Illinois Executive Director

THE ROLE

Your role stands at the intersection of the struggle for educational equity and racial justice, to increase fairness and opportunity for Illinois children and families from under-resourced communities. At a moment of tremendous need and opportunity, as Executive Director of Stand for Children-Illinois, you will be responsible for overseeing and driving the strategy to improve educational outcomes and increase racial equity in Illinois. As someone deeply motivated by results, impact, and racial justice you will bring your dedication and vision to the role. Additionally, you get the opportunity to work with and develop a talented team who not only cares deeply about justice and equity, but who are bold and strategic and take responsibility for achieving substantial progress toward our mission every year.

THE ORGANIZATION

Stand for Children is a unique catalyst for education equity and racial justice, to create a brighter future for us all. We make an impact by:

• Educating and empowering parents, caregivers, educators, and community members to stand up for education equity and racial justice;

• Advocating and campaigning for, and supporting the implementation of, effective policies and investments that increase education equity and racial justice; and
• Electing state leaders who stand up for education equity and racial justice.

Stand Illinois has played a key role in the passage of numerous policies advancing equity for Illinois students. Examples include:

• Passage of a new school funding formula that has resulted in more than $1B in additional funding being provided annually to serve students in low property wealth school districts;

• Ending the diversion of federal funds from the poorest schools to pay pension debt, so those funds stayed with those schools, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars of additional funding for students in under-resourced communities; and
• Removing multiple barriers to college and career readiness pathways.

Other representative work by Stand Illinois includes:

• Publishing several reports that have played influential roles in shaping policy;

• Founding the Illinois Early Literacy Coalition (ilearlyliteracy.org);
• Championing the elimination of excessive and counterproductive juvenile legal system fines and fees
• Partnering with neighborhood schools and bringing to them a suite of programs focused on educator and family engagement;
• Launching grassroots campaigns such as a COVID safety campaign on Chicago's South Side (2,000 households and 6,300 masks); and
• Each election year, helping to elect dozens of General Assembly members who support education equity and racial justice.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Stand Illinois's next Executive Director will lead an organization with a skilled and diverse staff and excellent reputation, relationships, and funding partnerships. Specific responsibilities include:

• Developing and then continually refining and advancing an ambitious impact strategy for Stand Illinois and ensuring Stand Illinois achieves its strategic objectives.
• Fundraising to ensure Stand Illinois meets or exceeds its fundraising goals.

• Hiring, managing, motivating, and developing a top-performing team of dedicated professionals, including fostering a culture of diversity, inclusion, transparency, and collaboration.
• Ensuring Stand Illinois reaches its online reach and activation goals and grassroots organizing and mobilization goals.
• Building and maintaining productive working relationships with key stakeholders, including heads of education organizations and advocacy groups, elected officials, school district leaders, civic and business leaders, education experts, and others.
• Serving as a compelling spokesperson.
• Serving as a productive member of Stand for Children's nationwide team and contributing to the growth and impact of the organization.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Passionate commitment to educational equity and racial justice
• 10 years of executive leadership experience within the non-profit, education, private, or government sectors; 5 years of experience in advocacy and campaigning preferred.
• Superior political strategist and project manager with demonstrated ability to develop and execute legislative and/or electoral campaign strategies and manage tactical execution to achieve results; a record of accomplishment in Illinois and demonstrated understanding of Illinois state politics strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated fundraising success, particularly with individuals, preferably including experience securing six-figure, multi-year gifts; experience with 501(c)(4) and political fundraising preferred.
• Demonstrated success in effectively leading and developing staff.
• The drive and persistence necessary to achieve meaningful, measurable, and sustained impact.
• Strong commitment to parent and community engagement and organizing.
• Strong analytical skills, with a proven ability to synthesize substantial amounts of data and identify the essence of the problem and determine solutions.

• Outstanding relationship-building and collaboration skills; positive relationships with Illinois political, education, and civic leaders preferred.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills: ability to communicate directly and respectfully with staff and external stakeholders.
• Strong knowledge of education issues preferred; experience working on economic or criminal justice issues or directly in public schools is a strong plus.
• Demonstrated commitment to building trusting relationships and partnerships with people of diverse backgrounds, cultures, socio-economic levels, and perspectives.

SALARY RANGE: $148,500-$185,600, commensurate with demonstrated capacity to excel in the role. Generous benefits.

Stand for Children consists of two separate entities. Stand for Children, Inc., a grassroots membership organization is exempt under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, and Stand for Children Leadership Center, a leadership development organization is exempt under section 501(c)(3).

Stand for Children and Stand for Children Leadership Center provide equal employment opportunity (EEO) to all persons regardless of age, color, national origin, citizenship status, physical or mental disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression or marital status. We are committed to a diverse and culturally inclusive workplace in which our differences broaden our awareness, enrich our daily experiences, and contribute to our collective strength. We predominantly partner with low-income communities of color. Therefore, though race and other legally protected characteristics are never used to make final hiring decisions, we place a particular focus on recruiting staff members who share the backgrounds of thecommunities we serve.