Manager of Impact and Evaluation

ABOUT CRADLES TO CRAYONS:

Cradles to Crayons is leading the way to #EndClothingInsecurity.

Cradles to Crayons (C2C), founded in 2002, provides children from birth through age 12, 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 four million customized packages of essentials to children in Massachusetts, Greater Philadelphia, Chicagoland, and nationally, through Giving Factory Direct—a first-in-kind online clothing donation platform launched in 2021. 

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

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. 

Online Product Donations—Giving Factory Direct matches product donors directly to children who need the items they have to donate. GFD is currently available in a growing number of communities as we expand our reach nationally. 

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 has earned the highest possible rating from Charity Navigator since 2009. Only 2% of charities nationwide have received this distinction. C2C has a budget of $19.4M for FY25. 

POSITION OVERVIEW:

As Cradles to Crayons leads the way to #EndClothingInsecurity and expands its high-volume clothing and essentials distribution work to also lead national change for clothing support for children—including advocacy, education, and awareness of this hidden crisis—the External Affairs (EA) team is focused on consistent and impactful visibility for our work (Cradles to Crayons, Giving Factory Direct, and End Clothing Insecurity brands).

Reporting to the Director of Impact and Advocacy, the Manager of Impact and Evaluation is an exciting new role within our Advocacy and Impact team and is responsible for building and implementing strategic, data-driven approaches to Cradles to Crayons’ Impact and Program evaluation work. This position will oversee all work related to evaluating and gauging C2C’s Impact on the children and families we serve in partnership with the Director of Impact and Advocacy, as well as supporting research initiatives to validate the importance of clothing as a critical basic need. The ideal candidate is a skilled measurement professional who is passionate about working with colleagues and leadership to ensure effective monitoring for programmatic and organizational success.

Working with the External Affairs team and the newly centralized MarCom team, the Manager of Impact and Evaluation will provide support and collaboration to teams and individuals across all Cradles to Crayons function areas and business goals including leadership, Operations, Development, the #EndClothingInsecurity Ambassador Council, and the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) Council.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

·   Model and lead a positive “One Cradles to Crayons” culture, underpinned by Cradles to Crayons’ Cultural Values and related behaviors

·  Help establish and implement best practices and processes to support project teams/plans/management

·  Work with the Director of Impact and Advocacy to conceptualize, develop and coordinate a comprehensive Impact and Program Evaluation plan that measures the impact of C2C’s work on children/families and volunteers and the effectiveness of our programming

o  Design and lead the implementation of Impact pilots and projects; coordinate with market-based operations staff and manage pilot program evaluation

o  Be accountable for the research, methodology, and production of Impact assessments monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of C2C’s service model, including programmatic evaluation surveys, focus groups, interviews, and more

o  Identify Service Partners for data sharing and Impact collaboration

o  Provide ongoing and ad hoc support to staff and leadership on measurement and learning priorities, data collection, and reporting

o  Foster a culture of and capacity for using measurement for programmatic improvement and organizational success

o  Produce articles and studies detailing results of C2C’s Impact and Program Evaluation work and contribute to the creation of collateral materials

·        Maintain and update C2C’s accounts on nonprofit evaluator Impact sites, including Charity Navigator, Guidestar, Network for Good, and Impact Genome

o  Support MarCom and market colleagues to ensure maintenance of Impact data in externally facing media, communications, collateral, website, and more

·      Advise on and support C2C’s external research projects to validate the importance of clothing essentials and raise awareness of Clothing Insecurity

o  Liaise with C2C Impact, research, community, and Service Partners to evaluate potential to partner on studies, community surveys, and research to further research on Clothing Insecurity

o  Identify opportunities for collaboration to increase Clothing Insecurity measurements and community driven data to establish clothing need metrics

o  Manage data collection and support project management at times as needed

o  Stay updated on trends in secondary research on clothing and basic needs, children and poverty, household material hardship, economic stability, and more

·        Support External Affairs departmental efforts

o  Support the annual Chairman’s Council Clothing Insecurity Impact Award, including review of applications and prep for the award presentation event

o  Support training efforts for the #EndClothingInsecurity Ambassadors program

o  Collaborate with MarCom team members to develop impact data references and tools, incorporate Impact and external data in collateral, and fact-check materials

o  Apply knowledge of internal Impact data and external research to suggest direction for C2C’s Thought Leadership and PR strategy

o  Support relationship management for NAT/ EA partnerships who will support the #EndClothingInsecurity education and awareness needs

o  Occasionally represent C2C/ EA at external coalition meetings and meetings with community partners and policymakers

o  Represent the EA team in areas of project/program leadership

·        Other duties and projects as assigned

Required Experience/Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:

·        First-hand experience conducting in-house performance monitoring in a nonprofit service provider, including:

§ Planning measurement strategies

§ Implementation of data collection

§  Data management, quality control, analysis, and interpretation.

·        A minimum of 3-5 years of relevant experience in research, monitoring and evaluation, outcome measurement, or statistics

·        Experience managing or overseeing research, evaluation, and/or Impact projects

·        Experience with interpreting data from multiple sources, analyzing results using statistical techniques, and presenting findings in reports required

·        Ability to design, modify, and administer written assessment instruments (i.e. pre/post tests and surveys)

·        Strong written and verbal communication skills are critical

·        Exemplary organizational and project management skills, attention to detail, and ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously required

·        Ability to thrive in a dynamic, entrepreneurial, and collaborative environment

·        Proficiency with Office365 Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and database management

·        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 occasional 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.

To Apply:

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.  Please send a cover letter and resume with relevant experience to https://www.cradlestocrayons.org/what-we-do/careers/