Executive Director

United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland is seeking a full-time Executive Director to lead the organization into its next chapter of stability growth and community impact.

The Executive Director will serve as UBFs top executive leader and report directly to the Board of Directors. This role is responsible for providing day-to-day leadership across operations staff programs fiscal sponsorship fundraising partnerships financial oversight community engagement and mission execution.

This is an important leadership opportunity for a hands-on mission-driven nonprofit leader who can balance strong internal operations with external relationship-building and revenue development. The ideal candidate will be financially aware people-centered operationally strong and able to lead during a period of continued transition rebuilding and future growth.

About United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland

United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland is a long-standing nonprofit organization committed to strengthening Black-led community-rooted and historically underserved organizations leaders entrepreneurs and initiatives across Greater Cleveland.

For decades UBF has served as a trusted community institution investing in organizations and initiatives that advance equity opportunity leadership economic mobility and community impact. As the organization enters its next chapter UBF is positioned to build on recently strengthened internal systems governance structures financial controls program infrastructure and operational processes.

The next Executive Director will inherit an organization that has gone through significant operational rebuilding and will be responsible for sustaining refining and growing the systems now in place.

Key Responsibilities

Organizational Leadership and Operations

The Executive Director will provide overall leadership and management for UBFs daily operations staff contractors programs fiscal sponsorship administrative functions and organizational priorities. This includes ensuring that UBF operates with clear systems documented processes accountability consistent communication and strong internal discipline.

The Executive Director will help lead the organization through continued transition while supporting long-term sustainability and operational strength. This person will be responsible for building and maintaining a healthy collaborative accountable and mission-centered staff culture.

Board Relations and Governance Support

The Executive Director will serve as the primary staff partner to the Board of Directors and will support effective governance by providing timely information clear recommendations regular reports and strong communication to the Board Executive Committee and board committees as appropriate.

This role will help maintain a strong separation between board governance and staff operations while supporting implementation of board-approved priorities policies committee structures and organizational expectations.

Financial Oversight and Budget Management

The Executive Director will work closely with the Fractional CFO Team Treasurer Finance Committee and Board to support financial stability transparency budgeting forecasting reporting and compliance.

This includes helping ensure that spending contracts reimbursements payables restricted funds grants and fiscal sponsorship activity are managed according to approved policies internal controls and sound nonprofit financial practices.

Fundraising and Revenue Development

The Executive Director will lead and execute UBFs fundraising and revenue development strategy in partnership with the Board Fund Development Committee Development Coordinator grant writing support and community partners.

This includes cultivating relationships with donors funders corporate partners foundations public agencies and community stakeholders. The Executive Director will help strengthen donor stewardship fundraising systems campaign coordination revenue tracking and a shared culture of fundraising across the organization.

Program Leadership and Community Impact

The Executive Director will provide leadership and oversight for UBFs programs including grant-making fiscal sponsorship the Center for Diverse and Thriving Organizations and other community investment or capacity-building initiatives.

This role will ensure programs are mission-aligned well-managed documented measurable and financially sustainable. The Executive Director will support program staff in tracking goals outcomes key performance indicators participant feedback reporting requirements and community impact data.

The Executive Director will also help ensure that programs do not expand faster than the organizations staffing financial and operational capacity can support.

Human Resources Staff Supervision and Performance

The Executive Director will supervise staff and contractors directly or through designated reporting structures and will partner with the Fractional HR Specialist to strengthen HR policies onboarding offboarding employee relations compliance and performance management.

This role requires a leader who can support coach direct and hold people accountable while modeling respectful transparent mission-aligned leadership.

Requirements

Required Qualifications

The successful candidate must demonstrate strong experience across nonprofit leadership operations financial oversight program management fundraising governance support staff leadership and community engagement.

Minimum requirements include:

• Bachelors degree in nonprofit management business administration public administration social work community development public policy finance organizational leadership or a related field.
  
• Masters degree preferred. Comparable executive leadership experience may be considered in lieu of an advanced degree.
  
• Minimum of 8 to 10 years of progressive leadership experience preferably in nonprofit philanthropic public sector community development social impact or mission-driven organizations.
  
• Minimum of 3 to 5 years of senior management experience supervising staff managing budgets overseeing programs and leading organizational operations.
  
• Proven experience working with or reporting to a Board of Directors.
  
• Demonstrated experience with nonprofit operations program management financial oversight fundraising and community partnerships.
  
• Experience leading through transition change management organizational restructuring or infrastructure development is strongly preferred.
  
• Understanding of nonprofit finance fiscal sponsorship structures grant funding restricted funds compliance reporting and internal controls preferred.
  
• Experience in Greater Clevelands nonprofit philanthropic civic business or community ecosystem is strongly preferred.
  
• Experience working with Black-led grassroots community-based or historically under-resourced organizations is preferred.
  

Required Skills and Competencies

• Strong operational leadership with the ability to manage day-to-day execution while staying focused on long-term priorities.
  
• Ability to translate board-approved direction into clear plans workflows goals and outcomes.
  
• Strong written verbal listening presentation and relationship-building skills.
  
• Financial awareness and ability to understand budgets financial reports forecasts internal controls restricted funds and sustainability issues.
  
• Strong staff supervision skills including the ability to support coach direct and hold people accountable.
  
• Ability to build effective relationships with donors funders board members staff contractors partners and community stakeholders.
  
• Culturally competent equity-minded leadership with a deep commitment to Black communities and historically underserved populations.
  
• Comfort navigating transition ambiguity competing priorities and organizational change.
  
• Strong problem-solving and decision-making skills.
  
• High level of organization and ability to manage multiple functions timelines and stakeholders.
  
• High integrity discretion professionalism emotional intelligence and sound judgment.
  

Benefits

Compensation and Work Environment

This is a full-time exempt position based in Cleveland Ohio. The role requires regular in-person presence for organizational leadership board and committee meetings funder meetings community events and partner engagement. Hybrid flexibility may be available but this is not a fully remote position. Standard business hours are Monday through Friday with flexibility required for evening and occasional weekend commitments.

The starting salary for this position is $105000 with final compensation commensurate with experience qualifications and the board-approved compensation structure. Benefits may include paid time off holidays health and wellness benefits retirement contributions and professional development support subject to final board-approved compensation and benefits offerings.

Equal Employment Opportunity

United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions are made without discrimination because of race color religion sex age sexual orientation gender identity gender expression marital status national origin ancestry disability veteran status genetic information pregnancy citizenship status or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal state or local law.

United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland will provide reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities unless doing so would cause undue hardship.

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