Cook Silverman Search Seeks Executive Director for Alliance for Girls
July 12, 2023 – Greenbrae, CA-based Cook Silverman Search has been enlisted to find an executive director for the non-profit Alliance for Girls (AFG), the nation’s largest association of girls’ organizations and school partners. Victoria L. Silverman, managing founder of the search firm, is leading the assignment.
“Alliance for Girls seeks a dynamic, visionary, and strategic executive director to build on 10 years of impact and move the organization to its next chapter,” said Cook Silverman Search. “The ED carries primary responsibility for the strategic vision, fundraising, and sustaining the coalitions and partnerships that are the work of AFG. The executive director will work closely and collaboratively with the board of directors and staff to provide compassionate leadership and advocacy for AFG.”
Oakland, CA-based Alliance for Girls has a team of eight full-time and two part-time staff members. The executive director has two direct reports. The position is remote, but the successful candidate must reside in the Bay Area.
Key Duties
Primary responsibilities of the role revolve around leadership and management as well as financial planning and fundraising. The executive director will be expected to partner successfully with the board and staff to fulfill the organization’s mission, said the search firm. Leading and nurturing relationships with key stakeholders is crucial to the role. This individual must drive challenges to solutions with a positive, proactive attitude. He or she must nurture, support, and promote staff to ensure their success and growth. Developing, serving, and increasing membership and ensuring that AFG continues to serve girls and gender expansive youth is vital.
AFG’s executive director is expected to provide general oversight of the organization’s contributed revenue activities and operations and plan, monitor, and review the success of activities through coordination with the board and staff. This leader must also identify, cultivate, and steward donors and funders to grow the annual donor base and organizational revenue. Maintaining current knowledge of fundraising/communications best practices and sharing knowledge with staff is a significant part of the role. The executive director will manage a $2 million annual operating budget in coordination with director of finance and administration and board of directors.
Candidates should have proven success implementing a strategic vision and overseeing program progress, said Cook Silverman Search. Seven or more years of progressively challenging experience as a non-profit leader is required. A bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience is desired. Enthusiasm and passion for the mission of Alliance for Girls is essential. Prospects should have fluency in concepts of gender, racial equity, and intersectionality. Alliance for Girls wants an entrepreneurial, tenacious leader with strong interpersonal skills who inspires others to do their best in service of the community. Fundraising experience, particularly with institutional, government, and major donors is expected.
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Those seeking this role should also have demonstrated success working directly with board members. Understanding of how to use research to drive organizational vision and shape and drive advocacy programs is essential. Appreciation of the nuances of membership organizations and associations is also required.
Founded in 2012, Alliance for Girls’ 130 organizations and 60 champions serve 300,000 girls and gender-expansive youth annually – 83 percent of whom are girls of color – across nine Bay Area counties and L.A. County. AFG knits together a powerful girls’ service and leadership sector where girls’ needs are met, and their power is amplified. The organization’s unique combination of girl and community-driven research, coordinated initiatives driven by the intellectual and cultural power of its membership and school partners, and focused and inspired public advocacy enable AFG to affect deep and lasting change that directly improves the lives of girls and the systems that impact them.
West Coast Non-Profit Recruiters
Cook Silverman Search focuses on senior development positions for not-for-profit organizations, predominantly in Northern California. Its client base represents a broad span of organizations, including independent schools, universities and faith-based organizations, as well as those serving conservation, health care, social service, museums, science and culture. The firm has placed advancement executives for Peninsula Family Service, Moreau Catholic High School, Children’s Council of San Francisco, and Pinewood School, among others.
Victoria L. Silverman is managing founder of Cook Silverman Search. She has more than 30 years of experience in the philanthropic sector. Throughout her career, she has worked in senior fundraising, advancement, and management positions at Stanford University, Washington University in St. Louis, the University of California, the American Film Institute, and the Buck Institute for Age Research, among others. Her search work focuses on higher education, the arts, biotech and environment sectors. She has been speaker for the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and has served on fundraising advisory committees for several non-profit organizations.
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Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
