Executive Director

The National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) seeks our next Executive Director to continue

the successful movement-building and advocacy that have been the hallmarks of NFFC for

the past forty years. In this era of challenges and threats across our food system, NFFC’s

leadership is needed more than ever. The new Executive Director will inherit and enhance

an already-strong coalition and organization, will center equity, justice, and the health of

our communities, and will build coalition power and organizational effectiveness for the

next phase of NFFC’s work.

About NFFC:

National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) was founded by our members in 1986, at the height

of the 1980s farm crisis, to be a voice for farmers in Washington, DC – and we still are.

Today, we are the only national coalition representing grassroots farm, ranch, and fishing

organizations in the nation’s capital. Through our 30+ member groups, we represent

farmers in 42 states. NFFC remains a farmer- and member-led and informed coalition

committed to movement building and growing power as we mobilize independent farmers,

ranchers, and fisher people to achieve fair prices, vibrant communities, and nourishing

food free of corporate domination.

Emerging from a Season of Shared Leadership:

Since 2018, NFFC has been engaged in a shared leadership model with the North American

Marine Alliance (NAMA), a bold endeavor that has leveraged shared capacity and created

synergies that served both organizations well. For 8 years the two organizations have

shared “backbone” functions and staff, including Niaz Dorry, who has served as the director

of both organizations.

This shared leadership model is now coming to a successful end. The two organizations will

remain close allies and NAMA will continue as a member of NFFC with Niaz Dorry

remaining NAMA’s Coordinating Director. Both organizations are emerging stronger with

larger staffs, healthier budgets, and greater sustained impacts.

NFFC’s Board of Directors and staff are collaborating to support a successful transition to

ensure that NFFC’s incoming Executive Director has a strong and stable foundation from

which to launch the next phase of the coalition’s ongoing work.

Organizational Strengths:

NFFC is entering this leadership transition in a position of strength marked by our:Recognition as a well-respected and steadfast voice of farmers: NFFC plays a

critical role building community resilience, advancing farmer economic justice, and

fighting corporate power in the food system at national and global levels. We are

well-respected in international spaces, we have strong relationships with partners

and allies, and we leverage our power for the broader movement.Member governance: Our members are the core of our organization, driving both

our governance and strategic planning. Our members are engaged and connected.

• Strong staff: Our staff is highly regarded, appreciated, and seen as caring and

conscientious. We balance staff autonomy, support, trust, and inclusivity.

• Financial health: We are in sound financial shape with strong funder relationships.
• Social justice framework: We have centered racial equity, intersectionality, and

power analysis in our growth and guiding principles. We strive to elevate

underrepresented voices and foster an inclusive culture.

• Strategic plan: NFFC members unanimously adopted our next 5-year Strategic Plan

in July of 2025 after a 2-year planning process, reaffirming our mission, vision,

guiding principles, strategic goals, and priority campaigns. Read more about NFFC’s

Strategic Plan here.

Priorities Looking Forward:

We are seeking an Executive Director who will embrace, prioritize, and continue to build on these

priorities:

• Member-driven coalition: NFFC’s core identity is that of a grassroots coalition of

diverse organizations. Our leadership must be prepared to step into this

governance model that embraces shared decision making, ensures centering of our

members' voices, and supports consensus building across differences where their

voice will be one of many. Like many allied movement spaces, we endeavor to

proactively challenge and dismantle existing extractive power structures.

• Legacy: NFFC has a powerful 40-year legacy. We are looking for a leader who will

embrace that legacy and the wisdom and insights of our longtime members while

guiding us into a new phase of our organization, welcoming in new voices, and

fostering leadership development among our members.

• NFFC’s role in the movement: NFFC values collaborative leadership amongst our

allies and partners. This role will be responsible for evaluating and informing where

and how NFFC is represented in the larger family-scale farmer movement.

• Leading a growing remote team: NFFC’s staff of 10 has grown quickly in recent

years with plans to continue this growth. We need a leader who is deeply committed

to navigating our organizational development as we grow, including operationalizing

internal systems that prioritize communication, transparency, and equity.

• Building common ground & interconnectivity: One of our strengths and guiding

principles is finding the interconnectivity among our members and allies, and in

uplifting the throughlines from local to regional, federal, and international policy

and movements. An ideal candidate will be committed to building deeply rooted

solidarity and to counteracting divisiveness as we strive to be more inclusive of

marginalized communities such as LGBTQIA, Indigenous peoples, immigrants and

women.

• Culture of care: Our coalition centers relationships of care for land, for each other,

for our communities, and for our organizations. We seek a leader who will ensure

that this approach continues to inform the culture of our organization.

Roles & Responsibilities:

We expect our Executive Director to engage, motivate, and inform our Board of Directors and

Executive Committee, member organizations, staff, and funders to ensure consistent

organizational effectiveness in alignment with NFFC’s mission, vision, guiding principles, and

strategic plan through:

• Fiscal & operational management: Lead our development and operations teams

in order to ensure that NFFC remains well-funded, fiscally responsible, and

compliant with federal, state, and local regulations. Develop & manage annual

budget of approximately $1.5 million to ensure that the organization is well

resourced and to support appropriate growth.

• Staff leadership & management: Lead and unify a diverse remote staff of 10.

Strategically develop roles, implement equitable hiring processes, ensure thoughtful

onboarding and human resource practices, provide ongoing guidance, and support

staff development.

• Strategic oversight: Guide the implementation of NFFC’s Strategic Plan, ensuring

the development and implementation of systems to regularly evaluate progress,

document progress and impact, and advance the mission of the coalition in

partnership with allies while responding to changing circumstances. Cultivate

relationships to deepen movement effectiveness.

Who You Are:

NFFC’s new Executive Director must be thoroughly aligned with our mission and values. We

seek a compassionate and relational leader who can build partnerships across many

different constituencies. You should be grounded in movement building, organizing, and

advocacy with family farming and rural communities. The new Executive Director will

primarily be responsible for leading and managing internally within the organization and

with NFFC’s Board of Directors and Executive Committee.

The ideal candidate will encompass the following background, skills and qualities. We do

not expect you to be an expert in all, but the role will require alignment with and

willingness to grow in these areas, and candidates will be evaluated with the following in

mind:

• Experienced leader: Minimum 5 years experience in nonprofit management, staff

management, & leadership that has prepared you to lead a national nonprofit.

• Food and farmer justice: Deep, longtime connection and experience in food and

farm movement and our impacted constituents, including organizing experience.

• Successful fundraiser: Can help build a more diverse resource base, sustain

relationships with existing funders; be creative and persistent

• Exceptional interpersonal & deep listening skills, and social & emotional

intelligence

• Fiscal management: Experience with budgets, audit preparation, cash flow

management, etc.

• Relationship building & sustaining: Strong relational skills and orientation;

connects with all kinds of partners, including across race, move in different spaces,

manage different personalities, can handle conflict and tensions.

• Compassionate, facilitative & inclusive Leader: Will mentor and support staff,

delegate, empower, listen, be inclusive, ask questions and work collaboratively

(ideally with grace and humor).

• Committed to equity including racial equity: Able and committed to sustain

and grow racial equity and equity more broadly personally, interpersonally and

institutionally especially centering BIPoC and other marginalized identities.

• Thinks systemically, systematically & strategically: Sees the big picture and

looks to connect the dots within systems and the movement with opportunities

to make progress, win, survive and sustain. Embraces a power analysis that

includes thinking across movements and globally.

• Coalition-oriented: Experience navigating coalition dynamics & commitment to

prioritize member leadership. Ability to work with a diverse range of people to

accomplish mutual goals while navigating diverse and complex needs and

interests.

• Ability to hold, share & release power: Able to be decisive, but willing to

compromise, while staying true to principles; doesn’t get stuck. Able to discern the

right level of inclusivity for a decision and move comfortably between levels of

consensus, input gathering, and executive decision making strongly informed by

NFFC’s mission, vision, and guiding principles.

• Farming & rural consciousness: Experience working directly with and ability to

relate to our farming, ranching, and fishing members and to navigate the dynamics

of building a movement across urban and rural contexts.

Position Parameters:

Location

This is a fully remote position within the US or can be based in our Washington, DC office.

Significant travel will be required.

Salary and Benefits

NFFC is an at-will and equal opportunity employer. The Executive Director is a full-time,

salaried, exempt position.

The salary range for this position is $120,000 to $130,000 annually. Salary is commensurate

with experience and location.

NFFC provides health, dental, vision, and life insurance through the Center for Nonprofit

Advancement, and offers generous holiday, sick leave, and personal time leave. NFFC

matches up to 3% toward employee’s SimpleIRA contributions.The position is open until filled. Please DO NOT submit AI-generated application materials.

The National Family Farm Coalition is an equal opportunity employer.

NFFC provides health, dental, vision, and life insurance through the Center for Nonprofit

Advancement, and offers generous holiday, sick leave, and personal time leave. NFFC

matches up to 3% toward employee’s SimpleIRA contributions.