Job Title: Organizing Culture and Capacity Director
Department: Field Department
Location: Remote. This position requires an ability to travel.
Reports To: Senior Field Program Director
Supervises: Up to 8 staff
Context: At the Sierra Club, we believe in the power of interdependence. Together,we remain committed to the fight for a healthy climate built on a foundation of environmental, racial, economic, and gender justice – a future where all people benefit from a healthy, thriving planet and a direct connection to nature. As the climate crisis and deeply entrenched systemic racism all fuel injustice, we will continue to fight for a bold, transformational agenda that recognizes the interconnectedness between our planet, our humanity, and our future. By recognizing that our destinies are tied, we continue to name that all things are fundamentally connected, and the overlap between ecology, race, gender, and representative government will move to either advance our collective humanity or to oppress it. Sierra Club has close to 700 staff across the country and a network of 64 local chapters that are led and fueled by thousands of volunteers. We are also proud to be a unionized employer, with three labor unions representing more than half of our employees.
Scope: As the nation's largest grassroots environmental network, the Sierra Club seeks to strengthen a cohesive and powerful organizing culture to address climate disruption, transform the energy economy, protect communities from pollution, and ensure access to the outdoors for all and protect our lands, water and wildlife. Organizing at the Sierra Club happens across the organization with both staff and volunteers leading in local groups, Chapters, and national campaigns all towards the goal of building a broad, diverse movement of people and enlisting them to explore, enjoy and protect the planet. The Field Department manages and supports the growth of strong and healthy chapters as Sierra Club’s permanent grassroots infrastructure, which includes more than a third of the organization’s staff.
The Sierra Club is seeking a strategic, collaborative, and equity-driven organizing leader to serve as our Organizing Culture and Capacity Director. This new role will be the organizational leader on scaling grassroots organizing strategy, methodology, and practices that leverage the full power of the Sierra Club in achieving local, state, and national priorities. The Organizing Culture and Capacity Director will provide the structure and vision to offer programs that establish and shape organizing culture, maintain baseline skillsets and shared understanding across the organization, and test emergent strategies to grow our grassroots power. The Organizing Culture and Capacity Director will lead the team to develop methodology to test the success of its programming and adoption of centralized approaches across the organization. This role requires close partnership, mutual accountability, and deep relationships with other department leaders across Sierra Club in building systems and services which support chapters, organizing capacity, and grassroots infrastructure.
Job activities include but are not limited to:
- Sierra Club’s Organizing Culture: Maintain and refine the development and deployment of an organizing model across the organization. Define the organization’s ideal organizing culture through consultation, synthesizing on the ground learnings, and testing. Develop indicators of success to track progress towards the overarching vision. Lead the development and implementation of curriculum, training framework, strategies, programmatic activities to develop culture and capacity. Work with internal stakeholders in Field, Campaigns and Digital to measure and refine practices. Stays current on best practices in organizing, training and learning, and volunteer leadership development, incorporating innovations into programs.
- Programmatic leadership Sets the overall vision and approach in alignment with the organization and the Field Department’s priorities. Facilitate short and long term planning processes and manage the team to execute plans. Oversee the creation of annual team programming through training and direct support programs to embed organizing best practices within Sierra Club culture. Lead the development and consistent delivery of evergreen training materials to onboard and develop staff, volunteers, and managers’ organizing practices. Develop and integrate emergent programs to address trends or conditions that will strengthen organizing culture or capacity. Ensure training approach to organizing is in alignment with chapter capacity and programmatic support within the organization. Continuously identify the greatest needs and evaluate program impact from an organizational health perspective. Report results from programs to inform future iteration of programming, resourcing needs, and growth opportunities.
- Organizing technology, tools, and analytics. Drive increased adoption of organizing technology systems and practices. Ensure integration of practices and improvements into all relevant programs. Work across departments to update and improve organizing technology’s tools, definitions, practices, and support materials. Measure adoption and proper use across the organization. Utilize data to inform programmatic decisions and emergent strategies, including organizing culture.
- Cross-departmental leadership and partnership. Represent the Field Department and Organizing Culture and Capacity across the organization. Engage and partner with relevant stakeholders to design and deliver evergreen and emergent programs. Ensure stakeholders understand the role and programs of the Organizing Culture and Capacity Team. Develop trusting relationships with internal partners, fostering transformative collaboration with other departments and teams.
- Staff and team management: Manage the Organizing Culture and Capacity team members by providing consistent guidance, coaching, and oversight to direct reports. Assigns projects and roles. Establishes clear performance standards and work priorities. Provides ongoing performance feedback, prepares and conducts formal performance planning and evaluation. Makes recommendations regarding salary, hiring, promotion, and disciplinary decisions. Ensures staff receive the necessary professional training and support to successfully carry out their jobs. Works to ensure that the structure and culture of the team is operating in alignment with priorities and values.
- Budget and resource management: Ensure that the team achieves its stated goals and aligns resources with strategy on an ongoing basis. Develop and manage the team budget and follow departmental policies. Performs miscellaneous duties as assigned, including fundraising, support with grant reporting, and presentations.
The successful candidate must demonstrate the following skills, experience and competencies:
- Organizing Leadership. Demonstrated experience organizing impactful and powerful grassroots campaigns. Experienced manager with deep experience managing organizers in both highly technical and people-driven campaigns. Understands volunteer management and development as well as movement technology best practices at scale.
- Organizing methodology understanding. Demonstrates deep understanding of organizing theory and methodology, preferably across a range of organizing schools of thought. Able to apply methodology to real world scenarios.
- Facilitation and training strategy. Experience developing and implementing training programs. You know how to build curricula to engage and inspire diverse audiences. Dynamic and experienced facilitator.
- Visionary communicator. Strong visionary leadership skills and experience. Able to clearly communicate broad vision, goals, and steps to achieving those goals. You are able to persuade and inspire others to align around your vision, process, and/or plan of action.
- Management experience. Strong team management skills, including the ability to drive accountability and progress and foster a culture of collaboration, respect, and open dialogue across remote, geographically dispersed teams. The ability to motivate teams, ask for and receive feedback, and foster a positive and leaderful team culture.
- Systems thinking. Demonstrated ability to see how disparate systems and teams are interconnected. Able to assess across various scales, like micro to macro, local to national, and individual to program.
- Committed to evolution.You are committed to continuously deepening and evolving your own understanding of systems of oppression through study, openness, and humility. And you easily recognize your own relationship to privilege and power, examining and shifting your behaviors as appropriate.
- Uplifting and additive. You see mistakes as opportunities for growth; problems as catalysts for solutions, and inspire others along the journey. You carry a constructive approach, can-do attitude, a sense of humor, and authentic kindness wherever you go.
The strongest candidates will also demonstrate the following skills, experience and competencies:
- Experience working in field programs that are national in scope or has organized in membership based, federated organizations.
- Experience utilizing organizing technology like VAN, ScaletoWin, or Hustle. Experience managing the connection between technology and organizing methodology is a plus.
- Experience and track record of successfully achieving goals in large, complex organizations that include volunteer and staff leadership roles.
- Experience managing a budget and/or fundraising. Experience in the development of grant proposals and building and maintaining individual donor relationships is a plus.
- Able to comply with financial, employment and operations policies and external regulations.
- Strong project management skills with a track record of successfully moving strategies and projects with teams in complex landscapes.
Compensation and Benefits
The salary for this position is $150,000 annually.
The Sierra Club offers a competitive salary package commensurate with skills and experience plus excellent benefits that include medical, dental, and vision coverage, and a retirement savings 401(k) plan.
This is a category 3, exempt, non-represented, managerial position.
Sierra Club values the expertise and talents of foreign nationals. Sierra Club sponsors both nonimmigrant and immigrant visas when certain criteria are met, based on immigration laws and organizational needs. Such sponsorship is at the discretion of the Department Head and Sierra Club People Department in consultation with the employee’s manager. The Sierra Club cannot guarantee the approval of a visa petition. The Sierra Club is an equal opportunity employer committed to workforce belonging.
To Apply
The Sierra Club provides equal employment and advancement opportunities to all staff members. Employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, lived experience and skills. The Sierra Club does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, creed, religion, national origin, immigration status, socioeconomic status, ancestry, age, size, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, familial status, veteran status, disability, AIDS/HIV status, medical condition, prior conviction, arrest history, traits historically associated with race, including, but not limited to, hair texture and protective hairstyles, or any other characteristic protected by law.
The Sierra Club values applicants who are people that identify as Black, Indigenous, and other minoritized groups; women; queer, transgender, gender non-conforming, and gender fluid people.
Explore, enjoy and protect the planet.
