Senior Vice President, Executive Director

City Year•Manchester, NH

3d•Onsite

About The Position

City Year New Hampshire (CYNH) is seeking an exceptional leader to serve as its next Executive Director (ED). This role builds on a strong foundation of student impact and community credibility, with a vision to expand proven student impact and develop CYNH’s emerging initiative, the 7-Year Promise. The 7-Year Promise aims to create a long-term model of relationships, opportunity, and economic mobility for young people by extending support beyond a single year of service through an alumni-powered Student Success Network. The ED will have the opportunity to bring this vision to life, building an excellent, evidence-informed, sustainable model. This role also offers local leadership and national influence, as the ED will also serve as a Senior Vice President of City Year Inc., shaping the future of City Year in New Hampshire and contributing CYNH’s learning to City Year’s broader national strategy. The work intersects education, national service, philanthropy, workforce development, and New Hampshire’s innovation economy, offering opportunities to build partnerships and expand possibilities for young people. City Year believes in the power of young people to change the world by helping students furthest from opportunity build the relationships, skills, and support they need to thrive. CYNH, launched in 2000 and focused in Manchester since 2010, serves students facing significant economic and educational barriers, while Manchester emerges as a center of innovation. CYNH enters this next chapter from a position of strength with a strong record of program quality, student impact, deep community partnerships, and over 700 alumni. In the 2024-2025 academic year, Student Success Coaches served over 3,000 students and provided nearly 3,700 hours of targeted math and literacy support.

Requirements

Significant leadership experience in a nonprofit, public-sector, education, business, philanthropic, or other complex, mission-driven environment.
Demonstrated success building trust, bringing people together, and developing and leading high-performing teams and leaders.
A track record of translating ambitious strategy and vision into excellent execution, measurable results, and sustained organizational performance.
Proven ability to generate revenue and mobilize stakeholders through fundraising, philanthropy, business development, public funding, or comparable responsibilities.
Strong strategic judgment and the ability to lead effectively through complexity, change, and growth.
Exceptional relationship-building, listening, communication, and public-speaking skills, with the ability to work across sectors and differing perspectives.
Resilience, humility, adaptability, integrity, a learning orientation, and a demonstrated commitment to inclusive leadership.
Deep commitment to student success, national service, and the potential of young people, along with an established network in New Hampshire or demonstrated ability to build trusted local relationships quickly.

Nice To Haves

Experience in K–12 education, youth development, national or community service, workforce development, philanthropy, civic leadership, or long-term mentoring is valuable, but not required.

Responsibilities

Lead a growing organization currently including approximately 14 staff and 40 AmeriCorps members.
Build and develop a high-performing staff team and strong leaders, while fostering a culture grounded in City Year’s values: trust, equity, accountability, collaboration, learning, belonging, and excellence.
Ensure high-quality implementation of City Year’s Whole School, Whole Child® model and strong student outcomes, while bringing the 7-Year Promise from vision into an excellent, sustainable model of practice.
Build the people, systems, partnerships, measures, and learning processes necessary for effective implementation; strengthen the alumni-powered Student Success Network and Manchester School District partnership; and use evidence and learning to continuously improve the model and share what is learned.
Ensure CYNH attracts, develops, supports, and retains a strong and inclusive corps of AmeriCorps members.
Strengthen the member journey from recruitment through successful completion of service and beyond, creating the conditions for members to thrive, grow as leaders, and pursue future education, careers, and civic leadership.
Guide responsible corps growth from approximately 40 members in FY27 toward 60 by FY31.
Serve as CYNH’s chief fundraiser, mobilizing staff and board leaders to secure resources for annual operations, the 7-Year Promise, and future growth.
Build and steward a diversified mix of public and private revenue and personally cultivate corporations, foundations, major donors, and other partners.
Ensure disciplined management of CYNH’s approximately $3.5 million annual operating budget and stewardship of district, city, state, federal, and philanthropic resources.
Align investments with strategic priorities, build appropriate reserves, and manage growth responsibly to strengthen long-term financial resilience.
Partner with and mobilize CYNH’s advisory board to advance strategy, generate resources, strengthen partnerships, and expand CYNH’s influence and impact.
Build trusted relationships across Manchester and New Hampshire with school, civic, business, philanthropic, government, and community leaders.
Serve as a visible ambassador for CYNH and engage local, state, and federal elected officials’ policymakers, and other leaders to strengthen support for City Year, national service, student success, and service as a workforce and civic leadership pathway.
Maintain a strong partnership with the state AmeriCorps commission and ensure effective oversight of AmeriCorps grants, performance, reporting, and compliance.
Activate CYNH’s growing alumni community as mentors, connectors, ambassadors, and civic and workforce leaders, including through the 7-Year Promise and Student Success Network.
Guide strategic storytelling, media, public speaking, and community engagement that elevate the voices of students, AmeriCorps members, alumni, and partners and strengthen understanding and support for CYNH’s mission.
Deliver exceptional student impact and deepen strong school, district, and community partnerships.
Bring the 7-Year Promise fully to life as an excellent, evidence-informed, sustainable model with clear outcomes and learning that can contribute to the broader field.
Build and develop a high-performing staff team, strong leaders, and a culture of trust, shared accountability, learning, and excellence.
Secure and diversify the public and private investment required for annual operations, the 7-Year Promise, and responsible growth.
Grow and strengthen the AmeriCorps corps, while expanding CYNH’s contribution to New Hampshire’s civic leadership and workforce pipeline.
Lead CYNH as both a deeply rooted New Hampshire organization and an active contributor to City Year’s national strategy, learning, and future.