Executive Director

Status: Exempt

Terms of Employment: Regular Full Time

Basic Functions:

At the direction of the Board of Directors, the Executive Director should propose the major thrust and direction of the community action agency in overcoming the poverty conditions in the community. Within the framework of these long-term goals, the director should lead the agency’s programs to achieve shorter term goals on a monthly, quarterly, yearly, and multi-year basis. In formulating these objectives, the Executive Director should ensure that they reflect the needs of the target groups and that they will be fully supported by the Board of Directors and staff.

Specific Responsibilities:

1. Lead the strategic planning efforts to determine agency goals, objectives, and priorities.
2. Obtain and analyze information on the social and economic status of the people in the service area determine the priority needs of area residents and determine what approaches should be taken to meet these needs.
3. Identify and develop the available community resources including business organizations, public and private agencies, and neighborhood organizations for support in carrying out the various approaches to overcoming poverty conditions in the community.
4. Determine the essential activities that the community action agency must perform to close the gaps between the needs of the disadvantaged, the available community resources, and the opportunities to promote self-sufficiency among service area residents.
5. Direct and review the development of programs plans and budgets. In doing so, the Director should stress the development of innovative approaches to combating poverty and should determine the emphasis and budgetary allocations for the programs.
6. Monitor the major activities of the programs over the year and judge what should be accomplished by the end of the program year.
7. Establish specific program and budgetary evaluative criteria to measure the results and expenditures of each program. Present the program plans and budgets to the Board of Directors for approval and to appropriate funding sources.
8. Organize and supervise the staff and resources in carrying out the program plan.
9. Determine which activities could best be accomplished by delegate agencies and which should be accomplished by agency staff.
10. Supervise and negotiate contracts with delegate agencies and community organizations and present these contracts to the Board for approval.
11. Decide on the employment, promotion, transfer, and discharge of all staff.
12. Provide opportunities for training and development to enable staff to meet high performance standards.
13. Specify responsibilities, authority and working relationships among the program managers and any delegate agencies and insure that each subsequent management level performs this function for its subordinate staff.
14. Lead the staff members in the performance of their assignments.
15. Translate the goals, strategy, and programs of the agency into specific and meaningful assignments for the staff.
16. Help the staff understand the importance of these assignments in achieving the goals and objectives of the agency, especially how the activities of individual staff members contribute to the total agency effort.
17. Administer the day-to-day activities of the agency, its programs, staff, and relationships.
18. Establish an effective flow of information to insure that problems can be responsibly resolved.
19. Elicit the voluntary cooperation of staff by establishing clearly defined performance expectations.
20. Review and evaluate the results of program operations.
21. Modify, where necessary, the intermediate program objectives and resource allocation to gain greater program effectiveness.
22. Establish community support for agency objectives. Within this framework, the Director should represent the agency on dealings with the community residents and the Board of Directors, the local, state, and federal governments, and other private and public agencies.
23. To stimulate and work toward permanent and constructive changes in community institutions and advocate the interests of the target residents. Within this framework the Director should collaborate with private and public agencies as the advocate of the poor and attempt to coordinate all anti-poverty programs with agency efforts. Additionally, the Director should insure community awareness, especially by the target area residents, of the agency’s goals, mission, objectives and operation by initiating and supervising an active public information program.

Qualifications:

1. Master’s degree in Business Administration, Public Relations. Social Work, Educational Leadership and/ or Supervisor Administration and with 5 years of preferred CAA work or nonprofit work experience.
2. Be able to travel.
3. Have a valid Driver’s License.
4. Have supervisory experience.
5. Planning, development, and program administration experience.
6. Experience in public relations/ community development.
7. Experience in researching and writing public and private funding applications.
8. Good written and verbal communication skills.
9. Experience in developing and supervising management systems. For example: program operations and organizational development; supervision of program staff; fiscal and personal systems; technology and management information systems; and program evaluation systems.
10. Experience in developing and conducting human service needs assessments.
11. Significant and effective supervisory experience.
12. Extensive management experience of a multi-site, multi-program agency.
13. Commitment to and the ability to articulate community action philosophy.
14. Consideration would be given to bilingual candidates.
15. Current physical examination and TB screen documentation upon hire. 3

Physical Demands:

The physical demands described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit; use hands to finger, handle or feel objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; talk or hear; and taste or smell. The employee frequently is required to walk and stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl. The employee is occasionally required to stand and climb or balance.

The employee must regularly lift and/or move up to 10 pounds, frequently lift and/or move up to 50 pounds; specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.

Work Environment:

The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

Non-Discrimination Policy:

It is the policy of this agency to be customer and service oriented and to require employees to treat customers in a courteous and respectful manner at all times.

Employees must understand that our customers come first and they are the primary source of the organization’s income. All employees have an obligation to represent the Agency in a positive way and to make customers feel as comfortable as possible in dealing with the organization.

We provide equal opportunity in all aspects for services rendered to our customers. All employees will not discriminate against any customer because of their race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions), national origin, age (40 and over), citizenship, physical or mental disability, military obligations, gender identity, genetic information or any other basis of discrimination prohibited by law.