Encore.org is a national nonprofit building a movement to leverage the experience of adults in midlife and beyond to improve communities and the world. This innovative and influential organization seeks an exceptionally creative, seasoned, self-motivated and thoroughly organized individual with formidable skills in rapid prototyping (e.g., Lean Start-up), facilitating learning networks and knowledge capture and dissemination to serve as the Collaborative Director, Encore Campaign for Children and Youth (E4Y).
This position reports to the Vice President, E4Y Strategic Partnerships, and serves on a team of up to ten employees working on the E4Y campaign in multiple U.S. cities.
What We Do
Through an inventive program portfolio, strategic alliances and storytelling, Encore.org demonstrates the value of life experience in solving society’s greatest problems – from education to the environment, health care to homelessness – and builds the case for the encore movement as a new source of human talent dedicated to creating a better future for future generations. Encore.org engages in significant communications work, is the hub of an expanding network of individuals and organizations and runs programs designed to leverage the experience of those in later life for social good. For more on our programs, visit www.encore.org.
Our Culture
Our staff members are part of a social movement that challenges old norms and seeks to establish a new definition of success in later life. We are a small, geographically distributed team, committed to making a significant impact. We attract people who think about how small investments can yield big results in the service of Encore.org’s mission.
As an organization focused on deploying human talent in innovative ways, we try to walk the talk. We strive to have an intergenerational team. We also encourage and sometimes require flexible work; results matter more than face time. Many Encore.org positions require some or a great deal of travel; all require the use and mastery of a growing array of virtual tools.
Though we work hard, we value our colleagues as people and talk freely about our lives and the causes we dedicate time to outside of working hours. As a group, we like good food, strong coffee and long walks (often in place of sit-down meetings). We understand the importance of commitments — family and otherwise — beyond Encore.org. Vacation time is meant to be used.
Perhaps most important, Encore.org is in a period of transition and growth. We work in a dynamic environment that values mutual respect, rapid response to changing conditions or new opportunities, flexibility and intelligence, as well as a sense of humor and humility. Those who thrive tend to be creative, entrepreneurial types who are dedicated to our mission and who know how to execute ambitious plans in a lean environment.
The Encore Campaign for Children and Youth (E4Y)
Together with partners from across the nation, Encore.org is mounting a national campaign that will mobilize millions of adults over 50 – encore talent – in service of vulnerable children and youth, to help combat inequality in the next generation. At a critical moment in our nation’s history – marked by dramatic increases in the 50+ population and far too many struggling children – this initiative will create substantive, impactful opportunities for experienced adults to serve youth in the process, rewriting the narrative about what it means to grow older in this country. It will usher in a new era of wisdom in action, with a focus on nurturing and strengthening future generations, permanently reinforcing the deep interdependence that exists between older and younger
The Encore Campaign for Children and Youth envisions a world where experienced adults can easily find opportunities to help young people, in ways that extend beyond families and into communities, and where such behavior is embraced as a social norm. We believe we can create this future by achieving three complementary goals by 2020:
(1) Create powerful models (“showcases”) in a few communities and organizations to demonstrate the potential of a 50+ workforce in service of children and youth,
(2) Recruit millions of experienced adults to voice their concerns and take action (big or small) in service of vulnerable young people and
(3) Build broad cultural awareness of this movement, capturing the attention of hundreds of millions of adults, across all age groups.
The Position: Collaborative Director, E4Y
In keeping with the first goal above, the success of the campaign depends upon the discovery and dissemination of practices that provide the highest leverage of encore talent in support of children and youth. The campaign will partner with a small number of communities and organizations across the country to prototype different methods for fully engaging encore talent in work that serves young people. The Collaborative Director will be responsible for facilitating innovation, prototyping and learning across the sites., and sharing with others.
Success in this role will be defined by the candidate’s ability to support the test sites in rapidly prototyping and then capturing the most effective practices for leveraging encore talent in service of children and youth, while simultaneously facilitating agile learning across these geographically separated partners (each with its own unique organizational culture and mission) to distill the essential elements of leveraging encore talent that can be shared with wider networks of organizations.
Key Responsibilities
- Work with up to a dozen identified communities and youth-serving organizations beginning immediately, adding others during the campaign, to prototype the most effective means for leveraging encore talent in service of children and youth.
- Create and facilitate a learning network across youth-serving organizations and communities to rapidly distill and spread best practices for leveraging encore talent (includes regular face-to-face check-ins and group webinars, as well as support for data collection/display and measurement of progress).
- Spread learnings to the rest of the campaign, and to hundreds of communities and youth-serving organizations, so that they can learn to better leverage encore talent in full coordination with the overall campaign plan.
- Represent the campaign and Encore.org at regional and statewide conferences and seminars, including public speaking engagements.
- Ensure linkage of prototyping activities to all campaign activities and work areas, and to other Encore.org work.
- Assist in the recruitment of partner organizations that can join prototyping work or otherwise contribute to the efforts of the campaign.
Professional Qualifications
- A strong commitment to Encore.org’s mission and goals;
- Three to five years’ experience in field organizing and/or facilitating a learning collaborative;
- Familiarity with rapid-cycle prototyping of new approaches and innovations in service of refining practices and deepening knowledge;
- Content knowledge and familiarity with relevant subject matter (eg, vulnerable children and youth, encore careers, topics related to aging);
- Demonstrated excellence in public speaking and writing;
- Ability to exercise excellent independent judgment and ownership of decisions;
- Strong project management skills, including strong attention to detail and managing toward aggressive timelines;
- Ability to receive and incorporate performance-improvement feedback;
- Ability to work independently and self-manage to achieve goals while being a strong team player;
- Strong negotiation, mediation and listening skills;
- Solid quantitative skills (familiarity with statistics and statistical process control a great plus)
- Skill in process-level thinking (ie, ability to optimize systems and resources and anticipate critical next steps);
- Strong motivational skills;
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Webex, and familiarity with online collaboration tools (e.g., Google docs, Google hangout, Dropbox).
Personal Qualifications
You are passionate about the encore movement and the aims of the campaign. You are committed to building sincere relationships with partner organizations based on shared aims. You are skilled at seeking and finding win-win situations in order to bring partner communities and organizations on board. You are a great listener and you’re able to create an environment that promotes curiosity and experimentation. You have a sense of humor. You have the ability to rapidly switch gears from being focused on developing relationships to being equally disciplined about figuring out what works. You have an eye for elegance and efficiency in designing systems that work for people and organizations.
You are willing to travel frequently.
Salary and Benefits
- Competitive nonprofit salary, commensurate with experience.
- Employer-subsidized medical, dental, vision, life, disability, FSA and tax-deferred retirement investment options.
- Paid vacation, sick and holiday leave.
- Participation in a national organization and movement that offers flexibility and encourages creativity while providing a network of skilled colleagues advancing social change.
How to Apply
Please send your resume in Word or PDF format along with a cover letter describing your interest, qualifications and salary expectations. Cover letters will be judged as writing samples; therefore, no application will be considered without a cover letter.
Cover letters should include a clear response to these two questions:
- Why do you want to be part of an organization whose mission is building a movement of individuals in the second half of life dedicated to solving significant social problems and creating a better world?
- What experience do you have facilitating learning and testing across multiple, geographically distributed organizations?
Please send your resume and letter as one document to [email protected]. Mention the collaborative director position in your subject line, and name your attachment with the format: Last Name E4YCDSearch2016. (For instance, Jones E4YCDSearch2016.) Applications that do not follow this format may not be reviewed.
No calls please. Principals only. For more information about Encore.org, visit www.encore.org.
While we appreciate every application, we only contact candidates who are selected for an interview. Thank you.
It is Encore.org’s policy to employ, compensate and advance personnel without regard to race, creed, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, height and weight, disability, gender identity or expression, marital status, partnership status, genetic predisposition or carrier status, military status, arrest record and any other characteristic protected by law.
We are an Employer of National Service: AmeriCorps, Peace Corps and other national service alumni are encouraged to apply and to tell us how your service experience has shaped your career.
We are seeking to develop a multigenerational and diverse team. Qualified people of all ages and backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Open until filled.
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