Senior Director for Community Impact and Partnerships

ABOUT THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS (CFWM)

Everything we do begins with local generosity: People in our region who want to give back to their communities in Franklin, Hampden, and Hampshire counties. When our donors give to us, they know that their gifts will be invested, stewarded, and shared to support people where they need it most.

As your community foundation, we’re passionate about serving by bringing together resources, expertise, and devoted regional partners to tackle complex and complicated issues. We’re deeply devoted to seeking solutions, building connections, and collaborating to have an effective and positive impact where we live.

CFWM is committed to working together across our community to increasing equity and opportunity so that all who live in our three counties have access to a satisfying quality of life.

Applicants must apply at https://recruiting.paylocity.com/recruiting/jobs/All/f3782ec2-525c-4836-9de5-10f49ea1dc57/Community-Foundation-of-Western-Massachusetts

ABOUT OUR HYBRID WORKPLACE MODEL

Our hybrid model is designed to keep community at the heart of what we do. We offer a hybrid workplace as part of our ongoing efforts to respond to employees’ needs and feedback that allows for individual needs to be met while balancing our ability to collaborate and build relationships in our workplace and across our community. We continue to recognize that some of our work can be done remotely, some work must be performed in the office, and much of our work takes place in our travels and activities throughout the region. All employees are required to come into the office, and work across the region for some CFWM events and activities. Some positions may require more of an office or community presence than others.

Please reach out to Briana Wales-Thaxton, Vice President for People and Culture at bwales@communityfoundation.org or 413-417-6399 if you need assistance or an accommodation to complete your application.

ABOUT THE POSITION

The Senior Director of Community Impact and Partnerships serves as the lead for foundation-directed giving including grantmaking activities. Utilizing a trust-based philanthropy model, the senior director mobilizes the CI team to design, implement, and evaluate mechanisms for distributing financial resources into the community. At the core of this work is an intentional design cycle with the community of listening, testing, and relistening. This position also leads the team in creating and nurturing partnerships across private, public, nonprofit and education sectors, particularly in our strategic focus areas through a relational approach to the work.

ABOUT YOU - THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

• You are a collaborative leader who will serve as a thought partner to the team, with the Department VP and across the organization.
• You listen openly, develop shared understanding, and negotiate win-win resolutions when challenges arise.
• You encourage collaborative processes and look for connections across the team, across the organization, and across to the community in order to strengthen our work.
• You are an adaptative supervisor who will mentor and support the team in leveraging their knowledge, strengths, and skills for collective success.
• You are ready to supervise staff across content area expertise that includes education, arts, equity, and general grantmaking in a way that includes a value add to the team's knowledge base.
• You are a strong partnership manager who can work with the team to develop a plan for shared partnership building and maintenance.
• You have a demonstrated commitment to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in philanthropy.
• You have a proven track record of strong management techniques and experiences including project management and general administration.
• You are someone who is self-motivated and willing to learn from the team and quickly take on the responsibilities of this role to serve as a mentor and strategic partner for the work.
• You are adept at synthesizing information and identifying trends that support evaluation and understanding of the impact of our grantmaking.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING

• Contribute to the advancement of the Foundation’s priority focus areas through the alignment of Foundation-directing grantmaking, learning, higher education and nonprofit partnerships. Support the development of mechanisms by which we can frame, measure, expand, and evolve our Community Impact. The Senior Director is also a grantmaker that will maintain a portfolio of grants.
• Oversight of all aspects of financial resource allocation including initiating, designing, implementing and monitoring workflow processes and procedures for grantmaking and scholarship programs, including the application, review and award activities for all programs.
• Research and implement innovative grantmaking, scholarship and capacity building practices to include trends in community leadership models for community foundations, trust-based philanthropy, and other related best practices. Implementation requires piloting that includes program and process evaluation for new techniques and ideas as well as training for the Community Impact Team to support learning and ongoing professional development.
• Support the cultivation and growth of community partnerships, focusing on connections within and between the local and regional education and nonprofit sectors.
• Increase internal collaboration by working along with the Development and Philanthropic Operations teams to connect the needs of the community with donor interests, including developing mechanisms to collect and share emerging community needs on an ongoing basis. Work with the VP of Community Impact and Partnerships and the Senior Program Officers to support Board Governance work.
• Support and coordinate external collaboration by working closely within and across departments, with grantees, volunteers, committees and working groups, team members, and a variety of community stakeholders in order to advance key priorities. This includes intensive collaboration with identified external partners including funding partners.
• Advance data collection, evaluation, and reporting using a collaborative approach to design and implement evaluation procedures to define and increase outputs, outcomes, and impact. Work to center learning in grantmaking and Foundation-directed strategies.
• Support staff development by being proactive and responsive to individual staff and create ways for existing staff to gain and use those skills while recruiting when necessary additional staff to enrich the team.

Requirements

Education

• Bachelor’s Degree or the equivalent is preferred.

Experience

• Minimum of five- seven years’ substantive program and operational experience;
• At least three years’ experience in philanthropy, grantmaking, and/or the education and nonprofit sectors;
• Demonstrated experience in formulating and implementing policies and procedures; and
• Demonstrated initiative, sound judgment, and the tenacity to see tasks through to completion in an accurate and thoughtful manner.
• Previous supervisory and change management experience desired

Skills

• Project management: Ability to juggle multiple projects and work independently, as well as with others, in a collaborative, often fast-paced, team environment.
• Partnership and relationship management: ability to build, evolve, and maintain partnerships and relationships with a variety of community stakeholders demonstrating emotional intelligence
• Effective communication skills: Excellent oral and written skills with a variety of audiences and stakeholders. Able to represent the foundation to external stakeholders.
• Facilitative and adaptive leadership and management style: Demonstrated commitment and ability to learn about and implement management and supervision practices that are collaborative in nature and embraces diversity, equity, and inclusion and amplifies the voices of underrepresented communities.
• Analytical and relational modalities: Able to review both quantitative and qualitative data and lead collaborative decision-making processes based on findings. Balancing that is a need to center people—their needs and experiences—at the core of our work and elevate community voice in our work.