New Executive Director Voices for Kids of Southwest Florida

Voices For Kids of Southwest Florida Seeks New Executive Director Voices for Kids of Southwest Florida (VFK) is seeking a new Director to help bring the organization to a new level of managerial and fundraising success and is seeking someone looking to make a profound difference in the lives of thousands of children and families throughout Southwest Florida.

About Voices for Kids

VFK is a non-profit agency whose mission is to support Florida's 20th Judicial Circuit Guardian ad Litem Program (GAL) in Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties. The Guardian ad Litem Program recruits and trains volunteer child advocates who are paired with an attorney and an advocacy coordinator for the purpose of representing abused, neglected and abandoned children in court, school, the child welfare system and the community. VFK has been serving the community for more than 30 years. It is the organization’s mission is to raise funds to ensure every child in Southwest Florida’s dependency system has a trained and certified volunteer advocate and to ensure all advocates have access to funds to help them address unmet social, educational and health needs of the children they represent.

Job Description

Our future Director will work with the VFK Board of Directors and the Guardian ad Litem Program, to develop and execute annual plans for fundraising, grant writing, and public awareness. The Director has general oversight of the operational, financial, marketing and fundraising activities of the organization. This position provides an excellent opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of our region’s most vulnerable children as well as an opportunity to grow the organization. We encourage all who have demonstrated experience in developing and executing successful fundraising strategies, grant writing, and building community relationships for a not-for-profit organization to submit a resume. In addition, candidates with more limited experience, but strong references and portfolio, will also be considered. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated an ability for: working compatibly and effectively with volunteers, staff and board members; grant writing; strategic thinking and planning; budget development and administration; proficiencies with Microsoft Office Suite; understanding of key information to be maintained in a donor database application (GiftWorks) and how to use the data for planning and fundraising; knowledge of fundraising strategies and ability to achieve fundraising goals.

Roles & Responsibilities

For selected candidates VFK will provide a more complete list of roles & responsibilities along with outlined goals and clear performance metrics for the upcoming year. Examples of how the future Director will be measured include: Prepare and successfully implement funding strategies adequate to meet budgetary requirements, including assuming shared leadership with events chair. Satisfactorily manage day-to-day VFK operations, including overseeing the timely fulfillment of guardian requests. Maximize donor efforts through use of existing and future donor database.

Skills & Experience

Although experience in the non-profit sector isn’t required, it would be helpful. As Executive Director you’ll have to juggle both fundraising and managerial efforts to help grow the organization as a whole so experience in both is preferred. Technology skills and a general comfort with day-to-day computer use and various programs is required. We ask that all applicants be comfortable sending and receiving email, updating a website (with coaching), learning new programs for the management of donors, etc. Proficiency with both a Mac & Windows computers would also be helpful, but is not mandatory. Please have at least a couple years working experience with Microsoft Office including Outlook, Word, Excel, Power Point, etc. Excellent communication skills are required, as much of your future responsibilities will involve developing and communicating goals to staff members, committee, volunteers, etc. as well as assisting with grant writing and presenting the Voices for Kids mission to the Southwest Florida Community.

Application Process

Voices for Kids is headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida. Travel throughout Lee, Collier, Charlotte, Hendry and Glades counties is required (mileage is reimbursed). A background check is also required. Salary will be commensurate with experience. Resumes (or questions related to this position) should be submitted to jobs@voicesforkids.org.