Community Engagement Director

Community Engagement Director – San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA)

Reading Partners is changing the education landscape. We are a leader in working to solve the literacy crisis in our country by leveraging community volunteers in under-resourced schools. Our diverse and expansive volunteer base provides one-on-one tutoring to students twice weekly, and our program is proven to help children master the reading fundamentals they need to unlock their potential as successful, happy, and confident readers in school and in life. Our people are our heartbeat and our greatest resource; we are all passionately rallied around our mission to help children become lifelong learners by empowering communities to provide individualized instruction that truly works. Join our stellar, committed team leading the charge to deepen our impact and expand our service. Watch this video to learn more about the mission and core tutoring work of Reading Partners.

The high level:

The Community Engagement Director (CED) is part of an energetic team of leaders working together to leverage Reading Partners’ mission in the community. Coming at a pivotal moment for our San Francisco Bay Area region, this role will lead the charge to strengthen volunteer recruitment efficiency, deepen ownership across the team, and build readiness for even greater regional leadership and scale. They will manage a Full-time Community Engagement Associate and 4 AmeriCorps Volunteer Coordinators to recruit, train, celebrate, and retain a diverse portfolio of volunteers to serve as literacy tutors in our reading centers. 

Reporting directly to the Executive Director in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Community Engagement Director’s role is truly externally focused, with a focus on leading strategy, building sustainable community partnerships, and driving measurable turnaround in volunteer engagement metrics. The Community Engagement Director is an expert relationship builder, a dynamic thought partner, and an inspirational regional leader ready to elevate performance. This role is an in-person role responsible for conducting in-person meetings and site visits across the Bay Area, based primarily in our Oakland or San Francisco offices.

What you’ll do:

Each year, create and drive an innovative and sustainable community engagement strategy in the region to meet and exceed volunteer recruitment targets.

• Oversee volunteer recruitment and onboarding strategy to meet a minimum of 1,200+ online and in-person tutors, to increase these numbers annually.
• Drive operational efficiencies in volunteer recruitment, onboarding, and retention processes to accelerate progress toward ambitious targets and reverse recent trends in volunteer pipeline growth.
• Ensure at least 70% of sessions are delivered by volunteers
• Oversee volunteer recruitment and appreciation events, and strategize the leverage of other public events to increase Reading Partners’ local presence
• Oversee strategy ideation for school placement, our federal work-study students, ensuring compliance with local universities in timesheet adherence
• Understand and leverage CE systems such as Salesforce to analyze volunteer data to develop and implement data-driven  recruitment and engagement strategies
• Collaborate with National CE to support compliance, volunteer operations, policies, district requirements, and background check procedures

Positively impact all aspects of the volunteer experience by supervising CE staff:

• Maintain a high rate of volunteer retention, year over year, of at least 45%, and build strategies to achieve and maintain a retention level of 60% by 2027.
• Generate more than 1,500+ leads annually with a conversion rate of 25%, and a goal to increase both annually 
• Achieve 90% or higher volunteer satisfaction rating on the end-of-year survey
• Increase the number of volunteers who deliver at least 20 sessions
• Increase tutor representation in the pipeline by 5% in key demographic areas that are currently underrepresented (African American, Latinx, and male)
• Work with CE staff to maintain and leverage data and analytics across CE systems to enhance outcomes

Develop external and internal relationships with key stakeholders and collaborate closely with the Executive Director and local development staff to drive Reading Partners’ external brand and achieve annual regional goals.

• Manage a portfolio of 20-40 highest stakes partner organizations, ensuring that partners meet or exceed enrollment goals and that each relationship is optimized. 
• Build partnerships with government entities and develop new models for partnership
• Engage with the 14 SFBA Board of Directors as needed
• Oversee regional marketing and communications for volunteer and partner networks
• Collaborate with the Program Director and Program team on site-specific goals for tutors.
• Work closely with the Community Engagement Manager to track progress monitoring as it pertains to lead and lag measures for impact goals
• Closely monitor monthly benchmarks to ensure student-tutor pairings are 90% by winter closure.
• Maintain communication flow with the program to ensure proper forecasting for empty seats as relates to tutor vacancies at specific direct service school sites.

Lead the Community Engagement team in regional innovations to adapt to changing education landscapes in collaboration with national and other regional Community Engagement staff.

• Instill a culture of strong ownership and accountability within the Community Engagement team, empowering direct reports to own key lead/lag metrics and innovate solutions for regional challenges.
• Design new regional processes for recruiting and onboarding returning and new volunteers for online programming, ensuring 100% compliance and safety for students.
• Create and oversee processes for recruiting and managing alternative volunteer positions outside of Reading Partners’ one-on-one tutoring model. 
• Create engagement and appreciation strategies for stakeholder networks to ensure tutor and ambassador pipelines for future years.

How you’ll do it:

Leadership & Management:

• Lead the community engagement function at the regional level with a focus on strengthening efficiency, fostering deep ownership among team members, and preparing the function for expanded leadership impact. Demonstrate a genuine interest in coaching, inspiring, and developing staff toward goals—especially in a phase of performance acceleration. Demonstrate an ability to provide clear guidance and goals, to delegate effectively, to provide growth opportunities, and to support measurable progress.

Relationship Development & Collaboration:

• Demonstrate an advanced ability to build and leverage sustainable partnerships. Leverage existing relationships and build new transformational relationships in the community. Establish highly collaborative cross-functional relationships and collaborate effectively with all internal stakeholders. Celebrate wins with all stakeholders.

Communication:

• Externally, demonstrate the ability to genuinely promote Reading Partners and our mission through a variety of strategies. Provide excellent customer service to partners and volunteers. Have a high level of comfort with public speaking and with crafting mass communications. Be able to differentiate communication and deliver compelling messaging that is tailored to your audience.
• Internally, set up strong systems for cross-departmental communication/ collaboration and messaging, tailor communication to audiences, and contextualize messaging. 
• Demonstrate a strong aptitude for effective communication, remotely and in person, with direct reports, school stakeholders, and other Reading Partners staff.  Be able to conduct difficult conversations with grace and ease.

Strategic Leadership & Operations:

• Support the regional growth strategy by forecasting volunteer capacity needs. Create and drive innovative community engagement strategies for growing and/or changing regional needs. Interpret and act on CE data from systems to develop informed recruitment and engagement strategies. 
• Create transformational partnership solutions in the face of competition for resources, time, etc., with a high degree of adaptability and flexibility.  Anticipate challenges and/or questions, and proactively execute solutions. Always act in accordance with larger strategic priorities and make measurable progress against these larger goals through partnerships and internal team members. Be able to make quick, sound, and on-the-fly decisions that consider all stakeholders. 

What we offer:

Reading Partners’ compensation and benefits programs are designed to attract, motivate, engage, and retain top talent to propel our mission forward. We aim to set salaries based on objective, external, high-quality market data. Our salaries are adjusted for candidates in different geographic regions. We do our very best to ensure that we’re bringing our best offer - therefore we do not engage in salary negotiations.

• This is a full-time, exempt, and salaried position. The salary range for this position is $103,165 - $128,956 per year.
• We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, flex spending accounts, generous paid time off, commuter benefits, an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and currently a 403(b) match option.
• Unlimited or Flexible Paid Time Off (PTO) benefits for regular employees scheduled to work 30 hours or more per week. In addition to paid holidays, we close our offices for one week in early July and one week in late December.
• We offer well-being benefits like Spring Health which provides easy access to therapy, coaching, and wellness resources. We also offer Carrot to help staff navigate inclusive hormonal health, fertility, gender-affirming services, and family-building benefits.
• We offer an exciting and dynamic culture, and we commit to investing in and supporting our amazing people to grow their careers with us.

The other things you need to know:

• This is a hybrid leadership role based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Expect to work from our San Francisco and/or Oakland office 1-2 days per week for team meetings, strategy sessions, and cross-functional collaboration
• Regular in-person presence across the Bay Area is essential. You will conduct site visits, attend partner meetings, and represent Reading Partners at community and recruitment events throughout the region

What’s Next?

If you’re interested in joining our Reading Partners team, please submit the following application materials to our online job posting:

• A cover letter describing your interest in Reading Partners and how your experience has prepared you for this role. 
• Resume

Reading Partners is an Equal Opportunity Employer

About you!

You’ll be successful in this role if you:

• Demonstrate knowledge of the San Francisco Bay Area education landscape and broader community
• Have 5+ years of progressive leadership experience in customer service, marketing, client management, community organizing, or a similar field
• Have 3+ years of direct management experience of volunteers, interns, and/or emerging professionals
• Have database management experience with systems and a high level of comfort with Google Apps
• Have access to reliable transportation to travel within a defined geographic region daily when safe to do so under county guidelines
• Have flexibility and adaptability in work style and work schedule, including some night and weekend time
• Hold a Bachelor’s degree and/or equivalent prior experience
• Demonstrate a commitment to fostering a dynamic and collaborative work environment.
• Display a deep belief in our mission and root your work in our core values.
• Ability to prove eligibility to work legally in the U.S. and that you are at least 18 years of age.

Bonus Points if you:

• Are you an AmeriCorps, Peace Corps, or other national service alum/alumna
• Have significant experience leveraging Salesforce to track and analyze volunteer data
• Have experience working in the launch or growth phases of organizations