve organizational systems, processes, and structures.
• Participate in and align projects with organizational strategic planning and multi-year planning in collaboration with the Senior Leadership Team.
• Support and inform market goal and resource planning in alignment with project roadmap.
• Manage organizational portfolio of strategic projects and high priority initiatives. For each project:
• INITIATION: lead processes to evaluate purpose, goals, impact (return on investment) and effort (resources needed/available) to determine viability, timing, and identify the project team with role clarity (i.e. RACI or MOCHA framework). Secure appropriate approvals and initial buy-in.
• PLANNING: work with the project team to properly gather requirements, budget and resource needs, determine scope, objectives, and deliverables.
• EXECUTE: work with the project team to advance deliverables, assess progress, identify issues, mitigate risks and review the planned budget.
• COLLABORATE: lead and motivate cross-project team meetings, fostering collaboration and communication, to review status updates and plan to provide timely status updates to stakeholders and Senior Leadership Team across the organization.
• CLOSE: create and lead an implementation hand-off, celebrate, and document lessons learned, archive project resources.
• Assess and partner with external consulting firms based on expertise, methodologies, and alignment with organizational needs and objectives.
• Select and design project management software tool for the organization.
• Design and deliver learning sessions and resources to increase awareness, buy-in, and collaboration.
• Consult with and provide resources to leaders in support of team and/or departmental-level projects.
• Continuously adapt and adjust processes and practices to meet the needs of the organization, teams, and individuals.
• Model and lead a positive “One Cradles” culture underpinned by Cradles’ mission and values.
• Other duties and special projects as assigned.

REQUIRED EXPERIENCE/KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS/ABILITIES:

• Bachelor's Degree or Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification preferred but not required.
• 5+ years of relevant experience managing and leading complex projects.
• Knowledge of project management methodologies (i.e. Agile, Waterfall) and systems (i.e. Excel, Smartsheet, Airtable).
• Willingness to travel (approximately 1-4 times per year to local markets – Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia) as needed.
• Ability to identify and resolve issues using independent decision-making.
• Demonstrated experience in producing high quality results autonomously with little direction, guidance or prior precedent.
• Proven relationship builder and collaborator with a strong sense of high-quality customer service.
• Passionate about leveraging data and analytics to identify trends, solve problems, improve practices and processes.
• Highly diligent and organized, with the ability to plan, prioritize, and manage multiple tasks and complex projects simultaneously.
• Strong verbal and written communicator: read, speak, and write fluent English.
• A passion for Cradles to Crayons’ mission.

DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH:

Diversity and Inclusiveness are core values at Cradles to Crayons, and we continuously strive to be a team where everyone feels welcome and supported. It is the policy of Cradles to Crayons to provide equal employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information and/or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. Individuals from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

This is an office/work from home remote virtual environment with regular visits to C2C Giving Factories. There are no hazardous or significantly unpleasant conditions.

ACCOMMODATION:

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is possible that requirements may be modified to reasonably accommodate disabled individuals. However, no accommodations will be made by Cradles to Crayons which may pose serious health or safety risks to the employee or others, or which impose undue hardships on the organization.