Senior Director, The Children’s Movement (TCM)

Children Now is a nonpartisan whole-child research, policy development and advocacy organization dedicated to promoting children’s health, education, and well-being in California. We employ a game changing, anti-racist connector strategy to mirror and ultimately exceed the power of other established interest groups. A critical component of that strategy is The Children’s Movement of California, a unique network of more than 5000 (and growing!) parent, youth, business, labor, civil rights, government, faith, and community-based organizations, as well as thousands of individuals, all wanting to make children a top priority in public policy. Learn more at www.childrennow.org including about Children Now’s core organizational values.

About the Role

Children Now is seeking a Senior Director of The Children’s Movement (TCM) to lead the Movement into a significant new phase of growth and impact. TCM, a Pro-Kid movement comprised of thousands of diverse groups, has already had significant impact, and furthered our connector strategy despite very modest resourcing. Through TCM, the sharing of research, advocacy tools and other information has helped connect the too often fragmented kids’ space, and has provided critical supports to local advocates, especially parent and student led groups. The Pro-Kid list in and of itself demonstrates the demand that kids be prioritized in policy making. The Movement has served a critical outreach function, including increasing participation in the census, and ensuring undocumented kids and former foster youth enrolled in health insurance. And TCM’s opt-in advocacy campaigns have led to major wins for kids, including but not limited to:

Expanding funding in state budgets for a range of kids’ programs, including child care and school based mental health services, and rescinding proposed cuts.
Eliminating Medi-Cal premiums, to ensure more than 500,000 kids and families could access health care.
Establishing the Family Urgent Response System (FURS), a 24/7 statewide hotline and county mobile response system to access trauma-informed supports.
Creating the CalWORKs Home Visiting Initiative, the first-ever state investment in home visiting programs.
Adopting The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) –historic school equity funding that provided additional supports to English Learners, kids in poverty and foster youth.
Pressuring California’s congressional delegation to rescind anti-immigrant proposals and regulations at the federal level.
Urging passage of the Alameda County ballot measure to increase early childhood supports.

The Movement currently has organizations representing the diverse array of potential members, but with over 90,000 kids-related non-profits, thousands of local governments, and millions of businesses in California, we have just scratched the surface in terms of growth. As TCM looks towards the next phase of growth, we are searching for a Senior Director to dramatically expand upon this early success, by increasing membership, the sharing of resources and supports, and engagement in advocacy campaigns (some of which have already topped 1,000 organizational sign-ons).

The TCM Senior Director, working with other organizational leaders and leading our TCM team, will implement the strategy to connect all those in California who care about kids.

Ideal Candidates

The ideal candidate is positive, flexible, solution-oriented and has a strong work ethic. The candidate should have previous experience in managing a large membership base (ideally at an organization focused on federal or state level advocacy). The candidate should also be an effective leader, project and people manager. While candidates may not have strength and experience in all areas outlined below, the expectation is that one is proactive and open and willing to learn and develop skills to address any gaps.

Hybrid Work Environment out of Oakland, CA: This full-time position is based in our Oakland office, with occasional travel to our Sacramento and Los Angeles offices and other areas of the state. This position will have an opportunity for a hybrid work environment, and will report to the Vice President, Operations and Engagement.

Primary Responsibilities

Develop and implement the next phase of growth and impact of TCM in partnership with other organizational leaders.
Manage the Children Movement’s advocacy, communications and information sharing campaigns, working with the Communications, Government Relations, Policy and Research teams.
Create and implement the roadmap for expansive individual and organizational membership growth, including the development of systems and the implementation of a data-driven, equity-focused member recruitment, engagement, and retention strategy, including member segmentation.
Set performance outcomes and evaluation metrics and analyze and utilize data to measure success and progress towards recruitment and engagement goals.
Create communications content sent through the Movement, including developing persuasive language for sign-on emails, regular updates, social media posts, and web posts, ensuring all communications align with brand and voice and translating complex policy concepts into easy-to-understand messaging.
Generate excitement and buy-in from internal and external stakeholders around Movement activities, especially opt-in sign on advocacy campaigns.
Supervise, manage and support TCM team staff through the annual performance management cycle (e.g., goal development and progress monitoring, weekly check-ins, coaching).
Manage and support TCM team staff around all activities, including the TCM Equity Fellowship Program.
Develop strong relationships with organizations, businesses, government agencies and networks throughout the state to both increase engagement of current members and recruit new ones.
Recruit, hire and build TCM team as needed.
Assist with fundraising and development reporting for TCM.
Serve as an external leader and spokesperson for TCM.

Qualifications and Experience

At least 5 years of nonprofit or for-profit experience working with a large membership or customer-based organization.
Hands-on experience with membership recruitment and engagement.
Excellent planning, project management, analytic and problem-solving skills, with the ability to align Children Now’s mission and strategy with TCM’s day-to-day tasks.
Highly skilled and competent in using technology platforms and systems, including but not limited to B2B marketing, Salesforce, Excel, Pardot, and WordPress. An understanding of laws around data collection, B2B marketing preferred.
Proven success managing multiple projects/tasks simultaneously and thriving in a complex and fast-paced environment with multiple priorities.
Ability to troubleshoot technological challenges, and work with external consultants to resolve as needed.
Innovative thinker, with a track record for translating strategic thinking into action plans and output.
Outstanding verbal and written communication skills.
Strong relationship-building skills with the ability to manage effective working relationships with colleagues, external groups, and others.
Demonstrated leadership, supervision experience and commitment to racial equity, including building inclusive, diverse, and equitable campaign content, messaging and overall communications.
Agility and nimbleness, given the audacious mission and strategy of Children Now.
Deep commitment to Children Now’s mission and understanding the context of our strategy, including some level of familiarity with California politics and the prenatal to age 26 children’s landscape, as well as an understanding of the institutional racism and other systemic barriers that adversely impact children’s well-being in California.
Experience with marketing, pricing, sales, or advertising a plus.
Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.

Compensation

This position offers a competitive salary range of $145,000-$175,000 as well as generous benefits.

Application Process

Please complete the online application form located here. Interested applicants must attach the following as part of their online application: 1) cover letter, 2) resume, and 3) three to five references (including former supervisors). Please note references will not be contacted without prior knowledge and consent. Please submit attachments in PDF format only.

Children Now COVID-19 Vaccination Policy
The health and safety of our employees is our number one priority. Thus, Children Now has implemented a COVID-19 vaccination policy covering all employees. To be compliant with this policy, all new staff members shall be required to provide proof of their vaccine status at the start of their employment, unless a reasonable accommodation is requested and approved.

Children Now is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to staff diversity, equity and inclusion. Children Now values diversity as an asset essential to accomplishing our work and views diversity as including differences in race, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, disability, veteran status, job skills, education, and geographic location and any other category protected by law. We encourage all qualified candidates to apply. 