Educate! is seeking a dynamic manager/operator looking to take the next step on their leadership path to join our industry-leading non-profit social enterprise as U.S./Europe Managing Director. This US/Europe-based role of our East African organization reports to the Global Director of Revenue. The MD will be focused on people and team leadership, managing operations to achieve results, and owning the execution of our fundraising workflow. You’ll draw on your experience managing high-performing teams
Fundraising experience is NOT required for this role. Work experience outside the U.S., ideally in Africa, is very helpful but not absolutely required. To excel in this role, you will need exceptional abilities to understand & translate strategy to action swiftly, pragmatically prioritize & organize work to results, and warmly connect and collaborate with coworkers across time zones and cultures — along with a passion for efficiently turning collective effort into social impact. (Please see below for much more detail on the role and qualifications.)
This role would be a great fit for someone who has been working abroad in a management or leadership role at a social enterprise, NGO, or social-impact startup, and is now looking for opportunities in the U.S/Europe. Must love achieving results through a team, including improving how people work together through strong management processes, developing teams and people to do their best work, and overseeing detail-oriented projects. Sound like you? Apply here.
Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent is poised to contribute more people to the global workforce each year than the rest of the world combined.
At Educate! we're obsessed with impact. We leverage iterative learning to build highly scalable youth employment solutions aimed at unlocking the potential of the world’s youngest continent.
Educate! prepares youth in Africa learn, earn and thrive in today’s economy by:
1) introducing an employment-focused school subject into secondary, and
2) delivering livelihood bootcamps for out-of-school youth, with a focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.
To date, more than 250,000 youth have been meaningfully impacted across Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya, and along the way, Educate! has become the largest youth employment and skills provider in East Africa.
Educate! is a team of over 250 largely African staff and 300 volunteer youth mentors. We prioritize building an engaging, fulfilling and growth oriented work environment. 50% of our top 30 leaders have been with us for over 5 years, 10+ alumni have started their own organizations and 6 current or former team members were Acumen Fund East Africa fellows.
We have been backed by top foundations such as Imaginable Futures, Big Bang Philanthropy, #startsmall, Generation Unlimited, CIFF and Echidna Giving. Educate! won a 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize and a 2015 WISE Award, and has been highlighted by the World Bank’s S4YE's Impact Portfolio, an Al Jazeera documentary, BBC, The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies on scaling education, and the Gates Foundation as a Goalkeepers Accelerator. In 2022, we received a catalytic investment from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott to scale our systems change work.
Educate!'s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year. By 2025, we aim to scale our annual reach by 4x and measurably impact over 400,000 new youth.
1) Management of Team, Strategy, and Functions
Despite working mostly remotely from each other, our team is a tight-knit group of kind, collaborative, and motivated team players, and you’ll use your ability to perceive and understand people and dynamics to connect with the fantastic, diverse individuals on the team and support them to succeed. You’ll use your naturally strategic style to prioritize where to focus and your rock-solid judgment to make the important decisions.
2) Strategic Development
The US/Europe Managing Director will establish new organizational functions and enhance existing capabilities. The primary focus initially will be on developing the systems and solutions necessary to secure and manage larger, more intricate funding opportunities with key stakeholders in the sector. The ideal candidate will be able to learn new areas quickly and be willing to build iterative systems that improve to meet the organization's needs as we grow.
3) US & Global Finance & Ops
The US team leads the execution of global finance and revenue for the entire organization, so running US operations smoothly, efficiently, and proactively is fundamental for the organization as a whole. We have a strong Controller who you’ll manage on this key work channel, and you’ll also work with our excellent Director of People, to ensure that policies are consistent across geographies.
Educate! also has robust finance teams in each country, and their finances are consolidated in the US. As a result, our US finance function owns our consolidated global books, leads our annual global audit, and liaises with the Board on finance. The US finance function is also responsible for finances supporting our fundraising, including external financial reporting and compliance and drafting and managing budgets for grant proposals.
HR systems and processes--e.g., contract management, HR policies, and payroll--also sit under the US & Global Ops function.
Educate! constantly strives to take actions to provide an inclusive, equitable, and welcoming environment for all who we serve and work with. In creating this environment and in line with our values, we encourage exceptional people of all races, ethnicities, nationalities, religions, cultures, classes, genders, sexual orientations, abled and disabled, family statuses, backgrounds and life experiences to join our diverse team.
Intrigued? Please visit this link to apply. You will be asked to upload a resume and respond to application questions in lieu of a cover letter.
Application deadline will be rolling, but interested applicants are strongly encouraged to apply by 15th May 2024. The goal is to fill this position ASAP, to enable our current US Director to move into a new role focused on strategic revenue growth.
We’re ambitious. Are you? Educate! is growing fast, so new opportunities are opening up and expanding all the time. We’re inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey.
Every person at Educate! — from interns to the executive director — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do.
Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community. In creating this environment, we encourage people from a variety of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences to join our diverse team.
Child Safeguarding: Educate! is committed to child-safe/youth-safe recruitment, selection and screening. Our recruitment and selection procedures reflect our commitment to the safety and protection of children in our programs. The successful candidate will be required to provide a satisfactory
Certificate of Good Conduct as a condition of employment. We reserve the right to decline to offer employment to an individual or terminate an employment contract with an employee that may pose a risk to children and youth.