Executive Director
 

Classification: Exempt Status
Status: Regular, Full-Time
Location: Kansas City metropolitan area; regular in-person presence required for staff supervision, program oversight, community engagement, and organizational leadership
Reports to: Board of Directors

About Advocates for Immigrant Rights & Reconciliation

Advocates for Immigrant Rights & Reconciliation (AIRR) is a grassroots organization committed to advancing immigrant rights, dignity, education, advocacy, and community leadership in the Kansas City region. AIRR works alongside immigrant communities and local, regional, and national partners to provide educational programs, including Know Your Rights trainings and immigration education, organize community-based campaigns, build collective leadership and power, and connect individuals and families with information and opportunities to take action.

Organizational Snapshot

• Team structure: Four employees, including two direct reports to the Executive Director, with additional support from project-based consultants and contractors.
• Board structure: Nine Board members and a Finance, Fundraising, and Governance Committee. 

Position Overview

The Executive Director is AIRR's senior organizational leader and is responsible for translating its mission, values, and strategy into sustained organizational impact. Reporting to and partnering with the Board of Directors, the Executive Director provides hands-on leadership across fundraising and resource development, organizing and campaign strategy, people and volunteer leadership, external relationships, and the financial and operational systems needed to sustain AIRR's growth.

AIRR is entering an important stage of organizational development. As its scale, urgency, and impact grow, AIRR needs an executive leader who can strengthen its foundation, expand and diversify its resources, support sustainable workloads and organizational health, and deepen accountability to immigrant communities while protecting the grassroots, power-building identity that defines the organization. AIRR understands organizing as a strategy for developing collective leadership and community power, not solely as outreach, service delivery, public education, or conventional nonprofit growth.

The Executive Director serves as AIRR's primary external representative with funders, partners, public officials, coalitions, and media while remaining deeply engaged with staff, volunteers, and directly affected community leaders. Leadership at AIRR requires building alignment through collective and participatory decision-making, communicating directly and transparently through tension and disagreement, and treating community leaders as meaningful partners in shaping the organization's work. The Executive Director must lead collaboratively while maintaining clear responsibility for implementation, organizational performance, results, and complex decisions.

Core Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Board Partnership

• Serve as the Board's primary strategic partner, translating mission, priorities, and strategy into an annual operating plan, budget, and clear areas of accountability.
• Balance long-term sustainability and growth planning with the immediate needs of the communities AIRR serves.
• Serve as primary staff liaison to the Board, preparing timely materials and recommendations and promptly escalating significant financial, legal, operational, or reputational concerns.

Fundraising and External Relationships

• Develop and execute a sustainable, diversified revenue strategy spanning institutional grants, individual giving, sponsorships, events, and strategic partnerships.
• Ensure effective execution of the full grants lifecycle, including prospect identification, proposal development, grant administration, compliance, relationship management, and funder reporting, personally leading high-priority efforts as needed.
• Build authentic, durable relationships with current and prospective donors and funders and engage the Board appropriately in resource development.
• Strengthen AIRR's case for support and ensure that fundraising and external communications accurately reflect its mission, organizing model, community relationships, and impact.
• Represent AIRR with funders, partners, coalitions, public officials, media, and other external audiences in a culturally responsive and mission-aligned manner.

Organizing and Community Power-Building

• Provide strategic direction for local and regional advocacy campaigns grounded in AIRR's organizing and power-building model, and supervise and support the staff and leaders responsible for implementation.
• Build and sustain trusted, accountable relationships with immigrant community members, volunteer leaders, organizers, and directly affected constituencies.
• Create meaningful and structured opportunities for community members and volunteer leaders to help shape AIRR's priorities, programs, campaigns, and major decisions.
• Maintain accountability to directly affected communities as programs, partnerships, campaigns, and revenue grow.
• Track the effectiveness of organizing and leadership-development strategies using measures that reflect community power, leadership growth, and mission impact.

People Leadership and Organizational Culture

• Recruit, supervise, coach, support, and evaluate staff and oversee contractors, interns, and volunteer leadership structures.
• Develop staff and volunteer leaders through feedback, accountability, training, and professional growth.
• Build sustainable staff, volunteer, and community-leader pipelines through training, coaching, delegation, and meaningful opportunities for leadership.
• Foster a transparent and participatory workplace culture that engages tension and conflict directly, honestly, equitably, and with care.
• Protect organizational health by supporting sustainable workloads, effective collaboration, sound people practices, and appropriate compliance with employment policies and requirements.

Financial and Operational Stewardship

• Develop annual budgets, forecasts, and financial recommendations and monitor revenue, expenses, cash flow, grant restrictions, reserves, and internal controls.
• Provide the Board with timely and understandable financial information, identify emerging risks, and recommend corrective action when needed.
• Ensure organizational compliance and forward-looking planning, including key 501(c)(3), grant, employment, insurance, reporting, and records-management requirements, in partnership with staff and professional advisors.
• Maintain reliable administrative infrastructure, including contracts, technology, insurance, facilities, data and document management, and confidentiality protections for community members, donors, volunteers, and staff.
• Assess and strengthen AIRR's operational systems so they can support responsible growth without creating unnecessary bureaucracy or weakening community accountability.

What Success Looks Like

Within the First 90 Days

• Complete a structured onboarding and develop a grounded understanding of AIRR's history, organizing model, programs, finances, partnerships, culture, and current priorities.
• Meet all staff and Board members, a representative group of volunteer and community leaders, and priority community, funding, and organizational partners.
• Assume oversight of the operating budget, cash flow, active grants, key contracts, compliance obligations, and major organizational commitments.
• Present an initial organizational assessment and planning framework to the Board based on structured listening, document review, and operational analysis.
• Establish shared expectations with the Board regarding decision-making, communication, performance oversight, and mutual accountability.

Within the First Year

• A Board-approved annual operating and organizational-development plan is in active implementation, with clear priorities, measures, responsibilities, and timelines.
• A sustainable, diversified revenue strategy is underway, supported by a documented pipeline and strengthened funder and donor relationships.
• Trusted working relationships are established across staff, Board, volunteer, funder, partner, and community constituencies.
• Financial, compliance, human resources, grant-management, and document-management systems are reliable, appropriately scaled, and consistently used.
• Staff members have clear goals, regular feedback, and development plans, and volunteer and community leaders have meaningful pathways for growth and decision-making.
• AIRR's organizing and power-building strategy has advanced, with its grassroots identity and accountability to immigrant communities intact.

Leadership Approach and Values

• Demonstrated commitment to AIRR's mission and values, including rejecting narratives that divide immigrants into deserving and undeserving groups.
• Ability to lead through relationships rather than relying solely on hierarchy, while providing clear direction and maintaining accountability for outcomes.
• Commitment to meaningful participation by staff, volunteers, and directly affected community leaders in decisions that shape the organization and its work.
• Willingness to communicate directly and transparently, engage disagreement constructively, and make difficult decisions when required.
• Commitment to staff care, sustainable workloads, organizational health, equity, confidentiality, and responsible stewardship of community trust.
• Grounding in the lived realities of immigrant communities, whether through personal experience or sustained, accountable relationships built over time.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• At least five years of relevant, progressively responsible leadership experience, with a demonstrated record of delivering meaningful organizational, policy, campaign, fundraising, or community outcomes.
• Leadership experience in a nonprofit, advocacy, community organizing, public service, philanthropy, or other mission-driven environment, including direct experience working within or alongside a community-organizing or power-building model.
• Demonstrated fundraising and donor-development capability that has resulted in secured revenue, strengthened funding relationships, or a more diversified funding base.
• Experience developing, managing, or monitoring organizational or program budgets, with the ability to understand, explain, and use nonprofit financial information in decision-making.
• Experience supervising, coaching, coordinating, or developing staff, contractors, volunteers, or community leaders and contributing to a healthy and accountable organizational culture.
• Experience working with a nonprofit Board, advisory body, coalition, or comparable governance or stakeholder group.
• Professional proficiency in Spanish and English, including the ability to communicate, facilitate meetings, build relationships, and represent the organization in both languages.
• A demonstrated record of building trusted and accountable relationships with immigrant communities through organizing, advocacy, professional, volunteer, or community leadership experience.
• Strong written and verbal communication, facilitation, relationship-building, public-presentation, and conflict-navigation skills.
• High judgment, emotional intelligence, integrity, discretion, and comfort leading through ambiguity, competing priorities, growth, and change.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience serving in a senior leadership or hands-on executive role within a small or growing organization.
• Experience leading advocacy campaigns, coalition work, or strategies designed to influence local, state, or federal policy.
• Knowledge of the Kansas City region's immigrant, nonprofit, philanthropic, government, faith-based, and advocacy communities.
• Knowledge of federal, state, and local immigration policy and the ways immigration systems affect communities in the Kansas City region.
• Experience strengthening organizational infrastructure, internal controls, grant compliance, human resources practices, or operational systems during a period of growth or transition.
• A bachelor's degree, advanced study, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and relevant experience in nonprofit management, organizational leadership, public policy, community development, or a related field. Formal education is preferred but not required.

Work Environment and Schedule

• This position is based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Regular in-person presence is required for staff supervision and team collaboration, program and campaign oversight, community events and partner meetings, and organizational leadership, typically 3-4 days per week or as organizational needs require. Outside of these commitments, the role has reasonable week-to-week flexibility in where work is performed, with expectations established in partnership with the Board.
• AIRR is a grassroots, community-based nonprofit environment. This is a hands-on executive role that combines organizational leadership with direct involvement in key fundraising, relationship-building, campaign, and operational priorities.
• Evening and weekend commitments are expected, typically 2-3 per month, with occasional surge periods around campaigns, community actions, fundraising activities, and major events. AIRR supports reasonable schedule flexibility in recognition of these commitments.
• Regular travel within the Kansas City metropolitan area is required. Periodic in-state travel is also expected, including advocacy days at the state capitol and occasional trainings or convenings, typically tied to legislative sessions and a small number of trainings each year. Out-of-state travel is infrequent, typically limited to occasional conferences or partner meetings.
• The essential functions of the role may be performed with reasonable accommodation. AIRR will work with qualified applicants and employees to identify reasonable accommodations consistent with applicable law.

Compensation and Benefits

• Competitive compensation and benefits package.
• A structured leadership transition, including introductions across all constituencies, orientation to AIRR's organizing model, dedicated financial onboarding, a documented decision-making framework developed with the Board, and a collaborative 30-, 60-, and 90-day plan.

Why Join AIRR

Join AIRR at a pivotal stage of growth and help strengthen a community-rooted organization while preserving the grassroots, power-building identity that defines its work. This role offers meaningful executive responsibility, close partnership with staff, community leaders, and the Board, and the opportunity to build the resources and systems needed for long-term impact. AIRR is seeking a leader who pairs collaboration with clear accountability, builds resources without compromising values, and translates mission into sustainable organizational practice.

To apply, submit a current resume and a cover letter describing your interest in AIRR's mission, your experience working in accountable partnership with immigrant communities, your approach to collaborative leadership, and the experience you would bring to this role.

Equal Opportunity Employer

AIRR is an equal opportunity employer. Employment decisions are based on qualifications, merit, organizational needs, and job-related criteria. AIRR does not discriminate or tolerate discrimination or harassment based on race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, marital or family status, military or veteran status, citizenship or immigration status where protected by law, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.