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KIPP NYC is hiring 80+ talented people!
January 17, 2010
For 2010-11, KIPP NYC will be hiring 80+ people: they are opening an elementary school in Harlem, adding grades to their Bronx elementary school and Harlem high school, looking for instructional and school leaders, and always seeking talented people for their existing middle schools and Shared Services Team.
What’s more? You can earn $1,000 if you refer someone they hire. When making a referral, please tell them you heard about this opportunity through Commongood Careers.
Click here to see full rules and details and to refer someone. View all current openings online.
Comments (1)
Talent Issues
January 15, 2010 There’s been a lot of hype about a new reality show slated to premiere in early February entitled “Undercover Boss.” The premise is simple: a corporate CEO goes “undercover” to take on entry-level jobs within his/her own organizations. After we looked beyond the show’s questionable authenticity (namely, how undercover can you be with television cameras following you around?), we realized how grateful we are to work at Commongood Careers, an environment where this sort of social experiment would never fly.
How so, you ask? Because the culture of Commongood Careers embraces transparency and communication. It would be a really unusual situation for our CEO (or any member of our senior management team) to not be involved at some level with the work of the entire team, including entry-level staff. Every strategy we pursue, every project we work on is communicated to all staff through bi-monthly staff meetings. We have a number of internal working groups that represent a cross-section of all staff levels, from entry-level to executive. Our workplace culture is so non-hierarchical that it isn’t unusual to see our CEO fiddling with computers, cleaning the refrigerator, or answer the phone.
So CBS can save their workplace experiments for re-deploying corporate big-wigs to the mail room or assembly line. Like so many of our nonprofit clients and partners, we’re happy to have fewer barriers between the executive suite and front office.
Comments (1) In the News, Talent Issues
January 12, 2010 What does the future hold for the nation’s most innovative and entrepreneurial nonprofits?
These events are free, but space is limited and registration is required. Seats will be made available on a first-come, first-served basis. You must RSVP in order to attend. All events will take place in centrally located downtown hotels. Location and other information will be made available to confirmed attendees.
Please contact Kasey Gagnon at as soon as possible to join the conversation in your region.
New York City
Boston
San Francisco
Washington, D.C.
Panelists:
Comments (1) Events & Career Fairs, Talent Issues
January 04, 2010 The New Year is a great opportunity to revitalize a job search. To help you do so, we’ve compiled ten resolutions that are easy to keep, and will position you for success.
2. Identify your core competencies. Core competencies are the skills and characteristics that position someone for success in a particular job role, such as staff management, quantitative analysis, or teamwork. By determining your top 4-5 core competencies, you will be able to assess your potential fit with a position, as well as highlight your specific competencies in your application materials.
3. Invest in informational interviewing. Informational interviews can help further define what you’re looking for in a job. Don’t be afraid to reach out to a connection on LinkedIn, a member of your alumni association, or someone you met at a fundraising event. Most nonprofit professionals enjoy talking about their work, and are open to helping job seekers gain more information about a particular role, organization, or mission area.
4. Build your personal network. Many nonprofits do not post their open positions on job boards. Instead, they rely almost entirely on their personal networks to identify candidates. Remember to invest time in building your personal network, as well as communicating with the members of your network to make sure they know you’re on the job market!
5. Do your homework. Research the role, organization, and mission area before you apply to a position. Not only will this help you understand your potential interest in the position, but it will also help you connect the dots in your application materials. An informed job seeker stands out from the crowd.
6. Personalize every cover letter. Nothing sends you to the bottom of the “no” pile of resumes faster than sending off a generic cover letter. Never send a letter to “To Whom It May Concern.” And when you cut and paste the same cover letter to every job on Idealist.org, believe us, hiring managers can tell.
7. Illustrate your core competencies in your resume. Don’t just list your accomplishments in your resume. Based upon your top core competencies, use real-life examples of how you’ve demonstrated these skills or characteristics. For example, illustrate a staff management competency by describing specific ways that you provided support and assessed employees in the past.
8. Prepare for interviews. If you tend to be nervous during interviews, try to practice responses ahead of time, or do a “dry run” with a friend. In addition to practicing responses, remember to prepare a few smart questions that illustrate that you did your homework and that you are genuinely interested in the position.
9. Stay in touch with your references. Good references can easily turn bad if you forget to keep in touch with them. A brief email every month or so to update them on your job search status, as well as a “heads up” note to inform them that a potential employer may be in touch with them, will prepare these important people to speak highly of you when the time comes to provide a reference.
10. Stay positive. A job search can be tough, especially in today’s economy. Being positive, smart, articulate, energetic, thoughtful, flexible, and passionate are crucial characteristics in most nonprofit environments, so maintain your confidence and positive attitude. Job searching is difficult but no one wants to hire someone who seems unenthusiastic, demoralized, or defeated.
Comments (0) Best Practices
December 13, 2009 Want to help address job creation in your local community?
In the wake of an unemployment rate at 10 percent, the White House last week reached out to approximately 130 leaders from business, government, academia, labor and the nonprofit sector to seek input on the most effective ways to create jobs.
While President Obama emphasized that “true economic recovery is only going to come from the private sector,” he recognized the important role that local government can play in spurring investment in communities and sought out suggestions from cities by inviting five mayors from across the country to participate in the White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth. President Obama also encouraged Americans around the country to gather and discuss employment issues and solutions in their local communities.
Since then, thousands of citizens has responded to this call to action. Due to the overwhelming response, the White House has extended the deadline to January 7, 2010. This is an exciting opportunity to explore how to address job creation with your local neighbors, business owners, elected officials, and others who have felt the impact of the economic crisis firsthand.
If you are interested in hosting a jobs discussion in your community, complete this form. The White House will then email you discussion questions and other materials to help make your event as productive as possible and give you instructions on to how to share feedback with the White House staff.
Comments (6) In the News, Talent Issues
December 13, 2009 In the hiring process, the interview can make or break your candidacy. To help you stay in the running, follow our advice on how to avoid a few fatal flaws of interviewing.
1. Not doing your homework. We’ve talked with so many potentially great candidates who know absolutely nothing about the position or organization to which they are applying. Before speaking with a prospective employer, study the job description, as well as the programs, mission, staff, and other aspects of the organization. Doing some research in advance will not only demonstrate your interest and ability to be prepared, but it will also help you think through ways that you are uniquely qualified for the job.
2. Saying “um,” “like,” or “ecetera.” Most of us use filler words like these in our day-to-day speech. Still, in an interview setting, this can come across as poor communication skills. To avoid sputtering a case of the “um”s during an interview, take a breath and slow down. It can also help to practice some the answers to commonly asked questions in a mirror before the interview to master this skill.
3. Offering too much personal information. It’s ok to share relevant personal information, such as your connection to the organization’s mission, but otherwise keep your private life out of the interview room. Sharing too much personal information can be a sign of poor judgment or communication skills, and can also make the interviewer uncomfortable. Instead, prepare to discuss only information from your professional life that supports your candidacy.
4. Trashing your current or past employers. Negativity is a huge red flag to interviewers. If you badmouth your past employers, what reason are you giving a prospective employer that you won’t do the same to them? Instead, demonstrate your critical thinking skills and ability to work through challenging situations by sharing any learnings gained from difficult work experiences.
5. Bragging. Bring a sense of humility to the interview process. Even if you’ve accomplished amazing feats in your professional life, discuss these with grace and without a big ego. By appearing too overconfident, you run the risk of putting off a prospective employer, as well as communicating that you have nothing to learn. Instead, focus on sharing results from your professional life, and let these accomplishments do the “bragging” for you.
For more friendly advice on what to do (and not do) during the interview process, read our article Meeting the Nonprofit:Ten Interviewing Tips.
Comments (1) Best Practices
December 09, 2009 As a member of the America Forward Coalition, we are thrilled to pass along this exciting announcement!
Dear Friends of America Forward,
On December 8, Congress made a formal decision to fully fund for the Social Innovation Fund in its first year at $50 million. The Social Innovation Fund will serve as a robust mechanism for partnering across sectors to identify and invest in proven innovations, and will provide the critical catalytic capital necessary to bring these solutions to bear on problems faced by communities across the country.
This $50 million dollar investment in 2010 has the potential to grow to as much as $200 million in its first year, by leveraging private and philanthropic support for both intermediaries and grantees. While we recognize that this may seem small, relative to the billions being invested in restoring our nation’s economy, this pilot fund has the potential to serve as a potent example of the power of social innovation to solve truly complex social problems. Achieving full funding in its first year is a remarkable starting point for what we believe will become a new way to solve problems across government.
We sincerely thank you all for your hard work in securing full funding for the Social Innovation Fund. As you know, this was a long and challenging process, and our success lies in your ability to mobilize with passion around this Fund. Your countless calls, emails, and letters to appropriators helped make the case that there is widespread and deep demand for a new way of solving problems, and that organizations stand ready to scale their programs to the communities where they are most needed.
We also deeply appreciate the forward-thinking champions of social innovation on Capitol Hill, who rallied their colleagues to call for a new way of investing in solving problems. We are inspired by their leadership and vision for a future where all children and families have access to the powerful solutions of social entrepreneurs.
While this is surely a moment for celebration, lots of work remains to be done to achieve success for the Social Innovation Fund. We must now come together to support the implementation of the Fund, to prove that this is a more effective way to invest government dollars, and that by focusing on growing high-impact organizations we can overcome many of the great social challenges faced by our nation.
Thank you for your dedication to this effort. We are eager to continue advancing the social innovation agenda and the Fund.
Best regards,
The America Forward Team
Comments (0) In the News, Social Innovation
November 04, 2009 The Council on Foundations should be commended for its emerging leadership in talent and diversity and inclusive-related issues throughout the philanthropic community.
At various conferences, through dedicated convenings such as the one that I was fortunate to have recently attended, and by conducting research including Career Pathways to Philanthropic Leadership, the Council is increasingly focusing its attention on the human side of foundation work. For example…
All of this is a good start and I wouldn’t say that it is “too little, too late,” especially because I am so appreciative of all efforts moving in this direction, but, as a sector, man oh man do we have a long way to go!
These are issues and problems that have been largely ignored for the better part of a century. And foundations, as a whole, have historically been more of the cause of the problem than its solution when it comes to human resources.
Traditional philanthropic thinking has classified almost all overhead as wasteful, slashed HR functions as expendable, and created a sector of unstable, unsustainable, inefficient, and ineffective organizations. The current state of HR in the larger foundation community and the nonprofit sector at large can best be categorized as abysmal, but it is not without hope.
I am happy to see a new wave of institutions emerging, most notably led by a few major institutions and the maverick venture philanthropists who fund social entrepreneurs. Some of these folks truly appreciate the importance of investing in human capital. They have seen that their grantees and their own institutions are better able to generate social return on investment when they recruit the right leadership, compensate them appropriately, manage them effectively, and ensure that they continue to develop and grow as individuals.
I would encourage the Council in everything that it does to find and connect with these enlightened next-generation funders, hold them up as exemplars, and position them to be teachers and evangelists for the rest of us.
There is a moral imperative at work here. We must get better at talent recruitment, management, and development. To fail in this endeavor, or to continue to fail to try to improve, is an enormous waste of resources and a corruption of our social mission.
-- posted by James Weinberg
Comments (1) Best Practices, Hiring Advice, Talent Issues
November 02, 2009 According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), many jobs in educational services are growing “much faster than average.” The BLS reports, “[The] overall demand for workers in educational services will increase as a result of a growing emphasis on improving education and making it available not only to more children and young adults, but also to those currently employed and in need of improving their skills.”
As reflected by our client base, Commongood Careers is not surprised by this projected growth. This month, we are honored to welcome a number of education-related organizations as search clients, from charter schools to teacher training programs, including:
Learn more about our search clients at http://www.cgcareers.org/aboutus/clients
Comments (4) Sites We Like
November 02, 2009 Last week, we were honored to attend the Council on Foundations’ “Leadership Conversation on Diversity and Inclusion in Philanthropy” in Washington, D.C. This meeting convened a group of nonprofit leaders to dialogue about issues such as workplace diversity and executive transitions.
Of particular interest, the Council on Foundations shared a research report entitled ”Career Pathways to Philanthropic Leadership.” This baseline study looks at potential keys to success for emerging leaders in philanthropy, as well as offers insights into the total appointment process.
The key findings from this research include:
1. Nearly 80 percent of the 440 foundations appointing CEOs and executive directors during the study period filled them not through internal promotions but from candidates outside the
2. Most of the successful candidates held executive positions in their immediate prior position as either chief executive or vice president before successfully landing in their current position.
3. The majority of the successful candidates made the transition from fields outside of philanthropy— primarily from the business and nonprofit sectors.
4. Of the successful candidates, nearly 20 percent were from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds and about half were women.
5. Thirty percent of field leaders who were interviewed said mentors played a major role in their career advancement.
6. About 85 percent of the interviewees expressed significant skepticism about the willingness of trustees, search consultants, and other hiring decision makers to be influenced by leadership
The report is now available for download on the Council of Foundations website, and is a must read for current and future philanthropic leaders.
Comments (0) Best Practices, Events & Career Fairs, Workplace Diversity
October 30, 2009 A good cover letter can strengthen your application and help you get to the next stage of the hiring process. A poor cover letter can result in the instant disqualification of your candidacy.
This information may not come as a huge surprise to many jobseekers. Still, up to 80% of the cover letters that pass our desks at Commongood Careers fall prey to common (and easily avoidable) cover letter mistakes.
Some of the worst cover letter offenses include:
1. The 10-page cover letter. It’s called a cover letter for a reason e.g.to COVER your application. Save the full-length biography for…well…your full-length biography.
2. Cut, paste, and repeat. It’s ok to have a template for your cover letter to work from, but remember to customize each letter to reflect your unique interest and qualifications for the position, as well as your connection to the organization’s mission.
3. Sloppy or poor writing style. Your cover letter demonstrates your ability to communicate in writing. If needed, recruit an “editor” friend to ensure that your writing style is cohesive, and your language is elegant.
4. Emoticons. Just don’t do it. Ever.
5. TMI. Mentioning your specific connection to a position or an organization’s mission is great. However, including private information, such as money or marital problems, is not appropriate.
For more how-to advice on this job application staple, read our article Writing a Winning Cover Letter.
Comments (0) Best Practices
October 06, 2009 For the first time in 25 years, the people of Massachusetts will elect a new senator. Following in the footsteps of Ted Kennedy, the champion behind such legislation as the Serve America Act, the person filling this seat inherits the potential to have tremendous impact on our sector and could transform the landscape in which nonprofit organizations do their work.
With just 67 days until the primary election, this campaign provides immediate opportunities to get involved. According to candidate Alan Khazei’s campaign staff, “This is the campaign that empowers people to get involved in government. It’s a movement. People are organizing and taking the lead themselves.”
Volunteering on a political campaign not only allows you get involved with government; it also provides ample opportunities to gain resume-building skills and broaden your professional network.
Here’s how:
To learn more about the campaign volunteering opportunities, visit the web sites of the following candidates:
Alan Khazei
Comments (15) Best Practices, In the News, Networking Opportunities
October 03, 2009 Today, President Obama announced his nomination of Patrick Corvington to serve as the next CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), a selection that both I and my colleagues whole-heartedly support and celebrate.
CNCS is a vital organization positioned centrally at the heart of the nonprofit sector and the social service movement in America.
Patrick Covington is a wise and intuitive leader who has loyally served the sector for decades, most recently from his senior position at the Annie E. Casey Foundation. He has the experience, credibility, perspective, networks and influence to take on the enormous task of implementing the Kennedy Serve America Act and answering the President’s call to national service.
Among the many important causes that Patrick has championed, but perhaps of greatest interest to the Commongood Careers community, he has been a staunch supporter of next-generation talent, inter-generational dialogues, enlightened organizational management, and the value of true diversity within the nonprofit sector and its leadership.
The nonprofit sector has one of the fastest rates of job growth in the country. It can be—and it must be—a central pillar within our nation’s economic recovery plan. That is why it is so significant to have one of the sector’s greatest institutions led by a visionary who truly understands what it takes to build and develop effective, people-centered organizations.
CNCS needs a CEO immediately, and the nation needs that CEO to be Patrick Corvington. I hope that you will join me in urging Congress to put his confirmation on a fast track, and in supporting him in this new and challenging role.
-- James Weinberg, Founder and CEO, Commongood Careers
Comments (6) In the News
October 02, 2009 Commongood Careers is proud to support the hiring needs of the nation’s most innovative and game-changing nonprofits. We are honored to welcome a number of new clients, addressing issues from fair labor to health education, including:
International Center for Transitional Justice is a human rights organization that assists countries pursuing accountability for past mass atrocity or human rights abuse. Since its inception, the Center has worked in more than 30 countries and on several transitional justice focus areas, providing assistance to justice and truth-seeking institutions, civil society organizations, governments, and international organizations.
The Kresge Foundation is a national, private foundation that seeks to influence the quality of life for future generations by creating access and opportunity in underserved communities, improving the health of low-income people, supporting artistic expressions, assisting in the revitalization of Detroit, and advancing methods for dealing with global climate change. In 2008, the foundation awarded 342 grants totaling $181 million.
LIFT (formerly National Student Partnerships) is a growing movement to combat poverty and expand opportunity for all people in the United States. LIFT currently runs centers staffed by trained volunteers in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, to serve low-income individuals and families. LIFT clients and volunteers work one-on-one to find jobs, secure safe and stable housing, make ends meet through public benefits and tax credits, and obtain quality referrals for services like childcare and healthcare.
Peer Health Exchange is a national non-profit organization whose mission is to give teenagers the knowledge and skills they need to make healthy decisions. PHE does this by training college students to teach a comprehensive health curriculum in public high schools that lack health education. Since its founding in 2003, PHE has trained more than 1,500 college student volunteers to deliver effective health education to 15,000 public high school students in New York City, Boston, Chicago, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Verite is an independent, non-profit social auditing and research organization established in 1995 with a mission to ensure that people worldwide work under safe, fair and legal working conditions. Since its founding, Verité has delivered expert training and consulting services on a global scale and been recognized as one of the leading social entrepreneurs in the world by the Skoll Foundation and Fast Company. The organization’s global headquarters are based in Amherst, Massachusetts, with additional employees working in field offices in the Philippines, China, India, Bolivia, Bangladesh, and others.
Learn more about our search clients at http://www.cgcareers.org/aboutus/clients
Comments (10) October 01, 2009 What will it take to impact the school readiness of millions of urban children? According to Earl Martin Phalen, it starts with a trusted professional handing them a book.
All of our staff must be hard-working, entrepreneurial, smart, and have phenomenal communication skills. They must also have very high standards and be self-confident. This goes across all roles, from the coalition sites to the national headquarters.
*****
Tell the Commongood Careers community about your uncommon talent! to nominate a colleague, or to share the story of your own nonprofit career.
Comments (3)“Undercover Boss” and Workplace Culture
Conversations with Social Entrepreneurs: 2010 and Beyond
Although the economic freefall has stabilized, the recovery process may be long and unpredictable. At the beginning of a new decade, it seems as though the only thing that’s certain may be uncertainty itself. In this environment, how is your organization preparing for the future?
Join Commongood Careers, the Building Moving Project, and a select group of nonprofit leaders to engage in a dialogue about our collective opportunities, challenges and strategies, as well as the role that talent and leadership will play during these pivotal times.
This series of breakfast conversations will convene in the coming weeks in New York City, Boston, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., culminating in a report on the strategic themes and findings of these sessions, scheduled for release in March 2010.
January 20, 2010
8:00-11:00am
Panelists:
- Matthew Klein, Blue Ridge Foundation
- Charles Best, DonorsChoose.org
- Lara Galinsky, Echoing Green
- Mike O’Brien, iMentor
- George Overholser, Nonprofit Finance Fund
January 22, 2010
8:00-11:00am
Panelists:
- Michael Brown, City Year
- Eric Schwarz, Citizen Schools
- Doug Borchard, New Profit, Inc.
- Alexandra Quinn, Project HEALTH
January 27, 2010
8:00-11:00am
Panelists:
- Suzanne McKechnie Klahr, BUILD
- Anne Marie Burgoyne, Draper Richards Foundation
- Louise Davis, Peer Health Exchange
- Jill Vialet, Playworks
February 2, 2010
8:00-11:00am
- Darell Hammond, KaBOOM!
- Kirsten Lodal, LIFT
- Brett Jenks, Rare Conservation
- Eleanor Rutland, Venture Philanthropy Partners
Ten New Year’s Resolutions for Job Seekers
1. Create a job search strategy. Take some time to evaluate what you want. Build a plan that describes your ideal position, organization, and work culture. You can then use this information to target specific nonprofits and understand which positions fit your interests.
Host a Jobs Discussion in Your Community
5 Fatal Flaws of Interviewing
Full $50 Million Allocated for Social Innovation Fund in 2010
They Say Admitting You Have a Problem is Half the Battle
James Weinberg is Founder and CEO of Commongood Careers. He also serves as a board member on Emerging Practitioners In Philanthropy.
Educational Organizations are Hiring!
Career Pathways to Philanthropic Leadership
foundations.
development efforts (such as fellowship programs that train new leaders) as they contemplate hiring decisions about executive candidates.
Cover Letters are Really, Really, Really Important
Volunteer on a Political Campaign, Boost Your Career
Stephen Pagliuca
Martha Coakley
Michael Capuano
Scott Brown
Bob Burr (no web site at time of publishing)
Joe Kennedy (no web site at time of publishing)
Letter from the CEO: Why I Support a Nonprofit Champion to Head CNCS
Who’s Hiring Now?
Uncommon Talent: Impacting Early Literacy, One Book at a Time
Earl should know. He’s been a champion for urban education since 1992. He recently became the Chief Executive Officer of Reach Out and Read, a national early literacy program. Previously, he was the CEO of Building Educated Leaders for Life (BELL), an out-of-school time education program, as well as the Founder and Chair of Summer Advantage USA, which combats summer learning loss.
A longtime friend and client of Commongood Careers, Earl caught us up on Reach Out and Read’s current impact and aggressive growth plans , including the inside scoop on the organization’s hiring needs in the near future.
Congratulations on your new role, Earl. Tell us about Reach Out and Read, particularly its approach to addressing early literacy.
Thanks. I’m thrilled to be at the helm of such an innovative, evidence-based organization that is addressing such an important social issue.
Reach Out and Read looks to answer one critical question: how do we ensure that kids are prepared to enter kindergarten? Currently, nearly 35% of all children in this country go to kindergarten with literacy skills that are below grade level. This could mean some do not even know how to hold a book correctly; others may not be able to recognize letters of the alphabet.
To address this skill deficit, our method is to get to children early. We focus on kids aged 0-5 who live in urban and rural environments. Our program is unusual in the sense that it’s not offered in a traditional educational environment, but rather in pediatrician offices. In these settings, our programs make early literacy a standard part of pediatric primary care, from interacting with a trained literacy specialist volunteer in the waiting room to receiving advice regarding the importance of reading and a book to take home from their doctor or nurse.
Our approach is all about leverage. We seek to leverage the fact that most parents trust what doctors say. So if a pediatrician communicates that reading is an essential piece of childhood brain development, and then a nurse shows a child the correct way to hold a book and stimulates a child’s natural curiosity, both parents and children will listen. The results have been astounding. To date, we’ve reached nearly 4 million children at 4,500 hospitals and healthcare centers nationwide. In 11 peer-review and longitudinal studies, we’ve found that parents are significantly more engaged and children are better prepared when they enter kindergarten.
How did your personal career path lead to Reach Out and Read?
While at BELL, I was part of a team that grew to serving over 15,000 children nationwide. Our team worked incredibly hard. The hallmark of our programs was our summer learning session, which gave me the idea to start a program devoted completely to summer learning. With $1M from a Mind Trust fellowship and the Indiana Department of Education, I founded Summer Advantage USA, a program that provides rigorous academic programming during the summer months.
From there, I found myself asking the question: how can nonprofit leaders continue to make real impact, but without creating 150 new nonprofits every day? There have to be ways to create back-office efficiencies, as well as a pipeline that serves the needs of children from postnatal to postgraduate. It was this thinking that led me to Reach Out and Read. The opportunity to lead an organization that has such a huge presence fit with my personal vision for what it takes to impact children early on. The opportunity to serve the 14 million children living in poverty in this nation, and to ensure that they all enter kindergarten ready to excel and with engaged parents, was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.
How is Reach Out and Reach poised to grow in the near future?
The first step of scaling is securing the additional government funding that is key to our growth. This is one of the largest tasks on our plate right now.
From there, we plan to raise the growth capital that will build up the infrastructure of the organization quite a bit. This includes expanding the staff of our national headquarters in Boston, as well as being better able to support our 35 state coalitions that oversee 4,500 program sites. We want to build up the infrastructure nationally, within each of our state coalitions, so the entire organization can better deliver on our responsibilities and service to children and families.
In addition to strengthening our existing program sites, we plan to open over 150 new sites in this fiscal year. At any given time, we hope to have between 300-400 applications for new sites in the works. Being able to sustain this rapid growth is a huge piece of our ability to succeed. Since we’ve found such high demand for our program, our daily challenge is how we build the organization in a way that we’re able to support every one of our sites with the same level of excellence that we see today.
What does this mean for the hiring needs of the organization? Do you anticipate bringing on more talent for both your headquarters and coalition sites?
Currently, some of our coalition sites have just one part-time leader, others have up to 7 full-time staff. Our goal is to make sure that every coalition has the maximum strength in a few core areas, namely customer service, fundraising, training and technical assistance. To do this will require adding staff in some areas, both in local markets and at the national level. Building organizational strength is what’s at the heart of these efforts.
At the national level, adding to our fundraising capabilities will be key to our success. Currently, we have staff who work against a range of fundraising strategies, but our team is lean. In the near future, we hope to expand this team so that we can deepen each of our fundraising avenues, such as major corporate sponsorships. There is such opportunity for major corporate funders to get involved, particularly those seeking exposure to millions of parents of young children.
As you think about the aggressive growth on your plate, what organizations do you look to as models of scalability and sustainability?
There are many social entrepreneurs who have leveraged functional area best practices in order to scale and sustain their organizations. The first that comes to mind is Teach For America. They are excellent across a number of areas, particularly branding, fundraising, and the ability to attract top talent.
BELL demonstrates a model of an evidence-based organization that has successfully found a niche that has a positive effect on both children and parents. This is a phenomenon that Reach Out and Read shares as well, and one we hope to continue to capitalize upon.
Year Up is a great model of organizational sustainability. The ability to have a revenue source that is consistently renewable is something that we plan on emulating as well.
From a talent perspective, what does it take to be successful at Reach Out and Read? When ramping up your national team, what will you look for in new hires?
The people who will thrive at our organization will have the dual ability to work independently and also be part of a cross-functional team.
Like most entrepreneurial organizations, it’s important to leave your ego at the door. Our staff need to be comfortable sharing ideas, and know that some will move forward and others won’t. It all comes down to humility and work ethic.
Perhaps more than anything, we look for talent who believe in what we’re doing. I hope that anyone interested in a position at Reach Out and Reach will share the belief that we are doing something incredibly important and that our work is making and will continue to make a huge impact on early literacy, school readiness, and most importantly, the future of our children and this country.
For more information about Reach Out and Read, please visit www.reachoutandread.org.
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- KIPP NYC is hiring 80+ talented people!
- “Undercover Boss” and Workplace Culture
- Conversations with Social Entrepreneurs: 2010 and Beyond
- Ten New Year’s Resolutions for Job Seekers
- Host a Jobs Discussion in Your Community
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