Director of Organizing

About The Action Lab

The Action Lab is a strategy center for social movements that sparks political and personal liberation. We provide rigorous and joyful spaces for organizers, leaders and artists to learn, to create, and to strengthen our capacity to win. We strive to build a powerful culture that lifts us out of the immediate and enables us to imagine our way to a just future.

The Action Lab’s programs center three primary objectives:

• Learning: The craft and context of community organizing are ever-evolving and demand interdisciplinary, experiential learning  – and a durable scaffolding for that process. The Action Lab works with our partners to identify, pilot, and scale new insights and practices to realize transformational change.
• Creating: While politics is a vehicle to engage and challenge injustice, culture, not politics, is the way we make meaning of the world. The Action Lab is convening and nurturing a new and dynamic community to spark new work, and innovative ways of working, to realize our highest aspirations for justice.
• Strengthening: Our health, rigor, wisdom and community are what enable us to realize our potential. The Action Lab is committed to the foundational importance of the well-being of our people and organizations -  to helping to create programs and support for organizers, artists, and organizations to drive discipline, reflection, impact and joy.

About the Position

We are seeking a Director for The Action Lab’s core organizing work, and to lead and manage several emerging bodies of programmatic work:

1. The Impact & Innovation Initiative: The Action Lab works across bounds of issue and geography, with movement leaders from diverse disciplines, to develop new model campaigns that aim higher and, often, bridge divisions and silos. We work with organizations and coalitions from the ground up to design experiments in tactics, strategy and methodology that become successful high-impact campaigns.

2. The Power to Win Initiative: Through our Power to Win Initiative, The Action Lab works to catalyze generative practices that organizers and organizations can use to build power and community at scale. Our training series, learning delegations, political education curricula, resource toolkits, and interdisciplinary workshops have become invaluable components of the work of our partners, and we are looking forward to working with a growing number of organizations and organizers across the country.

The Director will work closely with the Director of Development and Learning and the Senior Director of Strategy to develop and implement a fundraising plan to meet the program budget goals.

The Director will report to the Senior Director of Strategy and will be a part of the Senior Strategy Team.

The Director will also collaborate closely with the Director of Education and Cultural Strategies on a range of the programmatic aspects of the role.

Primary Responsibilities

The Director of the initiatives will:

• Support the development, execution and coordination of the organization's evolving programmatic work;
• Provide leadership and coordination with other lead staff, Advisory Board, Board of Directors, Fellows, allied organizations and Anchor Partners;
• Provide excellent supervision/management of program staff team, volunteers and consultants; including hiring new staff and otherwise growing the capacity of the Action Lab;
• Lead and assist with fundraising for the organization’s programmatic work;
• Work with The Action Lab’s senior team to build our desired organizational culture, meet our annual goals, and achieve our vision;
• Provide public leadership through writing, external meetings, events and the press; and
• Develop and implement team infrastructure (data tracking, reporting, etc.) to support success.

Job Requirements

The ideal candidate would bring with them a combination of the following experiences and skills:

• A demonstrated commitment to social justice, organizing, campaign-building and a sound analysis of racial and economic justice as imperative for successful organizing and change work;
• A commitment to building people’s institutions as a core element of building our power to win;
• At least 10 years leading social justice work and organizations;
• Seven to ten years experience managing teams, complex projects or initiatives;
• Experience managing high level (leaders with 5-7 years experience, preferred) staff;
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-moving environment with partners from diverse backgrounds, working in varied issues with varied types of expertise, and spread across the country;
• Significant foundation, individual donor, and other fundraising experience;
• Knowledge of New York’s community organizing landscape is preferred; and
• Ability to speak and write in Spanish is preferred.

Salary and Benefits

Salary will be determined according to experience, but is expected to be $130,000 - $160,000, with a generous benefits package.

HOW TO APPLY

Please submit your cover letter and resume to andrew@actionlabny.org.

Applications will be accepted and considered on a rolling basis. The Action Lab is seeking to fill this position as of May 1, 2024 , but will be flexible to accommodate the ideal candidate.

The Action Lab is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and actively recruits people of color, women, individuals with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ community.