Director, Fellows Program

Echoing Green is a leading global social venture fund that provides seed funding and support to the world's best emerging social entrepreneurs. By operating a world-renowned and highly competitive fellowship program, Echoing Green has helped launch some of the most innovative, effective, and well-known social change organizations in operation today, including Teach For America, City Year, Working Today, College Summit, Citizen Schools, Global Fund for Children, EarthRights International, SKS Microfinance, and Genocide Intervention Network.

Founded in 1987 by the leadership of the private equity firm General Atlantic, Echoing Green has to-date invested over $28 million and launched more than 400 new social change organizations. Our extensive fellows network now spans both the United States and forty countries around the world.

Position Overview:               

Echoing Green seeks an entrepreneurial, results-focused leader to oversee the day-to-day operations of the Fellowship and Alumni programs. The Director will report to Echoing Green's Senior Vice President and serve on Echoing Green's leadership team, with management oversight over a team of 2-3 associates (with high potential for that team to expand). The Director's core responsibility will be to oversee selection of best-in-class fellows and ensure that those fellows receive the support they need to launch their groundbreaking ideas for social change.

While the Fellowship program has been in existence for 22 years, the new Director will have a mandate to enhance and re-envision components of the program to make this core service offering more robust and catalytic. The ideal candidate, then, will come to the table eager to operate and execute, and also impassioned about the potential to align the fellows program with Echoing Green's broader social change agenda.

Responsibilities:     

The ideal candidate will be both an ideas person and an executor. They will have, at minimum, a bachelor's degree or equivalent, with 5-7 years of professional management and leadership experience. This experience (and/or their community engagement/volunteer work) will have incorporated the following key responsibilities:

• Operational Management: Experience owning a budget and managing timelines, with primary responsibility for nuts-and-bolts daily operations for an organization, a significant initiative within an organization, or a movement/campaign. Ideally, this experience will be within a resource-constrained environment (nonprofit and/or startup).
• Team Leadership: Experience managing direct reports, with a focus on results, positive team dynamics, and personal and professional development of team members.
• Program Oversight: Experience launching and leading programs or service offerings - ideally, in the social change/social entrepreneurship realm, working with philanthropic funding.
• Training/Talent Development: Instructional/training experience, and a strong judgment on what's needed to create robust and transformational programming experiences for the fellows - this might be corporate leadership development, traditional instructional experience, or some hybrid.
• Fostering Networks/Communities: Experience cultivating an organization or movement's "fan base" by building a broad community of engaged supporters who are aligned with and motivated by a common mission and purpose.

Qualifications:               

Furthermore, the ideal candidate will possess most of the following qualities:

• Entrepreneurial passion: Understanding of, and experience in, a start-up climate. Comfortable prioritizing tasks in a resource-constrained environment. Demonstrated skills in problem-solving, with a strong ability to balance innovation and continuity, deliberation and action, and independence and collaboration.
• Focus on outcomes: Strong bias to action - moves quickly from problem-solving to execution. Confidence to execute and push forward, even/especially at moments when every question isn't answered. Skilled at a test-and-learn approach. Anticipates future issues; problem-solves, not just in the moment but forward moving.
• Detail orientation: Well-organized and able to prioritize and manage effectively given ambitious goals, evolving plans, and uncertain resources.
• Superlative communicator: A clear writer and comfortable public speaker. Able to quickly grasp the mission and purpose of a broad portfolio of varied organizations, and represent them in clear, succinct language in diverse settings to interested audiences.
• Generosity of spirit: A natural connector, a loyal and compassionate team player, and a relentless advocate for the ideas and passions of others. Skilled at tapping into diverse networks and building community, and works well with people from different backgrounds. Takes pride in the idea of being a resource to, and source of inspiration for, the most visionary minds in social change.

Compensation: Competitive compensation package commensurate with experience.

To Apply:    

Please send a compelling cover letter and your resume to Lara Galinsky, SVP.

Echoing Green is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, cultural heritage, ancestry, political belief, age, marital status, pregnancy, physical or mental disability or veteran status.