FUSE, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships

SUMMARY

The Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at FUSE will lead local government sales and executive fellowship project design. Reporting to the CEO, the VP will manage a national team responsible for cultivating relationships with city and county leaders, overseeing procurement and contracting, and engaging with local and national philanthropic partners. The role also involves serving as a key member of the leadership team and closely collaborating with all other departments to ensure cross-organizational alignment, goal achievement, and mission impact.

LOCATION: FUSE is a fully virtual organization and this position can be based remotely from anywhere in the United States.

ORGANIZATION

FUSE is a national nonprofit that partners with local governments to address pressing challenges with equitable solutions. We place experienced professionals within city and county agencies to lead strategic projects that are designed to address local needs, increase government effectiveness, narrow racial disparities, and accelerate systems change. Since 2012, FUSE has led over 400 projects in 58 governments across 26 states, impacting a total population equivalent to 1 in 10 Americans.

When designing each fellowship project, FUSE works closely with local stakeholders to define a scope of work that will achieve a substantive impact on regional priorities. We then conduct an individualized search for each project to ensure that the selected candidate has the required competencies and is deeply connected to the communities they serve. Hired as a FUSE employee and embedded in a government agency for at least one year of full-time work, the executive fellow receives training, coaching, and professional support to ensure that they achieve their greatest potential for impact.

We are focused on issues such as workforce development, affordable housing, public health, educational access, criminal justice reform, and climate resilience. FUSE breaks down barriers between governments and the people they serve, using human-centered design to engage community members in policy development. We foster culture change within governments to promote data-driven and results-based decision making. We also utilize storytelling to share the insights from our work in order to inspire all civic leaders to think and act differently in pursuing systemic change.

This work is financially supported primarily through fee-for-service contracts with our government partners. Additional support is provided by local funders and national philanthropic investments from groups such as the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, Ballmer Group, Waverley Street Foundation, and others. We are also proud to partner with recording artist and FUSE Board member John Legend on a campaign called HumanLevel, which is using public awareness and policy advocacy to uplift communities that have been disproportionately impacted by institutionalized racism.

For more information: https://www.fuse.org

OPPORTUNITY

FUSE seeks an entrepreneurial leader and manager to serve as its next Vice President of Strategic Partnerships. Reporting directly to the CEO, this role is responsible for overseeing all government sales and contracting, fundraising at the local and national levels, and the initial envisioning and design of our executive fellowship projects.

The Vice President will lead a team of professional staff who are responsible for ensuring that the organization is able to pursue its mission with a sustainable, predictable, and balanced revenue stream. Working in collaboration with other departments, the Strategic Partnerships team makes determinations about the regions in which we will work, the host agencies and community partners with whom we will partner, and the core deliverables of up to one hundred unique fellowship projects each year.

Given the volume and complexity of this work, it is essential for the Vice President to effectively oversee the partnership team’s data management, operating plans, assessment efforts, and internal communications. It also requires identifying and building strategic and scalable partnerships with new and existing municipalities. Working closely with the rest of the leadership team and the FUSE Board, the Vice President will help determine the organization’s long-term strategy.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Organizational & Team Leadership

• Serve as a key member of FUSE’s five-person leadership team, which includes the CEO, the President & COO, the Vice President of Programs, and the Vice President of Recruitment. Support strategic visioning, goal setting, planning, and budgeting. Work closely with the two other Vice Presidents to ensure effective collaboration, alignment, and cohesion throughout the organization.
• Lead a team of high-performing, experienced professionals to ensure that strategic revenue goals are reliably achieved. Engage directly in the day-to-day work of the team, serving as a hands-on manager, thought partner, and mentor. Foster the team’s professional development, sustainability, and wellness. Develop systems for tracking data and revenue, managing pipelines and relationships, assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of the team, and ensuring alignment across teams.
• Support FUSE’s Marketing & Communications team to ensure that prospective government and philanthropic partners are more aware of our work. Engage with John Legend’s social impact team on the HumanLevel campaign. Represent FUSE as an attendee or speaker at events and conferences, either virtually or in-person. Participate in FUSE Board meetings, delivering progress updates when required and working to implement the Board’s recommendations.
• Partner with the CEO on national fundraising and efforts to elevate FUSE’s brand with prospective major investors. Collaborate with the Program Team and Marketing & Communications Team to continually collect data and stories of community impact that can be shared with funders. Support the development of pitch materials and the customization of content for funders who are interested in specific issue areas or particular regions of the country.
• Personally model FUSE’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion in every aspect of leadership and daily work. Reflecting the nature of FUSE’s program model, place racial equity at the center of the team’s efforts to select government partners, engage local leaders, design fellowships, hire staff, select vendors, and partner with value-aligned funders.

Government Partnerships & Sales

• Manage a team of Directors who each oversee a portfolio of regions, including both current and prospective partners. Directors work with city and county government leaders to identify high-priority projects in which a FUSE Executive Fellow would address local needs, accelerate systems change and narrow racial disparities. Ensure that the Directors are continually building and sustaining relationships with an array of cross-sector, community-based partners in every region.
• Secure required funding to cover the cost of every project, primarily from fee-for-service government contracts. Ensure that every aspect of a complex approval and contracting process is completed for every project by the deadline established for each cohort. FUSE launches cohorts of 30 concurrently running fellowship projects, with two cohorts annually in the spring and fall.
• Closely coordinate with FUSE’s Recruiting team and Program team to provide forecasts about the number, location, and nature of upcoming projects in each cohort. This cross-team communication is essential to ensure that Recruiting has time to conduct a full executive search for each individual project and that Programs can plan ahead to fully onboard, train, coach, and support each cohort.
• Work closely with the Program team to extend as many fellowships as possible beyond their initial year. FUSE offers the opportunity for a project extension in cases where the fellow and government host are both interested in continuing the work and there is funding to support an additional six or twelve months of work. Each extension requires a new scope of work and a government contract.

Requirements

• Passion for FUSE’s mission, a belief in the power of local governments to positively impact society’s biggest challenges, a commitment to advancing racial equity, and a vision for accelerating systemic change within communities.

• Experience working in or with local governments would be highly valuable in this role.
• 15+ years of experience in roles with direct responsibility for managing teams of professionals, ideally those who are responsible for sales, partnerships, or related activities.
• Demonstrated experience building and leading highly effective teams, using a collaborative and respectful management style that focuses on teamwork, inclusivity, and organizational culture. High emotional intelligence and cultural competence are a must.
• Experience creating effective data tracking and reporting systems, particularly related to managing complex processes, systems, and data. Familiarity with the use of Salesforce is a plus.
• Highly strategic mindset, including the demonstrated ability to take broad ideas and turn them into actionable plans. Consistently follow through on the execution of those plans in a timely fashion with proven results.
• Exceptional communication skills, both verbal and written, with an understanding of how to adjust messaging for a variety of audiences and an ability to effectively communicate the compelling nature of a partnership opportunity to both governments and foundation audiences.
• Effective networker, spokesperson, and relationship builder with demonstrated success engaging with partners, clients, funders, and other stakeholders, as well as an ability to work with a diverse array of local and national partners.

Benefits

This position offers annual compensation of up to $176,500 and robust benefits. More details can be provided upon request.

Please submit a resume and cover letter. For additional questions about this position or to speak with someone about your interest, please contact Brett Kunsch at [email protected].

FUSE is an equal-opportunity employer with a core value of incorporating diversity, equity, and inclusion into our work at every level. We strongly encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply for this key leadership position.