Vice President, Collective Action K-12 Education & Youth Development

America’s Promise Alliance (APA) improves outcomes at scale for young people in America by increasing the coordination, collaboration, and collective action of the best nonprofits in the country. APA’s Alliance community facilitates that collaboration among the CEOs and executive teams of its 175 member organizations (see members). Those member organizations serve 34M young people annually and their work spans K12 education, postsecondary success, workforce development, youth development, and democratic and civic engagement. APA (1) provides robust programming designed to help member organizations improve and (2) identifies and launches new collective action initiatives, focused on field-level strategic objectives no single organization could accomplish on their own. See additional information on our model and impact. 

The Opportunity

The Vice President, Collective Action, K-12 & Youth Development (VPCA) oversees the work in APA’s Aligning K12 Education and Youth Development issue area. This includes (1) leading all of APA’s collective action work in this issue area and (2) ensuring 75+ member organizations are getting the most out of their Alliance experience. The VPCA will oversee 2 collective action initiatives already launched, three concepts that are currently in design, and will lead new idea generation in partnership with APA’s member organizations. APA’s collective action model does not focus on advocacy or policy. Rather, each collective action initiative operates as an action-oriented joint venture, bringing cohorts of nonprofits into coordinated, well-resourced initiatives that produce real change in how K-12 systems and youth development organizations operate together. The VPCA is the architect and driver of this work. The VPCA is also the primary point of contact for the CEOs of the member organizations in this portfolio. Through deep understanding of the needs and strengths of each organization, the VPCA helps members maximize the impact of their Alliance membership, creates new connections among organizations, and ensures high rates of satisfaction and retention in the Alliance. This is a role for a practitioner-leader: someone with deep credibility in K-12 schools, an intuitive grasp of how direct-service nonprofits operate, and ability to operate at national scale, across multiple initiatives and priorities simultaneously. This role reports directly to the CEO. 

Core Responsibilities

1. K-12 Collective Action Leadership

APA's collective action initiatives unite member organizations around shared challenges that   require coordinated, multi-organizational solutions. The VPCA owns this work end-to-end, from identifying the highest-leverage opportunities and designing the right initiatives to securing funding and managing execution through to measurable impact in the field.

• Lead the annual collective action ideation and vetting process, engaging members, testing ideas with field experts, and selecting the initiatives each year with the greatest potential for scaled impact.
• Design new initiatives comprehensively, including theory of action, intended outcomes, concept papers, multi-year budgets, and operating plans.
• Build a critical mass of member organizations around each initiative and recruit the strategic partners needed for effective execution.
• Partner with APA's VP of Development to identify aligned funders, manage the proposal and grant agreement process, and secure anchor funding to launch each initiative.
• Manage multiple active collective action initiatives simultaneously, overseeing staffing, partner coordination, iterative program design, funder reporting, and continuous improvement.
• Support funder stewardship and reporting once initiatives are funded and underway.

2. Membership Engagement & Community Building

The VPCA is the primary point of contact for all 75+ organizations in this issue area, a diverse membership spanning charter management organizations, national K-12 nonprofits, youth development providers, and more. Building a cohesive, highly engaged community among these organizations is as central to APA's model as the collective action work itself.

• Build and sustain peer-level relationships with the CEO and C-suite of each member organization, developing a deep understanding of their evolving needs and strategic priorities.
• Partner with APA's VP of Alliance Growth to recruit and onboard new organizations to the community. 
• Ensure high rates of satisfaction and retention in the portfolio. 
• Lead all aspects of the annual K-12 issue area convening, including: strategic agenda, facilitation, attendance, and post-event evaluation and improvement.
• Translate member needs into concrete programming, identifying which challenges are most consistent across the network and which have the greatest potential to improve outcomes for young people.
• Foster a genuine sense of belonging and common purpose among members in this portfolio.

Year-One Priorities

In the first 12 to 18 months, the VPCA will focus on the following:

• Build great relationships with the CEOs and leadership teams of the members in your issue area. 
• Ensure the success of two active collective action initiatives already launched. 
• Finish the design and vetting of 3 new collective action initiatives currently under consideration.
• Lead the annual K-12 issue area convening, owning the strategic agenda, attendance, facilitation, and post-event improvement process.
• Develop and execute a member retention and engagement strategy, with particular focus on the organizations least engaged today.

How Success Will Be Measured

• Success of current collective action initiatives.
• Ability to bring new collective action initiatives to life. This includes efficient and effective ideation with members, rigorous initiative design, securing funding to launch and scale new initiatives, and the ability to recruit new strategic partners to support the work. 
• Member retention, satisfaction, and engagement in the Alliance community.  
• Anchor funding secured for new initiatives.
• Convening quality, impact, and member satisfaction.
• Overall, community cohesion and sense of belonging among members.

What We're Looking For

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of progressive senior leadership with demonstrated growth in scope and responsibility over time. This is not a first leadership role, and we have a strong preference for candidates with longer, more substantive tenures that reflect genuine organizational ownership and impact.
• Deep K-12 expertise, including a strong, credible understanding of how school systems operate at the district, network, and state level, with the standing to serve as a genuine peer to district leaders, school network executives, and K-12 nonprofit CEOs. This is the most critical qualification for this role.
• Nonprofit operating experience: candidates must understand the realities of running a direct-service nonprofit. A superintendent or district background alone, without meaningful nonprofit operating exposure, is unlikely to be sufficient.
• Operator and executor mindset: APA's senior leaders are individual contributors, not just managers. This role requires a demonstrated track record of doing, not just directing. Candidates who prefer to manage from a distance will not thrive here.
• Executive-level relationship builder with proven ability to build trust and credibility as a peer to CEOs and C-suite leaders of large national organizations, with genuine comfort engaging across a wide range of stakeholders and organizational types.
• Collective action instincts and the ability to identify which field-wide challenges are ripe for multi-organizational solutions, and to design initiatives that move from idea to real, measurable impact. A clear understanding of the difference between advocacy and action-oriented joint ventures.

Strongly Preferred

• Experience at the intersection of K-12 systems and national nonprofit or intermediary organizations.  
• C-suite or VP-level tenure at a national nonprofit organization, with experience in or alongside network- or membership-based structures.
• Fundraising experience, particularly with education-focused foundations and national philanthropies.
• A well-established professional network of K-12 practitioners, non-profits, funders, and field experts who know and respect this person's work.

Ideal Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate is a practitioner at heart. Someone who has operated in the field, not just observed it, and who brings both the credibility and the humility to work as a genuine peer alongside the CEOs of the nation's leading youth-serving organizations. They are mission-driven and deeply committed to the belief that better-supported organizations produce better outcomes for young people. They are collaborative and low-ego, equally comfortable designing a multi-year collective action strategy and rolling up their sleeves to execute it. They thrive in dynamic, fast-moving environments, are energized by ambiguity, and know how to build structure and momentum in real time. They lead with relationships, move with urgency, and are at home in a remote, matrixed, Zoom-first team environment where heart and hustle are part of the culture.

Compensation & Benefits

Salary: $215,000 – $235,000, commensurate with experience
Location: Remote within the United States · Regular travel required
Benefits: Comprehensive benefits package including health coverage, retirement savings, self-managed PTO, and professional development support.