About Walk With Sally

Walk With Sally (WWS) provides hope through our individualized mentoring and community support services to empower children experiencing trauma through a parent, guardian or sibling's cancer journey. Since 2005 WWS has helped over 350 children and their families throughout Los Angeles County. By providing not only free of charge one-on-one mentoring from an adult who has been through it, but also an annual curriculum consisting of quarterly Friendship Activities bringing the entire community of mentors, mentees, families and prospective families together for an afternoon of fun, learning and connection; art healing sessions to help children begin to talk about the anxiety, fears and many times grief that live just beneath the surface; Young Leaders Club for teen mentees looking for more leadership and life skills, as well as Scholarships and Emergency Financial Assistance to those families struggling the most, WWS’s Friendships last on average 2.2 years compared to the national mentoring average of 1.8.

Position Overview

Walk With Sally seeks a passionate, mission-driven Chief Executive Officer to raise the organization’s visibility, expand its vision, deepen its impact, and shepherd the organization through its next phase of growth. Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) provides leadership, motivation, and guidance to a team of 6 full-time employees and a broad range of volunteers. The CEO has overall strategic and operational responsibility for WWS’s staff, programs, expansion, and execution of its mission. The Chief Executive Officer is also responsible for designing and implementing strategic direction for the organization while ensuring optimum programmatic, financial, and management operations of WWS. Building upon WWS’S accomplishments to date, the incoming Chief Executive Officer will act tactfully, inspire action, embrace change, and build bridges with key influencers within the large community of funders, mentors, mentees, volunteers, and other stakeholders that partner with WWS.

The Chief Executive Officer will directly supervise the Program Director and the Development Director and oversee the collaborative functioning of all permanent employees.

The ideal Chief Executive Officer believes in the power of the mentor/mentee relationship to transform trauma and harnesses the tactical skills to strategically lead fundraising and overall operations. This role is based in El Segundo.

Responsibilities

The Chief Executive Officer’s Primary Responsibilities include:

• Leadership & Strategy
• Foster an inclusive, trusting compassionate organizational culture for staff, volunteers, mentors, and mentees
• Ensure ongoing local programmatic excellence, impact evaluation, and consistent quality of finance and administration, fundraising, communications, and systems; recommend timelines and resources needed to achieve WWS’s strategic goals
• Actively engage and energize WWS’s staff, volunteers, board members, event committees, partnering organizations, funders, and Founder
• Foster and support a strong Board of Directors; seek and build board involvement with strategic direction for ongoing operations
• Oversee, reports, conduct analysis of progress and efforts in regards to strategic planning, including developing metrics to measure impact and growth
• Facilitate board members’ connection and communication with programs and staff and foster effective teamwork among the board in creating and reporting strategic, programmatic, and development goals
• Empower and supports the Board of Directors to fulfill its governance functions and participation
• Identify, assess, and inform the Board of Directors of internal and external analysis that would impact the organization
• Ensure effective systems to track scaling progress, and regularly evaluate program components, so as to measure successes that can be effectively communicated to the Board, funders, and other constituents
• Work effectively with the volunteer Founder to engage his historic commitment, community relationships, and enthusiasm for WWS’s mission to further WWS’s strategic goals
• Demonstrate leadership and management skills and abilities in team building and creating trusting relationships with a variety of stakeholders

Fundraising & Communications

• Manage WWS’s communications team to ensure strong brand visibility and awareness
• Build upon new and existing revenue-generating and fundraising activities to support the existing operating budget of nearly $900k and future growth
• Serve as the spokesperson and public face, representing WWS to external audiences and promoting its mission
• Use external presence and relationships to garner new opportunities to identify and build network maps of prospect donors (individuals and institutions)
• Possess a full understanding of the donor life cycle (e.g. identify, qualify, cultivate, ask, steward) and a depth of experience of strategies and approaches to drive differentiation
• Ability to oversee team and stakeholders towards strong data integrity
• Proven track record of securing 4- and 5- figure gifts from various sources (individual, corporate, institutions, foundations)
• Experience developing multi-faceted development programs that include major gifts, grants, events, and planned giving
• Experience producing fundraising events from small salons to large galas involving 500-600 guests

Administration & Operations

• Ensure consistent management in all areas: financial, human resources, operations, and administration
• Develop and provide meaningful financial reports to the Board of Directors to adequately communicate the organization’s financial status
• Develop the organization’s annual budget and maintain fiscal controls to operate within that budget
• Maintain WWS’s compliance with all corporate requirements, registrations, and regulations to ensure its continuing 501(c)3 status
• In conjunction with WWS’s CPA, conduct its annual review or audit
• Wisely shepherd WWS’s resources in all vendor contracts, leases, technology subscriptions, and other long term and/or ongoing financial obligation
• Comply with all requirements set by public and private grantors
• Fluency with technology to lead the organization toward implementation of improved services, administration, communication, fundraising capacity, and measurement of strategic planning and program impacts

Who You Are

• This position provides an excellent opportunity for an entrepreneur who is passionate about mentor/mentee relationships to transform trauma matched with the business skills for success.
• Results Driven Professional. Five plus years of proven accomplishment in relevant fields including fundraising, nonprofit strategy, operations, or private sector
• Strategic and Operational. You are gifted at both defining the strategy to accomplish goals and developing and managing the operational plans to ensure success
• Strong Fundraiser. You have a proven track record of securing revenue from various funding streams or a strong desire and willingness to learn quickly
• Business Acumen. You are skilled in forging strategic partnerships, negotiating contracts, managing people, communications, and finance literacy
• Creative and Driven. You generate ideas and see them through, seeking excellence and sweating the details. You take the initiative and lead alongside
• Analytical and Compelling. You are rigorous and data driven. You’re persuasive, with excellent written and oral presentation skills
• Curious and Collaborative. You listen carefully and you learn from others. You derive joy from surfacing the great ideas, designing something better, and improving it ongoing
• Kind, Humble, and Humorous. You take your work seriously, but not yourself

Compensation, Benefits & Flexibility

Salary range is up to $100,000. Benefits package includes generous vacation, health, dental, work from home, parking, private office.

Physical Requirements/Work Environment

Normal internal office environment and fun fast-paced start up environment. The model CEO will thrive in an extraordinarily fast-paced environment that features constant change, flexibility and a need to be innovative, organized, thought leader and creative. This position requires employee flexibility, patience and ability to problem-solve and innovate.
Physical requirements include: sight, hearing, standing, and other physical requirements needed to complete essential functions of the position and other duties as assigned. This position may require periodic lifting and the ability to carry 40 pounds.

Disclaimer

The information presented indicates the general nature and level of work expected of employees in this classification. It is not designed to contain, nor to be interpreted as, a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, qualifications and objectives required of employees assigned to this job.

Benefits:

• Dental insurance
• Flexible schedule
• Health insurance
• Paid time off

Schedule:

• 8 hour shift

Supplemental Pay:

• Bonus pay

Application Question(s):

• Do you have recent successful experience in fundraising?
• Do you have recent successful experience in securing donors?
• Do you have recent experience managing a staff?
• Do you have recent experience in developing an organizational strategy?
• Do you have recent experience in managing an organizational financial budget?
• Do you live within commuting distance of El Segundo, CA?

Work Location: One location