Senior Director of Advocacy

Summary of Position

The Senior Director of Advocacy will provide strategic leadership to advance Connection’s goals to increase affordable housing in Illinois through state, county, and municipal policy advocacy. The Senior Director will lead the policy and advocacy team, driving strategy and methodology, manage day-to-day operations, build operational structures and processes, leverage technology to expand organizing capacity, and deepen a culture of cross-departmental collaboration.

Organizing and Leadership Development

• Oversee the development and implementation of an organizing framework and strategies that build a volunteer chapter network across northeastern Illinois to advance municipal policies that create more affordable housing.
• Leverage technology to facilitate organizing, direct policy actions, and leadership development of advocates.
• Develop annual goals that align with agency priorities resulting in sustainable expansion of impact.
• Guide the development of a comprehensive library of affordable housing trainings to be used for general education, advocate identification, and chapter development and organizing skills.
• Engage with elected officials, advocacy groups, and community leaders to promote housing affordability and homelessness solutions.
• Build out data tracking processes to measure outputs and impact of policy and advocacy work and ensure consistent and timely reporting.
• Oversee the full utilization of advocacy CRM to enhance impact and grow advocate engagement and development.

Policy

• Set strategy and oversee the development of the agency policy platform and ensure the timely delivery of an annual policy agenda.
• Build a vision to engage municipal chapters in policy agenda priorities.
• Provide strategic counsel to the CEO and executive leadership team on emerging policy and advocacy opportunities, risks, and strategies.
• Ensure the development of strategies to cultivate relationships with government officials at all levels of government and effective tracking and reporting systems to keep executive leadership informed of relationship cultivation status.
• Ensure the development of effective research and data collecting and analysis strategies to drive innovative policies, provide evidence-based solutions, and build a repository of best-practice policy templates.
• Identify and implement opportunities for the organization to raise its national and regional profile.
• As a lobbying compliance officer, ensure adherence to agency policies and protocol that support lobbying recordkeeping and reporting.

General Responsibilities

• Develop and manage staff, providing leadership, and coaching to achieve departmental goals.
• Build operational structures that facilitate efficient, effective results and ensure transparency of work output to executive leaders.
• Ensure efficient planning and execution of all policy and advocacy events in collaboration with key internal stakeholders.
• Aid in developing funding proposals and reports and collaborate with CEO and development to cultivate funder relationships, raising the profile of the organization across the region.
• Develop and manage department budget and ensure department adherences to finance protocols.
• Ensure team compliance with agency policies and standards.
• Maintain and strengthen Connections’ relationships with external advocacy partners, coalitions, and policymakers.
• Collaborate with communications team to set comprehensive marketing and communications strategy to advance policy and advocacy goals.
• Provide staff leadership for the advocacy committee of the Board of Directors.
• Adhere to the Code of Conduct for Connections for the Homeless.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in advocacy, public policy, government relations, community organizing, or a related field, including a minimum of 5 years of leadership and people management experience.
• Experience utilizing technology to amplify movement building and influence power over decision makers.
• Demonstrated success in managing teams with staff at different levels of an organization.
• Experience in evaluating program outputs and impact.
• Strong external relationship-building, coalition engagement, and public advocacy skills.
• Bachelor's degree or higher in public policy, nonprofit management, political science, urban planning, or a related field or equivalent experience.
• Valid driver's license, proof of insurance, and reliable transportation to travel throughout the region as needed to perform essential job duties.

Desirable Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of affordable housing, homelessness policy, and community-based advocacy.
• Experience with a federated advocacy model.
• Experience developing and mobilizing people with lived experience.
• Familiarity working with Boards of Directors and executive leadership teams.
• Experience with lobbying regulations and reporting requirements.
• Experience with budgeting and fiscal management.

Other Requirements

• Must submit to a criminal background check and provide evidence of a recent tuberculosis test.
• Must be able to work evenings and weekends as necessary to support advocacy initiatives and stakeholder engagement.