Executive Director

We’re seeking a visionary, collaborative Executive Director with intensive entrepreneurship experience to lead Collab, our team, and our programs to support a diverse, talented community of entrepreneurs.

Collab is in a pivotal stage of growth. We’re seeking a visionary, collaborative Executive Director with intensive entrepreneurship experience to lead Collab, our team, and our programs to support a diverse, talented community of entrepreneurs. This leader will leverage Collab’s current assets, relationships, and team to take the organization’s programs, development, and impact to a new level. 

ABOUT COLLAB

Collab is a growing organization that aims to provide entrepreneurs with impactful, rigorous business support using a compassionate, fundamentally heart-centered approach so that they can build good businesses, create economic power, and shape their communities for themselves and their families. We prioritize serving people of color and women — particularly Black and Latinx entrepreneurs — who face persistent and significant barriers because of structural racism and sexism.

Collab is committed to building not only entrepreneurs’ individual power and agency, but also collective power among entrepreneurs. At this juncture, critical growth goals for our programming are (1) increasing the number of entrepreneurs we serve, (2) improving our current flagship programs and (3) developing additional programs to organize our graduates into a coalition that can advocate collectively for systemic change. 

Collab was founded in 2017. In addition to hosting regular public events and 1-on-1 Office Hours, our core program is the Collab Accelerator. This is a 12-week, cohort-based program supporting early-stage ventures. As a part of all of our programming, we provide childcare, transportation, and interpretation services to ensure all ventures can be successful while working with us. The 85 ventures that have graduated from our Accelerator have collectively raised over $1,757,357 in follow-on funding through investment, loans, and grants, generated over $4,092,822 in revenue, and added or continued to support 178 full time, part time, part time consultant jobs. 

Over the years, Collab has formed formal partnerships with the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and their Mission Investments Company, CitySeed, The New Haven Free Public Library, the New Haven Innovation Collaborative, CTNext, Guilford Savings Bank, Co-Capital Investors, the Economic Development Corporation of Greater New Haven, and many more.

THE POSITION

Download a PDF of the below job description here.

The Collab Executive Director is a full-time position that will lead day-to-day operations, development efforts, program design, and external storytelling and relationship-building. An ideal candidate is a highly relational, results-driven leader with demonstrated commitment to economic justice and competence in managing an organization with similar levels of development, complexity, and opportunities. This position is expected to be full time in New Haven, CT, but Collab is open to remote/hybrid employment based on individual needs.

The Executive Director will have a working knowledge of business and business programming, a strong social and political lens for supporting Black, Latinx, and women entrepreneurs, and serve as the chief storyteller of Collab’s work and impact. This role reports directly to Collab’s Board of Directors and works in close collaboration with programmatic and funding partners. The Executive Director will manage the staff team of 2 Venture Managers, who implement programming on the ground, and a Director of External Affairs & Organizing, who will manage our community of entrepreneurs and external stakeholders and support fundraising efforts. 

MAJOR FUNCTIONS & RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Organizational Leadership

    • Support and cultivate a team culture that embraces wholeness, teamwork, transparency, communication, and mentorship and safety for staff

    • Represent Collab to the New Haven and Connecticut community, including entrepreneurs, cross-sector organizations and leaders, and grassroots community groups

    • Engage and further develop the Board of Directors to provide support in resource development, partnerships, and strategy

    • Maintain knowledge of new developments and trends in inclusive entrepreneurship support and bring new ideas and resources to meet changing needs of the community and our entrepreneurs 

    • Enhance and maintain systems and infrastructure, including finances and operations

  • Development & Fundraising

    • Cultivate strong relationships with existing funders and donors, and solicit new funders and donors

    • Execute a fundraising growth plan that includes major gifts from individuals, corporate sponsorships, government funding, and grants

    • Provide funders and partners with new or updated reports using data, stories, and other information to help them feel connected and confident about our impact

  • Program Leadership & Partnerships

    • Work closely with the staff, Board, program partners and volunteers, and key stakeholders to strengthen program effectiveness and align outcomes with strategic goals

    • Draw on entrepreneurship support best practices and business expertise to bolster current programs and develop new programs to improve outcomes for entrepreneurs 

    • Oversee pilot advocacy and venture organizing efforts to bolster Collab’s response to systemic injustice and entrepreneurs’ systemic needs

    • Promote ongoing success of core programs by using evaluation systems, data, and stories to drive decisions and continuous program improvement

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

The Collab Executive Director will be the chief program lead, storyteller, team motivator, and fundraiser. We recognize that experience and expertise come in a variety of forms. Below are the qualifications that we are looking for, but if you have different experiences and passion that you think make you a good fit for the role, please apply.   

  • Mission and Values Alignment: Energetic and knowledgeable about advocating for and supporting entrepreneurs, particularly Black, Latinx, and women entrepreneurs, using a strong social and political lens that goes beyond diversity, equity, and inclusion

  • Entrepreneurship Experience and/or Business Expertise: Ability to make thoughtful programmatic decisions to improve our entrepreneurship curriculum with finesse, intuition, and rigor — built from direct business or business program leadership experience

  • Track Record for Nonprofit Fundraising: A proven track record for nonprofit fundraising that includes extensive experience stewarding current donors, building new relationships with prospective donors, and setting an organization on track for long-term sustainability  

  • External Affairs & Network Building: Comfortable and effective at communicating and maintaining relationships with entrepreneurs, funders, program partners, and other constituents about strategies, needs, goals, and impact 

  • Team Management: A powerful and compelling problem solver who can create consensus and motivate a diverse team of staff and partners toward shared goals

  • Personal Commitment to Follow-through: Self-motivated to build and execute effective plans, timelines, and milestones to reach key objectives, especially with a team 

Our Values

In addition, the successful candidate will demonstrate our organization’s values, defined in collaboration with our entire team:

  • Worthiness: We believe all humans are fundamentally deserving of the love, belonging, and connection they desire, and we seek to create spaces where there is no need for striving. 

  • Radical Care: We center the physical and emotional health and welfare of those we serve and seek to meet their felt needs before, during, and after their involvement with us.

  • Authenticity & Growth: We believe that creating the relational conditions for entrepreneurs to show up as their authentic, full selves begets both their personal and venture's growth. 

  • Justice & Solidarity: We acknowledge the past and current systemic issues causing wealth inequality, bolstered by racism and sexism, and support the efforts of frontline activists who are building power in our communities. In building toward the future, we are led by values of solidarity, mutualism, democracy, sustainability, and pluralism.

  • Abundance: We hold the value of abundance — a deeply held knowing of abounding fullness — and believe that there is much more than enough as an act of opposition and resistance to the culture of scarcity in our economic system.

More Details

Start date: Late 2021 / Early 2022

Location: New Haven, CT 
This position is expected to be full-time, in-person in New Haven, CT. Currently, we are hybrid in-person and remote, and have a flexible and adaptable work culture that creates space for individual needs, especially due to COVID-19. 

Our salary range is $80,000-$100,000. Collab, through the Economic Development Corporation of New Haven, offers a comprehensive benefits package including health, dental, vision. Collab is an independent organization. 

To be considered for this position:

  • Send Resume and Cover Letter (a one page description of how your values drive your work and why your experiences are a fit for the role) to Margaret Lee at margaret@collabnewhaven.org

  • Email subject line: Collab Executive Director: [First and Last Name]

Candidates can expect phone, Zoom, and/or in-person interviews, contingent on COVID-19. 

Collab Careers 

Collab is committed to being an equal opportunity employer. Collab does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, parental status, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable laws. We encourage individuals of all backgrounds to apply. If you are a qualified candidate with a disability, please email us at team@collabnewhaven.org if you require an accommodation to apply.