For 40 years Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation (“AFFCF”) has been focused on creating opportunities to build self-esteem and empower children and youth in foster care. Our goal is to fund services that enrich life experiences and ensure successful transition to adulthood. There are three main ways we engage children and youth that experience foster care:
Childhood Activities – We help bring a level of normalcy to children’s and youth’s lives by paying for things that their peers get to enjoy and that they may not. Things like sports registrations, tutoring, swim lessons and other activities. Recognizing that often, the funding available from the State ($19 per day) is insufficient, we try to close the gap and fund the things that help kids and youth experience normalcy and moments of joy.
Keys to Success - Keys to Success provides career, employment and housing services for youth transitioning out of foster care that lead them to discover their potential and a pathway to living wage employment and self-sufficiency.
Post-Secondary Program - AFFCF’s Post-Secondary program funds tuition, fees, life-emergencies and provides a sense of community for young people who age out of foster care in Arizona and have a dream of going to college. We make sure youth aspiring to achieve a college education know that they have someone that believes and wants to invest in their dreams!
Reporting to the President & Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) and operating as a member of the leadership team, the Vice President of Programs and Partnerships is laser focused on how we serve kids and youth in foster care through partnerships (existing and new), internal impact alignment, assessment of programs, design and execution of new programs, initiatives and the ongoing evaluation of the ecosystem to ensure we are being responsive and effective to the needs of Arizona’s Foster Care population.
This is a new role that will help AFFCF deepen, scale and deploy relevant, impactful and sustainable programming for the Arizona Foster Care Community. Key activities will include, but will not be limited to:
Responsibilities
Program Strategy and Design
- Work with CEO and program leaders to identify opportunities to scale existing programs and/or deploy program learnings and theory of change models to other foster care communities.
- Collaborate and manage program staff to continuously understand program needs, changes, synergies and investments.
- Lead strategy and implementation plans to execute, test and evaluate new or existing program initiatives
- Critically evaluate and align existing programs to optimize resources, data and outcomes for program participants, funders and key stakeholders.
- Collaborate with other members of the leadership team to help develop a well-organized volunteer recruitment environment using best practices to attract and support community volunteers.
Partnership Engagement and Strategy
- Deploy analysis and strategic frameworks to help AFFCF understand the partnership landscape and develop viewpoints on key gaps, opportunities, successful partnership inputs, maturity and effectiveness. Continuously evaluate and update those frameworks.
- Serve as a primary point of contact for AFFCF external partnership inquiries and conversation from vendors, non-profits, governmental entities, educational and community groups to ascertain partnership opportunities and activate them.
- Be able to quickly study and understand critical and complex child welfare information to support the CEO in strategic donor or partnership conversations.
- Partner and lead existing program staff to deepen or develop new connections that turn into sustainable, measurable and meaningful community partnerships for program participants and AFFCF.
Program Impact
- Facilitate research to practice applications through use of internal and external data in an effort to inform and advance program theory and/or benchmark impact across AFFCF’s programs.
- Manage and own critical internal data and ensure program integrity, consistency and reporting to key internal and external stakeholders.
- Lead evaluation process with third-party evaluators to ensure impactful measurement and tracking of outcomes for existing and new programs
- Assess existing program data and impact measurements to ascertain program quality and outcome integrity.
Organizational Leadership
- Serve as an effective leader, manager and partner for existing AFFCF program staff and a collaborator and resource for functional leaders.
- Coordinate training with program staff that advances core competencies within their role.
- Engage in personal development to represent our approach to service with integrity and demonstrate continuous learning to achieve subject matter expertise.
- Develop informational materials for high-level conversations to help inform program overviews, impact and opportunities for internal and external stakeholders.
- Monitor and own program budgets and exercise comprehensive financial oversight of all program expenditures. Ensure fiscal responsibility and adherence to budgetary constraints, while identifying opportunities for cost savings and resource optimization.
- Coordinate with other functional leaders to implement grants, for-profit partnerships, events, marketing, and media appearances.
Qualifications
- 5-8 years of similar leadership experience in non-profit or similar environments
- Previous experience in child welfare or organizations serving vulnerable populations is preferred.
- Bachelor’s degree in social work, psychology, education or non-profit or a related field. Master’s degree preferred.
- A super collaborator and dot connector with the ability to quickly bring together the best of theory, practice and people to drive change and impact
- Bilingual (English/Spanish) preferred.
- Must have a valid Arizona Driver’s license and dependable transportation with ability to drive without restrictions.
- Arizona Level 1 Fingerprint Clearance eligible or approved.
- Team player, comfortable with ambiguous high-pace environments and be willing to get into the trenches to transform and meaningfully impact the foster care community.
- Superb written, verbal, analytical and interpersonal skills.
- Have exceptional attention to detail and time management skills and a can-do, self-starter attitude.
- Motivation to develop relationships and work collaboratively across the organization.
Work Environment
Standard office working environment with some offsite meeting and travel requirements (mileage reimbursements available).
Salary and Benefits
This is a full-time, salaried position. The starting salary target for this role is $86,000 - $91,000. Final offer amounts depend on multiple factors including candidate experience and expertise, and most recent market data. This position is eligible for an annual discretionary bonus based on personal and organizational performance, in addition to a competitive benefits package that includes: health, dental, vision, and life insurance, flexible spending accounts, retirement contributions, and paid time off.
Equal Employment Employer
AFFCF is an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.
Please submit resumes to talent@affcf.org for consideration.
