Billings, MT

Position Title: Executive Leadership

Organization: Western Organization of Resource Councils

Location: Billings, MT

Organization Overview: Western Organization of Resource Councils (WORC) is a powerful regional network of nine grassroots community organizations in seven western states with 19,935 members and 39 local chapters. WORC is nationally respected for its 44 years of winning campaigns on natural resources, food and farming, and many other issues through community organizing, policy advocacy, training, leadership development, and voter engagement. WORC’s network is committed to ushering long-term, ground-up change by building grassroots power through base-building and leadership development.

Position Overview: WORC seeks experienced leaders and candidates who are deeply committed to community organizing, building grassroots power in rural communities, and advancing economic, environmental, and social justice. WORC seeks candidates who bring a deep understanding of and experience with member-led organizing, prioritize relationship-building and shared leadership, and have significant experience working within or leading networks, alliances, or coalitions. This leadership will be based in Billings, Montana.

Duties:

• Leadership, Strategy, and Values
  • Grounded in aligned values and vision, build trusting and mutually beneficial
    relationships with the WORC staff and board, as well as with the leaders and
    staff of WORC’s member organizations and allies.
  • Maintain and strengthen information and feedback loops between WORC staff, board, and member organizations, grounded in communication practices that honor respect, transparency, and efficiency.
  • Bring big-picture thinking and community organizing values to a strategic planning process that may include updating WORC’s mission, vision, values, core priorities, and key strategies as well as creating a roadmap for fulfilling WORC’s strategic goals over the next several years.
  • Honor and promote the role of member-leaders as spokespersons for the organization and also serve as a visible leader and voice for WORC when appropriate and strategic within the network, with funders and supporters, and in broader coalitions and movements.
  • Bring strong skills in the area of facilitation and consensus building to help identify points of common interest and collective benefit within the network as it grows in numbers and diversity.
  • Model a commitment to shared leadership within WORC and throughout the network, stressing transparency, openness to others’ ideas, and mutual problem-solving and accountability.
• Staff Management and Organizational Wellbeing
  • Work with WORC staff managers to ensure strong, transparent, and equitable
    systems for staff hiring, training and development, supervision and evaluation,
    and ongoing communication.
  • Model and strengthen a values-driven, collaborative organizational and network
    culture where staff and members are valued for their contributions and supported
    in their development and well-being.
  • Directly supervise, support, and regularly convene five senior managers to
    ensure a healthy organization and healthy team culture.
  • Work with staff and board to set clear goals and objectives and ensure sufficient
    organizational resources and support to achieve outcomes.
  • Ensure development of and compliance with internal policies.
  • Maintain and enforce a healthy work-life balance for self and staff, including
    reasonable work plans and a sustainable workload.
  • Oversee a comprehensive organizational/network assessment process in order
    to clarify roles, revisit staff structure, strengthen internal culture, build
    greater cohesiveness across WORC’s complex ecosystem, and address other areas
    that will increase WORC’s overall impact and sustainability.

To see a full list of duties, see the full WORC Executive Leadership job announcement.

Minimum Qualifications: 

• Experience building long-term, grassroots power through member-led community organizing. Cares deeply about the issues of the member groups and is willing to fight for them.
• Substantial experience leading a mid-size organization, including in the areas of staff supervision and development — including hiring, firing, delegation, accountability, and evaluations, foundation and grassroots fundraising and financial management, and strategic direction.
• Ability to develop strong, open working relationships with staff, member-leaders, and others, work through and resolve conflict, build trust, and bring people together.
• Ability to think strategically, including working at the individual, team, organizational/network, and ally/movement levels to set and prioritize goals.
• Dedication to and demonstrated skill in advancing justice and equity within organizations (ideally coalitions or networks), including planning and implementing inclusive processes to develop shared vision, values, and priorities that address the challenges and opportunities WORC faces as a multiracial/multiethnic community.
• High degree of cultural awareness and emotional intelligence; the ability to effectively navigate and challenge white supremacy, sexism, classism, and other systems of oppression, and to cultivate accountability and leadership within WORC’s network.
• Experience working with and cultivating a deeply engaged board of directors, including supporting leadership development and facilitating transparent, informed, shared decision-making.
• Strong oral and written communication skills, including the ability to clearly communicate vision, values, goals, and strategies for various audiences.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Lived, professional or other experience in the states where our members work and/or rural communities in other parts of the United States.
• Experience leading, managing, and developing complex networks, coalitions, or collaboratives of autonomous organizations.
• Experience working with Native American communities.
• Knowledge of and relationships with key foundations and major donors.
• Knowledge of and relationships with other environmental and other social justice organizations, coalitions, and movements.
• Spanish language speaking skills.
• Experience with shared leadership.
• Experience with public policy at the state, local, national, and tribal levels, preferably in the WORC region.

Salary/Pay: $90,000 – $120,000 with benefits

Application Deadline: June 12

How to Apply: Please send a letter of interest and your resume in one PDF document to edhiring@worc.org by June 12, 2023. In your cover letter, please indicate if you are interested in the position as a solo ED, as a potential Co-Executive Director with or without an identified teammate, or are open to considering either structure. Please also highlight your most relevant experience, areas you may need to grow into, and any connections you have to WORC as an organization and our people.

For more information, please see WORC’s website and read the full job announcement.