SMALL NONPROFIT (TUCSON, AZ)

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR          

Job Title:                     Executive Director

Job Category:              Exempt

Reports To:                  Board of Directors

Position Type:             Full–Time, Onsite

Summary of Position:

For more than four decades, Native Seeds/SEARCH (NS/S) has stewarded the seeds of the desert Southwest and Mexico. Founded in 1983 in response to the concern of farmers, gardeners, Indigenous community members, and conservationists about the devastating loss of seed diversity, NS/S now conserves more than 1,800 regional seed varieties in a climate-controlled seed bank. Our mission is not just the preservation of seeds for the future, but also their distribution today, prioritizing communities of our desert region who have stewarded the seeds for time immemorial. The Executive Director is first and foremost the keeper of this mission.

This is a small nonprofit with fewer than 15 FTE, currently, many educated volunteers, enjoys strong community and donor support, and has an internal team of dedicated professionals.

The Executive Director (ED) leads an onsite staff and is responsible to the Board of Directors. The ED provides direct supervision to the leadership team and general leadership to the entire staff. The ED is responsible for the overall executive leadership and hands-on management of the organization to include community relations, fundraising, program development, financial management, funds and resource development including grants, human resources, and facilities management. This job is an on-site, full-time job and is not eligible for remote work on a regular or ongoing basis.

Essential Competencies

Fundraising and Development:

• Develops and implements comprehensive, sustainable, and diverse fundraising strategies. Considers recommendations of staff and Board of Directors regarding funding opportunities.
• Actively and purposefully engages current and new contacts and cultivates sponsors and donors to continually develop fundraising channels and opportunities.
• Ensures that the necessary personnel, systems, and software are in place to manage, track, and develop fundraising efforts.
• Personally signs and sends timely and courteous acknowledgements for donations and pledges received.

Leadership:

• Operates with integrity, honesty, and transparency, in a reliable and respectful way, with staff, Board members, tribes, donors, agencies, volunteers and community members.
• Interacts with and able to manage, coach and guide all levels of staff and volunteers to create encouraging environment for programs to thrive while also ensuring program targets are met and programs comply with all legal and internal program requirements.
• Responsible for oversight of all programs within N/SS, in addition to tracking program effectiveness and ensuring program efficiency.
• Builds strong relationships within the organization and externally with community organizations partners, colleagues, and tribes.
• Attends events and functions to support the organization.
• Manages personnel through ensuring adherence to personnel policies, overseeing employee evaluation and discipline processes, and seeking outside counsel appropriately to ensure legal compliance.
• Ensures employees are qualified to perform the requirements of their positions.
• Ensures employees are compensated based on their roles, the relevant labor market, and other objective measures.
• Develops staff through training, professional development, and management to build their competencies and skills.
• Consistently makes mission-driven decisions through thoughtful analysis, demonstrating good judgment, and is a resource for advice and solutions throughout the organization.
• Accepts and acts on constructive feedback and provides constructive feedback to others in a respectful and courteous way.
• Serves to empower others while delegating tasks and responsibilities.

Communication :

• Speaks publicly and develops community relationships to promote visibility, community understanding of the mission, and funding resources.
• Communicates effectively to promote the organization in written materials and traditional / social media.
• Positively engages with a variety of people to build constructive relationships, including program participants, media, staff, volunteers, Board members, donors, sponsors, community organizers/leaders, collaborating organizations and others.
• Handles and defuses tense situations when required, including mediating workplace or volunteer situations to a workplace appropriate conclusion.
• Engages and communicates with the Board of Directors, management staff, and donors in a clear, respectful, honest, and consistent way.
• Promotes and engages in lawful, defensible and up to date employment practice in all areas of the organization.

Vision:

• Fully believes in and promotes the mission of Native Seeds/SEARCH
• Able to think and act strategically, and clearly communicate said strategies to staff and Board members.
• Considers the future of Native Seeds/SEARCH and how that evolution will look.
• Excellent organizational skills: Able to organize, delegate, and manage a wide variety of programs, people, and business aspects. Prioritizes and focuses on the most important needs first.
• Develops short and long-term organizational goals, and the methods to achieve them, to ensure future sustainability and growth.
• Accurately assesses the time/resources required and difficulty of goals while setting manageable steps to achieve those goals.
• Evaluates and regularly reports to the Board on progress toward goals and adjusts for setbacks.
• Ensures the organization continues to meet the changing needs of the heritage seeds community through enhancing current offerings, reviewing and improving events, and developing new relationships.
• Inspires others through an optimistic attitude that engages others in setting goals and their achievement.
• Oversees timely development, review, and implementation of all documents necessary to meet the organization’s legal requirements.
• Develops working relationships throughout the heritage seeds and traditional agriculture community to maintain respect for self and the organization.

Financial Management:

• Creates, with the finance staff, a transparent and accurate budget that is specific and attainable.
• Makes decisions on program or staffing reductions or expansions needed to ensure financial stability of organization.
• Timely and fully informs Board of Directors of organization financial status.
• Supervises use of funding to ensure expenditure of funds meets promises and commitments to sponsors and donors.
• Ensures organization accurately and timely meets tax reporting and payment obligations.

Essential Job Functions and Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain a variety of fund development strategies to build the resources of the organization, including grants, donor development, capital campaigns, investments, and all other sources.
• Hire, train, and oversee employees to establish and preserve a competent, motivated, and dedicated staff.
• Manage and evaluate direct report staff, to ensure alignment between job requirements, performance and organizational accomplishments.
• Ensure organization’s human resource policies and practices are clear and complete, with a system that is compliant with laws and regulations, as well as accessible to all staff.
• Work closely with staff assigned to engage and develop sponsors, foundations, and donors to ensure adequate resources are available.
• Work closely with the finance staff and engaged finance professionals to develop an annual budget and monitor income and expenditures for compliance with the board-approved budget, and for presentation of the financial statements at each Board meeting.
• Ensure financial stability of the organization through financial planning, grants development, donor development, incorporating program leaders into appropriate aspects of resource development.
• Engage with sponsors and donors to secure funding in partnership with development staff.
• Monitor compliance with contract, grant agreements, and all other commitments, including regular and ongoing communication with each to support expectation management.
• Review and sign contracts on behalf of the organization.
• Work closely with staff to identify and track outcomes for each program.
• Partner with finance staff to develop, maintain, and update policies and procedures for programs operation, internal controls, and financial transactions.
• Develop and implement community awareness and marketing initiatives for community outreach, volunteer recruitment, and fund development.
• Serve as primary staff liaison to the Board of Directors, and work closely with all Board Committees to plan for organization growth and development.
• Ensure that the Board of Directors is informed on important issues, including all activities and relationships related to the seeds, partner farmers, other agriculture and heritage-based nonprofits.
• Ensure Board of Directors receives all information connected to their governance role in providing oversight for the organization, with adequate time for Board members' review and analyze prior to any Board meeting.
• Attend all Board of Directors meetings.
• Identify, join and attend appropriate networks that build relationships and value, and improve awareness of the work of Native Seeds/SEARCH.
• Provide in-person leadership presence, including decisions and support for all staff.

Education, Qualifications, and Abilities

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree is required; Agriculture, Conservation, Environmental Science, or other relevant subjects, or 8 years of leadership experience in a similar type of nonprofit.
• Prior experience with communities in the US Southwest or Mexico (experience can be social, familial or educational)     
• Minimum of seven years of experience in management in a nonprofit setting or its equivalent.
• Experience in fundraising and donor development.
• Experience managing staff and budgets.
• Functional knowledge of office equipment to include phone, computer, copier, and scanner.
• Valid Driver’s license and insurance coverage required by organization policy.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s Degree–Agriculture, Conservation, Environmental Science, or other related advanced degree or studies.
• Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE).
• Demonstrated leadership skills and three years of senior or executive leadership experience.
• Prior experience working with a board of directors.
• Advanced computer skills to include Microsoft Office suite, databases, financial software, social media platforms.

Abilities

• Able to work in an office setting and to use standard office equipment: work at a desk and computer screen for extended periods of time, including many hours each day seated at a computer.
• Able to regularly work at the organization office during and outside of normal working hours to provide on-site leadership and presence to staff, donors, community members and volunteers.
• Able to travel to attend meetings at various locations within and away from Tucson, Arizona.
• Able to work effectively in a stressful environment dealing with a wide variety of challenges, deadlines, and diverse employee populations.
• Able to communicate respectfully, clearly, completely and effectively with staff, community members, board members, sponsors and donors.

Physical Requirements

This job is considered a MEDIUM DUTY job, as defined by Social Security Administration, Code of Federal Regulations, §404-1567, (c) Medium work. Medium work involves lifting no more than 50 pounds at a time with frequent lifting or carrying of objects weighing up to 25 pounds. If someone can do medium work, we determine that he or she can also do sedentary and light work.