Executive Director

Refugee Women’s Alliance

Seattle, Washington

Position Profile

Executive Director

Summary

Organizational Overview

ReWA is an award-winning, nationally recognized multi-ethnic nonprofit organization based in the greater Seattle, Washington area that provides holistic human services to help refugee and immigrant women and families thrive, including early education, family empowerment, behavioral health, youth enrichment, domestic violence prevention and services, employment and vocational training, housing and homelessness prevention, and legal services. ReWA promotes inclusion, independence, personal leadership, and strong communities by providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services. ReWA advocates for social justice, public policy changes, and equal access to services while respecting cultural values and the right to self-determination.

History & Approach

In 40 years of work with multi-cultural communities, we have refined our services to most effectively promote integration and self-sufficiency. All our services are designed to quickly and effectively stabilize clients, promote acculturation, increase language proficiency, and improve employability.

Our services are available in over fifty languages and dialects. This means clients are paired in most cases with professionals who speak their first language and are specifically attuned to their native cultures. Because of this, staff are able to address the unique barriers to success that each of our clients faces.

ReWA has a positive and far-reaching reputation. Immigrant and refugee residents are familiar with our programs, and readily refer their friends, family, and new arrivals in their communities. ReWA’s clients come from over seventy countries across the globe, including from Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Our reputation goes a long way toward increasing program accessibility for local and newly arrived immigrant and refugee residents.

Programs & Activities

ReWA offers holistic supports through multiple wrap-around social services to immigrants and refugees, in multiple locations in the Seattle/Puget Sound area, for every member of the family - from infant to senior. Often, ReWA’s role in the community also educates and advocates for these approaches, with community leaders, governments, and the private sector, and partnering directly with other human services nonprofits. ReWA’s programs and focus areas include:

• • The Family Empowerment program, which assists families in making successful transitions to life in the U.S. and integrating into American society, through food benefits, information and referrals, assistance navigating American systems, interpretation and advocacy, and workshops to provide newcomers with information about services, health and nutrition, and financial literacy.
  • Early Childhood Education, through its Early Learning Centers, which provide free and low-cost, bi-lingual, and bi-cultural childcare and preschool for children ages 0-5. ReWA operates 3 Early Learning Centers as part of the Seattle Preschool Program and will be opening two additional sites in 2025/26.
  • Center for Social & Emotional Well-Being (Behavioral Health), which provides individual and family counseling, group counseling, psychiatric services, and workshops.
  • Youth Program. ReWA is committed to providing high quality, culturally relevant services that develop the whole youth. ReWA does this through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) after school and summer programs, targeted ELL academic interventions, parent workshops and home visits, and a Post-Secondary Success Program.
  • Domestic Violence Prevention & Support, which provides social services, advocacy, and family law legal services.
  • Employment & Vocational Training, through its Limited English Proficiency Career Pathway Program that encompasses employment, training, Computer Basics Workshops, English as a Second Language, and life skills services.
  • Housing & Homelessness Prevention through wrap-around housing assistance that includes employment assistance and intensive case management, including finding and furnishing housing, and emergency assistance for rent and utilities.
  • Naturalization & Other Legal Services. ReWA offers help to refugees and immigrants who want assistance with the naturalization process, including classes and tutoring for the citizenship exam, filling out forms, and other low-cost legal support and representation services.

Additional information about the organization can be found on ReWA’s website at ReWA.org.

Position & Key Priorities

The new Executive Director will inherit a strong and stable organization, highly respected in the community, following an Executive Director who is retiring in late August after 11 years at the helm. ReWA is a well-known, responsive, and impactful organization and has the potential to continue to grow and serve even more people. The opportunity to lead the organization comes at a critical time for immigrants and refugees, and the organization is seeking a skilled, knowledgeable, relatable, and experienced leader with passion for its mission. While ReWA is in a strong financial position today (with an operating budget of $15M- $18M and healthy reserves), changing external circumstances, including projected federal cuts and policy changes, and state and local budget deficits, create some concern about renewals of key contracts and grants; therefore, diversification of funding and contingency planning are overarching priorities to best position ReWA for the future.

Specific Priorities for the First 18 - 24 Months of the Executive Director Tenure

• Maintain ReWA’s Strong Historical Multi-Culture Positive Environment and internal connections through engagement with and supporting its 200+ staff, addressing challenges, and leading with authenticity, humility, and deep cultural sensitivity, uplifting morale and building leaders throughout the organization. Get to know all staff, their strengths and their passion for the work and create opportunities to continue to strengthen internal cohesion. Continue to strengthen ReWA’s special focus on being the best possible provider of services to all immigrants and refugees, regardless of country of origin, religion or faith, or political background, and assure staff collaboration and alignment with workplace values and norms.
• Rapidly Engage with Key Policymakers, Funders, & Thought-Leaders to advocate for ReWA’s mission and programs, and immigrant and refugee issues, continuing ReWA’s role as ‘go-to’ organization for critical insights, and framing ReWA as an asset. Develop and maintain relationships with community partners and develop strong understanding of community needs, ReWA’s depth of community service offerings, and opportunity to partner with others. Diversify and strengthen ReWA‘s depth for ‘community advocacy’ - developing capacity for advocacy and external relationships among staff and Board within key policy decision making processes.
• Revenue Diversification – Strengthen individual major donor and private-sector fundraising by leveraging existing and potential networks to build a donor pipeline and diversify revenue streams. Focus on strategic philanthropy through cultivating philanthropic foundations and optimizing donor fundraising. Maintain, strengthen, and build new relationships across potential donors.
• Plan for Sustainability – Develop short and mid-range actionable plans considering alternative scenarios, risk management, efficiencies, management capacities, and succession planning. Rapidly get up to speed on changing federal policy and funding, and downstream state, local and other external contexts to inform this planning.
• Governance & Board Engagement – Further strengthen board of directors through new recruits aligned with organizational needs, stronger strategic engagement with specific clear opportunities, and guidance for the Board to engage in fundraising and “friend-raising” to maximize ReWA brand and community relationships. Build strong leadership, Board relationships and strategic partnerships.
• Assess & Modernize ReWA’s Internal Infrastructure to Support Future Growth. Further strengthening IT systems, HR capacity, and financial management will be essential to sustain ReWA’s expansion. The Executive Director will work to streamline internal operations, improve cross-department collaboration, and develop more efficient organizational structures, maintaining strong accountability and performance standards while ensuring a stable, supportive culture with a focus on ensuring financial stability and fiscal responsibility.

Essential Skills & Attributes

ReWA’s unique and culturally and linguistically competent approach to service delivery is reflected by its broadly diverse staff, with multiple cultures, languages, communities of origin and different life stories, who support immigrants and refugees of all types. The ideal new Executive Director will have a lived experience relevant to ReWA’s mission, understand the challenges of war, displacement, emigration and trauma, and bring not only a strong emotional intelligence to the role, but also a personal philosophy and approach that celebrates multi-culturalism (over 50 languages or dialects are spoken by staff) and be able to effectively navigate and engage staff and community at all levels.

The ideal new Executive will have:

Mission-driven Leadership & Emotional Intelligence

• Inspirational leadership qualities and emotional intelligence – Demonstrates a passion for and connection to ReWA’s mission, clients, and staff. Experience empowering staff, building trust, and fostering and maintaining a positive and mission-driven culture. An ability to navigate complex interpersonal, intercultural dynamics and build strong, authentic relationships with staff and diverse community stakeholders. Leads with integrity and humility.
• Passion for immigrants and refugees and their experiences Strong ties to immigrant and refugee communities with a demonstrated ability to build trust and advocate for community needs in a variety of settings. Understands community and government supports and systems for immigrants and refugees and is a collaborative partner/leader. Is familiar with trauma-informed systems and approaches. Ability to engage policymakers and community leaders to advance immigrant and refugee rights.

Executive Leadership & Strategic Vision

• Executive leadership experience in nonprofit organizations – 10+ years of Executive leadership engagingand mentoring diverse, mission-driven teams in nonprofit multi-cultural environments, fostering collaboration, and ensuring operational excellence. Demonstrated high ethical standards and approaches to the work.
• Proven ability to set and execute a vision – Has a track record of impact, implementing long-term strategic plans, aligning initiatives with the mission, delivering on performance indicators, and driving organizational growth while maintaining financial stability. Builds and leads a culture of accountability and learning. Demonstrated ability to make tough decisions in a timely and transparent manner.

Communication & Advocacy Talents

• Exceptional public speaking, advocacy, and external/internal relations skills – Proven track record of engaging policymakers, funders, and community leaders. Effective, inspirational public speaker, can represent the organization in public forums, engage with stakeholders, and serve as the face of the organization, with clear and measurable outcomes in prior roles. Strong listening skills and intentional communication styles– past success engaging and actively listening to staff and community needs and conveying messages clearly and effectively.
• Community relations poise and expertise – Can comfortably and rapidly engage with political and funding networks to sustain and grow the organization. Politically savvy, with demonstrated experience and success in policy advocacy, government relations and securing public funding, within 501(c)3 parameters. Track record of building a bench of advocates to leverage organizational strengths (Board, senior leaders, others).

Financial & Fundraising Expertise

• Financial acumen – Demonstrated experience managing multi-million-dollar nonprofit budgets, ensuring financial sustainability and leading revenue diversification efforts, including securing major donor and foundation support. Eight or more years of nonprofit financial management experience, including budgeting, funding streams, negotiating and reporting for government contracts, reimbursement models, cash flow management, and financial sustainability strategies. Understanding of the financial risks and complexities underlying both day-to-day decision-making as well as major strategic initiatives. Demonstrated ability to identify and develop profit centers and oversee organizational expansion strategies.
• Track record of creative and adaptable fundraising success – Proven ability to pivot in response to internal and external changes and develop innovative fundraising strategies to diversify revenue sources. Demonstrated success building and innovating a new major donor program. Success with corporate philanthropy.

Organizational Growth & Sustainability Strengths

• Change management expertise – Experience leading organizations and cross-functional teams successfully through transitions and implementing best practices for growth and sustainability. Demonstrated success leading organizations through political and policy shifts, ensuring financial and programmatic sustainability in changing environments.
• Operational efficiency expertise – Proven track-record of leading internal capacity-building efforts, improving HR, IT, and financial management systems, and implementing strategies to streamline organizational growth.
• Demonstrated success growing and strengthening Board of Directors’ engagement and capacities to support an organization, resulting in stronger relationships and funding investments.

Additional Skills & Experience

• English fluency. Second language skills a plus.
• Experience in a refugee and/or immigrant-serving organization is a plus.

Compensation

$200,000-$245,000 depending on experience. Benefits include employee Medical, Dental, Vision with 90% of premiums paid by the organization, LTD and Life insurance, 4 weeks paid vacation, sick leave, 11 paid holidays plus 3 personal days, a winter break vacation, and opportunity to contribute to a 403(b) plan. The organization recently reached small-market size, which could allow employer contributions to the 403(b) plan in the future.

APPLICATION PROCESS

ReWA has retained Glick Davis & Associates, LLC to facilitate this search on their behalf. To apply, interested candidates should e-mail their cover letter and resume to: ReWA@glickdavis.com.

Resume(s) received without cover letter will not be considered.

JOB REQUIREMENTS

• Willingness and ability to travel regularly throughout the Seattle/Puget Sound-area and occasionally to meetings in the state capital (Olympia, WA) or nationally to key meetings.
• The position is based in Seattle, WA and will work from the Seattle headquarters office as a base at least 3-4 days/week.
• The successful candidate may be required to pass a thorough comprehensive civil, criminal, educational and/or credit background check.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

ReWA is committed to a diverse candidate pool, values and inclusive workforce and workplace environment and wishes to minimize or eliminate the impact of implicit bias during the search and hiring process. Women, minorities, and other underrepresented groups, including people with lived experience, are especially encouraged to apply.

ReWA is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunity for all qualified individuals. All employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service, family or parental status of any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate.