South Florida Executive Director
Strong Women, Strong Girls
Miami-Dade County, Florida

OVERVIEW:

The Board of Directors of Strong Women, Strong Girls, Inc., seeks a dynamic and entrepreneurial leader to serve as the founding Executive Director of the organization’s newest location in Miami-Dade County, Florida. This position is an excellent opportunity for an entrepreneurial individual who is ready to take on the next level of executive challenge and build an organization from the ground up. The South Florida Executive Director will be expected to build upon the proven Strong Women, Strong Girls model while creating opportunities for program growth, as well as managing the overall strategic, programmatic, financial, and management operations of the organization in South Florida.

The South Florida Executive Director must have a deep understanding of and commitment to the needs of women and girls in the Miami-Dade County community, as well as a strong ability to build partnerships across sectors.

As an organization committed to women and girls, Strong Women, Strong Girls offers flexible work schedules to allow high-quality candidates to balance work and family.

SPECIFIC CHALLENGES FACING THE SOUTH FLORIDA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR:

Working closely with the President and the Board of Directors, the South Florida Executive Director will be responsible for defining and executing strategic and operating plans for the organization as it moves from start-up to sustainability. This includes, but is not limited to: overseeing all the programmatic, financial, budgetary, managerial, partnerships, and fundraising needs in South Florida to ensure the organization has the necessary resources to provide exceptional services. The South Florida Executive Director is responsible for ensuring the organization’s programmatic success, fiscal stability and philanthropic support, for managing the organization effectively, and for recruiting and retaining motivated employees and volunteers.

Specifically, the South Florida Executive Director will be expected to manage the following challenges in the first 12-18 months of his/her tenure:

• Strategic Planning and Leadership: Inspire trust and confidence and effectively articulate a vision and attract others to help implement it. Provide overall leadership for Strong Women, Strong Girls that addresses the full range of organizational development responsibilities in South Florida. Invest in staff leadership to foster effective teamwork, seamless communication and high levels of morale. Work with the President and Board of Directors to refine the priorities that bring Strong Women, Strong Girls from its current start-up phase to one that ready for planning and growth. Ensure that resources are in place to support the vision. Working with the President and South Florida staff to implement this new business plan.

• Organizational Management: Oversee the creation of concrete and realistic timelines, budgets, and work plans in all organizational areas. Assume final responsibility for effective project management, ensuring top-quality performance of programs, outreach initiatives, and internal efforts that range from performance reviews to fiscal responsibility. Build a strong system of community/client driven program planning for the organization.

• Fundraising and Partnership Development: Work collaboratively with the President to raise funds to meet the annual budget by securing existing relationships and expanding opportunities for diversified income streams and structures. Write grants to support new and existing programs. Support existing fundraising activities and relationships and develop new ones. Create a South Florida Advisory Council to provide ongoing support and engagement in the areas of community partnerships and resource development. Encourage, foster and maintain relationships with Strong Women, Strong Girls partners, collaborators, volunteers, staff, donors, community organizations, and program participants.

• Staff Supervision and Support: Hire, supervise, and support staff in their ongoing work including maintaining and building a strong sense of teamwork and professionalism. Maintain an organizational culture that models the nurturing philosophy and motivates and maintains an excellent and well-qualified staff. Encourage and promote ongoing staff development and education. Provide regular performance reviews to staff members and ensure that sound human resource practices are in place.

• Program Oversight: Provide direct supervision for program development staff and work with them to ensure program goals are aligned with the strategic goals of Strong Women, Strong Girls, Inc. Report program evaluation outcomes to the President as a means of providing insight into new strategic directions or opportunities.

• Operations & Finance: Work with the President to ensure professional financial controls and reporting systems are in place to support ongoing business development and the organization’s annual audit. Maintain official records and documents, and ensure compliance with federal, state and local regulations.

• Marketing and Public Relations: Represent Strong Women, Strong Girls South Florida and Strong Women, Strong Girls, Inc. and promote its mission at the local and regional level. Develop opportunities to promote the identity and profile of Strong Women, Strong Girls and build stronger public relations networks with media. Maintain a working knowledge of significant developments and trends in the field and become known as a sought after resource in the women and girl-serving field.

QUALIFICATIONS:
 

The successful candidate will be a idealistic, entrepreneurial, and strategic leader who has a deeply held, demonstrated respect and understanding of the power of education and mentoring, even if his/her primary professional background is in another field. Energetic and enterprising, the ideal candidate will have a stellar track record managing operations of similar size and complexity and directing successful growth strategies. S/he will be innovative and thoughtful, and able to foster the collaboration necessary to translate an ambitious vision into realistic and executable strategies and diversely-funded programs. Key to the success of the South Florida Executive Director will be the ability to manage a nonprofit entity while simultaneously operating within the after school, higher education, and corporate environments of peers, volunteers, and funders.

While no one person will embody all of the qualities enumerated below, the ideal candidate will possess many of the following professional and personal abilities, attributes, and experiences:

• A record of accomplishment in an entrepreneurial, service-oriented environment, preferably in a nonprofit at a similar stage of growth. A background in youth programming, higher education, and educational partnerships, would be a plus but is not required. Demonstrated understanding of and passion for meeting the needs of women and girls is a must.

• Strong oral and written communication skills including acting as the public face and personality of the organization. Comfort speaking to community partners, business executives, elected officials, donors, media, individual citizens, and other stakeholders about the power and potential of the Strong Women, Strong Girls model. Bi-lingual candidates strongly encouraged to apply.

• A proven track record and passion for nonprofit fundraising that manifests a commitment to maintaining current donors and a zest for cultivating new contributors. Demonstrated success developing partners from government, foundations, and the private sector is essential.

• Experience providing strategic leadership to a small but growing enterprise within the realities of limited resources and an extraordinary opportunity for growth and expansion. The ability to read and understand financial reports and an understanding of legal and tax requirements which apply to nonprofits. Equal parts humor, compassion, and sensibility necessary to address the practicalities and desires of a lean, entrepreneurial nonprofit.

• Desire and ability to work respectfully with constituents, partners, volunteers, and staff from diverse cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.

• Track record of effectively leading and scaling a high-growth organization, with the ability to point to examples of having set strategies, shaped processes, and developed an infrastructure that has taken an organization to the next growth stage. Flexibility and ability to work collaboratively and productively in an office that is at once a community-based organization and a franchise.

• A proven record as a self-starter with the ability to not only take initiative but manage projects involving program design, and time management of often complex schedules and activities.

• An entrepreneurial nature with a customer service orientation, capable of acting quickly and nimbly in response to volunteer, and corporate or school partner needs.

• Experience recruiting, training, motivating, and retaining volunteers.

• Strong knowledge of financial management including acumen understanding and analyzing financial data, preparing and presenting budgets, and creating systems designed to save money and increase efficiencies.

TO APPLY:

Applications, which will not be reviewed without a cover letter describing your interest and qualifications, your resume (in Word format), and salary history, should be sent to: jobs@swsg.org. In order to expedite the internal sorting and reviewing process, please write your name (Last, First) as the only contents in the subject line of your e-mail.

More information about Strong Women, Strong Girls, Inc. can be found at http://www.swsg.org.
 

Strong Women, Strong Girls is an equal opportunity employer and seeks a candidate pool reflective of the community it serves.