Director of People Power (Organizing, Advocacy, and Leadership Development)

LA Forward Institute (LAFI) is seeking a full-time Director of People Power to identify, develop, and organize grassroots leaders to win policies that will make Los Angeles County a fair, flourishing place for everyone.

We are looking for a talented organizer excited about building the individual and collective leadership of our cross-class, multiracial, intergenerational community of change agents.

The Director will be someone who believes in the capacity of this base to leverage every tool of democracy – both outside and inside government. The ideal candidate will have an extensive track record of:

• Leading and executing organizing strategy and advocacy campaigns
• Designing in-person and virtual leadership programs for grassroots leaders
• Developing and managing the systems and structures necessary to carry out that work successfully.

The Director of People Power will report to the Deputy Director. Together, they will serve as the two full-time members of our LAFI’s People Power team, with significant support from other staff and contractors.

Responsibilities and Duties:

• Base-building & Organizing:
  • Owning and leading all of LAFI’s base-building and organizing for a set of issues and regions of LA County, in close collaboration with Deputy Director (who leads organizing for his own set of issues and regions).
• Advocacy:
  • Owning and leading policy advocacy efforts pertaining to the LA County Board of Supervisors, in close collaboration with Deputy Director, who will own and lead policy advocacy efforts pertaining to LA City Government.
• Leadership Development & Civic Education Programming:
  • Ideating, planning, and spearheading leadership development and civic education programming in collaboration with LAFI staff to accelerate base-building, organizing, and advocacy efforts for relevant policy, issue, and regional areas.
• Coalitions & Partnerships:
  • Building and maintaining strong partnerships with local organizations and coalitions that enable the base-building, organizing, policy advocacy, and civic education efforts noted above.
• Internal Collaboration
  • Collaborating with teammates to ensure team alignment, as well as streamlined communication with community members and other external stakeholders.

What Success Looks Like After One Year in the Job

After one year working with the LAFI, our Director of People Power will have:

• Convened community members in cities and unincorporated areas across LA County and have made progress to organize bases for local advocacy in key geographic areas.
• Supported those bases to identify specific policy opportunities important to them and strategically build relationships with local electeds and LA County Board of Supervisors in pursuit of those policies
• Led LAFI’s work in at least one specific issue area, through LAFI’s working group structure, but also through coordinated efforts with other organizations and coalitions working on that issue
• Leveraged tactics like teach-ins, educational/skill-building workshops, and social media campaigns to build public knowledge and capacity toward these policy issues
• Worked with teammates to leverage its voter guide recommendations and endorsement processes to uplift issues important to community members
• Designed and helmed at least one cohort-based leadership development experience that accelerates ability for our LAFI community to achieve its policy or electoral goals

Qualifications for the Ideal Candidate:

• At least five years of professional experience in community organizing, policy advocacy, and leadership development, with a record of developing, guiding, and winning organizing and advocacy campaigns.
• Demonstrated success at identifying, cultivating, and supporting community members from a variety of social, economic, and political backgrounds to become organizing leaders.
• Experienced at designing and leading adult learning and training experiences for topics such as grassroots-organizing frameworks, advocacy tactics, and power-mapping — including, but not limited to: creating leadership development structures; developing curriculum; and planning for, executing, facilitating, and evaluating in-person and virtual learning experiences.
• Proven ability to build, bridge, and maintain powerful, reciprocal relationships across many lines of difference (e.g race, class, gender, age, neighborhood), and to help others do the same.
• Judicious, strategic decision-maker, skilled in political analysis and self-reflection.
• Comfortable being a public representative of a progressive organization, including adeptness at navigating political conversations and contexts.
• Strong and confident communicator, including through meeting facilitation and public speaking, in writing, and through digital domains like social media and websites.
• Highly organized, with the ability to juggle many projects and initiatives at once, while working well with changing timelines and others who may be less organized.
• Based in LA County and able to travel across large reaches of LA County, sometimes with short notice, either with a combination of a driver’s license/working automobile/insurance or another feasible alternative.
• Oriented to build individual relationships, coalitions, and long-term power. The ideal candidate will understand that politics requires discerning analysis and the nimbleness to change course based on new context.
• Self-sufficient and driven with an understanding that aligning with other staff and volunteers will be the only way to harness our full power.
• Operates in a disciplined manner, channeling outrage at the world’s injustice into strategic action

Other Possible Qualifications:

• Established political and organizing network in LA County
• Experience in policy advocacy work at LA County Board of Supervisors
• Experience in policy advocacy work in cities throughout LA County
• Experience in policy advocacy for issues such as housing/homelessness, unarmed crisis response, climate/environment, governance reform, transportation/mobility, or long-range infrastructure development
• Experience leading electoral campaign work including canvassing, phone banking, text banking, and other voter contact models
• Experience with digital advocacy campaigns and/or distributed organizing
• Experience with proactively generating and shaping media coverage of advocacy campaigns
• Seven or more years of organizing and leadership experience
• Fluency in another commonly spoken language, Spanish strongly preferred.

Organizational Values:

• Tenaciously pursuing results
• Kindness and creating a warm, welcoming community
• Curiosity
• Flexibility
• Balancing being intrinsically motivated and self-directed, with ability to be consultative and to take direction when needed
• Tactfulness – balancing voicing opinions even in disagreement with colleagues with avoiding unnecessarily alienating of internal and external stakeholders
• Supporting the organization’s mission and strategy as a whole, not just one’s own specific line of work, including agreeing to disagree in order to move things along

About the Job

This is a full-time, salaried, exempt position and reports to the Deputy Director. The job includes regular evening and weekend work. The job-holder will have the option to work out of a coworking space paid for by LAFI or from their own home. The role requires frequent travel within LA County to meet with grassroots leaders, in addition to weekly in-person staff meetings.

How to Apply:

Please apply using the Gusto online system by June 18, 2025, with a priority deadline of June 11. We'll consider applications on a rolling basis. Applications submitted through other methods will not be considered. The application portal will ask you to submit a resume in PDF format and to provide short written answers to the following questions:

1. Why do you want to work for LA Forward Institute?
2. What has made you successful in your experience of leading organizing and advocacy campaigns?
3. What has made you successful in your experience of designing leadership programs for grassroots leaders?
4. Are there other types of experiences or expertise that position you to succeed at this role?

Please limit your response to 250 words per question.

Application Link: https://jobs.gusto.com/postings/la-forward-institute-director-of-people-power-organizing-advocacy-and-leadership-development-58258853-15a4-4dd2-9a79-9bbd0c306c97/applicants/new

LA Forward Institute is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy or related condition (including breastfeeding), national origin, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service, veteran status, or any or any other basis protected by law. Applicants and employees are protected from discrimination under Federal law. For more information, please see EEO is the Law. LA Forward institute hires and promotes individuals solely based on their qualifications for filling the job.