United Working Families - Executive Director

NRG Consulting Group•Chicago, IL

10d•$95,000 - $105,000•Hybrid

About The Position

United Working Families seeks an Executive Director to lead our dynamic organization and its collective work of winning, building, and wielding political power for the many, not the few. The ideal candidate will be an experienced, collaborative, strategic, and creative leader who is deeply committed to UWF’s mission and vision and to the continued expansion of our impact. They will demonstrate UWF’s core competencies including a commitment to dismantling anti-blackness and white supremacy, continuous growth and reflection, building the base and relationship building, accountability and resilience, and polarity management. This is the top-level position in a multifaceted, fast-paced, and innovative environment; the work will require travel, weeknight, and weekend hours. This position is based in Chicago and it is hybrid with significant responsibilities in the field.

Requirements

Have recent experience in a senior- or executive-level position in a labor, community, and/or political organization.
Have recent experience managing mid- or senior-level employees, with a focus on staff development and skill-building.
Have a proven track record of fundraising from a wide variety of sources (including grassroots, institutional, major donors) and managing budgets accordingly.
Have a track record of working in coalitions and leading coalitions and understands coalition dynamics.
Can clearly communicate and champion UWF’s political goals, strategy, and mission and has a track record of work aligned with UWF mission
Are highly emotionally intelligent and able to build deep relationships with a wide range of leaders and stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Are experienced and comfortable with organizational change processes. This is a major transition for a dynamic organization that has changed significantly over the past five years; a successful applicant will be excited about change management work.
Have a track record of building resilient, reflective, high-functioning, and collaborative organizational cultures.
Has existing relationships and a strong network within UWF, or in UWF-adjacent or UWF-aligned organizations.
Are experienced organizers who are willing and able to model the hard and soft skills they seek to develop in others
Priority consideration will be given to candidates who share lived experiences with our majority poor, working-class, and global majority membership.

Responsibilities

Collectively craft and drive a set political and organizing strategy aimed at taking the power needed to use the levers of the state to self-evidently improve people’s lives such that other dimensions of struggle can accelerate.
Drive goal-setting across multiple stakeholder axes (leadership, staff, membership, ecosystem) and put the necessary systems in place (coordination structure, staff support, fundraising, etc) to meet them.
Seek out learning opportunities, practices, tools, and resources to sharpen our collective thinking, praxis, and arguments.
Cultivate relationships with key organizations, partners, funders, and allies to encourage greater solidarity, clarity, and alignment in the movement ecosystem.
Create and execute fundraising workplans that prioritize keeping UWF’s revenue stream majority dues-based in order to allow for programmatic dynamism and keep us accountable to our working-class membership.
Drive an organizational culture of learning, experimentation, and principled struggle that is continuously bringing working-class, BIPOC people into a political home in which they are members, organizers, and leaders.
Provide staff supervision, coaching, support, and accountability.
Work to ensure that UWF has the structural stability (finance, legal, HR, operations) needed to nourish an environment of innovation, collaboration, and possibility.
Supervise the Communications team to tell the story of UWF’s learnings, contributions, and victories to our leaders, members, funders, and partners.
Build a team of officers who are owning and taking responsibility for the work of the party, including preparation for all Executive and Party Committee meetings.
Build deep relationships with Party Committee delegates from both affiliated organizations and individual membership in order to foster a bold, clear, and strategic decision-making environment based on solidarity.
Create on-ramps for individual members and incoming organizations to take on leadership of our party, with a focus on nurturing the inclusion of BIPOC organizations and members.
Provide reports and recommendations to the Officers, Executive Committee, and Party Committee as needed.
In addition to the specific job responsibilities, the staff member will perform other tasks as requested.