“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:
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.
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 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:
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:
The Career Opportunity
To an experienced executive seeking a new challenge in the not‐for‐profit world, this opportunity offers several benefits:
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."