OPEN POSITION: Executive Director, The American City Coalition (TACC)
POSITION TYPE: This full-time position is based at TACC’s office at 2136 Washington Street in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood. Some evening and weekend work to be managed at the Executive Director’s discretion.
DEADLINE: Candidate reviews begin immediately. Position will remain open until filled.
ABOUT TACC
The American City Coalition (TACC) is a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission to help revitalize urban neighborhoods so that families flourish in safe environments and fully benefit from the economic opportunities of American cities.
TACC advances effective multi-sector and multi-stakeholder collaborations to focus investments and resources on community-identified needs and opportunities; these equity initiatives increase collective impact and result in systems-level change that actively thwarts the status quo.
With Roxbury a primary focus area, TACC conducts independent research to identify local needs and assets. TACC then utilizes this information to develop responsive, effective initiatives that expand access to residents supports, drive economic development and asset building, and increase neighborhood vitality. TACC seeks to increase collective impact by aligning the skills of partners around common outcomes that are responsive to community-identified fundamentals and engaging complementary partnerships and resources.
TACC’s community-based methodology starts with listening (meetings, focus groups, surveys) to community member needs, documenting (data collection, data walks) what we learn, and amplifying (reports) the perspectives of Roxbury stakeholders so they have an active voice in their community’s future and expanded access to places, resources, and opportunity. TACC’s work and the quality of our outcomes are a direct result of resident involvement, which is embedded in all project phases.
THE OPPORTUNITY
At this pivotal time in history and the organization, TACC seeks a practical visionary Executive Director who will guide TACC’s future by leveraging its current and past successes, sustaining its internal culture of collaboration and innovation, and strengthening its capacity to achieve intended community impact.
The Executive Director is responsible for managing a $1.1 million budget and a four-member staff. He/She will report directly to TACC’s Board Chair and serve as a non-voting member on TACC’s Board of Directors.
To be successful in the role, the candidate will be committed to racial and economic equity, an active listener who values what residents and local stakeholders have to say, and an active collaborator who builds and maintains trust with existing and new partners from a range of sectors to increase collective impact. The Executive Director will have the ability to work effectively with the Board of Directors, staff, and partners to achieve the organization’s goals.
TACC ORGANIZATIONAL DETAIL
History
Founded in 1994, TACC takes an inclusive and collaborative approach to meeting the needs of lower-income residents that grew out of lessons learned from transforming the Columbia Point housing development in Dorchester back in the 1980s. Once a failed federally funded housing project, Columbia Point became Harbor Point, one of the earliest mixed-income communities in the United States. TACC’s founder, Joseph E. Corcoran, partnered with a coalition of residents and community organizations to ensure that local knowledge and quality-of-life needs shaped Harbor Point’s future. Converting Columbia Point into Harbor Point became a model for deconcentrating poverty while preserving affordable housing. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s HOPE VI and Choice Neighborhood Initiative policies are based, in part, on the success of Harbor Point in Dorchester.
Originally established as a private foundation, in 2015 TACC shifted from being a private foundation to a 501(c)(3) public charity to better reflect the public benefit of TACC’s work. Since this change, TACC has been working to expand the number of stakeholders invested in its work and outcomes by increasing the racial diversity of its Board of Directors and staff, community leadership on TACC initiatives, and the sources of funding.
Geographic Focus Area
TACC is a place-based organization. Currently, TACC’s primary focus area is the Roxbury neighborhood, an historic and culturally important neighborhood in the City of Boston. TACC works on multiple projects in the same geographic area.
Strategies and Initiatives
Three interrelated strategies guide TACC’s initiatives and reflect our focus on increasing equity while connecting people to place:
- Resident Supports: Connect underserved, low-income BIPOC Roxbury residents of all ages with the social services needed to support education, economic mobility and empowerment, and health.
- Economic Development and Asset Building: Strengthen asset and wealth creation pathways; and
- Neighborhood Vitality: Improve the neighborhood environment and facilitate investment.
TACC has a track record of effective initiatives that align a broad range of constituents around a shared vision. Examples of TACC’s work include:
- Savor the Square: With Roxbury Main Streets and other partners, implementing the recommendations mapped out in the Nubian Square Market Analysis (2020).
- Whittier Choice Neighborhood Initiative: Providing technical assistance to the Boston Housing Authority to align Whittier Choice, a $30 million federal grant that leverages $260 million in public and private investment, with local assets and needs.
- Waterways: Connecting Resident of Roxbury and Dorchester to Boston’s Waterfront: Collaborating with a range of implementation partners to off ramp and advance strategies that address resident-identified barriers to access and utilization and catalyzing sustained engagement so that more Roxbury residents are invested in and are connected to the waterfront for recreation and employment.
- Pathways for Girls: Insights into the Needs of Young Women in Nubian Square: Partnering with ten girl-serving organizations to implement the recommendations in the Pathways for Girls report (2019), a mixed-methods needs assessment approach with a sample of 160 local girls.
- Fairmount Indigo Corridor Business and Job Attraction and Retention Strategy (2017)
- Roxbury Cultural District: Led the community process that brought together over forty community partners to develop a state-designated district with a sustained focused on activating Roxbury’s cultural assets.
Additional information and reports are available at www.tamcc.org.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
The new Executive Director will embrace TACC’s vision and mission, using strength of character and managerial capacity to achieve a future that exceeds its past. He/She will have proven leadership qualities and the resourcefulness to guide and build TACC.
The Board of Directors established the following objectives for the new Executive Director to accomplish during his/her tenure:
- Strategic Planning and Board Governance: Engage the Board of Directors, communicating frequently with them to ensure changing needs and opportunities in the neighborhood(s) are identified and initiatives align with identified needs; ensure Board Members develop and measure core TACC strategies and processes, including a three–year strategic plan and annual operating plan.
- Fundraising and Resource Development: Diversify funding as required by TACC’s status as a 501(c)(3) public charity. Pursue additional revenue and resource streams that enhance TACC’s financial sustainability and direct resources to Roxbury.
- Partnerships: Maintain and develop trusting, meaningful partnerships and networks with neighborhood and business associations, residents, business owners, civic leaders, affordable and mixed-income housing advocates, government agencies, private industry, and other relevant organizations from a range of sectors.
- Program Leadership: Take an active, hands-on role in managing and contributing to TACC’s current initiatives; develop a pipeline of projects that extend and deepen TACC’s engagement in its target neighborhood(s).
- Team Leadership: Lead and inspire the professional staff; continue TACC’s superior performance, high-level client satisfaction, and collegial working culture.
CANDIDATE PROFILE
The successful candidate must be committed to TACC’s mission and values, demonstrating this commitment through his/her previous relevant professional experience in the public or private sectors.
The person selected to fill this position must have a strong background in several of the following areas: 1) economic development; 2) entrepreneurship; 3) community-based research; 4) real estate development and management; 5) urban planning; 6) community development; 7) fundraising and resource development; 8) project management and implementation skills; 9) fiscal management and budgeting; and 10) board management.
The new Executive Director will have many of the following skills and credentials:
Professional Skills
- Competency in long-term planning, fiscal management, and general operational management.
- Experience thinking creatively and strategically about complex issues at the heart of neighborhood revitalization.
- Knowledge of Boston and its neighborhoods as well as the confluence of historic and current policies and practices that impact Roxbury.
- Ability to build relationships and convert to partnerships, build trust and shared vision, and foster and maintain effective collaborations over time.
- Proven success as a team builder; ability to develop and maintain a collaborative work environment, including clear and consistent communication with staff, board members, and external partners.
- An inclusive philosophy and experience working with ethnically and socioeconomically diverse communities.
- Dynamic external communicator who can effectively facilitate groups, communicate complex ideas to multiple audiences, and tell TACC’s story to promote the organization across a range of audiences and mediums (e.g., social media, publications, presentations).
- Skill at measuring and evaluating results, clarifying roles and responsibilities, and driving continuous improvement of TACC projects.
- Ability to oversee TACC’s community-based research, including data collection and analysis.
- An understanding of the funding landscape with demonstrated fundraising and resource development success.
Personal Characteristics
- Proven relationship-building skills, capacity for recognizing opportunities for new strategic alliances and for engaging multiple constituencies in coalition building.
- Caring, thoughtful, and approachable listener who demonstrates self-assurance and adaptability, unwavering commitment to honesty, transparency, and open communication.
- Entrepreneurial spirit and drive; proactively pursues new ideas with an eye for strategic opportunities and innovative partnerships.
- Deep and demonstrated commitment to advancing equity and economic opportunity.
- Champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion with intercultural competency.
- Non-political thought leader able to navigate sectors that can be politicized to sustain TACC’s independent voice.
- Analytical thinker who is a problem solver of strategic, operational, and interpersonal challenges.
- Diplomatic nature; comfortable in the spotlight, without necessarily seeking it; the strength to take the heat but share the credit, to defer as appropriate and confront, as necessary.
Desired Credentials
- A minimum of 10 years of relevant work experience, including leadership and management experience.
- Advanced degree or equivalent experience.
TACC seeks to build a staff that reflects the neighborhood(s) in which we work. We strongly encourage applications from diverse candidates. As an Equal Opportunity Employer/Affirmative Action employer, TACC will not discriminate in its employment practices due to an applicant’s race, color, religion, sex, national origin or ancestry, age, sexual orientation, gender identification, genetic information, veteran or disability status or any other factor prohibited by law.
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
TACC offers a competitive annual salary for this role, commensurate with the candidate’s qualifications and experience. Benefits include health, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance; retirement plan contributions, paid vacation, holidays, and sick leave.
TO APPLY
Interested candidates should submit a cover letter and resume. All inquiries, nominations, cover letters, and resumes should be emailed in confidence to:
Susan Delfeld
Director of Human Resources
Corcoran Jennison Companies
150 Mount Vernon Street
Boston MA 02125
Tel: 617-822-7226
Cell: 978-387-9269
sdelfeld@corcoranjennison.com
Download a PDF of the position profile here.