EXTENDED: Leadnow is looking for our next ED! (Job Posting)

JOB POSTING

Position: Executive Director (permanent, full-time)

Posting date: March 22, 2022

Closing date: extended to: 11:59pm Pacific, Sunday, May 15, 2022

Start date: As soon as possible

Location: Flexible, with strong preference for Toronto or Vancouver. (Note: we currently have staff based in Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria, but we are all currently working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

Compensation: $100,000-110,00 starting annual salary plus health and generous leave benefits.

To apply: Applications received via our [email protected] inbox, with responses to questions outlined in the "How To Apply" section will be considered. More details below.

About Leadnow

Leadnow is an independent advocacy organization powered by more than 600,000 members campaigning for social, economic and climate justice. Together, we do what it takes, with fierce integrity, to have impact as a powerful progressive force in Canada.

Our campaigns create online and in-person actions everyday people can take to influence the priorities and policies of governments and corporations. We want a more open, accountable, and representative democracy because decisions should be driven by the people whose lives they affect. 

About the role

We are looking for an Executive Director to lead one of Canada’s most high-impact and far-reaching progressive campaigning organisations into a new decade. With many ongoing policy, awareness and issues campaigns, Leadnow connects a community of more than 600,000 Canadians with a total annual budget of more than $1.5 million. With organizing, technology and unionized staff working a 4-day work week, the new Executive Director at Leadnow will be in a unique position to effect change in Canada.

As Leadnow's next Executive Director you will be responsible for unlocking the next level of impact for the organization. Your direct reports will include a Campaign Director, Operations Manager, and Tech Director. With guidance from a Board of Directors, you will lead long-term strategic and annual planning, labour relations and negotiations, fundraising and financial management, team development and operations, and support campaigns leadership to develop and deliver impactful campaigns.

Additional responsibilities include leading on legal compliance and risk management, external relations, brand and strategic communications, and delivery of professional development opportunities in an inclusive and highly collaborative environment. As Executive Director, you will have the ability to choose how you want to focus your responsibilities and develop your team.

Core Responsibilities

Strategic planning, organisational development, and governance

  • Leads on developing and delivering strategic and annual planning processes, implementation and evaluation of progress toward goals

  • Continually evolves and improves organisational structures, processes and resources to facilitate, hone and guide mission delivery

  • Leads on long term growth and member engagement strategy

  • Supports Board of Directors in maintaining and evolving governance and accountability, including providing reports and administrative support

  • Leads on special projects

Fundraising

  • Leads on fundraising planning overall and responsible for maintaining and growing funds through monthly sustainers, major gifts and grants

  • Supports Campaigns Director in fund raising from digital, one time gift solicitation

Campaigns leadership and support

  • Leads on brand narrative and development 

  • Occasionally leads strategic development of long term campaigns and supports campaigns leadership in campaign planning and decision making

  • Acts as media spokesperson as needed

  • Consults on strategic communications and occasionally produces campaign content

  • Holds external relationships with leaders of allied organisations domestically and internationally, and with elected officials in Canada

Financial planning and budget management

  • Leads on annual budget planning and financial management

  • Develops and evolves financial systems to ensure financial health of the organisation

  • Leads on long term financial forecasting and supports the Board in financial decision making

Team development, operations and labour relations

  • Leads on labour relations with non-bargaining unit staff and union representatives, including collective bargaining

  • Leads on developing and maintaining systems and processes for team operations and professional development, including ongoing curriculum for anti-oppression, equity and inclusion

  • Leads on development and maintenance of hiring, onboarding and performance planning processes

  • Leads on development and delivery of annual retreat

  • Ensures a healthy and inclusive workplace culture

  • Leads or supports hiring processes

  • Manages and supports staff, including Campaigns Director, Tech Director, Finance Manager, Fundraising Coordinator and other staff and contractors as necessary

Organisational technology and infrastructure

  • Oversees capital assets, two offices and technological infrastructure of the organisation

  • Oversees long term provision of technological needs 

  • Supports Tech Director in planning and decision making related to tech tools

Legal compliance and risk management

  • Ensures legal compliance on matters relating to electoral finance, collective agreement, labour law, lobbying, non-profit governance and privacy legislation

  • Serves as Financial Agent or similar with federal and provincial elections bodies

  • Ensures timely and accurate filing of annual reports produced by Finance Manager

  • Identifies legal, financial and brand or organisational risk and proposes solutions to Board of Directors as needed

Qualifications

We are looking for a new Executive Director who can steer the ship, overseeing and executing strategic and operational plans. Understanding that the individual combination of skills and experiences will vary, we are seeking candidates with a strong mix of the following characteristics:

Essential skills and qualities for the role 

  • Fundraising, financial planning and budget management: Experience in preparing and overseeing annual budgets and audits. Ability to oversee a strong program of fundraising from small monthly donations, online donations, major gifts, and grants that will ensure the sustainability of the organization is required.

  • Management and labour relations: An experienced leader with success in managing staff in a unionized and not-for-profit environment. Experience managing remotely using a variety of online platforms is a plus.

  • Organizational development and strategic planning: The candidate has experience preparing strategic plans, including in an organization where membership outreach is critical to mission. Has also organized staff events, and reported to a Board of Directors.

  • Campaigns leadership: Experience with creative and effective grassroots campaigning including running a political, policy, or issues campaigns, and developed or evolved a brand, preferable on the national scale and with the use of digital organizing. 

  • Strong communications abilities: The Executive Director must be able to clearly and concisely communicate Leadnow’s vision and strategy to internal stakeholders and the public. Demonstrated media relations experience is a plus.

  • Organisational technology and infrastructure: Has experience managing organisation-owned or rented office space. Experience overseeing implementation of new technology.  

  • Empowering leadership style: We need a leader who is self aware, understands their limitations, and is ready to lead in all of its dimensions. We are looking for someone who can help Leadnow’s 600,000 community members and staff team become the most effective and powerful force possible. A core belief that a movement of ordinary people can have a transformative impact on Canadian politics is essential. 

  • Strategic outlook: Awareness and analysis of Canada's political, media and culture landscape and how Leadnow can strategically position itself to gain power and position itself for impact is a must. 

  • Legal compliance: Familiar with all of the following: electoral finance laws, collective agreements, labour law (B.C. and/or Ontario), lobbyist registration and regulation, non-profit governance, privacy legislation. 

  • Language skills: Command of both English and French (in addition to other languages) is a strong plus.

Additional Skills for Success with Leadnow

  • A strong anti-oppression analysis: aligned with working in a pro-active anti-oppression work environment that engages in sometimes tough conversations to build awareness and skills to identify and dismantle structural inequalities within and beyond Leadnow

  • Aligned with Leadnow’s mission: winning progressive change through people powered campaigns

  • Comfortable taking risks, working in an innovative environment where trying new things is encouraged

 

Leadnow is committed to ensuring that all applicants are able to participate in our hiring processes to the best of their ability. Please indicate in your application if there’s anything we can do to make the application or interview process more accessible.

Only selected candidates will be contacted by Monday, May 9, 2022 to organize next steps.

As a leading progressive campaigning organization, we recognize the importance of our staff reflecting the communities our work aims to benefit. Even as we work to unlearn our biases, we know that our identities and lived experiences affect how we work, prioritize, and how we build relationships. We strongly encourage candidates who are Black, Indigenous, people of colour, women, LGBTQ2I, immigrants, people with disabilities, and people from low-income and working class backgrounds and/or with lived experience of poverty to apply. We recognize that this is neither exhaustive nor representative of the intersectionality present within each individual.

Apply Now

To submit an application, please send a single PDF or Word document to [email protected], containing:

  • Your CV

  • A cover letter telling us about your three most important qualifications for leading the organization at this moment

  • Your social media handles

  • A brief articulation of why you’re excited about Leadnow and how you envision Leadnow’s impact growing (max. 300 words) 

  • Your favourite recent Leadnow campaign, why, and how we could potentially have improved it, expanded its reach, or scaled its impact (max. 250 words) 

The location for this position is flexible with a strong preference for Toronto or Vancouver, where our staff teams are based. Compensation package is $100,000-110,000, commensurate to experience, with generous benefits. Preferable start date is as soon as possible.

For further information, contact Laura at [email protected].