Director of Education

OUR EDUCATION MISSION

United Way of Pickens County (UWPC) seeks to help children achieve their potential through education and has established a bold goal that 70% of 3rd graders will be reading on grade level by 2025.   Our goals are:

• Children begin school ready to learn
• Young children achieve their academic potential

• Parents and guardians are focused on their child's academic success and are engaged in their child’s intellectual, emotional, and social growth

PURPOSE OF POSITION

The Director of Education is responsible for leading United Way of Pickens County’s Education Impact Area in the Community Impact Division.  The Director is responsible for:

1. building and maintaining relationships with individuals, public and private sector community institutions, and nonprofit organizations to identify community needs related to education
2. developing approaches to meeting needs and ensuring successful implementation
3. strategically deploying resources to meet community needs that will have the greatest impact

The Director will develop, direct and promote literacy focused education programs and initiatives, and engage the local community in these efforts.  The Director will strategically plan for effective services and long-term program sustainability and growth.

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES

Investment and Community Impact Management

• Regularly examines community needs and gaps in service 
• Serves as a thought leader in the area of education, identifying and championing strategies for furthering UWPC’s community impact
• Recruits Education Impact Council members and facilitates Council meetings
• Coordinates community initiatives or collaborative projects as needed
• Conducts research related to strategies and best practices
• Develops relationships with key stakeholders in the community
• Coordinates the education annual investment process with the Education Impact Council  to include Impact grant funding and Special Initiatives funding
• Evaluates outcomes from Impact grants or Special Initatives and works with grantees to modify/improve programs when appropriate
• Administers and implements current and future internal programming utilizing best practices
• Creates and maintains a culture of collaboration, trust and accountabilty between with community partners, serving as an effective ambassador of United Way of Pickens County

Volunteer Management

• Recruits literacy volunteers and perform background checks
• Ensure that all volunteers are adequately trained, creates training in collaboration with school personnel
• Monitors volunteer performance and success and provides feedback
• Provides recognition acknowledging volunteer efforts
• Creates and administers feedback surveys, analyzes results, and makes appropriate changes
• Identifes potential new sites for literacy volunteers and creates new programming

Additional Responsibilities:

• Provides support to education grant writing efforts when needed
• Attend community functions and meetings when relevant
• Attends United Way of Pickens County functions when needed
• Assists other departments in major projects and coordinates efforts as appropriate with Marketing, Finance, Resource Development, and Volunteer Engagement
• Performs other duties as assigned

COMPETENCIES

Team/Organizational Leadership and Management-Understands the needs and wants of the organization and community in order to provide accurate, complete and timely service and to further the mission, values and goals of the organization.

Ability to Multi-Task-The ability to handle multiple tasks and assignments concurrently; prioritizes more important tasks while maintaining control of others; reports in a timely manner any barriers to task completion.

Results-Oriented Thinking and Behavior-A genuine concern for effectiveness, with the desire to achieve the best results for the actions taken; complex problem solving.

Initiative, Innovation and Creativity-The ability to think outside the routine way of doing business and develop new and creative ways of addressing community needs.

Communication-Speaks clearly; writes effectively and persuasively, listens well; demonstrates effective group presentation and meeting skills, maintains positive working relationships throughout the community; displays social perceptiveness; adept at building relationships.

Required Minimum Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in non-profit or business management or a related field.
• Five years of professional experience-Master’s degree may substitute for two years of experience
• Experience in program development and management, preferably non-profit 
• Experience in volunteer management
• Experience in tracking, analyzing and reporting on outcomes

The ideal candidate must be a solution focused self-starter who can conceptualize and develop plans for programming execution that yield impactful outcomes.

Please email resume and cover letter to Karen Culley, kculley@uwpickens.org