Executive Director, Massachusetts

Overview:

For more than two decades, Bottom Line has been fighting for educational equity by ensuring that the right to a quality college education is accessible to those whose potential and drive exceed their opportunity. For students from first-generation, low-income backgrounds who face systemic barriers, Bottom Line’s advisors are a relentless ally who partner with them to find the right college, persist to a degree, and successfully launch a career.

As one of the first college support organizations to focus on college completion, Bottom Line now produces best-in-class college graduation rates that eliminate the significant gap between first generation students from low-income backgrounds and their wealthier peers. We operate regional programs in Massachusetts, where we were founded in 1997, New York City and Chicago that collectively serve over 8,000 students.

The Massachusetts region is Bottom Line’s original regional site serving more than 3,500 students annually with an operating budget of ~5.5m.   Bottom Line serves students from Boston in both its College Access and College Success programs, while also supporting students from Worcester in its College Success program who attend 19 Target colleges across the state. Bottom Line works alongside other community-based organizations in the Boston and Worcester communities to ensure that students have a pathway from high school to college, and a career.

The Executive Director leads the Massachusetts Region. As part of a National organization with a strong centralized program model, the Executive Director plays a critical role in championing organizational tenets, values, and culture. At the same time, the Executive Director provides the local leadership and insights that allows our work to be responsive and relevant to the Boston and Worcester communities. This includes: engaging local stakeholders who serve as formal and informal leaders in the organization and region; building and leading a high-performing and mission-driven local team, and ensuring strong program results year to year.

The Executive Director leads work with the Massachusetts Advisory Board, and directly manages the heads of our local Development and Program functions. The Executive Director is also a member of Bottom Line’s Senior Leadership Team, which is made up of: CEO, Chief of Growth & Strategy, Chief Talent Officer, National Managing Director of Programs, and other Regional Executive Directors.

 
Responsibilities
Primary Responsibilities:

Leadership and Management:

• Model and champion Bottom Line’s tenets, values, competencies, mission, and vision, and serve as a credible voice for Bottom Line in both internal and external settings
• Serve as a leader in the Bottom Line organization, informing our shared strategy and goals
• Provide local vision and direction for Bottom Line’s program in Massachusetts that aligns with organizational strategy and goals, including ensuring the active engagement of a Regional Advisory Board
• With local team, develop, execute, and evaluate annual operating plans
• Monitor, understand, and seek to improve Bottom Line’s broad organizational health indicators in Massachusetts, aligned to our scorecard
• Leverage personal skills as well as internal and external resources to meet all goals, including the Key Performance Indicators of our Access, Success and Career programs
• Recruit, lead, manage and coach Massachusetts Regional Leadership Team members – and motivate and develop the broad regional team - to meet goals and promote our mission
• Hold Regional Leadership Team accountable for delivering results and effectively managing teams
• Represent Bottom Line in an influential and compelling manner as a thought leader in the college access, success and workforce development spaces

 Development / Fundraising / External Affairs:

• Serve as the chief fundraiser and spokesperson for Bottom Line in Massachusetts
• Work in collaboration with the Chief of Growth Strategy and Development,  Massachusetts Managing Director of Development to set and execute a fundraising strategy that supports the annual and long-term needs of the region
• Build, steward and motivate a Regional Advisory Board to make connections and raise funds
• Engage and cultivate new champions for Bottom Line through strong community presence and outreach
• Actively pursue, including direct solicitation, 6-7 figure, multi-year gifts from individuals, corporate partners and foundations
• Develop and manage strategic relationships with key partners, including colleges and community- based organizations

 Team Culture and Development:

• Provide leadership to the full Massachusetts Team through strong formal and informal communication
• Lead the Regional Leadership Team to ensure strong collaboration across local functions and with the National team to accomplish annual and strategic goals
• Ensure strong implementation of Bottom Line’s training program(s)

 Operations and Finance:

• Create the Massachusetts annual budget and 3-year operating plan and ensure that the office operates within financial means
• Oversee the regional financial targets, including working with the Development team to raise annual and sustaining revenue, and monitoring expenses
• Ensure that the staff and offices fully exhibit Bottom Line’s Tenets, Mission, Vision, Core Values, Competencies, and Organizational Policies
• Ensure that the offices, equipment and systems are in place so that all staff can operate effectively and efficiently

Education, Experience & Qualifications:

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree and work authorization
• 8-10 years of demonstrated success leading and managing a high-performing organization, business unit, or team, with emphasis on leading through periods of rapid growth and change
• A passion for and commitment to partnering with underserved students to get into and through the right college and successfully launch a career
• Demonstrated success in executing strategy and leading significant change initiatives
• Track record of initiating, cultivating, and managing relationships with key constituencies including staff, corporations, foundations, high schools, and institutions of higher education
• Revenue generation experience, preferably one-on-one fundraising
• Experience managing business and financial operations, as well as technology tools of a successful business/organization
• Demonstrated commitment to Bottom Line’s mission, vision, and core values
• Mastery in Bottom Line's seven core competencies: Relationships, Results, Communication, Inclusiveness, Talent Development, Agility, and Planning

Preferred:

• Advanced degree
• Track record of securing large gifts in the nonprofit space

Competencies:

All employees are expected to demonstrate continued growth within our seven core competencies.

Competencies provide Bottom Line with a way to define, in behavioral terms, what it is that people need to do to produce the results that the organization desires, in a way that is in keeping with its culture.  Bottom Line defines a competency as a cluster of related knowledge, skills and attitudes that affects a major part of one’s job that correlates with performance on the job, that can be measured against well-accepted standards, and that can be improved via training and development. 

• Relationships: Identifies opportunities and takes action to build and maintain meaningful and collaborative connections with various stakeholders
• Results: Produces quality outcomes; compiles and analyzes data to drive future plans; uses creative solutions
• Communication: Effectively articulates information in a clear, concise and timely manner to a wide range of stakeholders
• Inclusiveness: Creates and maintains an environment that respects and values the identities and cultures of all colleagues and students we serve
• Talent Development: Actively contributes to the hiring, development, retention, and promotion of a highly effective team
• Agility: Demonstrates adaptability and openness to shifting priorities, needs of stakeholders, and organizational changes
• Planning: Effectively and efficiently uses resources (people, time, materials, technology) in order to create, meet, and assess both strategic and task-oriented goals