Vice-President, Community Impact & Engagement

Who We Serve: The ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) population represents more than 600,000 low- and moderate-income households in our region that earn more than the Federal Poverty Level but less than the basic cost of living for the county/state in which they live. United Way NCA’s ALICE Lives Here initiative is one of United Way NCA’s strategic programs established to address the issues of inequity in our systems for employment, education, health and food access, financial stability, and opportunities for all to grow to the best of their abilities. 

Equity: Equity is fundamental to our mission. We infuse equity in all our business operations, hiring practices and community impact initiatives. 

Overview: Are you driven and passionate about ensuring that everyone has equitable access to health, education, and economic opportunity? Are you a natural leader who loves to build and develop teams? Are you a change agent who is looking to make a lasting impact in your community and within your organization? If so, you may be just what we are looking for as we expand our team. Take a closer look and reach out if you meet these qualifications. 

Position Overview: 

 The Vice President of Community Impact & Engagement plays a critical role in elevating United Way NCA’s essential work in identifying community needs, developing funding priorities, and leading strategies to achieve community impact goals. This position serves as a visible change agent and connector, focusing on building impactful and sustainable strategies to build thriving communities throughout the National Capital Area. The Vice President will engage with various stakeholders, manage grant processes, and support core team activities such as program evaluation and advocacy, all while ensuring alignment with United Way NCA’s mission and values. 

The Vice President will oversee the general management of all community program areas, which include program development, delivery, and evaluation, as well as budget setting, knowledge management, and external relationship management.  

This leader will: 

• Serve in a highly visible external role in the community, actively engaging multi-sector stakeholders to advance United Way NCA impact priorities.
• Engage in advocacy and policy development. Develop and disseminate issue briefs, etc. on various policy issues, while guiding and supporting the organization’s involvement in public policy interpretation, policy development and policy change.
• Lead the assessment of community capacity, set priorities, and implement community investment strategies.
• Establish measurable impact strategies that reflect community needs and drive equitable outcomes.
• Oversee grantmaking and investment processes to ensure effective distribution of funds, including budget management.
• Lead grant management processes aligned with revenue diversification and impact strategies.
• Represent United Way NCA on key local, county and state planning bodies, advisory committees, membership associations and community-wide coalitions to increase United Way NCA resources, partnerships and visibility in all the National Capital Area’s jurisdictions across the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.
• Engage with community stakeholders to assess needs and create solutions.
• Drive multi-sector community collaboration to build thriving communities and to build strong partnerships.
• Leverage community and corporate partners and volunteers to enhance the scope of impact work.
• Develop outcome metrics to demonstrate effective utilization of community resources and track performance toward goals.
• Cultivate community support for United Way NCA programs through partnership development with various organizations.
• Establish and maintain strong relationships with external partners and stakeholders.
• Coordinate the development and use of needs assessments across United Way NCA initiatives and communities.
• Identify leadership roles for United Way NCA in community-building and convening efforts.
• Regularly represent United Way NCA at community meetings and events, advocating for the organization’s issue areas.
• Develop and maintain relationships with philanthropic funders and leaders to address changing community needs.

Responsibilities: 

Program Leadership & Management: 

• Develop, enhance, and implement organizational community impact priorities and strategies. 
• Conceive and develop new community programs and grant-making initiatives that serve the community and ensure ongoing programmatic excellence. 

• Support the Board of Directors and provide guidance and information to keep them informed on community impact initiatives.
• Recommend timelines and resources needed to achieve program goals.
• Talent management and development of staff on the Community Impact team, both management/professional and support personnel to include coaching, guidance, identifying and recommending appropriate growth development and training opportunities.
• Work with staff to develop systems to ensure consistent, high-quality project management.
• Provide leadership in the development of inter-team communication and cohesiveness, sustaining culture and supporting staff during organizational growth.
• Monitor division progress in achieving pre-set outcomes.
• Adaptable professional who can wear many hats and has the ability to work collaboratively across and within departments. 
• Collaborative management style that values open communication, team creation and development, and values team member autonomy - while understanding the team capacity and knowledge-sharing within Community Impact Department and across departments.

External Relationship Management:  

• Lead visible programmatic direction and develop and maintain key external relationships with partners and thought leaders throughout the National Capital Area region. 
• Create a grant making framework and ensure strategic investment of funds and other resources.
• Engage with the community about key issues.
• Develop relationships and partnerships with foundations, corporations, government, and private sector to facilitate collective impact.

• Liaison between United Way NCA and regional/national organizations for collaborative efforts and initiatives.
• Achieve and maintain leadership and/or prominent advisory roles on key.

Donor Stewardship/Resource Development/Proposal Writing:

• In partnership with the Chief Development Officer and the Resource Development team, develop relationships with local and national philanthropic, foundation and corporate leaders that result in unique opportunities and funded partnerships that advance community impact work in collaboration with other funders and community partners. 
• Develop new community initiatives, generate compelling cases for donors, philanthropists, foundations and other funders, and steward large foundation grants and other major gifts.

Funding/Grants Management: 

• Oversee all aspects of grantmaking, grants management, compliance, and accurate reporting.
• Ensure that quality control policies and procedures are in place and consistently practiced in grant making and grant management activities under the purview of the CI Division.
• Oversee the development and management of the budget and facilitate integrated fiscal accountability procedures between the CI Department and the Finance Division

Knowledge Management: 

• Develop the necessary systems, processes, and tools to better support the facilitation, collection, and sharing of knowledge that is generated by the organization’s community programs.
• Develop a dissemination system to share organizational learning with a broad range of communities.
• Ensure that key project outcomes and/or policy, advocacy, and legislation are evaluated and leveraged for maximum community and organizational impact.
• Work collaboratively with the senior management team to integrate cross program activities and functions.

Program Leadership and Management:  

The Vice President of Community Impact & Engagement will have a hands-on approach in leading a variety of initiatives. S/he will have a track record of effectively leading a performance-based and outcome-based program and staff. S/he will have developed and operationalized strategies that have taken a program or organization to the next stage of growth and sustainability. 

Team Building and Development:  

The Vice President of Community Impact & Engagement will manage and develop a strong team of staff, program/project managers, and development professionals.  

Exceptional Communication and Influencing Skills:  

As a voice/advocate of United Way NCA, the Vice President of Community Impact & Engagement will have strong written and verbal communication skills. S/he will be a persuasive, credible, and polished communicator with excellent interpersonal and multidisciplinary project skills. This individual must work collaboratively with internal as well as external partners and other organizations, providing exposure for program impact in a variety of professional forums and other media outlets. 

Education and Experience Requirements: 

• A bachelor’s degree required; master’s degree preferred.

• Minimum 10 years of nonprofit work experience, including a combination of program management, program design, working in community impact model and coalition building. 
• Minimum 5 years’ experience leading and managing a team. 
• Prefer experience/knowledge of the Metro D.C. nonprofit sector. 
• Minimum 5 years’ experience working with grants, including a combination grant making responsibilities, procedures, & activities. 
• Experience working in collective impact model, building coalitions, developing strategic relationships, evaluating the regional environment, establishing shared measures of success. 
• Knowledge of grant making programs, including responsibilities, procedures, & activities. 
• Experience with strategic planning, system thinking, and outcome-based methodology.
• Experience building program capacity in collective impact model. 
• Proven experience in creating departmental, programmatic, or organizational strategy using evidence-based means to determine relevance in the community and means to measure success.  
• Build capacity of partner nonprofits and program investments.  
• Experience tracking regional issues and individual communities along with emerging trends and making incremental adjustments as needed. 
• Proven experience in dealing with a diverse group of individuals (i.e., corporate, community leaders, government officials, agency leaders and volunteers). 
• Strong knowledge of social services and public policy; team-based, cross-functional work environments with communication as a top priority.
• Experience designing and managing multi-level investment systems that measure results, negotiating partnerships, strategic alliances, and collaborations especially with unusual or first-time partnerships.
• Knowledge of research and evidence-based program investments, nonprofit return on investment strategies and commitment to program outcomes.
• The ability to understand and work with financial and budgetary policies and procedures.
• Help recruit, manage, evaluate, develop, and train the Community Impact Department staff.
• Strong communication skills are needed to develop Community Impact programs and strategies.
• Proven ability to develop strategic partnerships with community groups Ability to establish goals and accept incremental change in an evolving organization.  
• Flexibility needed for occasional local travel and working outside normal business hours to attend community events.

• People-first management style is needed to create and develop a team environment.

Competencies: 

To perform the job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies to perform the essential functions of this position and achieve high performance: 

Leadership - Visionary leader who can develop goals and strategies and productively leverage partnerships for community engagement and contributions.  

Entrepreneurial ship – A creative, critical thinker, self-motivated. 

Interpersonal Skill - Excellent influencing skills, strong manager, coach, and team builder.  

Communications: - Excellent written and verbal communicator.  

Enthusiasm - High energy individual with an infectious ‘can-do’ attitude and an obvious sense of urgency; passionate about citizen mobilization and community change. 

Mission focused – The ability to create real social change that leads to better lives and healthier communities. 

Relationship oriented – An understanding that people come before process and is astute in cultivating and managing relationships toward a common goal. 

Collaborator – Understands the role and contribution of all sectors of the community and can mobilize resources through meaningful engagement.