LORI’S HANDS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

FULL TIME, HYBRID REMOTE WITH ACCESS TO NEWARK, DE/BALTIMORE, MD

ABOUT LORI’S HANDS:

An older adult is diagnosed with congestive heart failure during a hospital stay and is discharged to her home, where she lives alone. Her newly prescribed medications are effective when she takes them, but she is often unable to find a ride to the pharmacy to pick them up. The hospital dietitian taught her to follow a low-sodium diet, but she is not able to follow it at home because she can’t stand at the stove long enough to prepare fresh foods; instead, she relies on microwavable meals. She was active in her community for many years but is now homebound and experiencing isolation due to mobility and transportation limitations.

We train college student volunteers to fill these gaps. Our students make weekly home visits to support community members with instrumental activities of daily living made difficult by chronic illness. Our student volunteers visit our clients – people living with diagnoses like cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s Disease, heart failure, pulmonary disease, and diabetes – to help with grocery shopping, yardwork, housework, meal preparation, and navigating community resources.

Our program is based on a reciprocal model of support: Our students assist their clients with everyday activities and, in turn, clients provide students with the unique opportunity to learn about health, illness, and aging in the community from people with lived experience. Our clients and students offer each other meaningful companionship, in many cases keeping in touch long after a student’s service-learning experience and even after their time as a college student. A client once told us that the week her Lori’s Hands students started visiting was the week “all of the windows and doors flew open and the sun started streaming in.” As one student put it, “We’re both there for companionship.”

Lori’s Hands builds mutually beneficial partnerships between community members with chronic illness and college students, fostering empathy, connection, and resilience. Students provide practical assistance to support community members’ independence at home, and community members share their health and life experiences to support students’ learning. Lori’s Hands was founded at the University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware in 2009 and grew from a volunteer-led initiative to a professionally staffed organization in 2017. Today, our college student volunteers support more than 150 clients via weekly visits through two Lori’s Hands chapters: one in Newark, Delaware and one in Baltimore, Maryland. Our team is engaged in a planning process with community and academic partners with the goal of launching a third chapter in Detroit, Michigan in 2022.

Lori’s Hands has been recognized with a Jefferson Award for Public Service and the Delaware Governor’s Outstanding Volunteer Award, in popular media including PBS’s Next Avenue and USA Today, and through state and federal contracts including the inaugural round of Community Care Corps funding. The program is evidence-based, with research demonstrating benefit for both students and clients.

Lori’s Hands is committed to expanding in a sustainable manner that fosters generational, socioeconomic, and racial equity. We intentionally look to learn from and build partnerships with existing community organizations in order to support safe, effective, and connected aging in place for community members. We are thrilled to build on our work in Delaware and Baltimore and to bring our program to additional communities in the future through our continued expansion. As health systems become increasingly attuned to the social and practical needs of their patients, our partnership offers them an opportunity to provide what they provide well – clinical services – and to coordinate rather than directly provide services they value but are not prepared to offer – non-medical home and community-based services. Long-term, we aim to disrupt the current support service sector for older Americans by meaningfully connecting healthcare and social services through a cost-effective, person-centered method that has never before been tried. We envision Lori’s Hands becoming a national program known for best practices in community health service learning.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Lori’s Hands, Inc. is looking for a dynamic Executive Director who will be responsible for overseeing the continued growth of Lori’s Hands, based on the established models operational in Newark, DE and Baltimore, MD. The Executive Director will be a “realistic dreamer” who will both develop and lead the implementation of strategic growth plans for the organization. The Executive Director will oversee all development and fundraising efforts and will pursue non-philanthropic funding streams (e.g. mutually beneficial contractual partnerships with higher education and healthcare institutions) to support the continued growth and sustainability of the organization.

The Executive Director will be responsible for managing a team of 2 full-time and 1 part-time employees, who are responsible for program delivery. Our Program Director is responsible for development and implementation of our program across chapters, including creating and ensuring fidelity to best practices in client and student recruitment and enrollment, student training, and client services. Our Program Director also manages service innovation, including the development and implementation of new partnerships with academic and healthcare institutions. Our Program Director is also responsible for the delivery of our program in Newark. Our Senior Program Manager is responsible for program development and implementation in Baltimore and for the development and implementation of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) programming across chapters. Our part-time Program Assistant assists the Program Director with client inquiries and enrollment and client and student matching, and will support the Executive Director with administrative responsibilities. In addition, each of our staff members is supported by student interns as needed, and each chapter is supported and informed by a local Community Ambassador Council. The Executive Director will report directly to the Lori’s Hands, Inc. Board of Directors and will be supported by an External Advisory Committee. (View Organization Chart.)

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Development and Fundraising (50% of week spent performing function)

• Lead the organization in identifying and obtaining new and continued philanthropic funding, including corporate sponsorships, foundation grant opportunities, and individual donations with support of the Program Director, Senior Program Manager and Board of Directors
• Develop non-philanthropic, revenue-generating relationships (such as contractual partnerships with healthcare and higher education institutions)
• Oversee organization communications to support fundraising, engagement, and outreach efforts

Strategic Growth (30% of week spent performing function)

• Identify and assess opportunities for Lori’s Hands’ growth through the expansion of current chapters and launching of new chapters
• Cultivate new partnerships to support the strategic growth of Lori’s Hands
• Lead the development of new chapters with support from the Program Director (e.g. developing and carrying out staffing plans in new locations)

Supervision and Organization Management (20% of week spent performing function)

• Lead Lori’s Hands employees in organizing to efficiently provide exceptional services for community members and student volunteers
• Report to and collaborate with the Board of Directors to evaluate service delivery and plans for growth
• Develop and manage organizational budget

CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS & ATTRIBUTES

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Lived experience and/or deep understanding of the issues that are central to the work of Lori’s Hands; a strong candidate may not already be working in community health, but must demonstrate a genuine interest in and commitment to community health and intergenerational relationships
• Experience raising and managing funds
• Experiencing fundraising with corporate and private foundations and individual donors is highly desirable; a strong candidate may instead have skills and experience (such as in sales, marketing, or business development) transferable to this position
• Experience developing and managing revenue-generating partnerships and services
• Experience developing, implementing, and managing business plans and budgets
• Proven ability to develop and manage projects to achieve desired results; a proven track record of making programs more impactful through continuous improvement
• Strong and effective writer and verbal communicator
• Supervisory/mentorship experience
• Experience and comfort with cloud-based data management systems and technology solutions (Lori’s Hands uses Google Drive, AirTable, Canva, and email marketing tools)

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience with grant writing and familiarity with the nonprofit sector, including volunteer-based programs, and relevant funding sources including foundations that fund community health, aging, and service learning programs
• Familiarity with the healthcare industry, including emerging value-based models of care
• Familiarity with the higher education sector, including pre-health professions education
• Experience using data analysis to drive decision making and to demonstrate value of a program

ATTRIBUTES

• Natural communicator and relationship-builder: You’re authentic, empathetic, and able to communicate clearly through any channel. When you speak, people believe you and want to join you. You are an effective listener and are able to incorporate insights from our team, including our clients, students, and partners, into program innovation and continuous quality improvement.
• Entrepreneurial: You are creative; you take initiative to see new ideas come to fruition.
• Equity-oriented: You are passionate about helping communities thrive by identifying and supporting existing strengths.
• Inclusive leader: You are confident taking charge and excel at supporting your team’s strengths to promote effective collaboration. You are eager to maintain and expand on current best practices, and to implement your own and others’ ideas for strategic growth and adaptation.
• Committed: You follow through; you make long-term goals and follow a transparent plan to help a team achieve them.

BENEFITS AND COMPENSATION

• Compensation is based on experience
• Competitive benefits package including health insurance, retirement contribution matching, and paid time off
• Salary range: $85,000 – $95,000

TIMELINE

• Applicants will be reviewed on a rolling basis beginning March 22, 2021
• This is a full-time position
• Initially, this position will require the Executive Director to work from a home office. The Executive Director must have their own means of transportation and the ability to attend meetings in Delaware and Maryland as needed (2 days per week or more in most weeks, when it is again safe to do so). Lori’s Hands will provide a computer and other required equipment and supplies to the Executive Director.

Our hiring committee will review blinded versions of applications. We request that candidates do not reach out to our team via email so that we can maintain a blinded review process at this stage. We appreciate your understanding. If you have technical questions about applying, please reach out to our Program Assistant, Jayna: jayna@lorishands.org.

Lori’s Hands is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our commitment to diversity includes the recognition that our mission is best advanced by contributions of people of diverse backgrounds, beliefs, and culture. Recruiting and mentoring staff to create an inclusive organization that reflects the diverse community that we serve is a priority, and we encourage applicants of all ages, cultures, races, ethnicities, religions, national or regional origins, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, or other status protected by law.