Title: Operations Manager

Organization: Accelerate Change
Reports to: Lea Madry, Director of Operations
Direct Reports: N/A
Location: Full-time, 100% remote position (from home or co-working space) with occasional travel once every 2-3 months

About Accelerate Change
Accelerate Change is a nonprofit (c3/c4) media lab dedicated to catalyzing new scalable and sustainable digital media models for citizen engagement. We are particularly focused on developing new digital media models that engage communities of color and low-income communities, as well as models that bring together diverse citizens across class and race. We focus on media ventures that are driving social change through news, education, and action.
Accelerate Change uses lean startup methodologies and other business strategies to help start-up nonprofit ventures and established organizations scale their digital media relationships and revenue.

Here’s some more information on those strategies:

• Functional Organizing: Our model is based on the idea that membership organizations can experience explosive, financially sustainable growth when they provide a robust set of benefits and services that have an outstanding value to the people they seek to organize (functional organizing). Learn more about our model for scalable citizen organizing in the article, The Secret of Scale from the Stanford Social Innovation Review.
• Lean startup methodologies: Our approach is centered on identifying challenges and unmet needs in people’s lives. We use lean startup methodologies to rigorously test ideas for services and benefits that could help address those pain points and provide real value in people’s everyday lives. Read more about our approach to experimentation in the article, The Promise of Lean Experimentation from the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Accelerate Change supports some of the fastest growing nonprofit digital media ventures in the country, with a particular focus on communities of color. We also work with a select group of established nonprofit organizations to experiment with new digital media initiatives. Our partners include:
  • PushBlack, the nation’s largest nonprofit media platform for Black people, reaches over 8 million Black Americans each month with Black news, history, and culture stories.
  • Revolution English, a nonprofit news and education program for immigrants, provides bi-lingual news and information that empowers immigrants to navigate life in America.
  • Pulso, a national nonprofit media organization focused on Latinx communities, reaches over 2 million Latinx Americans each month with culturally relevant news and information.
  • ParentsTogether, a national, parent-led nonprofit media organization, helps over 2 million subscribers stay up to date on the issues affecting their families.
  • La Alianza, a digital news service for immigrants and domestic workers created by the National Domestic Workers Alliance, provides Spanish-language stories to hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

Accelerate Change’s team of 13 central staff and 20 venture staff bring a diverse mix of tech, business, organizing, and media backgrounds that contribute to identifying solutions and developing new media and citizen engagement models.

About the Position
Accelerate Change is seeking a detail-oriented manager who learns quickly, can juggle multiple priorities, and is excited to use their operations skills to help unlock the growth of a network of digital media ventures that reach millions of people every day.

Here’s what you could expect to do as Operations Manager (key responsibilities):

• Expense operations: Review and approve requisitions, oversee accurate direct debit payment reporting, and manage expense reconciliation
• Development operations: Oversee accurate maintenance of fundraising CRM, manage partner contracts and invoicing process, monitor accounts receivable, send donation acknowledgement letters, and manage revenue reconciliation
• Grants: Serve as project manager for grant reporting, prepare financial reports and budgets, and support the development of proposals
• Corporate administration: Manage maintenance and reporting for corporate registration, workers’ compensation insurance, liability insurance, and charitable solicitation licenses in all states where Accelerate Change has staff (in conjunction with external vendor)
• Boards: Coordinate scheduling, agendas, materials, document signatures, and other logistics of meetings for 3 Boards

We’ll also look for the Operations Manager to:

• Lead large scale organizational transformation projects in the finance and operations areas
• Effectively communicate and collaborate with a variety of audiences related to revenue and expenses, including staff, partners, funders, vendors, and central finance team
• Grow in their position, taking on additional responsibilities and implementing their ideas to improve our operations
• Pitch in where needed to address staff and venture needs related to operations
• Support venture experimentation through user testing, customer discovery, and other activities that leverage their skills and experience

What We’re Looking For

• Commitment to social justice. Accelerate Change is a mission-driven organization focused on progressive social change and social justice, with a focus on communities of color. You have a demonstrated commitment to this work and you’d like to be part of a team of people who do, too.
• 3+ years experience with key responsibilities: We’re looking for someone who has at least 3 years of experience with most of the key responsibilities listed above. If this role would offer you a mix of your favorite work responsibilities and a few others that sound like fun new challenges, we’d love to hear from you.
• Service-oriented and flexible approach. You’re invested in making operations-related tasks simpler and easier for your teammates by removing unnecessary roadblocks, and you want to create the best possible experience for staff and stakeholders. You’ve worked in environments with a lot of change and you’re comfortable with pivoting and adapting in your role.

Benefits

• $50,000-$60,000 salary range, depending on experience
• Flexibility for work and life: Unlike a lot of places, we actually believe that people should only work 40 hours each week, except for occasional sprints that require more time in a week. We also trust everyone to make a schedule that works for them, as long as you’re able to join on all the necessary meetings. Want to work more one day and less the next? Fine by us. Work better in the middle of the night than during the afternoon? Go for it. Need to shift your hours to be able to pick up your kid from school? All good.
• Health care after 3 months, with individual premiums fully covered and cost-share for dependents
• Need-based educational loan assistance after 3 months
• 10 paid vacation days, 6 paid holidays, and 3 paid floating holidays each year
• 5 fully paid sick days and 10 half-paid sick days each year
• 401(k) plan after one year, with 100% employer match on the first 3% and 50% employer match on the next 2%