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Executive Director

Employer
National Network of Abortion Funds
Location
Remote
Salary
Salary starts at $240,000, commensurate with experience.
Closing date
Aug 19, 2021

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The Opportunity

The National Network of Abortion Funds seeks a visionary and courageous leader who will bring grounded, yet discerning and decisive leadership to guide the next phase of our work. The new Executive Director will be a values-aligned and compassionate leader who is unapologetically committed to abortion access and full reproductive health care for all.  

The Executive Director will lead with humility, care, and a deep commitment to leaderful practice that invests in and shares leadership with others. They will have the grit necessary to face the realities that come with the movement for abortion access and the experience to effectively lead a national member network organization that has significantly scaled up and continues to manage change. 

About the National Network of Abortion Funds

The National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF) builds power with members to remove financial and logistical barriers to abortion access by centering people who have abortions and organizing at the intersections of racial, economic, and reproductive justice. NNAF is rooted in a set of core values: intersectionality, autonomy, collective power, and compassion. NNAF serves as a convener, funding intermediary, technical assistance provider, amplifying voice, and source of connectivity for a diverse membership of 80+ grassroots members across 41 states and 3 countries, as well as 1,700 individual members. Abortion funds, which provide financial and practical support to people seeking abortions and build power to fight for cultural and political change, have decades of wisdom and experience navigating increasing barriers to abortion access. NNAF members vary widely in terms of infrastructure, funding sources, budget size, staffing, direct service approaches, intake processes, and data management systems; they are united in their commitment to meeting callers’ needs holistically and with compassion.    

Over the last six years NNAF has grown from a $2M organization with a staff of 12 to a $15M organization with a staff of 60, with more than a third of our current budget redistributed to abortion fund members. By the end of 2022, NNAF’s operating budget will be $22M with nearly 50% redistributed to member abortion funds. While abortion funds have also grown significantly, the increasing demand for abortion resource and navigational support posed by state-level abortion restrictions, clinic scarcity, the pandemic, and the economic downturn have created the need for a more robust intervention. In response to these factors and the changing Supreme Court, NNAF recently launched Operation Scale Up (OSU), a plan to build the infrastructure and resources of abortion funds to meet the growing needs of people denied access to abortion. OSU seeks to realize a vision where anyone seeking an abortion is able to have their needs met by calling one hotline, rather than multiple calls and crowd-sourced funding and logistical support. NNAF has launched OSU through a five fund pilot in the Southeast that will expand to other sites. The next Executive Director will lead the next phase of our network and organizational scaling efforts, overseeing our continued growth trajectory.

An important priority for our collective work is to organize a movement that is led by Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) communities, as well as others who are most impacted by barriers to abortion access. Our current strategic plan builds individual leaders, strong organizations, connective tissue among member organizations, partners and individuals and moves our base to incite cultural and political change. As a learning organization we have partnered with external allies, often in the form of values aligned consultants, to steward our internal learnings and shifts. While commitment to racial justice is codified in our mission statement and widely shared across the network, NNAF has recently embarked on a process to develop a cohesive racial justice framework and approach to ensure that efforts are well integrated as core mission work.

Key Responsibilities

NNAF’s next executive leader will be called upon to galvanize the movement to fund abortion and build power alongside its members. Working collaboratively with the staff team (including the Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer), Board of Directors, abortion funds, and key allies, the executive leader’s responsibilities will include the following:

Organizational Leadership 

  • Steward a rapidly-growing organization, and build and maintain a values-forward, leaderful organizational culture as NNAF continues to grow and evolve. 
  • Alongside Executive and Leadership Teams, develop, advance and communicate goals and priorities to all levels of the organization, ensuring clarity in decision-making, and setting the stage for collaboration across all organizational axes.
  • Provide leadership in the development, oversight, and evaluation of the strategic plan, and implement fiscal strategy, ensuring the organization is financially healthy, compliant and positioned for continued growth. 
  • Supervise key staff including hiring, mentoring, evaluation and conducting personnel actions in accordance with personnel policies.
  • Respond with clarity and thoughtfulness to organizational conflicts, unexpected events, and/or crises (both internal to the organization and external), and set the tone and strategy for how the organization and network can/will manage these issues.

Movement-Level Strategy

  • Set a progressive, visionary agenda for the next iteration of abortion access that lifts up the voice, power and impact of abortion funds, and is driven by NNAF’s values of compassion, autonomy, collective power, and intersectionality. 
  • Serve as a passionate and visible leader for abortion access, particularly at the intersection of racial, economic, and reproductive justice, and as a prominent national leader among stakeholders and within movement coalitions. 
  • Guide Operation Scale Up, a vision for abortion funding that will fully resource and connect abortion funds, and oversee the next phase of its development.
  • In collaboration with movement allies, coalition partners and research partners, create coordinated campaigns and long-range, responsive strategies to political attacks on reproductive freedom.

Fundraising  

  • Oversee and ensure the financial health and values-based growth of the organization.
  • In partnership with the Development Team, develop and steward major individual and institutional donor relationships that strengthen the network.
  • Ensure that the grassroots fundraising strategy is aligned with economic and racial justice values. 

Communications

  • Define and maintain the strategic style and voice of the organization and the network in collaboration with the Communications Department. 
  • Serve as primary spokesperson and public face of the organization. Conduct media interviews for digital, print and television and public speaking engagements on abortion access.
  • Oversee strategic communications, culture change strategy and brand management.

Board Management 

  • Support the growth of the Board of Directors through recruitment, capacity development and retention efforts. 
  • Facilitate Board governance and decision-making on the strategic direction of NNAF.
  • Provide regular financial and programmatic reports to the Board and support record keeping.
  • Meet performance benchmarks and any other duties as assigned by the board.
  • Assess and enhance Board and governance policies to promote a culture that prioritizes organizational values, learning, and a consistent commitment to care and quality. 

Required Experiences & Qualifications 

  • 15+ years of progressive leadership in mission-driven organizations, with meaningful experience in senior leadership  and a proven track record managing institutional growth and change.
  • Visionary thinker, with demonstrated experience setting and communicating progressive strategy. 
  • Compelling public speaker and storyteller, with a deep dedication to lifting up the stories, voices, and lived experiences of those who are impacted. Able to comfortably and unapologetically speak about abortion and craft a compelling narrative about our work to engage and move others to take action with us.
  • Ability to build a compelling, values-driven case for support with existing and potential funders and donors. Enthusiasm for sustaining strong relationships with existing and prospective board members, funders, individual donors and other stakeholders.
  • Reputation as a principled strategic collaborator with keen listening skills and the ability to bridge philosophies and perspectives.
  • Demonstrated experience building effective partnerships and coalitions among organizations and activists working at all levels, from the grassroots to national level. Experience with a membership-based or network organization is a plus. 
  • Experience managing and developing a diverse staff; experience with remote management is highly desirable. 

Additional Experience & Qualifications 

While NNAF recognizes that not every individual will exhibit all of these qualities, there is preference for candidates who bring one or more of the following qualifications:

  • Experience with abortion funds or people who have abortions, or shared life experience with people who have abortions or those who support them.
  • Experience with financial management and budgeting, with a willingness and ability to develop further knowledge and expertise as required.
  • Creative, proactive, and resourceful approach to planning and strategy formation, including strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Belief in bucking the trend through progressive policies to create a new vision for our future.
  • Strong judgment, political sensitivity, and savvy. Agility in navigating conflict and advancing transformative change.
  • Clear and direct communicator, with the ability to translate abstract political ideas into compelling stories.
  • A stance that balances flexibility and rigor, with the ability to thrive as part of a dynamic, generative, and fast-moving organizational culture. 
  • Knowledge of healing justice and/or trauma-informed practices.
  • Excellent computer skills; proficiency with Microsoft Office, Google Suite, video conferencing software (such as Zoom, GoToMeeting, Ring Central etc.).
  • Strong reading comprehension skills and willingness to absorb a considerable amount of reading materials.
  • Fluency in languages other than English is a plus.

The Team & Location

The Executive Director reports to an engaged Board of Directors with 9 members, including representatives of member funds. The ED leads a dedicated and growing multi-racial, multi-religious, gender expansive staff of 60, located across the United States, including three direct reports – the Managing Director, the Chief Financial Officer, and the Executive Assistant. 

The ED can be located anywhere in the United States. NNAF knows how important it is to support its remote staff to maintain connection and cohesiveness as a team. To this end, NNAF follows a practice of weekly one-on-one supervision, face-to-face virtual staff meetings, quarterly in-person meetings, and more.

Travel

Extensive travel depending on the needs of the organization and the movement. Pre-COVID, the Executive Director travelled roughly 20 times per year, including overnight stays of approximately 2-5 days. While travel is mostly within the U.S., occasional international travel may be required. NNAF has currently suspended all travel (domestic and international) through the end of 2021, and will only resume traveling when it is safe for employees and Board members to do so. 

Compensation & Benefits

Salary starts at $240,000, commensurate with experience. NNAF’s compensation structure is designed to reflect its values and mission, and to support its values-driven hiring philosophy. NNAF offers a “Best in Class” benefits package currently including 100% employer paid health insurance plus 50% for dependents/families, a 5% employer retirement match, 32-hour work weeks, 3 weeks of vacation, 13 holidays, generous sick time, and a commitment to professional development.

Commitment to Equity

NNAF is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against any individual based on any non-merit factor, and is committed to an equitable workplace where everyone is treated as a respected and valued member of the team. NNAF actively seeks to build and maintain a diverse staff with regard to race, culture, ethnicity, class, religion, physical ability, age, gender, and sexual orientation. 

As an organization working in solidarity with the reproductive justice movement, NNAF is committed to fostering the leadership and elevating the voices of women, young people, people of color, Native people, immigrants and refugees, low-income people, LGBQ+, and transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary people, people who have had abortions, people with disabilities, young parents, people who were formerly imprisoned, people who have received funding for abortions, and people living in the many intersections of these experiences. We encourage people from these communities to apply.

Application Instructions

Strategies for Social Change® LLC (SSC) is conducting the NNAF’s executive search and leadership transition process. SSC is a woman of color owned and led capacity building and leadership development practice dedicated to working with social justice organizations. Please refer potential candidates or other inquiries to mariaelena@strategiesforsocialchange.com. All communication will be confidential. No phone inquiries, please. 

Applications can be submitted to abortionfunds.bamboohr.com/jobs by COB on September 30, 2021. Early applications submitted by September 1, 2021 will receive priority attention. Completed applications will include the following components as a single PDF in this order:

  1. A cover letter that addresses in the applicant’s own voice:
    • Why are you interested in working with NNAF?
    • What do you believe you would bring to the position of Executive Director? 
    • How are your past accomplishments relevant to this position?
  2. A résumé.
  3. A list of three references that includes names, affiliation, email addresses and phone numbers. (References will not be contacted until later in the search process nor without the applicant’s permission.)

 

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