Background

Madison, Wisconsin, rated as one the best places to live in America by Money Magazine, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance Magazine, and the Places Rated Almanac, is located in a metropolitan area of more than 450,000 people and a Jewish community of some 2,300 households, totaling about 6,000 community members and 5,000 Jewish UW college students.

A progressive, cosmopolitan city, Madison is the seat of state government and home to the world-class University of Wisconsin-Madison, which includes the Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies and the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies.

Madison also features world class medical facilities, global financial corporations, and an easily accessible airport. Quality of life is strong, safe, and affordable.

Madison public schools have been ranked third in the nation and Madison has been rated by Forbes Magazine as the second best place to educate your child. Located about 150 miles from Chicago, Madison is the second largest city in the state.

Built on an isthmus between lakes Monona and Mendota, Madison is renowned for its beautiful scenery. A total of five area lakes and more than 260 city parks create an abundance of year-round outdoor activities, from hiking, biking, swimming and sailing along with cross-country skiing, and ice fishing.

Madison’s Jewish Community

Madison’s Jewish community is warm, growing, and vibrant. There are four congregations that provide diverse religious and cultural experiences – Chabad, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Reform.

The community also has many rich Jewish communal organizations, including The University of Wisconsin Mosse/Weinstein Center for Jewish Studies, the Department of Hebrew and Semitic Studies, Jewish Social Services, University of Wisconsin Hillel, and UW Chabad.

The community also has a day school, the Madison Jewish Community Day School, which began operations in the Fall, 2008 and is currently K-2, and adding a grade each year. 

About The Jewish Federation of Madison

The Federation is a functional Jewish federation, which means the organization is responsible for both the funding and delivery of services to the Jewish and greater Madison area community.

The Federation is a $7 million organization, with a $1 million campaign and $1.6 million endowment. The Federation employs 20 regular, 12 part-time teachers, and 100 seasonal employees who collectively operate a summer camp serving 1,000 children, a year-round full-day preschool, a Hebrew high school, and year-round community programs.

The Federation also owns a $600,000 Community Building, a 154-acre $4 million Community Campus, and a 5,500 square-foot Aquatic Center.

For more detailed information about Madison’s Jewish community, refer to our website JewishMadison org.

The Position

The Jewish Federation of Madison (the “Federation”) seeks an outwardly personable and sophisticated senior executive with presence and a track record of excellence who can provide the vision and leadership to guide and strengthen the Jewish community. Reporting to the President of the Board and the Executive Committee, the Executive Director will direct all operations of the Federation including governance, finance and administration, personnel, fund-raising and joint donor solicitation with lay solicitors, community planning and development, community relations and liaison, Israel and overseas relations, public relations and marketing and human resources. The Executive Director will work in partnership with the Board, volunteers and other key community stakeholders to create a supportive, energized environment where new ideas, programs and services can incubate and grow and significant advances in financial resource development can be attained.

Financial resource development will be a major priority.  The new Executive Director must have sophisticated relationship building skills to cultivate and steward donors at all levels including high net worth donors.

The new Executive Director will play a major role in governance and volunteer leadership development as well as ensuring on-going communications between committees and the overall Board. 

Tasks and Responsibilities
 
Governance
 
• Working with the Board and its committees, manage a governance structure that is efficient and that fosters effective partnership leading to maximal results.  Ensure that meetings are properly arranged, communicated and useful, organized, and conducted productively.  Work with leadership to develop the skills and knowledge required to build agreement on issues. Identify opportunities for volunteer leadership to capitalize on their skills and abilities including donor cultivation and solicitation.

• Serve as a professional advisor and resource to the Board in all areas of program, finance, and agency policy and governance.  Provide and articulate vision and create a climate for its responsible ownership.

• Cultivate, recruit, build, and maintain effective relationships with top volunteer leadership and leadership prospects.
 

Financial Resource Development
 
• Lead the professional staff and volunteer leadership responsible for planning integrated financial resource development that supports the overall mission of the Federation, particularly the development of strategies in relationship to major supporters of the Federation, next generation donors, including young emerging philanthropists, and planned giving and endowment prospects and donors.

• Develop positive relationships with current donors and steward the donor cultivation process. Lead the cultivation and solicitation of major donors and campaign leadership.

• Involve all campaign professional staff and volunteer leadership in the strategic development process to utilize their expertise and cultivate their support.

• Manage the overall relationship with relevant boards and committees involving staff and volunteer leaders as appropriate.

• Develop and maintain strong relationships with constituent agencies and other Jewish institutional stakeholders, including the identification and implementation of innovative collaborative fundraising efforts serving the Federation and its beneficiaries.

• Hire and supervise the Financial Resource Development Director and ensure that individual performance goals are achieved.

• Remain current in e-philanthropy trends and other related technological advances and utilize them where beneficial to community development.
 

Community Planning and Development

• Lead the professional team responsible for integrated community planning efforts that support the mission of the Federation, particularly the development of short-term and long-term strategies in relation to beneficiary agencies and the continued expansion and use of the Federation community campus.

• Lead and support professional staff and volunteer leadership responsible for the expansion of current Federation building or identification of new location to meet ongoing Jewish community needs.
• Hire, supervise and develop program staff and ensure that individual performance goals are achieved.

• Manage the overall relationship with relevant boards and committees involving staff and volunteer leaders as appropriate.

• Remain current regarding trends in communal planning and allocations and utilize them where beneficial to community development.

Finance

• Working closely with the professional staff and volunteer leadership, take fiscal responsibility for the Federation.  Regularly evaluate the management and status of the agency’s financial resources.

• Work with the Board, the Budget Planning Committee, other committees, and the professional staff to develop the Federation’s annual budget.
• Work closely with professional staff and volunteer leadership on the following income-producing activities:  community newspaper advertising program, fundraising for summer camp financial aid scholarship program, Federation website sponsorships, Federation community campus rental and usage fees, and others as implemented.

General Management 

• Oversee the work of the professional staff to enhance the operation of the Federation. Recruit, train, motivate, evaluate, and supervise a professional staff that can effectively carry out its functions.

• Ensure that the Federation’s story, message, and positions are effectively developed and disseminated to the Jewish and general community.

Community Relations (Jewish and Non-Jewish)

• With the Federation President, serve as one of the primary representatives and spokespersons for the Federation throughout the community, with private and public funders, and with national and international Jewish organizations, partners and beneficiaries, and in the community at large.

• Engage in and reach out to Jewish members of our community (new and continuing) as well as interfaith couples and Non-affiliated Jewish individuals/families who currently live or join our community.

• Work with professional staff and volunteer leadership to maintain positive relations and to coordinate with other Jewish institutions.

• Engage in community relations through organizational and professional networks and relationships.  Be accomplished at building bridges in a diverse community and with a wide range of leaders.

• Manage the overall relationship with relevant boards and committees involving professional staff and volunteer leadership as appropriate.

• Promote community needs and priorities in support of fundraising efforts.

Characteristics/Competencies

• Ability to plan strategically by applying a long-term perspective, while considering the way in which present policies, processes, and methods might be affected by future developments and trends.
• Knowledge of the organized Jewish community and global Jewish issues, including the ability to interpret global issues in relationship to local organizational culture and communal issues.
• Demonstrated success driving results including the ability to analyze risk and take appropriate action.
• Demonstrated success persuading and influencing groups and individuals to support the organization’s agenda with respect to colleagues (including agency directors), team members, volunteer leadership, and other potential stakeholders based upon a sophisticated understanding of complex group dynamics.
• Knowledgeable about and committed to core Jewish values and Jewishly sophisticated, knowledgeable about and sensitive to modern Jewish diversity.
• Honesty, integrity, and openness, and the ability to demonstrate, communicate, and represent those qualities to others.
• Demonstrated success leading and managing other professionals, support staff, and volunteers to achieve short- and long-term professional goals and competencies, individually and as members of a team, including the demonstration of internal and external customer service. 
• Demonstrated ability to implement coaching, counseling, and mentoring strategies, including the ability to develop training and professional growth opportunities and to provide appropriate feedback to those within supervisory purview.
• Manage task-related goals by clearly defining courses of action to ensure that work is completed efficiently and effectively according to established standards of quality and quantity.
• Demonstrated understanding of organizational politics, including the ability to identify and effectively utilize decision-makers and stakeholders.
• Exhibited ability to lead strategically by positioning self as an organizational leader, anticipating the needs of others, facilitating buy-in and moving professional staff and volunteer leadership through problem solving and creative thinking processes to achieve high-quality results.
• Superior verbal and written communication skills that utilize a range of techniques to facilitate discussion, make decisions, and convey information; ability to present at public platforms.
• Demonstrated success working collaboratively and cooperatively with others, other departments within the organization, and with other organizations by implementing effective means of monitoring and evaluating the partnership process and the attainment of mutual goals.
• Demonstrated understanding of the complexity of the volunteer/professional relationship and success managing those relationships in a warm and professional manner as well as the ability to exercise appropriate power and political skill to the advantage of the organization.
• Demonstrated vision with analytical skills and the ability to problem solve in order to implement that vision by utilizing data and other relevant information.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
• Demonstrated success building, cultivating, and stewarding new relationships leading to measurable results (e.g., larger donor base, increase in campaign revenue, increase in volunteer participation and involvement).
• Ability to identify and develop both lay and professional leadership.

Qualifications/Personal Characteristics

• BA/BS Degree; Masters preferred in business administration, Jewish Communal Service, non-profit management, social work or a related field.
• Demonstrated business acumen.
• At least 7-10 years of progressively responsible experience in managing complex organizations, with at least the last 4 years in senior leadership positions.
• Demonstrated ability to fundraise.
• An engaging, outgoing personality.
• Ability to inspire confidence, trust, and credibility.
• Ability to command respect.
• Ability to travel for community and near-community meetings, as well as to Israel, the National Federation General Assembly, and other meetings as organization representative.