The Impact Project
Deputy Director Job Description
Summary of Position
We have two key objectives in each of our states: 1) advancing progressive economic and democracy policies that level the playing field and 2) winning hearts and minds so that the states get more progressive over time.
The Deputy Director drives towards those dual objectives in five of our states (AZ, CO, NV, PA, MI). They are the glue that holds our team together, supervising the State Directors, working side by side with their colleague who manages the other five states, leveraging the expertise of TIP staff, and providing a critical communications link to the senior team. You will develop strong leaders and make day to day judgment calls about the right balance of advocacy, communications, and organizing needed. All of this work is done with an eye toward building enduring progressive power in the states.
This position reports to and works closely with the Vice President of Advocacy to ensure organizational goals are met and to develop strategy on the first objective above. They also collaborate regularly with the Director of Engagement and their team to develop our strategy to win hearts and minds. This position is full time and considered exempt for federal overtime purposes.
About The Impact Project
We are about building enduring power through advocacy, organizing, and communications that advance progressive economic and democracy policies. Current progressive work in the states is largely focused on short-term issue-specific campaigns. While this strategy has proven effective in securing specific policies, a more comprehensive approach is required to fundamentally change these states. Our work is focused in AZ, CO, FL, ME, MD, MI, NV, NC, PA, and VA. You'll have the freedom to look across issues, across organizations, and across legislative sessions to build the power needed to create and sustain a progressive policy environment in the states.
Our Culture
It's a fast-paced culture where we aim for excellence. We love data, experimentation, and learning from both successes and failures (instead of fearing them). We seek team members who are creative, communicative self-starters who enjoy collaboration and are interested in taking their work to the next level. The core values we live by include:
- Agile – We move quickly and easily. We adapt.
- Bold – We take risks. We are fearless in the face of big challenges.
- Curious – We have a thirst for data and question assumptions.
- Creative Disruptors – We stretch beyond the norm. We bring new ideas, new partners, and new strategies.
- Dig Deep – We aren't looking for surface wins, but fundamental shifts in power.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
- Drive strategy, work, and spending in five states
- Oversee State Directors, coaching them as they learn our approach, develop their state theory of change and plans, vet proposed investments, and drive implementation.
- Manage up to the senior team with timely intel and to troubleshoot challenges.
- Develop a deep understanding of the power gaps and players in those states so you can effectively advise staff on the series of concrete steps that will shift the state in a progressive direction.
- Get your hands dirty, working side by side with your staff to drive campaigns, create new capacities where they don't exist, and build progressive power through deeper work with key audiences.
- Infuse their work with new organizing, communications, and advocacy ideas and strategies, driving them to stretch beyond business as usual and to find ways around obstacles.
- Lead your team's annual budget planning and coach them to deliver high quality spending proposals with strong deliverables that clearly tie back to the state strategy.
- Ensure any multi-state investments are well-connected to your team and their day to day operations in the state.
- Conduct site visits to see your team in action, model how we show up with partners, and provide on-the-job training.
- Provide honest in-the-moment feedback to staff, rather than letting issues build up.
Build the team
- Drive the new staff onboarding calendar, ensuring each person receives tailored background information for their states, training on processes and procedures from Hopewell, and a thorough orientation on who we are and how we work.
- Plan logistics for team meetings and periodic in-person convenings, reinforcing our core values in content and approach.
- Post job openings on the state team, do an initial screen of applicants for the VP of Advocacy, and ensure all candidates receive consistent materials and information throughout the process.
Learn (and make us all smarter)
- Devise and implement experiments that fill critical knowledge gaps about what will best increase support among target audiences and decision makers.
- Track the goals/metrics across your states and compile and analyze reporting, packaging both the data and lessons learned for the full staff team.
- Provide inputs for weekly donor reports.
Qualifications
- Strategic thinker who can quickly assess the situation in a state and translate those observations into funding recommendations and next steps.
- Experienced issue campaigner who understands and can maximize the interplay of advocacy, field, and communications.
- Inspiring coach who deftly navigate challenging strategy and personnel situations and provide clear, actionable feedback.
- Strong project management skills and attention to detail.
- Has a startup mindset and can manage others to thrive in that environment.
- Able to work under tight deadlines and juggle multiple projects and relationships simultaneously.
- Experience working with a variety of 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), and 501(c)(5) organizations including single- and multi-issue advocacy groups and other constituency groups and policy groups.
- Ability to exercise diplomacy, balance, and flexibility when dealing with various personalities and sensitive situations to develop cohesive solutions and negotiate successful outcomes.
- Five to seven years of staff management and progressive campaign experience.
- Travel required. Frequency will depend upon state needs and in-person team meetings, with an average of two to three trips per month the first year.
The Impact Project is a project of Hopewell Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity that incubates new and innovative public-interest projects and grant-making programs. Hopewell Fund is committed to attracting, developing and retaining exceptional people, and to creating a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding and enables each of us to realize our potential. Hopewell Fund's work environment is safe and open to all employees and partners, respecting the full spectrum of race, color, religious creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, and all other classifications protected by law in the locality and/or state in which you are working.
To apply email your resume and cover letter to resumes@the-impact-project.org.
Jobsthatareleft is a listserv run by Democratic GAIN. Membership dues keep us going. Please consider becoming a full member of Democratic GAIN by checking your membership status at https://www.democraticgain.org/members/membership.asp .
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GAIN Jobs via JobsthatareLEFT" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to jobsthatareleft+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jobsthatareleft/02978262-8374-4137-85ad-647539b9594f%40googlegroups.com.