United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey’s (United Way) mission is to end poverty and expand opportunity for all. We are focused on new approaches to harnessing the collective power of our region to help individuals and families break the cycle of poverty and new ways of engaging and investing in the communities we serve. We deploy several tools to that end, including:
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Convening local and national leaders to build and execute high-impact strategies to reduce economic insecurity in the region.
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Motivating individual, corporate, and institutional philanthropy.
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Investing in evidence-based programming to increase opportunity and employment, ensure financial empowerment for families, and resource high quality early education.
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Measuring progress and strengthening the nonprofit sector in data/evaluation, leadership, and organizational effectiveness
Position Description
The Director of Emerging Initiatives plays a crucial role in our efforts to combat poverty in Philadelphia. This position involves directing ambitious, early-stage projects with a unique balance of strategic vision, stakeholder management, and hands-on execution capabilities. The Director will excel at navigating complex landscapes and applying operational rigor to ensure effective execution. This role will be pivotal in driving innovative solutions from concept to reality, ensuring that initiatives are executed with precision and alignment with organizational goals.
In addition to project planning and day-to-day project management, this role is responsible for providing information for investor tables and clear communication with valued community partners. Strong community partnership engagement is essential to this role, as it fosters collaboration, ensures that our initiatives resonate with and meet the needs of the community, and amplifies the impact of our mission. This involves collaborating with colleagues to design and implement investor engagement and communication strategies. The role requires the ability to balance big-picture thinking with practical implementation and is coupled with a focus on operational rigor in order to deliver tangible results and drive meaningful change. By supporting external strategies and meetings, you will contribute significantly to advancing our mission and achieving our organizational objectives.
Essential Functions and Responsibilities
The Director of Emerging Initiatives is responsible for the following:
Internal Project Management
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Lead and coordinate the development, design, and implementation of innovative, high-impact anti-poverty initiatives across the organization.
External Relationship and Investor Management
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Support the Senior Leadership Team and other leaders to identify, acquire, and cultivate relationships with key investors for new, high-impact initiatives.
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Research and engage potential investors/donors, analyzing profiles and designing investor tables.
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Build and maintain relationships with critical stakeholders, facilitating prospect meetings, follow-ups, and feedback collection to advance investment opportunities.
Project Management and Execution
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Drive the progress of all emerging initiatives, ensuring coordinated delivery against time and budget while maintaining the highest standards of professionalism and excellence.
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Build detailed plans and internal infrastructure to advance initiatives and investor engagement through the pipeline.
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Define and track goals, timelines, and KPIs for initiatives and investor engagement, including managing pivots and reprioritization as needed.
Communications