Company description

The Women, Food and Agriculture Network (WFAN) is a nationwide network of women and other people working in sustainable agriculture, working toward a vision of a vibrant, community-centered food and agricultural system in which women and non-binary people are strong leaders.

WFAN’s mission is to engage women in building an ecological and just food and agricultural system through individual and community power. We conduct our work based on our values and our priorities can be found in our strategic plan.

Our current programs are Harvesting Our Potential; Plate to Politics; Women Caring for the Land; and Growing Community Resilience. We also hold an annual conference every fall, and work to increase the presence of women in food and agriculture in the media. Our staff of four and other contractors work remotely from many locations.

Job description

The new Executive Director for WFAN will lead WFAN into the next stage of our growth, including exploring how to strengthen our support for racial equity, food justice, food sovereignty, and solidarity with communities and organizations in this space.
 

The Executive Director will lead WFAN in our work of change-making in food and agriculture. This leadership will include increasing our impact through strengthening our member network and maintaining the important efforts of our current programming.
 

The Executive Director will handle essential management efforts. These include managing staff and conducting hiring and oversight; leading fundraising efforts of grant writing and donor development; overseeing organizational administration including database management and employee benefits; and working closely with the Board. 
 

Preferred Qualifications

General

• Strong experience working in sustainable agriculture and food systems. 

• Commitment to anti-racist, pro-rural and gender inclusive work. Demonstrate strong class consciousness. Ability to compassionately and effectively navigate difficult conversations on these topics.

• Strong ability to communicate the mission, vision, and values of WFAN to a variety of audiences. Strong ability to articulate the ways in which WFAN’s work builds towards its goals.

• Experience with grassroots advocacy, grassroots membership building, and/or grassroots organizing. 

• Excited about building and strengthening coalition and community partnerships in line with WFAN’s current and evolving program areas. 

• Proven leadership in a community-led strategic planning process. Familiar with process design and comfortable designing for multi-stakeholder input alongside staff and board members. 

Fundraising

• Proven track record in writing and receiving grants from government sources and foundations. 

• Proven track record in raising money from major donors and grassroots member-supporters. 

• Ability to develop and maintain relationships with funders. 

Staff Management

• Experience with and commitment to learning and practicing the skills required for staff to excel in their positions, with emphasis on compassion, clear communication and delegation as well as staff happiness and retention. 

• Comfort in working and managing staff and board relationships virtually.

Administration

• Commitment to maintaining strong relationships with the Board and coalition partners.

• Ability to maintain dual focus on WFAN’s big picture work and the day-to-day detail required to run the organization.

• Charismatic and comfortable with public speaking.

• Experience with membership communications, preferably experience with membership database management. WFAN currently uses Powerbase. 

• Able to manage the financial complexity of an organization receiving funding from members and individual donors, as well as Federal, multiple State entities and private foundations. 

• Familiar with funds based accounting and managing restricted and unrestricted funds.

• Prefer familiarity with Quickbooks.

Location and Travel

A candidate located in the Midwest, where WFAN has strong roots, is not required, and remote applicants are encouraged to apply. Work from home is preferred, or office space in Story City, Iowa will be provided. Current WFAN staff work from home in IA, IL, CO and CA. Board Members are located in CA, CO, MO, IA, MI, OH, MN, ME, Washington D.C. and abroad. 

This position will require regular national travel (as possible over the next year due to the evolving impacts of the coronavirus, and in compliance with best practices and up to date information from the CDC and state guidelines). 

Compensation and benefits

This is a full-time, salaried position, with benefits and requirements as set out in the WFAN Employee Handbook. Salary range will begin at $65,000, negotiable depending upon geographic location and commensurate with experience. Annual salary increases are subject to merit and cost of living increases dependent upon evaluations and future fundraising. Benefits include a flexible schedule, a great team, engaged Board and active membership, and a Health Reimbursement Account and an IRA matching program. The Board and Interim ED are currently working to secure a full health insurance option for all staff, to begin by 2021.  

 

Compensation this position is : salaried, 50k-75k Location job can be done remotely Application instructions DeadlineOctober 26, 2020