Equity Director

The organisation

About Community Change and Community Change Action:

Community Change builds the power and capacity of low-income people, especially low-income people of color, to lead powerful and dynamic movements for social change. With our community-based partner groups, we bridge the grassroots and the national, supporting outsider strategies to disrupt the status quo while also building pathways to influence the insider conversation. 

Our vision of a better world centers the leadership of impacted people of color to move our work on immigrant rights, economic justice, and racial equity, including a focus on jobs and housing, early childhood care and education, income supports, and immigration reform.

This position also supports Community Change Action, an affiliated 501(c)(4) advocacy organization. While motivated by the same core values – equity, inclusion, and justice – Community Change and Community Change Action operate independently of one another and each organization has its own board of directors.

The position

Community Change is at a critical juncture in our efforts to ensure we create diverse, inclusive, and equitable organizations. 

The Equity Director will bring significant expertise to develop the vision and strategy for the next phase of Community Change’s diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging work. They will foster a culture of equity and operationalize it across our programs and throughout the organization.

Critical to this role and its work is a leader who has a deep familiarity with and understanding of the intersectionality and historical underpinnings of racism, sexism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, ageism, classism, xenophobia, poverty, and other forms of oppression. They will also bring experience creating diverse, equitable and inclusive cultures within organizations; particularly groups with a vision and mission to create more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and justice-driven outcomes  and impact.

This position will directly report to Dorian Warren, Co-President of Community Change, and it will be a member of the Executive Office and Executive Team, which includes senior leaders from across the organization’s program and infrastructure teams. 

Tasks & responsibilities

Executive Strategy & Leadership: 

• Advance and integrate an organizational vision and strategy for equity and inclusion work aligned with our strategic vision, Path to Power, and across all teams and programs. 
• Build the infrastructure and staffing necessary to sustain and advance long-term Equity efforts. 
• Develop shared language and metrics to integrate equity and inclusion into systems, practices, and day-to-day work within our external programmatic work and internal culture and operations. 
• Strategically align key staff bodies to strengthen equity work and outcomes including the Equity Committee, Labor Management Committee, and Staff and Board Race and Gender Working Groups and drive the integration of the Race and Gender Justice vision into organization-wide planning, systems, and policies that are designed, implemented, and regularly reviewed for equity and inclusion.
• Monitor external best practices and work collaboratively with other Equity directors/experts in similar organizations.
• Serve as a member of the Executive Team to shape the organization’s strategy, priorities, and resource allocation; integrate work across teams and functions; and foster healthy communications and collaboration.

Organizational Culture Leadership: 

• Develop, build upon, and steward a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion – one that helps attract, retain, and support the growth of staff of all backgrounds  and that fosters authentic and genuine belonging.
• Honor and support the staff’s ongoing Equity and Race and Gender Justice work by building on previous work to create shared values, language, and definitions.
• Collaborate with the People and Culture team, which includes talent acquisition and human resources, to ensure that Community Change’s vision for diversity, equity, and inclusion shows up in its recruitment, hiring, onboarding, promotions, compensation, and performance management practices with the goal of attracting, retaining, and supporting the growth of a talented and diverse staff.
• Develop and lead a learning agenda that fosters a culture of equity, inclusion, and belonging and disrupts bias. This agenda should include training and coaching on giving and receiving feedback, having courageous conversations, and navigating conflict.

Candidate profile

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate has a strategic mindset, is results-driven, and possesses a high level of emotional intelligence. They are incredibly thoughtful and decisive, and they bring strong energy, joy, and passion around advancing racial and gender equity and social justice issues. 

 Specific qualifications include: 

• Minimum 10 years of professional experience, with at least 5+ years of team/people management experience, serving as a senior leader within a mission-driven organization with demonstrated success influencing across multiple levels and functions of an organization. 
• Full understanding of the progressive movement ecosystem and mission-driven organizations that work at and use their power to influence at national and state levels, as well as in communities, courts, with legislative and executive bodies, and in media and culture.
• Familiarity with research and expert-based best practices that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion across a widely networked, nationally focused organization and its internal team.
• Familiarity/experience using qualitative and quantitative data 
• Deep understanding of intersectional approaches to the work, including but not exclusive to race, class, and gender. A strong structural racial, gender and economic analysis in agreement with Community Change’s vision and values.
• Demonstrated commitment to fighting for racial, economic, and gender justice across the issues that are central to the lives of those most impacted by systemic oppression.
• Demonstrated experience visioning, creating and integrating, implementing and evaluating short and long-term Equity goals and strategies throughout an organization’s programs, operations and practices.
• Demonstrated success with implementing new ways of operating and operationalizing and sustaining change within the culture, processes and structures of an organization.
• Proven collaborator and facilitator with the ability to work with and through senior leadership teams, as well as across all levels of a team – individually and collectively – to address con?ict and build a healthy culture.
• Effective writing and communication skills across varied formats and contexts; ability to communicate complex ideas in clear, concise terms (verbally and written). 
• An organized systems thinker who brings an organizational architecture lens. 
• A relational manager with high emotional intelligence and experience supporting staff during stressful or difficult periods.
• Commitment to confidentiality and ability to exercise absolute discretion.

This person reports to: Dorian Warren, Co-President of Community Change and Community Change Action

The offer

Classification: Community Change recognizes a staff bargaining unit affiliated with IFPTE Local 70, a union for non-profit workers. This position is not included in Community Change’s bargaining unit and therefore not covered under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.

COVID-19 Requirements: Community Change requires all new employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (within six weeks after the start of employment) unless a medical or religious exemption is requested and approved. An employee will be considered fully vaccinated once (i) two weeks have elapsed since after the employee has received the final dose of a primary COVID vaccine series (e.g., two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, two doses of the Moderna vaccine, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine) and (ii) the employee has received any booster vaccine dose currently recommended by the CDC for those in the employee’s age group. Should the CDC subsequently recommend additional boosters or should an employee otherwise become newly subject to a CDC booster recommendation, an employee shall continue to be considered fully vaccinated if the employee gets the additional booster within one month of the change.

Supervisory Responsibility:  TBD

Travel Requirements: Limited travel may be required - up to 10% (upon office reopening from the COVID-19 pandemic)

Salary & benefits: $125,000 - $150,000 annual salary. Community Change offers competitive salary and an excellent benefits package, which includes 4 weeks of annual paid vacation; additional paid holiday leave between December 24 and January 1; 8% employer contribution to retirement account after six months of employment (and 3% employer contribution for the first 6 months); and a choice of generous health insurance plans. For more information, please visit our benefits page.

Position Location: Position will be remote.

Interested?

You can apply to this position by using the link below.