Executive Director - Greater DC

Position Summary

Urban Alliance believes that all young people benefit from access to paid work experiences, professional networks, and the skills training needed to achieve economic mobility. As the Greater DC Executive Director, you’ll have the opportunity to leverage your leadership strengths, relationship building expertise, fundraising skills, and passion for youth development to help young people aspire, work, and succeed. This position is hybrid will report to the Greater DC office three days per week.

As the Greater DC Executive Director, you will lead Urban Alliance’s longest-running regional program team while joining the Executive Leadership Team alongside members of the C-Suite and regional executive director team in Baltimore, Chicago, and Detroit. The Greater DC region includes Montgomery County, Prince George’s County, and Northern Virginia. You’ll lead a mission-focused, dynamic, and impactful regional team that works with hundreds of DC area youth each year across six school districts, while being supported by programming, development, evaluation, HR, communications, and operations teams from Urban Alliance’s national team. You’ll also develop, lead, and fundraise for, the Greater DC region’s new strategic plan, which is expected to more than double our impact over the next five years. This role is ideal for an individual with a proven track record of success securing large gifts and generating resources, and who enjoys both cultivating new relationships with funders, as well as strengthening and growing relationships with existing supporters and donors. Strong candidates will also be highly adept at developing or deepening strategic relationships such as OSSE, DME, DCPS, local workforce and youth development organizations, agencies, coalitions, etc. The leader will manage a program and team that works with hundreds of young people every year, and has a deep understanding of the needs, landscape, and key stakeholders of the DC area. This position currently directly reports to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

As a key member of Urban Alliance’s Executive Leadership Team, you will oversee:

Regional Fundraising and Relationship Management

• Establish strategic relationships to develop and implement regional sales and fundraising plans that secure and grow revenue-generating partnerships with employers and philanthropic entities to meet goals.
• Collaborate with the Chief Revenue Officer to establish fundraising and paid internship targets for the region.
• Collaborate with the national development team to cultivate relationships with individual donors, institutional funders, and the business community to secure resources from regional philanthropic organizations.
• Ensure the region is meeting programmatic outcomes outlined in grant agreements.
• Ensure accurate tracking of the fund development and paid internship pipeline in Salesforce.
• Establish and/or maintain school district relationships to ensure strong student recruitment and school partnerships; develop MOUs with school partners.
• Represent the organization externally by participating in public speaking engagements, maintaining a robust social media presence, and regularly participating in and attending community events.
• Serve as a thought partner to youth workforce development peers in the field and collaborate with the national team on high-visibility publications and events.

Regional Team Management

• Supervise & coach the team of regional directors who manage regional program staff and day-to-day operations of the region, to ensure overall successful long-term program outcomes and operations.
• Facilitate strong working dynamics between the National and Greater DC teams.
• Collaborate with HR to provide professional development for members of the Greater DC team, and/or seek out external resources to support staff growth and development.
• Promote strong organizational health and culture throughout the region.

Regional Program Oversight

• Supervise the regional program directors who are managing the program staff to ensure the organization makes consistent and timely progress in achieving its mission and programmatic goals.
• Collaborate with the Chief Financial Operating Officer to establish the annual budget and track and project expenses.

Qualifications & Keys to Success

You will excel at Urban Alliance if you have:

Fundraising expertise: The ideal candidate is excited to fundraise and demonstrates experience with partnership development and a proven track record of success securing and growing resource-generating relationships.

Regional knowledge and experience: The ideal candidate will have a deep understanding of the challenges facing today’s young people, the key stakeholders in the DC area’s workforce development field, and the region’s philanthropic landscape.

Professional experience: The ideal candidate will have at least 5 years of leadership experience in the youth, education, or workforce development field with a strong track record of developing and implementing strategic, innovative, and data-driven programming. The candidate will have a demonstrated ability to work effectively across a diverse portfolio of programs and a history of problem-solving complex issues by bridging the gap between strategy and implementation.

Leadership skills: The ideal candidate will be a thoughtful, collaborative, and empowering leader with strong management qualities and demonstrated success in building, leading, and retaining teams. The candidate will be committed to building staff capacity and elevating the work of their team. The ideal candidate will also have experience managing a geographically disparate or partially remote team.

Communication skills: The ideal candidate will be an excellent communicator and possess strong writing and speaking skills. The candidate will leverage their strong interpersonal skills to connect with diverse stakeholders, including youth and their families, staff, business leaders, volunteers, senior government officials, community leaders, and funders. The ideal candidate will enjoy public speaking and will advocate for important youth workforce development issues.

Commitment to racial equity and social justice: The ideal candidate will have an unwavering commitment to advancing racial equity and will ensure that it is reflected throughout the organization’s programs. The ideal candidate will recognize the intersection of race and economics in shaping education and employment opportunities and will work to elevate and amplify the voices of the young people we serve.

Urban Alliance has retained the executive search firm LeaderFit to manage this search. Please click on the link to submit your application on the LeaderFit website Greater DC Executive Director .