Midwest Regional Director

Local Progress and the Local Progress Impact Lab are looking for a Midwest Regional Director with a track record of organizing, base and coalition building, training and facilitation, strategic campaigning, and staff management and supervision.

Working as part of a Membership and Organizing team, the Midwest Regional Director will be responsible for building and maintaining the infrastructure of the Minnesota Chapter, particularly organizing beyond the Twin Cities. Additionally, the Midwest Regional Director will also be responsible for envisioning and building out our midwest regional strategy, which involves membership recruitment and engagement, and identifying and cultivating relationships and buy-in from key allies, organizational partners and funders. The Midwest Regional Director will supervise and support the development of organizing team members.

The ideal candidate for this job is someone with a track record of relational organizing, developing leaders, and bringing people across diverse backgrounds and opinions together in coalition to shift the material conditions of our communities. We’re looking for a strategic thinker who also pays attention to details and knows how to build systems to reduce redundancies, and increase efficiency by creating tools to produce high quality work. A candidate who has strong supervision experience managing self-starter/self-directed staff. A candidate who holds a keen interest in transformational policy and organizing at the municipal level.

The Midwest Regional Director will report to the Managing Director, Membership & Organizing.

Location: This is a remote position with no in-office requirement. However, the candidate must live in Minnesota.

Travel Requirement: This position is required to travel to in-person events up to six days a month.

Primary Responsibilities

Lead and grow Local Progress’ work in Minnesota:

• Membership Recruitment & Organizing: Grow and strengthen membership in Minnesota, including developing and implementing a strategy to continue to both recruit new members & increase engagement of existing members in key geographic areas in the state.
• Leadership Development: Ensure the Minnesota Chapter remains in compliance by maintaining and growing the Local Progress Minnesota Organizing Committee (OC). The OC must reflect the racial, gender and geographic diversity of the state.
• Campaigns & Partnerships: Plan and execute local, regional and statewide meetings and trainings for Local Progress Minnesota members. Identify and develop deep relationships with progressive community and labor partners in Minnesota to increase alignment of priorities and collaboration by establishing Local Progress as a trusted and strong coalition partner that helps strategize, launch and coordinate trans-local and statewide campaigns.

Explore the development of a Midwest regional strategy:

• Membership Recruitment & Organizing: Spreadhead the exploration, development and implementation of a midwest regional strategy (priority states: IL, MO, MI, OH, WI) building an organizing and governance infrastructure to grow and strengthen membership, support and mobilize local electeds in the region on shared issue priorities.
• Leadership Development: Plan and execute state and regional meetings and trainings for Local Progress members.
• Partnerships & Collaborative Governance: Build and cultivate intentional long-term relationships and buy-in from key allies, regional, state and local partner organizations and funders to support the growth of the Midwest region.

Support Local Progress and Local Progress Impact Lab’s national work:

• Cross-team collaboration: Collaborate across Local Progress teams to support organizational activities and infrastructure including caucuses, state chapter activities, Progressive Governance Academy, reports, convenings, web products, etc.
• Supervision: Supervise up to 3 members of the organizing team and help develop a culture of excellent supervision and staff development within LP + LPIL.
• Fundraising: Lead a fundraising portfolio with set goals of funds to raise, maintaining existing relationships and identifying new funding opportunities.
• Policy & Program support: Supporting national projects (policy, organizing or campaign related).

Required Qualifications

• Must reside in Minnesota.
• 7-10+ years of organizing, strategic campaigning, and/or advocacy experience.
• 3+ years of demonstrated success in supervising staff working across a breadth of issues and functions.
• Experience in relational organizing and an ability to relate to and move to action a diverse group of people from a variety of local contexts and backgrounds, including in a virtual setting.
• A demonstrated history of success in fundraising
• A background and skill set in designing membership-based and/or issue-based organizing plans.
• Ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects, create and execute organizing work plans, anticipate obstacles and identify ways to navigate challenges, identify and involve stakeholders appropriately, and drive projects independently.
• A commitment to inside/outside strategy and movement governance that features deep partnership between “outside” organizing and “inside” elected officials.
• A demonstrated commitment to social, racial, and economic justice and a deep interest in local policy, politics, and government.
• Ambition, drive, energy, and the ability to work flexible, long hours when necessary and travel (approximately 1-2 per month as well as 2 staff retreats per year).

The Ideal Candidate will have:

• Experience in leading and managing multi-stakeholder coalitions.
• Previous experience working with elected officials.

Salary and Benefits:

Salary will be determined according to a salary scale which takes into account years of experience, job duties, and other factors, but is expected to be between $100,000 and $110,000.

We operate on a four day workweek with a default schedule of Monday through Thursday. We have a generous benefits package, including health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, four weeks of vacation per year, 20 sick days per year, paid holidays, and contributions to individuals’ 403(b) plans. The Local Progress office is closed between December 24 and January 1 annually.

This is a management position and will not be part of the Local Progress bargaining unit.