Director, Community Building

National Audubon Society • Phoenix, NM

6d • Onsite

About The Position

The Director, Community Building will be responsible for regional efforts to educate, engage and activate existing Audubon chapters and members while expanding the sphere of influence of the Audubon network in New Mexico and Arizona. The Director, Community Building will be responsible for developing partnerships and providing education, training and capacity-building opportunities, tools, and mechanisms to build the connectedness, capacity, diversity, and size of the Audubon network in the region. The Director, Community Building will oversee programming at the Randall Davey and Rio Salado Audubon Centers in Santa Fe and Phoenix respectively, in collaboration with the Center Directors at these centers, with a goal of building and managing culturally resonant programs and messages that address community needs and connect to actions positively contributing to the conservation of our region’s birds and the spaces they need to thrive. The Director, Community Building will collaborate closely with the Senior Director of Policy to successfully engage our bipartisan network and conservation partners for successful policy campaigns and conservation leadership. They will oversee the development and delivery of Audubon’s community engagement and community science programs with a specific goal of reaching new audiences and diversifying our membership to be fully representative of Arizona and New Mexico communities. As a senior leader on Audubon’s Southwest team the Director, Community Building will work with the Executive Director to direct operations and strategy to achieve maximum conservation impact in Arizona and New Mexico. This is an on-site position located at one of our Audubon Centers either in Santa Fe, NM or Phoenix, AZ.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in natural sciences, environmental education or related area and 10 years’ professional experience developing programming. A similar combination of education and experience will also be considered.
• Demonstrated understanding of environmental and outdoor education philosophies and best practices, as well as knowledge and appreciation of the people, values and current conservation and policy issues throughout New Mexico and Arizona.
• Effective leadership skills, one able to think strategically and creatively, juggle multiple tasks, meet deadlines, and work in a dynamic environment.
• An engaging and energetic demeanor and the ability to inspire and motivate staff, volunteers, and potential partners.
• Strong interpersonal and social skills, a positive attitude and good sense of humor.
• Commitment to Audubon’s organizational values of care, collaboration, change, integrity, impact, and innovation.
• Experience fostering inclusive and collaborative work environments is valued.
• A self-starter, one who is team-centric and willing to work in a flexible, non-structured environment.
• Experience managing both paid education staff and volunteers.
• Excellent organizational, writing and speaking skills a must, as well as strong oral and written communications skills in order synthesize and communicate technical and complex information to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Fundraising experience including, writing and overseeing grants, cultivating and managing individual donors, as well as foundations and other public agencies.
• Technical skills including, proficiency with Microsoft Office applications, experience working with social networking techniques to build awareness and engage others, and comfort developing measurement and evaluation (M&E) methodologies for programs.
• Ability and willingness to travel locally and out-of-state and be comfortable with working evenings and weekends as job demands.
• Must possess a valid driver's license.
• Ability to work outdoors, in all weather conditions and on varying terrain, and the ability to occasionally carry field equipment with or without accommodation.

Nice To Haves

• Spoken and written Spanish language proficiency is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and execution of Audubon’s community building strategy in Arizona and New Mexico, identifying and achieving strategic priorities related to center operations, network engagement and community education.
• Provide overall strategic guidance to Audubon’s Southwest team, connecting and aligning actions and outcomes across community building, policy and advocacy, and habitat delivery programs to maximize conservation impact.
• Engage with Community Building Milestone initiative teams (Community Chapters, Conservation Action Centers, and NextGen) to coordinate on strategy and shared projects, ensuring that Southwest regional efforts align with and contribute to Flight Plan Milestones.
• Responsible for hiring, mentoring and supervising the education and engagement teams, including overseeing the recruitment and training of seasonal educators, volunteers, and interns leading to effective and impactful programming.
• Oversee and guide programming towards achieving Flight Plan milestones.
• Establish assessment tools for measuring and evaluating program effectiveness and provide frequent reports on outcomes to the Executive Director.
• Cultivate and maintain effective partnerships with key stakeholders including, but not limited to, community organizations, other state Audubon offices and chapters, educators and school administrators, National Wildlife Refuge and National Parks employees, tribal entities, partner biologists and other specialists.
• Develop new partnerships that leverage Audubon’s conservation and education outreach into broader and more diverse communities.
• Serve as a spokesperson for Audubon Southwest as needed.
• Responsible for fundraising and helping to secure donations.
• Effectively and enthusiastically communicate the case for support of the Center’s program at community and fundraising events.
• Manage annual program budget and provide required financial reporting to the Executive Director, to include analyzing cost/revenue information against programmatic goals.
• Enhance existing sources of earned income, including program revenue, camp and school program tuition.
• Identify and develop strategic partnerships for scholarship donations.
• Prepare information for funder reports respond to education-related inquiries from donors, when needed.
• Support a culture of philanthropy, including public funding efforts.
• Collaborate with colleagues across the Americas including through joint planning and execution of shared priorities.
• Maintains and fosters culture of safety.

Benefits

• We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic outlined by federal, state, or local laws.
• We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible hiring process for all candidates.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director