“I want kids to realize the importance of college, the satisfaction, and to realize it’s not an ephemeral dream, that it is possible and probable. We have Dreamers all over the country. I feel like they’re my children.’’ -- Eugene Lang, Founder & Chairman Emeritus
  

The Position

Reporting to the IHDF’s Board of Directors through its Chairman, the CEO/Executive Director will lead the organization. The first priority is to build upon the successful affiliate models by strengthening existing relationships and expanding the national office’s offerings to the affiliate programs, as well as, growing the number of affiliate programs. Secondly, as an extension of the current affiliate model, the CEO will lead the implementation of an ambitious new program designed to significantly increase the impact on students and communities across the nation, with the goal of impacting tens of thousands of students while continuing support for and growth of affiliates across the country.

  The Organization

The “I Have A Dream” Foundation (IHDF) empowers children in low‐income communities to achieve higher education and fulfill their leadership potential by providing them with tuition support and equipping them with the skills, knowledge, and habits they need to gain entry to higher education and succeed in college and beyond. By helping Dreamers gain access to college or other post-secondary education IHDF is putting them on different academic and life trajectories, while having a broader impact on the students' families and the generations that follow.

IHDF has its headquarters in New York City and delivers programs to schools throughout the United States.

Currently IHDF operates with a "whatever it takes" approach to ensure Dreamers' success. As a result, the support IHDF provides evolves as Dreamers progress towards college. IHDF stays consistently focused on five core strategies that, together, form our program’s framework:

• Foster the expectation of college
• Ensure academic readiness
• Empower Dreamers and their families
• Facilitate financial access
• Create a context conducive to success by giving Dreamers the tools they need for post-secondary education

This comprehensive approach, driven by the goal of matriculation to higher education, has inspired Dreamers to overcome extraordinary challenges. In many of the affiliate sites in low income communities, the high school graduation and college enrollment rates have doubled or tripled.

The approach is unique in that sponsors adopt cohorts of students in under‐resourced public schools or housing developments, and work with these Dreamers from early elementary school all the way through high school. Upon high school graduation, each Dreamer receives tuition assistance for higher education.

Building on our experience as one of the nation’s largest and oldest college pipeline programs, IHDF recently launched an enhancement to the legacy business model, in partnership with some of the nation’s most innovative school leaders, to dramatically increase the number of students in low income communities who have the opportunity to not just start but complete college.

In the near term, the focus will be on developing scalable programs for IHDF school partners that will permit them to expand their impact locally. IHDF will provide critical best practices program content and services to partner schools to materially increase the number of underserved, low income, students to get to and through college. IHDF will realize its mission through a program that includes financial sponsorship and access, college partners and a network of champions, all delivered through a scalable services model and technology platform.

The Opportunity

Reporting to the IHDF’s Board of Directors through its Chairman, the CEO/Executive Director will lead the organization. The first priority is to build upon the successful affiliate models by strengthening existing relationships and expanding the national office’s offerings to the affiliate programs, as well as, growing the number of affiliate programs. Secondly, as an extension of the current affiliate model, the CEO will lead the implementation of an ambitious new program designed to significantly increase the impact on students and communities across the nation, with the goal of impacting tens of thousands of students while continuing support for and growth of affiliates across the country.

Specifically, the CEO/Executive Director will focus on the following organizational priorities:

• Building a diversified and sustainable funding base
• Fostering strong partnerships‐‐‐with staff, funders, schools and others
• Developing efficient and appropriate program innovation and replication
• Building a strong organization and leadership team
• Promoting the visibility and credibility of IHDF

Building a diversified and sustainable funding base is the most critical task for the CEO/Executive Director, who must have the ability to inspire, engage and motivate foundations, as well as individual and corporate donors. Strong and creative networking and partnership development skills will be critical attributes for this leadership position.

 The Responsibilities

Specific responsibilities of the CEO/Executive Director include:

• Increase and diversify funding and expand fund raising to support IHDF’s operations and to provide financial resources to sustain, improve, and enlarge the program.
• Engage the IHDF Board on key initiatives where their talents and efforts can improve results; recruit new IHDF trustees capable of providing financial and strategic support to IHDF and its mission.
• Engage and form partnerships with a diverse set of constituents including corporate partners, policy makers, university presidents, affiliates, school partners, and Dreamers.
• Further develop and communicate IHDF’s strategic vision and direction, including program refinement and new program development. Manage program development and implementation and overall organizational direction.
• Lead IHDF’s marketing and communication initiatives as the public face of the organization; raise the profile of IHDF by speaking authoritatively and engagingly on the mission and vision of the foundation in local and national media.
• Maintain a high quality staff to deliver on all programs and partnerships. In addition, the CEO/Executive Director will forge national partnerships with corporations, foundations, government agencies, and other education and youth development organizations to provide enhanced experiences to Dreamers.
• Expand IHDF to new communities by engaging local individuals and community leaders.
• Support affiliates in the effort to grow their impact and ensure long‐term sustainability by: facilitating the sharing of best practices, producing and enforcing standardized materials, and providing training, technical support, and professional development in the numerous areas of the program.
• Organize and host events to support and develop Dreamers from across the country and engage the program’s alumni in present‐day organizational activities.

 The Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is currently a CEO, President, Executive Director, or other senior executive of an organization (for‐profit or not‐for‐profit) that has a proven track record of being able to raise funds and has a passion for the mission of IHDF.

The successful candidate is someone who brings organizational experience, leadership and charisma to the position. She or he must be comfortable in the public arena—raising money, talking to foundations and corporate partners, cultivating donors, etc.—while at the same time bringing operational discipline, accountability, budgetary prudence, and creativity to the delivery of IHDF’s mission.

He or she should have most of the following attributes and experiences:

• Accomplished fund‐raiser with demonstrated success with diverse funding sources—foundation, corporation, government, and individual.
• An engaging leader who naturally attracts, hires, and works to retain capable people; aligns and sustains productive relationships with diverse stakeholders and leads them to consistently high performance.
• Strong operational experience with a track record of executing upon strategy.
• Knowledge, understanding and deep interest in and passion for IHDF core beliefs, values and programs; appreciation for the unique operating and cultural dynamics of this environment.
• Excellent communicator‐‐one who both listens well and articulates ideas in clear and compelling ways both verbally and in writing; ability to be empathetic and impactful with a very broad range of audiences from funding sources and school partners to Dreamers.
• Champion of the improvement and growth of a successful organization; highly skilled and comfortable at managing multiple organizational dimensions simultaneously; able to make sound decisions that emphasize delivery of high‐quality programs, strategic alignment, operational efficiency, team collaboration, and balanced budgets.
• Ability to navigate in non‐profit environments.
• Track record of building long‐term partnerships with outside organizations.
• Perspective and humor.
• Active advocate for, and potentially direct participant, excellence and progression in education and education reform.
• Experience overseeing extended services based operations.
• Experience  utilizing  technology  to  drive  data  driven  decision  making  and  measuring  and demonstrate programmatic success.

 The Career Opportunity

To an experienced executive seeking a new challenge in the not‐for‐profit world, this opportunity offers several benefits:

• The opportunity to join IHDF, a respected and successful organization, while at the same time enjoying autonomy as CEO/Executive Director.
• The opportunity to make a life changing positive impact on thousands of young children’s lives.
• The opportunity to leverage an organizational culture of innovation
• The opportunity to work on a national scale.
• The opportunity to work with a distinguished and passionate Board of Directors.

 Compensation

Compensation offers an attractive salary in line with the individual’s work experience.

 Travel

Travel could (initially) represent as much as 40% of the Director’s time.

To explore further, search our job board with the code “RSPDream."