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Managing Director
Abundant Housing LA / Los Angeles, CA
Posted on: January 6, 2019
Application Deadline: January 15, 2019
Job Description
About the organization:
Abundant Housing LA is an educational nonprofit that is dedicated to making Los Angeles County a more affordable, diverse, and vibrant city.
For more than thirty years LA has created far more jobs than it has created housing units. Those new jobs have attracted immigrants from across the country and the world, while simultaneously millions of babies have been born to Angeleno families. The resulting shortage of housing has pushed up rents and home prices, displaced families, and driven gentrification. Abundant Housing works to educate the public and decision makers about the importance of building housing for the people of Los Angeles. We need more affordable housing, more market rate housing, and more innovative solutions to today’s housing crisis.
We were founded in 2015 by a group of five individuals who began writing letters to support projects that would provide more housing. The following year some new blood joined, and we began our first transformation into a larger organization. We began meeting publicly and bringing people together around the idea of a more affordable city. At those meetings we brought members together and educated the public and decision makers about key issues. Along the way, we continued to create more innovative policy ideas and to advocate for smart choices for the city. As of today, we have a dedicated volunteer base of 25 who run the organization and a membership base of more than 2,000 people.
We recently secured a couple of significant grants, and are excited to create the next chapter of Abundant Housing LA with a full time Managing Director leading the fight day to day.
Job Summary:
The Managing Director will lead Abundant Housing LA into our next chapter. That includes maintaining and expanding our community of volunteers, identifying and mobilizing support for housing issues, educating policymakers and the public about housing and policy, and leading our growth to new parts of LA County.
There are three key groups within the organization that you, the Managing Director will work with. First, the board of directors, a traditional nonprofit board. Second, the executive committee, which votes on official AHLA positions (which you will serve on and lead). Third, the Dingbats, the community of volunteers who regularly mobilize and keep AHLA moving.
The board of directors is legally responsible for the organization. Each year the Managing Director will present a budget to the board, which will then modify or approve that plan for the year ahead. In addition, the Managing Director will also work with the board on fundraising efforts to maintain and grow the organization.
In addition to voting on what positions AHLA should take, the executive committee also meets once a month to discuss the various initiatives of the organization. The Managing Director should run these meetings, and the executive committee will largely function as the lieutenants for the MD helping to lead other volunteers and initiatives.
The Dingbats are the dedicated members of Abundant Housing LA who do all the work of the organization. The Dingbats already do more work As an effective Managing Director you will continuously work to retain, train, and grow this group. With a large dedicated group working together, we can get far more done than a single person could.
An ideal candidate has interest and experience in growing strong communities of volunteers, as well as relationships in the nonprofit, policy, and advocacy communities of Los Angeles.
Major Responsibilities:
- Lead fundraising efforts, including setting up and meeting with potential funders, providing materials for the board of directors to use in their fundraising work, as well as leading grant writing (likely assisted by volunteers)
- Commission and manage creation of infographics and videos to educate more people about housing issues
- Set up educational meetings with elected officials and recruit local members who are their constituents to attend as well
- Attend and speak at city and other public meetings where housing issues are discussed, recruit AHLA volunteers and members to attend as well
- Work with volunteers to plan events to grow our network, connect members, and educate
- Manage social media, press, newsletter, blog, and other communication teams / channels by managing volunteer teams
- Create local chapters in new regions of the county to expand our impact
- Ideate and help select campaigns and priorities for the organization on an ongoing basis
- Identify and track key metrics to keep tabs on our progress and the health of the volunteer and membership community
- Manage communication across the organization to keep everyone working toward aligned goals. This includes posting and moderating (or recruiting moderators) for our membership and volunteer forum, which is the method we use to all talk in the same place.
- Attend events to represent Abundant Housing and deepen our network
Compensation & logistics:
Job Type: Full-time
Salary: $60,000-80,000 per year, commensurate with experience
Work from home; future fundraising will be key in growing the team to the point that AHLA secures an office
Required Experience / Skills / Education
- Bachelor’s degree and 4+ years of professional experience
- Track record of systems thinking to test and verify new approaches
- Ability to engage and inspire through language and actions
- Ability to experiment, refine, and identify best practices
- Experience in a management position with budgetary responsibility preferred
- Experience in community and/or volunteer management preferred
Application Instructions
Please apply through the listing on Indeed.