Atlas: DIY seeks a compassionate, visionary, all-around rockstar to become our next Executive Director. Founded by an immigration attorney and three immigrant youth in a coffee shop in 2011, our nonprofit is now a nationally recognized organization serving more than 400 youth each year in our center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and many more across the country with the resources we provide online. With an anticipated budget of more than $1 million for 2017, an ever-growing interest in our innovative model, and higher demand for our services from New York City’s youth, we are looking for the perfect candidate to bring us into this new stage of growth.
Our Impact
Atlas creates a world powered by the joy, freedom, and endless possibilities of all youth, everywhere. We do this by working with immigrant youth to unlock access to free legal services, learning opportunities, and leadership development programs in a space owned, run, and governed by the youth themselves.
Since opening our doors in 2012, we have served over 750 immigrant youth at our drop-in center in Sunset Park, Brooklyn and have educated over 10,000 individuals throughout NYC in off-site peer-led rights trainings. Our in-house attorneys have assisted over 200 individuals in obtaining immigration status. Working within our cooperative model, our young people have contributed over 7,000 volunteer hours to our time bank. Our members have participated in roundtables with the Mayor’s Office for Immigration Affairs, have trained asylum officers on better practices when working with traumatized youth, and have been featured on multiple occasions in the New York Times, on NPR’s All Things Considered, and in the documentaries Walking Merchandise and No Les Digas A Nadie.
Our Goals for the Future
As Atlas’s membership continues to grow ( we expect to serve 750 youth in our Sunset Park office in 2017), the need for our services is rising. We are looking to expand to a second location in New York City within the next three years, and to a second metropolitan area within the next five. As a rapidly growing nonprofit we continuously aim to secure deep-impact and long-standing funding relationships, and we expect our budget to surpass $1 million within the next twelve months. Another, broader Atlas goal is to create national change for youth empowerment organizations by sharing innovative cooperative model, which includes our volunteer program, internal youth hiring practices, and shared board governance with our youth. Our aim is to create a national curriculum through which other organizations can put their constituents in a place of power.
We want to change the way nonprofits as a whole are run.
A Day in the Life of Our ED Includes:
Strategizing with the Deputy Director regarding program implementation.
Liaising with prospective and current individual donors.
Reviewing grant proposals, conducting site visits, and maintaining relationships with foundation funders.
Representing Atlas at coalition meetings, events, and conferences.
Determining action steps and appropriate responses following national and local policy changes and events affecting our communities.
Handling media requests from print, radio, and televised media, and determining when and how Atlas members’ stories can be elevated by such media.
Participating in city, state, and federal governmental initiatives including meeting with elected officials and attending roundtables.
Managing heads of Legal, Programming, and Operations teams who, in turn, manage their own staff, and supporting them as needed in the hiring, retention, and removal of team members.
Strengthening Atlas’s relationships with local community groups, schools, membership-based organizations, and elected officials.
Welcoming new members into the space, attending Atlas member events, and maintaining an open, positive environment focused on inclusion and agency for all members at Atlas.
Assisting our legal team with the provision of direct legal services to clients including determining confidentiality restraints between Atlas departments.
Overseeing Atlas’s financials including making cash flow determinations, budgeting restraints, and financial projections.
Attending and advising at Atlas Fundraising Board meetings.
Brainstorming how to continuously grow Atlas’s cooperative network and how to better engage every young person in our 400+ member base.
The Right Candidate Will:
Be a fervent believer in and have a demonstrated interest in innovative, cooperative nonprofit models focusing on the inclusion of constituents’ participation and ideas
Be a confident public speaker who can speak eloquently and passionately about the organization, its members, and its issue areas.
Believe that the power of immigrant youth is the center of decision-making and advocacy for immigrant justice.
Excel at fundraising with individual, corporate, and foundation donors, and have a demonstrated record of increasing an organization’s revenue and sustainability.
Display an ability to connect and work with populations across sectors including, undocumented immigrants, LGBTQ youth, formerly incarcerated individuals, single parents, families experiencing homelessness, and survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual abuse.
Demonstrate experience with and a commitment to working in holistic environments and community centers including spaces with both programming and legal services.
Show a history of putting bold visions into action through collaboration and creative problem-solving.
Have successfully managed teams of various backgrounds including entry-level and professional-level employees
Be able to confidently develop and implement an annual budget, collaborate with the Director of Operations on cash-flow projections and financial reporting, and possess a basic knowledge of QuickBooks and Excel.
Be skilled in facilitating staff, youth, and supporters to visualize and implement areas for strategic growth over , three-, five-, and ten- year timeframes.
Timeline
Atlas hopes to have our new Executive Director in place before the end of 2016. After the initial hiring, our goal is that he/she will engage in a minimum one month of transition time with the current Executive Director.
To Apply
Send a resume and cover letter, including your start-date timeline, how you found out about the job, and salary expectations, with subject “I am Atlas” to findingatlas@atlasdiy.org. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis until August 1, 2016, after which we will accept applications on a referral basis only.