What are the responsibilities and job description for the Executive Director position at Maryland Nonprofits?
About Joy Grows
Joy Grows is leading a community-oriented agricultural movement in Annapolis, Maryland. We operate the Eastport Community Farm and a growing network of community garden sites in collaboration with leaders in public housing neighborhoods. Our work spans urban agriculture, youth programming, and neighborhood food distribution — building a replicable model for community food resiliency across the state.
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THE OPPORTUNITY
Joy Grows has a working farm with a 4,000 square foot “community hub” greenhouse, active youth programs, and a growing network of partners and funders. We are now at the moment where skilled administrative leadership is essential so Founding Director Matthew Wallace can focus fully on site and program development.
Our incoming ED will lead organizational growth from current operations toward a $250,000–500,000 budget, with a trajectory of $2 million budget. City, county, and state resources are being actively allocated to fund community agriculture and neighborhood food systems. Steps from the state capitol, Joy Grows is positioned to lead this movement.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
THE ROLE
The ED coordinates the Joy Grows team and leads the organization toward its shared vision. This is a collaborative leadership role — not a top-down one. The ED organizes a broad network of staff, volunteers, board members, and partners, and works closely with the Program Director and Board Chair on financial and strategic decisions.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
What You'll Do
Additional responsibilities include program evaluation, bilingual outreach coordination, and legal and compliance oversight.
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Who You Are
Thoughtful — you listen before you act.
Collaborative — you build with people, not for them.
Inclusive — you make space for everyone in the room.
Dedicated — people can count on you.
Ambitious — you see this role as an opportunity to grow.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Qualifications
We welcome candidates with a range of experience. Mission alignment, leadership potential, and commitment to personal development matter most.
Required
— Ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver on objectives
— Strong written and verbal communication
— Experience in a nonprofit, community organization, or mission-driven setting
— Comfort with financial documents — budgets, cash flow, income statements
— Fundraising or relationship management experience
Valued
— Connections in the Annapolis Community
— Senior leadership or management experience
— Background in community development, urban agriculture, food systems, or youth programming
— Grant writing and reporting experience
— Salesforce or CRM experience
— Spanish language skills
— Familiarity with Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, or the Maryland nonprofit landscape
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Compensation
Starting salary $55,000–75,000, commensurate with experience, with growth tied to organizational milestones.
Joy Grows is leading a community-oriented agricultural movement in Annapolis, Maryland. We operate the Eastport Community Farm and a growing network of community garden sites in collaboration with leaders in public housing neighborhoods. Our work spans urban agriculture, youth programming, and neighborhood food distribution — building a replicable model for community food resiliency across the state.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
THE OPPORTUNITY
Joy Grows has a working farm with a 4,000 square foot “community hub” greenhouse, active youth programs, and a growing network of partners and funders. We are now at the moment where skilled administrative leadership is essential so Founding Director Matthew Wallace can focus fully on site and program development.
Our incoming ED will lead organizational growth from current operations toward a $250,000–500,000 budget, with a trajectory of $2 million budget. City, county, and state resources are being actively allocated to fund community agriculture and neighborhood food systems. Steps from the state capitol, Joy Grows is positioned to lead this movement.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
THE ROLE
The ED coordinates the Joy Grows team and leads the organization toward its shared vision. This is a collaborative leadership role — not a top-down one. The ED organizes a broad network of staff, volunteers, board members, and partners, and works closely with the Program Director and Board Chair on financial and strategic decisions.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
What You'll Do
- Board and Network Development
- Planning and Scheduling
- Team Coordination
- Partner Outreach and Communication
- Fundraising
- Financial Oversight
- Administrative Infrastructure
- Media and Brand
- Organizational Accountability
Additional responsibilities include program evaluation, bilingual outreach coordination, and legal and compliance oversight.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Who You Are
Thoughtful — you listen before you act.
Collaborative — you build with people, not for them.
Inclusive — you make space for everyone in the room.
Dedicated — people can count on you.
Ambitious — you see this role as an opportunity to grow.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Qualifications
We welcome candidates with a range of experience. Mission alignment, leadership potential, and commitment to personal development matter most.
Required
— Ability to manage multiple priorities and deliver on objectives
— Strong written and verbal communication
— Experience in a nonprofit, community organization, or mission-driven setting
— Comfort with financial documents — budgets, cash flow, income statements
— Fundraising or relationship management experience
Valued
— Connections in the Annapolis Community
— Senior leadership or management experience
— Background in community development, urban agriculture, food systems, or youth programming
— Grant writing and reporting experience
— Salesforce or CRM experience
— Spanish language skills
— Familiarity with Annapolis, Anne Arundel County, or the Maryland nonprofit landscape
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Compensation
Starting salary $55,000–75,000, commensurate with experience, with growth tied to organizational milestones.
Salary : $55,000 - $75,000