Executive Director

What You'll Do

AFC is seeking an inspirational, strategic, and mission-driven Executive Director (ED) to lead the organization to and through its next chapter. The next ED will further the organization's impact, with the goal to scale our reach and serve more New York City children and families. The incoming leader will design and execute the road map to that goal, first by aligning our operational infrastructure to support these expanded services, and fostering systems and an organizational culture that empowers our staff to deliver excellent programmatic outcomes to more families. The ED will also champion the organization externally, ensuring that AFC remains positioned as a leading voice advocating for educational justice in New York City. This is a unique opportunity to draw on over 50 years of organizational expertise and community trust while leading organizational modernization and systems enhancement to expand impact for children and families across our city.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Visionary Leadership and Strategic Direction

• Develop and execute a five-year strategic plan, ensuring AFC's mission and sustainable operational and financial growth while remaining at the forefront of educational justice
• Assess and prepare the organization to scale our impact, bolstering the structures and systems that support long-term sustainability
• Foster a strengthened organizational and team culture that upholds our mission and values
• Sustain and evolve AFC's equality and inclusion efforts (including our DEI, disability access, and other advisory groups) to enhance our ability to develop community-informed solutions
• Drive strategic decision-making in areas such as fundraising, policy, advocacy, and organizational growth

Organizational & Executive Leadership

• Lead as both a strategist who can articulate the vision, and a manager in a "roll up your sleeves" culture
• Develop innovative operating models that increase capacity, empower programmatic and functional leads, and establish clear expectations and accountability for organizational outcomes
• Authentically lead in an impassioned, high-touch, and people-centered culture, ensuring that staff continue to feel heard, valued, and supported, while centering impact and inclusivity in decision-making processes
• Oversee financial planning, budgeting, and resource allocation, ensuring fiscal sustainability
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with the members of the Board to ensure positive support and strategic organizational oversight, and effectively leverage their expertise to further AFC's impact, operations, financial stability and mission
• Foster Board engagement, ensuring a well-rounded and diverse governing body that reflects AFC's values

Fundraising, Advocacy, & External Relations

• Supervise AFC's development team to build AFC's donor base and presence in philanthropic circles to ensure long-term sustainability and impact
• Partner with the Board on development strategy, including giving and donor outreach
• Oversee AFC's communications team and other staff, while working with external partners, to shape public narratives and media strategy
• Represent AFC in media, education policy and advocacy circles, and public speaking engagements, as a passionate and informed thought leader, boosting our organizational visibility and cementing our positions at the forefront of education policy and development public visibility and positioning AFC as a leader in education policy

Who You'll Work With

• You will report to AFC's Board of Directors and supervise the organization's senior leadership team.

• Understanding of, and a demonstrated personal or professional passion for AFC's mission to ensure a high-quality education for every New York City student
• 15+ years of senior leadership experience in a nonprofit providing services to low-income communities and families, preferably in education, advocacy, policy, or legal services
• Exhibits AFC's values: family-centered, grounds their work in expertise, passionate about dismantling obstacles for students and families, community orientation, sees their work as an opportunity to advance justice for under-represented communities, values impact
• Experience leading teams, departments, or organizations through periods of innovation; keeping the organization's mission front and center through the change that comes with innovation
• A listening and learning orientation, incorporates learnings into their leadership practice
• Approachable, empathetic, and collaborative leadership style; emphasizes impactful outcomes and putting values into practice
• An expert in their field (nonprofit leadership, education, law, advocacy, or policy) with the credibility to lead both internally and externally and capacity to learn new subject matter areas quickly
• Keen and critical eye for opportunities to improve systems and processes, track record of leading teams to achieve operational excellence
• Proven external relationship building wins, ideally having cultivated major gifts, foundation funding, and corporate partnerships
• Experience engaging with the media and serving as a public voice for a social-justice organization is a plus
• A bachelor's degree is required. An advanced degree is a plus, but not required.
• A legal background is strongly preferred but not required

Location and Work Environment

AFC works in a hybrid model. The Executive Director will split their time between AFC's Midtown offices, meetings with organizational partners, and remote work.

Compensation

This is a full time position, with a salary in the range of $220,000-$250,000, commensurate with experience.

Advocates for Children of New York strives to employ a staff with diverse experiences and perspectives that furthers our mission of ensuring a high-quality education for New York students who face barriers to academic success, focusing on students from low-income backgrounds. You can learn more about our equality and inclusion orientation here.

AFC is an equal opportunity employer that actively seeks to recruit and retain a diverse staff and encourages all applications including from people of color, persons with disabilities, parents of persons with disabilities, persons of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities or gender expressions and persons of diverse socioeconomic backgrounds.

AFC is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with a disability or other protected characteristic. The policy regarding requests for reasonable accommodation applies to all aspects of employment, including the application process.