The Volunteer Engagement Officer supports and advances United Way’s mission of improving lives by leading the development, implementation and measurement of outcomes of the volunteer engagement strategy that focuses volunteer efforts on Community Impact focus areas of education, income and health. The Volunteer Engagement Officer will work with volunteers, community partners, business, government, labor, faith-based organizations and staff to engage volunteers in meaningful, quality volunteer roles that make a measurable difference in the quality of life for people in the community.
- Identifies, develops and leads the volunteer engagement strategy by positioning United Way as the premier community mobilizer of volunteers for community impact in the areas of education, income and health.
- Directs and supports the work of a volunteer engagement cabinet comprised of corporate and community leaders.
- Leads the community effort to maximize the involvement of volunteers by creating and implementing a volunteer engagement strategy for each priority area of the community impact agenda.
- Coordinates and supports the various collaborative partnerships (traditional and non-traditional, internal and external) by identifying/creating/promoting a continuum of volunteer engagement in targeted impact areas.
- Builds community capacity to plan, lead and effectively manage volunteers by investing resources and providing training, consultation and technical assistance to key stakeholder groups in volunteer engagement.
- Leads and manages Volunteer Engagement staff by recruiting, developing, coaching and providing direction.
- Mobilize and connect volunteers by overseeing a robust and comprehensive online volunteer database, leading with community impact issues; education, financial stability and health.
- Identifies potential grant funding opportunities on a local, state and national level to accelerate community-level change in education, financial stability and health.
- Maintains positive, collaborative relationships with United Way employees, the management team and community partners by identifying key connecting networks with each stakeholder group.
- Keeps abreast and knowledgeable about issues and trends of volunteer engagement by networking with local, state and national sector knowledge leaders.
- Aligns work behavior and work based on the UWCI Code of Ethics and Organizational Values.
- Leadership: Ability to motivate and guide others to perform in accordance with clear expectations and goals.
- Management Skills: Ability to achieve desired outcomes by setting goals and priorities that deliver results.
- Business Acumen: Ability to understand business-related topics or issues.
- Diversity Oriented: Ability to support the company diversity goals by using ethnic, gender, religious or socio-economic inclusiveness.
- Consensus Building: Ability to interact with others of diverse backgrounds resulting in group solidarity or an agreement or solution.
- Judgment: Ability to form sound opinions or make decisions evaluating available information.
- Communication
- Relationship Building: Ability to establish and maintain good rapport and cooperative relationships with customers and coworkers..
- Problem Solving: Ability to recognize courses of actions that can be taken to handle to handle problems or potential problems, and apply contingency plans to solve those problems.
- Presentation skills: Ability to effectively present information to a group.
- Communications skills, Oral: Ability to send verbal messages, and listen to others’ responses in order to convey information.
- Communication, Written: Ability to write concise, clear letters, reports, articles, or emails including proofing and editing. Ability to speak and write clearly and concisely for a broad audience.
Experience:
- Minimum 5 years’ experience in human service field, preferably related to volunteer engagement.
- Minimum 3 years’ experience in managing staff and volunteers.
- Strong proficiency in Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
Other Requirements:
- Driver’s license and ability to drive own vehicle for regular local travel between buildings in the Central Iowa area. Overnight and air travel occurs potentially twice year with stays of two to three days.
United Way of Central Iowa is an established and highly respected nonprofit in the Central Iowa area and the United Way Worldwide network. Employees at UWCI have a passion for the organization’s mission and community impact work and strive to create a positive, inclusive welcoming work environment. Our Core Values of Compassion, Integrity, Community Engagement, Responsiveness and Striving for Excellence is the foundation for how we do our work and to reach our aspiration to “Engage Community to Empower All.” In addition to a competitive salary and robust benefits package including health insurance, a dental plan, 401(k) with match and paid life insurance, we offer the following:
- On-site cafeteria
- Free, newly remodeled on-site fitness center
- Commitment to employee professional development
- Commitment to fostering cultural humility via diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives
- Fun monthly opportunities for employees to build camaraderie
- Wellness initiatives
- Convenient central Des Moines location with free parking
- Paid volunteer time off
- Participating in cross-functional teams and organization-wide initiatives and projects
- Tuition Assistance
- Generous paid vacation plan, holidays, a personal holiday and sick time