Overview

Job Location: Wherever you work best with frequent travel to disaster sites, our hometown of Minneapolis, and wherever fundraising, collaboration, and management opportunities take you.

Job Description: NECHAMA is seeking a full-time executive director to lead the organization to new frontiers by developing the financial resources to build a nimble and innovative organization that will be seen as the go-to organization for all members of the Jewish community to help Americans in need following a natural disaster. The executive director supervises a staff of about a half-dozen scattered across the country who support the organization through direct disaster response and recovery as well as administratively.

What you’re great at:

  • Fundraising
  • Team building and staff supervision when your team isn’t in the same place
  • Marketing and social media
  • Networking and collaboration within the Jewish community and disaster response community
  • Non-profit management and governance

What you’ll own:

  • Among your many hats, you’ll be the chief fundraising and marketing officer of the organization, ensuring that NECHAMA has the visibility and financial resources necessary to carry out its vital work. (NECHAMA’s current total budget is about $600,000/year to carry out its mission. Of that, the executive director and their team needs to raise $300,000 outside of annual campaigns and events to meet current needs.)
  • Developing and managing the annual budget in consultation with the board will be a top priority. You’ll allocate resources for staffing and for supplies to develop a rapid response team that can deploy to disaster sites to assess and manage relief operations and long-term recovery programs.
  • You’ll work with the board of directors to develop a new strategic plan to guide NECHAMA to become a preeminent disaster relief organization representing the Jewish communities of North America.
  • The recruitment and support of a staff distributed across the country will be one of your prime responsibilities. Your development of a cohesive NECHAMA response and recovery team are essential to the ability of NECHAMA to fulfill its mission.
  • Ultimately, it is the ideas, actions and leadership of the executive director that will drive NECHAMA’s operations and successful execution of its vision, mission and strategy, interface and engagement with its board of directors and stakeholders, and effective management and governance of the organization.

What you’ll get out of it:

  • The opportunity to lead and shape an organization which meets the basic human needs of people in crisis.
  • Frequent travel to meet staff, other organizations, and to respond to major disasters.
  • NECHAMA offers a comprehensive benefits package, (including health insurance, Long Term Disability, and generous vacation/sick time, and parental leave)
  • Competitive salary in the nonprofit marketplace.
  • Extensive visibility at the national level, working with diverse Jewish and disaster response communities and constituencies.
  • Significant autonomy, personal and professional growth and development, and the opportunity to make a difference and practice the Jewish value of tikkun olam, repairing the world, on a daily basis.

What we’re about:

NECHAMA (which means “comfort” in Hebrew) was founded by Steve Lear in Minneapolis following the floods that devastated the entire Midwest in the summer of 1993. In its over 20-year history, NECHAMA has provided assistance to communities in over 20 states, engaged thousands of volunteers, and collaborated with a multitude of other Jewish communal organizations, other faith-based organizations, and emergency management professionals at the national, regional and local level. Through the years NECHAMA has brought comfort to disaster survivors by training and mobilizing volunteers to help communities after floods, tornadoes, and other natural disasters.

In 2015 NECHAMA and JDRC (Jewish Disaster Response Corps) merged to become the sole Jewish disaster response organization in the United States, mobilizing to respond to disasters around the country and to support alternative break programs in disasteraffected areas. Staff and volunteers of NECHAMA collaborate with long term recovery committees to rebuild homes utilizing local volunteers in disaster-affected communities. NECHAMA works closely with Jewish Federations of North America, National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster members, and other organizations to meet the essential needs of victims of disaster.

 

Work Remotely: yes
Send resumes and cover letter to:

How to Apply: Submit resume and cover letter to Rabbi Matt Rosenberg, at EDsearch@NECHAMA.org. Questions may also be directed to that email address.

Application Deadline: November 15, 2016