Deputy Director

Role Description

The Deputy Director will work closely with the Executive Director, the staff leadership team, and coalition leaders to align and engage Grassroots Collaborative and Grassroots Illinois Action members in campaigns to win long-term goals. The Deputy Director will be responsible for building staff strength, training and developing leaders, and ensuring coalition vitality by growing and overseeing the infrastructure of core trainings, roles, and support systems for organizers to win campaigns. Along with overseeing most of the programming at Grassroots Collaborative and Grassroots Illinois Action, the Deputy Director will be expected to build relationships with members, allies, and funders. The Deputy Director will report directly to the Executive Director.

Responsibilities

  • Alignment: Design programs of consultation and education with leadership, staff, membership, allies, and funders to build ownership of our 10-year goals across all parts of the Grassroots Collaborative and Grassroots Illinois Action coalition. Focus on “the big picture,” including short-and long-term concerns and outcomes, for all those affected by leadership decisions, policies, or practices. Assess perspectives of those likely to be affected by a leader or organization’s decisions, policies, or practices.
  • Engagement: Ensure staff and coalition members contribute regularly and impactfully towards our 10-year goals through our campaigns. Make sure to identify underlying issues, concerns, problems, and tasks that need to be addressed to sustain ongoing engagement.
  • Stability: Guide the improvement of systems, structures, and spaces for collaboration among staff and coalition leadership.
  • Staff strength: Grow the competencies of the staff of Grassroots Collaborative, Grassroots Illinois Action, and coalition partners. Provide and cultivate a sense of purpose and direction, development goals and approaches, and the systems and culture of follow-through and accountability in colleagues.
  • Leadership growth: Build regular spaces that increase leader involvement in Grassroots Collaborative and Grassroots Illinois Action’s decision-making while creating paths for developing new leaders.
  • Coalition vitality: Expand and strengthen the Grassroots Collaborative and Grassroots Illinois Action coalition.
  • Fundraising: Support the Executive Director with fundraising efforts as needed.

You Should Apply If You..

  • Love building power with a group of multi-racial labor and community organizers who are fostering spaces of trust, vision, radical hope, and strategic campaigns.
  • Want to fight against corporate control and authoritarianism in workplaces and communities by augmenting the solidarity and strategies of labor-community partnerships.
  • Have strong interpersonal skills for developing relationships that foster collaboration and mutual accountability among diverse individuals. 
  • Embody determination and humility, who is a reflective thinker who stays true to their values.

Must Haves

  • Share the values of Grassroots Collaborative and understand the mission of our work, and are excited to build, scale, and strengthen what has been done so far.
  • Experience with leading coalition and movement building, organizing and issue campaigns, labor or community organizing, training and developing leaders.
  • Adaptable to different types of campaign principles and models, and capable of creative thinking through strategic challenges.
  • Experience with crafting materials and leading trainings for popular education and political education.
  • Experience with growing and developing leaders and staff in political and professional settings. Embodying integrity by modeling values and behaviors for others.
  • The ability to clearly convey information, ideas, and opinions through organizational, social, and public media in written, oral, and visual modes.

Nice to Have

  • Knowledge of compliance management for 501(c)3, 501(c)4, or PACs.
  • Familiarity working with a Board of Directors.
  • Prior positive working relationships with leaders and organizations in Chicago’s Black communities. 
  • Prior experience in political work or as a political director with significant technical knowledge that can be adapted to Illinois.
  • Fluency in spoken and written Spanish.

Work Environment 

  • This position is based in Chicago with some travel in the metro area, and central and downstate Illinois.
  • COVID-19: Grassroots Collaborative has made shifts to address the continuing difficulty of the pandemic on our emotional and physical health.
  • We are working hybrid with periodic in-person meetings while we plan a safe return to our offices.
  • We are currently implementing a 4-day work week, with Full Time Employment defined as 32+ hours, with Fridays off. (There will be exceptions where more working hours are required, including Fridays or weekends.)
  • Salary/hourly, exempt or nonexempt: Salaried, Exempt, Full-time position

Compensation

The salary for this position as a Director ranges from $81,000 to $95,000 based on our Thriving Equity Pay Scale.

Benefits Include

  • Health insurance coverage options with 85% to 100% of premiums paid by employer* 
  • Vision, dental, and life insurance with 100% of premiums paid by employer*
  • 403b retirement savings plan with yearly employer contribution
  • Monthly allowances for mobile phone and internet services and a yearly allowance for professional development
  • 14 days of paid vacation
  • 11 sick days
  • ** Employer contribution rates reflected are in effect for FY2024. Employer contribution rate is based on GC’s annual budget and is subject to change.

About Us

Grassroots Collaborative (501c3) is a person of color led, BIPOC-centered coalition that builds power with working families through strategic community-labor organizing, grassroots leadership development, civic engagement, and research in Chicago and Peoria, IL. We aim to create bold change through building united fronts to win progressive policies and transformative systems-change centered on low-to-moderate income residents and communities of color. We utilize popular education to build consciousness, and build a coalition that unites residents to create transformative change for a more just society. Our affiliated 501c4, Grassroots Illinois Action, works to build community political power through issue advocacy and electoral strategies. We have a strong record of leading cutting edge campaigns that shift the narrative of white supremacy, austerity and corporate power.

To Apply

Please send resume and cover letter (see below for prompt) to: hiring@thegrassrootscollaborative.org with “DEPUTY DIRECTOR GRASSROOTS COLLABORATIVE” in the subject line. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, with priority given to those received by March 29th.

Cover letter prompt to respond in one page: Please choose 2 or 3 of the bullet points listed under “Responsibilities” to elaborate on your experience that have helped prepare you to be successful for these areas of responsibility.  

Grassroots Collaborative is an equal-opportunity employer. Black, Indigenous, Latine and People of Color, LGBTQ, trans and gender expansive people are strongly encouraged to apply.