Senior Director, Event Strategy (Development)

Organization

Stand Together

Location

Arlington, Virginia

Job Description

Stand Together is a dynamic and mission-driven organization committed to driving positive social change and empowering individuals to overcome barriers. Join our team and be part of a collaborative community that values innovation, personal responsibility, and the power of bottom-up solutions. Together, we will create a society that fosters opportunity, dignity, and well-being for all.
The Senior Director, Event Strategy is the creative and driving force behind the most compelling and engaging events and convenings that will advance Stand Together’s priorities, strengthen brand position, and increase Stand Together’s vision and principles with diverse audiences. With a strong creative vision, as well as first-rate skills in planning and execution, the senior director will help the Stand Together community elevate high-impact events by combining the best of physical, virtual, and hybrid event production; from high-profile, and multi-day convenings with large numbers of attendees and public figures, to more intimate white-glove gatherings, private workshops, and briefings. With experience across both physical and virtual events, the ideal candidate will lead a team of skilled events staff, manage contractors and suppliers/vendors, and provide strategic and tactical expertise to our events team.
 
The Senior Director, Event Strategy is a member of the Development team, reporting to the Head of Donor Relations and will work closely with leaders and teams across the organization.

Your Responsibilities Include

  • Provide creative leadership for all Development and partner-centric events, working with teams across the organization to envision, plan, and execute impactful events that help strengthen Stand Together’s brand, engagement, and partnerships.
  • Ability to drive alignment with internal leaders and stakeholders across Stand Together.
  • Leverage the events team as a center for excellence, ensuring information, event resources (including templates and best practice guidelines) are utilized across the Stand Together community.
  • Create, develop, and own an events calendar, including collaborating to define optimal cadence, formats, and goals.
  • Manage budgets, workplans, external agencies, and vendors, including juggling complex parallel events, assigning appropriate staff and resources, and executing personally as needed.
  • Ensure comprehensive planning, on-time delivery, and exceptional execution for in-person, hybrid, and virtual convenings, while managing contingencies, changes and evolving needs and expectations.
  • Build, manage, and inspire a team of events staff, fostering a creative, entrepreneurial culture and driving constant learning and skills improvement.
  • Provide strategic support to the Programming and Partner Loyalty teams.
  • Closely collaborate with the Development and Partnerships team to align priorities and expectations of events invitees and attendees.
  • Grow a roster of external creative and technical agencies, vendors, and producers to maximize creative agility and deliver varied events with different audiences and for different goals.
  • Institutionalize strong processes, to build and foster best-practice across the organization, from sourcing vendors to agency engagement, to content/creative development, to post-event reporting, and data analytics.
  • Assist in the building and implementation of marketing plans for events programs to deliver and engage audiences before, during, and after events.

Knowledge and Skills You Bring to the Organization

  • 10+ years of experience driving in-person, virtual, and hybrid events, utilizing relevant technology and tools.
  • Demonstrated supervising experience, with a focus on cultivating and developing talent.
  • Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, professionalism, and the ability to work collaboratively with multiple stakeholders.
  • High level of humility and integrity.
  • Extremely well organized, strong attention to detail, and the highest standards of service-delivery and audience/participant engagement.
  • Excellent judgment, and creative problem-solving skills, including contract negotiation, dispute resolution, and contingency planning.
  • Self-starter, and a team player who thrives in an entrepreneurial environment.
  • Comfortable with flexible working hours to be available via phone or email during these times.
  • Experience of MS Suite, CRM databases including Salesforce, and event software including but not limited to Zoom, and virtual event platforms, including some technical fluency.
  • Existing relationships with relevant vendors strongly preferred.
  • Ability to travel and work domestically up to 40%. 

What We Offer

  • A meaningful career where your work will improve the lives of millions of Americans – especially the least fortunate.
  • A vision-driven organization of over 1,000 employees across the country who are dedicated to improving the lives of others.
  • Competitive salaries and bonuses. Our salary and bonus strategies are aligned to the value you create, not a standardized bell curve.
  • Generous 401K match - 6% match with immediate vesting.
  • Competitive health and wellness benefits.
  • Our flexible time-off policy allows all employees to take leave as needed.
  • Commuter assistance plans to offset the cost of commuting into our headquarters (on-site parking or metro).
  • Opportunities for professional development and mentorship that can strengthen your effectiveness through Principle Based Management and other industry specific programs.

Stand Together helps social entrepreneurs supercharge their efforts to help people improve their lives. We connect them with passionate partners and the resources necessary to make a greater difference.  Through our philanthropic community, we tackle some of the nation's biggest challenges so that every person has the opportunity to realize their extraordinary potential. Stand Together partners with people from diverse perspectives and backgrounds—including people in education, business, community non-profits, and public policy—to accomplish more together than any of us could on our own.   
  
Our Values Working at Stand Together is different from many other organizations. We have a relentless commitment to a culture based on a business philosophy called Principle Based Management® (PBM®). Informed by the principles that allow a free and open society to flourish, PBM® prepares individuals to innovate, improve, and transform while fostering a healthy, growing organization that creates long-term value for its clients and supporters and fulfillment for its employees.    
  
We believe that diversity in experiences, perspectives, knowledge and ideas fuels creativity, broadens knowledge, and helps drive success. That’s why we’re proud to be an equal opportunity employer and strive to treat all employees and applicants with honesty, dignity, respect and sensitivity. We welcome all qualified applicants regardless of color, race, religion, religious creed, sex, gender or gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, ethnicity, ancestry, age, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy (including medical needs which may arise from pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), military and veteran status, genetic information, marital or familial status, political affiliation, or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state or local laws, regulations or ordinances.