The Great Plains Division of the North America Region includes seven programs (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota/North Dakota/South Dakota, Missouri, Nebraska, Arkansas and Oklahoma) with a combined annual budget of approximately $22 million and over 250 staff. The Division Director facilitates cross-boundary approaches to significant conservation outcomes that have a tangible, lasting impact on the environment and the people that rely on it. Together, the Division develops and advances innovative solutions that address the systemic root causes of the challenges facing nature and people.
The Division Director (“Director”) is the senior conservation leader and manager for the Conservancy’s Great Plains Division of the North America Region. S/he leads the Division (made up of state programs, or “Chapters”) to advance The Nature Conservancy’s highest priorities through the Shared Conservation Agenda, develop and ensure execution of project plans, raise funds, engage volunteer trustees across borders, and develop emerging leaders. S/he adds value by building and leading highly effective, nimble, teams that deliver tangible results at significant scale.
The Director exercises collaborative leadership to engage and execute across geographic (e.g., other Divisions, North America Region, Global) and programmatic boundaries and cultivates mutually beneficial agreements and relationships. S/he fosters alignment, teamwork, collaboration, innovation, cooperation, team spirit, and synergy amongst the divisional leadership team. S/he invites and engages the differences each person has and leverages them for greater outcomes. S/he promotes inclusion, a diverse workforce, diversity of thought, and shared ownership and commitment to the organization’s highest priorities.
The Division Director holds the authority and is ultimately responsible for the financial performance and effective administration of the programs and projects within the Division. The Director actively manages the performance of Chapter Directors and holds them accountable for conservation and fundraising goals, compliance and risk management. The Director works with Chapter Directors to allocate financial and human resources across the organization by approving budgets and advancing organizational priorities which dictate private and public fundraising goals. S/he works closely with Chapter trustee/advisory boards to advance The Nature Conservancy’s strategies.
As one of the leading conservation spokespeople for the Conservancy, s/he fundraises with public and private donors and ensures that sufficient resources are available to achieve the Conservancy’s organizational goals. S/he represents the Conservancy internally and externally to an array of communities, partners, policy makers and other audiences, advocating for and raising the visibility of The Nature Conservancy. The Division Director reports to the North America Region Managing Director, and is a member of the North America Leadership Team (NALT). As such, the Director plays a significant role in the strategic direction of the North America Region.
Success in the position will be demonstrated by:
- Staff across the Division has a shared ownership of TNC’s Shared Conservation Agenda, and is effectively collaborating to deliver maximum conservation impact
- Continually increasing commitment of both division and regional resources (people and funding) to TNC’s priority conservation strategies and outcomes
- Engaged and diverse workforce in division and region (measured by People Survey engagement scores and diversity statistics)
- Increasing funding for strategies that advance TNC’s priority conservation outcomes
WORKING CONDITIONS/PHYSICAL EFFORT
- Division Director will be based in Minneapolis, MN or St. Louis, MO
- Willingness to travel frequently, at least 50% of the time, often on short notice.
- Work requires only minor physical exertion and/or physical strain. Work environment involves only infrequent exposure to disagreeable elements.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience in leading and managing a large multi-disciplinary team, including managing senior level leaders.
- Experience in evaluating and/or negotiating complex, high profile or sensitive contracts and agreements.
- Experience working with a variety of political, business, not for profit, and environmental sectors and with varied local communities in North America.
- Experience communicating with and presenting to diverse audiences including donors, board members, employees, outside partners, members of government or equivalent.
- Experience in fundraising, including cultivation of major donors.
- Fluency in English; excellent written and oral communication skills.
ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETENCIES
- Builds Relationships: Builds productive relationships by interacting with others in ways that enhance mutual trust and commitment.
- Collaboration and Teamwork: Works collaboratively with stakeholders across levels, geographies, backgrounds, and cultures to improve decisions, strengthen commitment, and be more effective.
- Communicates Authentically: Communicates proactively and in a timely manner to share information, persuade, and influence with the appropriate level of detail, tone, and opportunities for feedback.
- Develops Others: Takes ownership to help develop others’ skills, behaviors, and mindsets to help them maximize their workplace contributions.
- Leverages Difference: Demonstrates commitment to harnessing the power of differences* strategically in all work; the skills for consistently seeing, learning from and taking strategic action in relation to all relevant differences; and the self-awareness and behaviors to work across differences of identity and power respectfully and effectively with all stakeholders. Actively seeks to build and retain a diverse workforce and fosters an equitable inclusive workplace climate by recruiting and hiring for relevant differences and drawing upon the diverse perspectives of all.
- Systems Leadership: Thinks and acts from an integrated, complex systems perspective and takes a long-term view on the organization’s challenges and opportunities to develop strategies to optimize the achievement of conservation goals over time.