Vice President, Program Strategy and Impact

Status: Full-time, exempt employee

Salary: $180,000-$200,000

Reports to: President and CEO

Location: Remote, residency in the Mid-Atlantic region preferred

Deadline: Resume reviews begin immediately. Best considered by June 21.

About The Opportunity Agenda

Founded in 2006, The Opportunity Agenda (TOA) is a community dedicated to building narrative and cultural power to move our nation toward a vision of justice, equity, and opportunity for all. TOA provides expertise, knowledge, resources, and collaborative spaces for strategists, communicators, creators, and allies throughout the social justice sector to create and propagate narratives that support equity, justice, opportunity, inclusion, and belonging. 

Incubated at the Tides Center and operating as an independent organization since 2020, TOA has a nearly 20-year legacy of innovation and leadership in the fields of narrative and cultural strategies. TOA is committed to narrative change work that centers the perspectives of those closest to an issue, builds community power, and supports organizing efforts to accelerate impact. TOA’s strategic plan builds cultural and narrative power to overcome white supremacy and create opportunity for everyone. The organization’s work is focused on achieving that vision, incorporating a focus on the intersectionality of white supremacy with misogyny and patriarchal power, settler colonialism, and economic oppression.

TOA uses cohort learning experiences to ground its narrative change work. Signature programs include the Narrative Research Lab, Narrative Innovators Lab, and Creative Change Retreat. In 2024, the organization will launch two new initiatives, one focused on building pro-immigrant narratives and another on health equity. Through these programs and other opportunities for experiential learning, training, and working in communities of practice, TOA builds the public imagination and cultural will to challenge white supremacy and its pervasive impact, works in community to overcome opposition narratives that exclude and divide us, and advances narratives that support opportunity for all. Visit the website to learn more about TOA. 

Position Summary

TOA seeks a visionary leader and seasoned narrative expert with a proven record of impact for a senior position in this high-growth social justice organization. The Vice President, Program Strategy and Impact (VP) will serve as the organization’s senior programmatic leader. Working with a remote team, the VP will report directly to the President and be a key member of the organization’s senior leadership team. 

The VP leads all of TOA’s programmatic work, responsible for developing new programs, advancing narrative strategy, overseeing research and evaluation, facilitating learning and sharing across initiatives, and developing relationships across the sector. The VP will work to ensure that TOA remains a leader in the social justice sector, adapting to new realities, incorporating new technologies, and expanding alliances and audiences. 

As a key member of TOA’s senior leadership team, along with the incoming President, VP of Operations and Culture, VP of Institutional Advancement, and contracted Chief of Staff and financial management roles, the VP will drive the organization’s overall vision, strategy, and operations. The senior leadership team holds the organization accountable to its goals of building a diverse, intersectional field of professionals advancing narrative change, developing narrative and cultural strategies to overcome narratives rooted in white supremacy, patriarchal structures, and economic oppression, and building a strong internal culture, operational structures, and revenue model to support the organization.

Specific areas of responsibility include:

Executive Leadership

• Work alongside the incoming President and senior leadership team to develop and achieve strategic priorities and implement its theory of change, with a focus on building cultural and narrative power to overcome white supremacy and create opportunities for all
• In partnership with the senior leadership team, set strategic direction and annual financial goals, diversify and grow revenue, and ensure TOA continues to build a strong, diverse, and inclusive culture across the organization
• Participate in annual processes such as budgeting, goal-setting, and performance reviews
• Serve as an ambassador, spokesperson, and high-profile organizational leader before a range of stakeholder audiences and in the media 
• Identify emerging practice areas and opportunities for organizational growth
• Understand and evaluate evolving needs and trends in the emerging field of narrative change; work with senior leadership to align organizational goals, objectives, and strategies
• Actively participate in Board of Directors meetings and engagement

Program Leadership

• Oversee the implementation of all programmatic aspects of TOA’s strategic plan and theory of change, including program planning, aligning staff roles, responsibilities, and activities with organizational priorities, and improving TOA’s ability to tell stories about its impact
• Build and support a team that cultivates narratives that build the public imagination and cultural will to challenge white supremacy and its pervasive impact and advance narratives that support opportunity for all
• Lead a team of 10, with 4 direct reports, including supervising, developing, and growing program staff by recruiting, coaching, managing, and retaining a high-performing team
• Articulate and establish measurable goals, objectives, and metrics for assessing, reporting, and deepening impact
• Develop and enhance the systems needed to gather internal and external organizational performance information and use it to assess, improve, and demonstrate impact; collaborate with and share approaches to measuring impact with partner organizations 
• With the VP of Operations and Culture, identify programmatic talent needs and develop talent acquisition strategies
• Provide feedback, coaching, and professional development opportunities for program staff
• Improve and sustain systems, training, and opportunities for staff program learning, onboarding, skill-building, and professional development
• Develop and manage the program aspects of the annual budget, including monitoring revenue and expenses for all program areas and working on budget adjustments
• Grow and develop relationships with partners from the advocacy, public policy, popular culture, philanthropy, research, and other sectors, developing coordinated strategies that draw on the field’s diverse strengths, address gaps, and amplify shared narratives
• Ensure that programs remain on budget and meet funder requirements

Fundraising

• Identify external opportunities for programmatic growth and development to ensure TOA is well-positioned to achieve its strategic direction
• In coordination with the incoming President and VP of Institutional Advancement, establish and steward funder relationships
• Work with the Institutional Advancement team on proposal development and funder reporting, including directing the program team to supply and review content
• Collaborate with senior staff to ensure integration of program and resource development, and support efforts to create and maintain an organization-wide culture of philanthropy

Experience, Skills, and Qualities

The VP position will be a challenging and rewarding opportunity that requires a diverse set of skills and experiences. While we understand that no single candidate can possess every qualification listed below, the following are priority areas:

• No less than eight years of management experience in communications or advocacy
• Demonstrated commitment TOA’s mission, vision, values, and theory of change
• Experience planning and executing successful social justice-focused communications campaigns at the state, regional, and/or national levels
• A track record of effectively leading programs and staff, developing and operationalizing strategies that have taken a program, team, or organization to the next stage of growth
• Deep experience with program evaluation, including designing ways to tell impact stories about work that has a long time horizon for change
• Demonstrated personal and professional commitment to organizational approaches to antiracism and combating white supremacy
• Ability to manage projects, achieve strategic objectives, and manage a budget
• Experience contributing to a comprehensive fundraising strategy that includes foundations and major donors, including developing successful grant proposals and securing large gifts
• Relationships with different types of social change actors, including advocates, organizers, policymakers, researchers, and cultural leaders
• An understanding of relevant emerging trends, including in social movements, the media landscape, demographics, framing theory, and policymaking 
• Superior supervisory and talent development skills, including demonstrated ability to hire, motivate, manage, and develop staff to establish and achieve goals
• Excellent interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence, with the ability to interact effectively with diverse colleagues, partners, and communities
• Experience in training, public speaking, and engaging audiences 
• Fluency with digital and social media platforms as instruments for social change 

Location & Travel

TOA is headquartered in New York City. While most staff work remotely, occasional travel to the office and in-person staff retreats make residency in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions preferred. The VP should plan to allocate approximately 20 percent of their time to travel for conferences, events, and donor meetings.

Compensation

Starting salary of $180,000-$200,000, plus benefits such as performance-based bonuses, health, dental, and vision insurance, a retirement plan, paid time off, and paid parental leave.

Application Process

TOA is conducting this search in partnership with Good Insight, a national executive search firm serving the nonprofit sector. Interested applicants should upload a resume and a detailed cover letter to www.good-insight.org/careers. 

Resume reviews begin immediately. For best consideration, please apply by June 21. Early applications are encouraged due to the pace of the search. Please direct confidential inquiries to Kate Dykgraaf at TOA@good-insight.org. 

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Opportunity Agenda is an equal opportunity employer. We value a workplace that is diverse in terms of gender, race, class, age, geographic origin, sexual orientation, and other differences that enrich our society. We encourage applicants from all cultures, races, colors, religions, sexes, national or regional origins, ages, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, military, protected veteran status or other status protected by law, and those who may not meet every requirement listed in the job description.