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Job Opening - Executive Director

About Heads Up

Job Opening - Executive Director

Overview

Heads Up, located in Washington, D.C., seeks a dynamic, entrepreneurial leader to serve as the organization’s Executive Director as it enters a promising period of growth and its second decade of service. This is an exceptional opportunity for a seasoned executive seeking to improve the lives of children with limited means but unlimited promise and to promote the values of learning, service, and leadership among young people from kindergarten through college. Heads Up runs a supplemental education program focused on improving the reading and literacy skills of students in high poverty neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., and on laying a foundation for student success in college. The new Executive Director will work with Heads Up’s talented staff, board members, and other stakeholders to build on the great successes of the past eleven years, realize opportunities for continued growth, and manage the overall strategic, programmatic, financial, and management operations for the organization. An ideal candidate for this position will possess the vision to inspire, the skills to lead, a comfort with and successful track record in fundraising, and both a sense of urgency and a determined patience for our social change work.

About Heads Up

Heads Up was established in 1996 when co-founders Darin McKeever and Vincent Pan, inspired by their own service experiences at Harvard College, launched the organization to address the compelling needs of disadvantaged families and communities and simultaneously to inform and inspire a generation of college student to pursue lives and careers in service to others. In 1996, Heads Up recruited 10 undergraduates to work with 30 elementary school students in one after-school program. Last year, Heads Up recruited over 300 college students to work with more than 1,500 kids. Over the last five years, we have nearly tripled the number of participating students to become the largest, private nonprofit after-school and summer program in D.C. public schools and the largest AmeriCorps national service program in the District of Columbia.

Heads Up helps young people from elementary school to college develop the skills, confidence, and relationships to succeed in school and to pursue lives that help further social change. We currently accomplish this in two primary ways:

We provide extra academic support, instruction, and mentoring to children in low-income communities. Heads Up gives children extra time and individualized support by extending the days and calendars of traditional public schools with a well-rounded combination of academic enrichment activities. In focused small group settings, children in Heads Up become better readers and more engaged students with an expanded awareness of higher education.
We provide service, learning, and employment opportunities for university students who serve as Heads Up tutors and mentors. By combining intense, sustained service experiences with proper training and reflection, we foster a generation of leaders with a better understanding of high-poverty neighborhoods and a commitment to strengthening their communities.

Heads Up has gained local and national attention for our innovative program and commitment to results. Heads Up and its co-founders have been the recipients of several high-profile awards, including Echoing Green Fellowships, the Do Something Brick Award, and Fast Company magazine’s Fast 50, and Heads Up has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and BusinessWeek, and on WUSA-9. In 2001, Heads Up was selected as the first investment partner of Venture Philanthropy Partners, a local philanthropic organization that invests in high-potential nonprofits in the D.C. area. In 2003, we were recognized by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the top 20 charities in D.C.; In 2004, CharityWorks, a volunteer organization that raises money for local nonprofits, chose Heads Up as its sole beneficiary for the year. Since 2003, Heads Up has also been an approved supplemental education service provider for D.C. students under the terms of the No Child Left Behind Act.

In late 2006, Heads Up completed a strategic plan that identified opportunities for growth and set the direction for the organization’s development over the next five years. Our programmatic goals, in short, are (1) to expand after-school and summer academic programming for elementary school students to neighboring counties and to an expanded mix of schools and non-school sites in D.C., (2) to research, develop, and launch new programs to support Heads Up graduates and other older students, and (3) to continue to measurably demonstrate our program quality and positive impact on children, teens, and college students in our programs.

Heads Up currently has a full-time staff of 18 and a cash budget of $2.5 million. Presently, approximately 51% of our cash revenue comes from government sources, 24% from individuals, 22% from foundations, and 3% from corporations and other private sources.

More information about Heads Up may be found at: http://www.headsup-dc.org

The Position and its Principal Challenges

The Executive Director serves as Heads Up’s chief executive officer and is responsible to the Board of Directors. S/he has overall responsibility for the strategic, programmatic, financial, and management operations of the organization. The Executive Director will lead a talented and highly collaborative team of full-time staff and a 300+ and growing corps of part-time and seasonal employees, AmeriCorps members, and volunteers. S/he will be expected to build upon the successes of the past 11 years by both visualizing and capitalizing upon the opportunities for continued growth that lie ahead.

The position has become available as the current Executive Director, and co-founder, Darin McKeever, leaves to pursue other opportunities and to champion Heads Up’s work in a different capacity, as an active board member or advisor. His availability gives the next Executive Director the opportunity to benefit from the bridges Darin has built for Heads Up, and to sustain the funding that he has helped to secure. At the same time, Darin and the board recognize the challenges implicit in this type of transition and expect to work in partnership with the new Executive Director to form a working relationship that maximizes the time, treasure, and talent that each bring to the table.

Specifically, the next Executive Director will have the following responsibilities and priorities:

Strategic Planning and Leadership: Inspire trust and confidence and effectively articulate a vision and attract others to implement it. Work closely with the Board of Directors and the staff to refine and implement the organization’s new strategic direction, which will solidify the Heads Up’s place in the region and serve as a roadmap for its future. Utilize staff knowledge and institutional memory to assess current and future program potential. Streamline programs, create and implement new programs, and always ensure the continuation of excellence in all program delivery. Determine specific expansion, growth, and collaboration opportunities and implement necessary steps to reach these goals, including ensuring that resources are in place to support the vision.
Resource Development: Work collaboratively with the co-founder, board, and staff to raise funds by building relationships with and securing additional commitments from existing funders and cultivating new funders, especially as they relate to Heads Up’s new strategic initiatives. Oversee an enhanced government grants, contracts, and fee-for-service program. Continue to diversify and expand private funding base of individuals and institutional partners.
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 established programs, outreach initiatives, and internal efforts that range from performance reviews to fiscal responsibility. Maintain a supportive, nurturing, and open organizational culture while encouraging increased accountability, timeliness, and efficiency. Build a strong system of community/client driven program planning and evaluation for the organization.
Program Oversight: Provide direct supervision for the senior staff and work to ensure program goals are aligned with the Heads Up’s strategic and revenue goals. Oversee the design, implementation and evaluation of all Heads Up’s programs, trainings, and collaborative partnerships, taking final responsibility for ensuring that deadlines and budgets are met while encouraging program activity that furthers Heads Up’s mission. Broaden and expand programs in areas where the organization has recognized expertise. Foster new opportunities for earned income.
Operations and Finance: Ensure that outstanding program quality is achieved and that fiscal stability is maintained and enhanced through a balanced budget and appropriate fiscal controls, effective fundraising, appropriate financing, and strong relationships with government and private funders. Ensure that professional financial controls and reporting systems are in place to support the successful implementation of Heads Up’s strategic plan.
Outreach, Collaborations, and Public Relations: Represent Heads Up to the broader community, fostering and maintaining vibrant and productive relationships with school and university partners, volunteers, funders, community organizations, government partners, foundations, and program participants. Develop a comprehensive public relations program using all forms of media. Develop relationships with and appear before influential civic and government groups, businesses, and other non-profits to tell the Heads Up story and develop support and sponsorship for the organization. Support internal communications that will equip all Heads Up staff, board, and volunteers to be good ambassadors to the community.

Desired Skills, Characteristics, and Experience

We are looking for a results-driven leader and manager with superior judgment and analytical skills and an open, clear, and collaborative communication style. S/he will be an innovative and strategic thinker who can nurture current partnerships while identifying and forging collaborations with new ones. S/he will be expected to honor the legacies of Heads Up’s co-founders and yet forge a new direction as necessary to translate an ambitious vision into realistic strategies and programs, supportive management, and well and diversely-funded operations. S/he must possess a deep understanding of and commitment to the compelling needs of the families and children whom Heads Up serves. S/he must also possess the savvy, courage, humor, and sophisticated interpersonal skills to navigate the challenging opportunities inherent in this critical organization transition. Heads Up is an equal opportunity employer. Persons of color are strongly urged to apply.

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

A seasoned, collaborative and energetic leader who has the courage to make hard decisions. The ability to elicit the respect and trust of staff, board, and partners, which will be essential for leading the organization through a period of unprecedented change.
An unwavering dedication to children and families from disadvantaged circumstances, if not a professional background or training in educational interventions and youth development programs. Familiarity with the current trends in funding around youth development and national service programming. A Masters degree in management or education is preferred.
Demonstrated success developing partners from government, foundations, and the private sector is essential as is the ability to develop new revenue streams.
An established regional network and proven track record and passion for nonprofit fundraising.
Demonstrated success managing an operation of similar size, complexity, and diversity. At least ten years of experience is preferred.
A strategic thinker who can continue a collaborative transition of leadership from an organization synonymous with its co-founders to that synonymous with itself as an institution. The ability to translate strategies into well-funded operations.
Truly exceptional oral, written, listening, and interpersonal communications skills are a must.
Experience working with a volunteer Board of Directors and leveraging the talents and time of staff and board. The ability to work closely with and support the expertise of the staff, with superior management techniques and an open heart.
An entrepreneurial nature married to a service-providing orientation and an ability to act creatively and nimbly in response to the unexpected. The integrity, wisdom and humor necessary to address the practicalities of nonprofit life, the respect and humility to honor the impressive work done to date, and the courage and creativity to grow the organization to reach new levels of promise.

To Apply

Applications should be sent to EDsearch@headsup-dc.org and will be reviewed as received; interviews will be granted as candidates are identified. To be considered complete, applications must include a cover letter describing your interest and qualifications, your resume, and your salary requirements. In order to expedite the internal sorting and reviewing process, please write your name (i.e., Smith, Jane) as the only contents in the subject line of your email.