Director, Community Initiatives

POSITION TITLE: Director of Community Initiatives

DEPARTMENT: Community Impact

REPORTS TO: Chief of Community Impact

TYPE: Full Time, Exempt

Salary: $87,240-$92,240

United Way of Greater Charlotte is boldly investing in what if. When Charlotte ranked last in the nation for economic mobility, United Way challenged ourselves and others to say what if every neighborhood has the resources it needs to break the cycle of poverty? And what if every person has equal access to opportunities? In response, United Way is going directly to where the needs are the greatest and is bringing new voices to the table to promote racial equity and ensure every neighborhood thrives.

We believe that by challenging the what ifs and by moving together in hope, we can build thriving communities.

Join United Way of Greater Charlotte as a The Director of Community Initiatives and play a vital role in ensuring our community programs create meaningful, lasting change. In this position, you'll serve as a key steward of program integrity and work directly with community partners to ensure that every dollar invested, and every program delivered meets the highest standards of accountability while advancing United Way's mission to improve lives and strengthen communities throughout Greater Charlotte.

The Director of Community Initiatives is an outwardly facing role accountable for establishing and leading our United Neighborhood and Unite Charlotte efforts, ensuring stewardship of organizational resources, and supporting the United Way of Greater Charlotte mission to end poverty and advance equitable outcomes. As a member of the Community Impact team, this individual will work closely and collaboratively with other members of the organizational team and external stakeholders to create seamless organizational alignment with defined community impact strategies and programs.

Key responsibilities include facilitating cross-sector partnerships, guiding collaborative planning processes, and convening diverse stakeholders around shared community goals. An ideal candidate would be a highly organized strategic thinker, experienced public speaker, skilled facilitator, and committed learner dedicated to ensuring a high level of leadership, accountability and proven effectiveness in establishing excellent external and internal collaborative relationships through expert facilitation of multi-stakeholder initiatives and community engagement.

• Community Engagement & Capacity Building: Leads team efforts to convene community-based agencies and local service providers, facilitate cross-sector learning forums, and coordinate comprehensive onboarding that includes inclusive practices training, cultural humility, and place-based work fundamentals.
• Strategic Grant-Making: Oversees the community grant-making process from relationship building through award management, directing grant panels, educating applicants on collective impact models, and coordinating partner agreements with funded agencies
• Evaluation & Research Leadership: Directs implementation of evaluation frameworks for Unite Charlotte and United Neighborhoods initiatives in partnership with Research and Evaluation team, ensuring data-driven program assessment and continuous improvement
• Partnership Development & Conflict Resolution: Manages complex stakeholder relationships among Community Quarterbacks and service providers, facilitating conflict resolution and strengthening commitment to shared neighborhood revitalization goals
• Funding Strategy & Growth: Collaborates with senior leadership to identify and secure new funding streams
• External Representation: Serves as organizational spokesperson at community events, symposiums, and conferences, representing United Way's mission and impact strategies to diverse audiences
• Strategic Team Leadership: Drives professional development initiatives and serves as a key contributor to organizational objectives beyond core functional responsibilities for a core team of staff (5).
• Perform additional responsibilities as needed to support organizational objectives and departmental goals

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience. Advanced degree preferred
• 8+ years professional experience, 3+ leadership or management experience
• Executive communication, strategic vision, organizational leadership, budgeting responsibility, ability to people lead.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite, including Outlook, Teams, Word,…