Executive Director

Overview

About the Organizations:

Organizing Neighborhoods for Equality:  Northside (ONE Northside), a Chicago-based 501(c)3, is a mixed-income, multi-ethnic, intergenerational organization that unites our diverse communities. We build collective power to eliminate injustice through bold and innovative community organizing. We accomplish this through developing grassroots leaders and acting together to effect change.

ONE Northside organizes people from nearly 100 institutions, as well as individual community residents, from Rogers Park, Edgewater, Uptown, Ravenswood, North Center, Lake View, and Lincoln Park.

Our membership envisions a diverse, united North Side of Chicago acting powerfully for our shared values of racial, social, and economic justice in communities where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.

ONE Northside’s 501c(4) sister organization, ONE People’s Campaign (OPC), has been building power statewide around a progressive agenda since 2017. OPC organizes people who live on the front lines of the many crises plaguing Chicago and Downstate Illinois. Our members are united around a vision of a state and country in which all voices are heard and the government serves the interests of the people and the planet, so that communities thrive and every person lives with dignity.  We are committed to building a movement of community leaders running for elected office, and co-governance once they win.

Our Values:

We value diversity. We believe that we all benefit from the racial, ethnic, religious, economic, gender, sexual and age diversity in our communities. That diversity will be represented in the organization and will make us more powerful and effective.

We value justice. We believe there is no equality without justice. When we speak about justice, we are talking about fair treatment of and access for all people regardless of race, gender identity, economic status, age, and sexual identity.

We value leadership development. We believe leaders are made, not born, and anyone is capable of becoming a leader. We believe that developing grassroots leadership is essential to building power and making positive change in our community.

 

We value people power. We believe power is simply the ability to act, and through organizing we bring people together and build collective power.

Our Priorities:

ONE Northside engages in community organizing our North Side communities around the following issues:  Affordable Housing, Economic Justice, Mental Health Justice, Police Accountability, & Environmental Justice. We also prioritize leadership development and civic engagement training.

Through Communities Partnering 4 Peace, ONE Northside engages in solutions to gun violence while forging stronger relationships between community members and increasing access to resources. Our CP4P program is an important alternative to policing that centers community restoration and a trauma-informed response.

Our Parent Mentors are active in 5 neighborhood schools.  Parent Mentors add value to our public schools by creating effective partnerships between parents, teachers, and students to close the achievement gap, build parent leadership, and connect our teachers to the culture of our community.

OPC is powered by volunteers around the state. We train community members to engage and mobilize their neighbors to take action on important issues and elections, run for office themselves, and build the collective power needed to win social, racial, environmental and economic justice.

OPC organizes the length and breadth of Illinois. In Chicago, our membership is concentrated in 8 wards: 49, 48, 47, 46, 44, 43, 40 and 32. This includes the neighborhoods of Rogers Park, Edgewater, Uptown, Lakeview, Lincoln Park, North Center, Lincoln Square and Ravenswood. The Statewide footprint of OPC includes Rockford, Galesburg, Galena, Peoria, Bloomington, Kankakee, Champaign/Urbana, Danville, Decatur, Ozark and Metropolis.

 

The Ideal Candidate:

ONE Northside & OPC seek a visionary and pragmatic leader with an unwavering commitment to building power in Chicago, statewide and nationally, developing grassroots leaders, and a passion for advancing social justice through bold community organizing.

This leader will be an advocate for ONE Northside’s and OPC’s mission, staff, and leaders.  Our ideal candidate values collaboration and has experience building enduring relationships with members, community partners, elected officials, funders, stakeholders, and other constituencies. This individual will have demonstrated success in operating a financially sustainable organization or equivalently sized program. They will bring

 

experience nurturing and growing staff and leaders.  They understand how to refine structures and systems to support the organization’s operating success.

Our ideal candidate is committed to our organizational values, equity, shared decision-making, and anti-racist leadership. We expect that our next leader will understand the issues impacting our communities and, building on a strong and successful foundation, help guide ONE Northside and OPC to their next levels of impact.

Key Responsibilities:

Areas of responsibility include: working with ONE Northside’s membership, staff (currently 18 staff members with plans to add up to four new staff soon), and Board of Directors to develop and establish the goals and objectives of the organization; program oversight and development; resource development; financial management; board liaison and development; staff/leadership development; ensuring that ONE Northside’s work centers on racial justice; and relationship/alliance building with similar organizations in Chicago, Illinois, and nationally.  Directly supervises Director of Organizing, Director of Membership & Training, Communities Partnering 4 Peace Program Manager, Grants and Communications Manager, and Operations Manager. Oversight and development of ONE People’s Campaign.

Compensation and Benefits:

This is a salaried, full-time, exempt position.  Salary will be determined according to a salary scale which takes into account years of experience as Executive Director but will be $92,000 to $100,000. Benefits include: Employer paid health insurance, dental insurance, and a contribution to 401(k) plan, 13 paid holidays, two weeks of vacation two weeks of vacation (this increases after the first year) and other PTO and a flexible work environment.

Timeline: Candidates are encouraged to apply as soon as possible, as we are prepared to hire when we find the right candidate.

Link to Executive Director job description and application instructions.