Director, Events and Strategic Partnerships

Position Title: Director, Events and Strategic Partnerships

Status: Full Time

FLSA: Exempt

Location: Hybrid (Washington D.C.) or Remote

The Director of Events and Strategic Partnerships
leads the vision, strategy, planning, and execution for Active Minds events and experiential marketing while cultivating the strategic partnerships that make them successful. This role oversees a comprehensive events landscape including national and regional conferences, experiential marketing, local activations, and the end-to-end design of the annual gala fundraiser. This role is responsible for ensuring in-person events, activations and experiential marketing aligns with Active Minds’ strategic goals and desired experiences.

By balancing event planning with relationship management, you will create events and brand activations that expand organizational reach and deepen Active Minds’ engagement.

Leading with both creativity and structure, you will manage and mentor a dedicated team while overseeing day-to-day event operations and cross-functional collaborations to identify new experiential marketing opportunities. You will work to ensure all events run efficiently and within budget. Ultimately, this position serves as the primary project leader to execute impactful events, bring critical partnerships to life, engage new audiences, and establish meaningful pathways for youth and young adults to become aware of Active Minds and take action for mental health.

Active Minds is the largest nonprofit in the United States mobilizing youth and young adults to transform mental health norms across society. For more than 20 years, we have equipped the next generation of peer mental health advocates through a variety of programs, including the Active Minds Chapter Network, A.S.K., and Send Silence Packing. Our advocacy, initiatives, and campaigns foster lasting change in how youth view and discuss mental health, encouraging them to use their voices to influence broader conversations and inform mental health supports within their communities.

Together, we are building a diverse movement of champions committed to improving mental health for all. To learn more about Active Minds, visit active minds.org.

Collaborate cross-functionally to identify optimal methods for reaching and engaging target audiences (conferences, local events, experiential marketing) and develop strategies and execution plans. Pursue events and experiential marketing opportunities that align with organizational goals.

• Fundraising & Supporter Engagement Events: Lead the end-to-end experience design and serve as the key project manager for the annual gala hosted in the Washington, D.C. area, and collaborate cross-functionally to plan regional in-person supporter engagement experiences.
• National and Regional Conferences: Lead the event design and planning for an annual Active Minds Conference as well as regional conferences and convenings. Focus on the user-experience, marketing activations, venue and partner coordination, site logistics, scheduling, and on-site management.
• Youth & Young Adult Awareness Events: Lead the strategy, planning and implementation of experiential marketing activations that expands our reach, stands out and engages youth and young adults.
• Experiential Marketing & Onsite Branding: Lead the strategy and development of an interactive and impactful presence at tabling events and high-visibility conferences and public spaces. Manage onsite engagement, data capture, documentation (photography, video, testimonials) and optimize attendee conversion and post-event engagement strategies.
• Partner Events & Activations: Lead the ideation, planning and implementation of joint events and experiential marketing opportunities with strategic partners to position Active Minds as a national leader in youth mental health advocacy.

• Strategic Partnership Identification & Growth: Identify, secure, and amplify strategic marketing partnerships with organizations—such as sports teams,…