About The Right To The City Alliance (RTTC)

Right to the City Alliance (RTTC) emerged in 2007 with a strong and powerful vision to 1) halt the displacement of low-income people, Black, Indigenous, and people of color, LGBTQ communities, and youth of color, and 2) protect and expand affordable housing in tandem with a broader movement to build democratic and just healthy communities for the 21st century. 

Since its inception, RTTC has quickly grown to encompass over 70 community-based racial, economic, gender, and environmental justice organizations located in 26 states and 45 cities. Representing true grassroots power and leadership of the most impacted, RTTC’s member organizations weave together local on-the-ground organizing, policy, and advocacy campaigns to build a robust and unstoppable national movement for inclusive, healthy housing and community development. 

Organizational Work Culture

We take the work seriously, but not ourselves: Right to the City is committed to a work culture of care and balance. We understand that rigor and rest are compatible and both are necessary to reach our movement building goals. We actively work to audit our policy and culture in service of our commitment to racial justice and feminist praxis. Principled struggle and generative conflict are core commitments and we take a transformative approach to resolving harm. While we take our commitments seriously, our work environment commonly includes jokes, laughter, celebration and all other manner of enjoyable human experiences. 

Position Summary

The RTTC Director of Resource Strategies will lead the Resource Strategies Department, advancing resource development, non-extractive capital strategies, and financial management as an integrated movement-building strategy for the RTTC ecosystem and the grassroots organizing sector more broadly. This position develops and coordinates resource strategies from individuals, foundations, and federal funding sources to advance the decommodification and democratization of land and housing on a mass scale. 

The Director will be responsible for overseeing an organizational budget of just under 30 million and raising approximately 16 to 18 million annually in combined c3, c4 and capital investment dollars. 

The Resource Strategies Department encompasses three main work areas:

• Resource Development
• Capital Strategies
• Financial Management

We are looking for someone to join our energetic, visionary and solutions-oriented national staff team to help build the powerful movement we need to win the right to the city and liberation for our people.  Ideal candidate will be someone who is multifaceted, able to adapt to changing conditions, believes deeply in self-determination and community power, and who embodies a commitment to both personal and systemic transformation.  

This position reports to the Executive Director and participates in the Directors Team and the Leadership Team, RTTC’s senior leadership bodies responsible for guiding overall organizational strategy and sustainability. 

Job Responsibilities

1. Advance Organizing of Philanthropic Sector 

• Provide political leadership connecting issue frameworks and articulating a compelling case for RTTC’s long-term vision, strategy and resource needs
• Organize and align key sections of the philanthropic sector around the strategic importance of grassroots organizing, long-term power-building and movement building
• Organize and align key sections of the philanthropic sector around the strategic importance of Just Transition and Regenerative Economic Initiatives that promote investment into long-term community-stewarded projects
• Secure new funding sources for the alliance through establishing relationships with prospective funding institutions and individuals 

2. Direct Resource Strategies Department 

• Provide overall strategic direction of the financial strategy of the organization, developing multi-year projections and and forecasting scenarios, budget oversight and strategic planning
• Lead all aspects of the Resource Strategies Department, and develop the leadership, political clarity, and effectiveness of department staff
• Provide rigorous ongoing support and accountability in the form of regular supervision to (1) the Associate Director of Resource Development, (2) the Senior Organizer of Capital Strategies, and (3) the Senior Organizer of Financial Management. Identify supervisees’ areas of growth and development, provide ongoing constructive feedback, and carry out formal annual staff evaluations. Participate as needed in supporting senior staff with supervision challenges and any performance improvement measures
• Collaborate across departments to create an environment that nurtures a strategic understanding of resource development and management throughout the organization as well as ensuring that Resource Strategies Department staff are deeply grounded in and effectively reflecting all aspects of the Alliance work in resource development 
• Foster an environment of cohesiveness, collaboration and effectiveness and ensure staff accountability for excellence through clearly defined and measurable goals. Create a climate that promotes principled struggle, respect for others, and acceptance of alternative ideas and approaches 

3. Co-Direct Organizational Strategy & Sustainability 

• Provide and contribute to developing politically grounded assessments, proposals and strategic priorities as a member of the Directors Team
• Ensure operational coherence between various departments, staff teams, and member-led governance bodies while strengthening the interdependent relationship between infrastructure and programmatic work 
• Model grounded, politically clear leadership and provide guidance where necessary to continue aligning and cohering our staff and member leaders around organizational strategy, principles, policies, and practices
• Identify and respond to critical events in the form of threats, unanticipated incidents, or negative disruptions that have the potential to impact the alliance’s health, sustainability, and/or wellbeing
• Engage external relationships to build broader social movement-level alignment, capacity, resources, and infrastructure

Common Expectations for all positions: 

RTTC intentionally builds collaborative and transformative culture through:

• Organizational participation: This includes team planning, staff meetings and training, national convenings, collaborative projects across teams, and HR/administrative tasks common to all positions.   
• Evolution of the work: Areas of work may change over time based on organization and movement needs, and always in consultation with the organizer.
• Transformative Praxis: Participate in RTTC’s transformative justice program to align our practice with our values and principles. Build staff unity and cohesion, and principled struggle amongst all team/staff members.  

Location & Travel: Location is negotiable but all RTTC staff are required to live in the United States. RTTC has concentrations of staff in the following areas: Atlanta, Boston, New York (physical office), and the SF Bay Area (satellite office). Travel is required; frequency and duration of travel varies. On average, this position will be expected to travel 1-2 times per month for a total of 5-10 days per month, year round.

Qualities We Are Looking For 

Bold Vision. You bring fierce imagination and deep commitment that we can and will create the world our communities need. You can share that vision in ways that inspire and compel.

Swiss Army Knife. You are resourceful and creative, willing to do what it takes to make a project succeed. You can handle a lot in a fast-paced, multi-faceted work environment.

Interdependent. You are able to work independently, self-managing your time, while maintaining close communication with remote teams
. You are flexible and know that changing the world doesn't always happen between 9am and 5pm.

Low ego, high impact. You are disciplined, rigorous, and more group-centered than self-centered. You have an excellent attention to detail and keep your eyes on the big picture.

Required Experience & Qualifications

• Must have at least 10 years direct fundraising experience, and 5 years of management experience with at least 3 years in a senior management capacity
• Deep grounding in the national social justice movement and the national basebuilding sector including familiarity with and relationships to key individuals and organizations 
• Demonstrated record of transformative leadership within social movements and/or philanthropic sector with a proven record of developing successful partnerships, training and mentoring colleagues or supervisees,as well as embodying a feminist approach and orientation towards leadership
• Strong grounding in leftist tools of analysis including dialectical materialism, conjunctural analysis and strategy development as well as the ability to apply these tools and frameworks to the day to day work of our Alliance 
• Strong interpersonal skills with the intellectual and emotional depth, maturity and collaborative skills to work effectively across all levels of the organization as well as with movement allies and philanthropic partners
• A strong work ethic, ability to maintain and model high personal, political and professional standards, as well as a fit with RTTC’s “work hard, play hard” culture

Position-specific skills: 

• A deep understanding of the national philanthropic sector including -  
• An assessment of the various forces (individuals and institutions) in the sector
• Developed and generative relationships with key individuals and institutions in the sector
• An assessment of the current and future opportunities and threats facing the sector 
• An ability to provide the Executive Director and the Directors’ Team with timely assessments of developments in the philanthropic sector impacts the work of the Alliance and an ability to make recommendations on potential interventions that the Alliance should pursue to maintain our financial health 
• An ability to bring a dialectical approach towards thinking about the ways in which the Alliance strategy and work can and should impact or inform our resource strategy as well as how our resource development work can and should impact or inform our broader Alliance strategy and work 
• Excellent writing skills including the ability to write analytical pieces that document, synthesize and theorizes RTTC’s resource strategy work 
• Strong budget management experience including literacy with financial terms, organizational financial reports, comfort with detail-oriented numbers work and an ability to draw conclusions based on financial models
• An ability to engage and develop a variety of collaborators, at different levels of experience and expertise, around resource development and financial management; as a means to strengthen the internal capacity of the Alliance around this aspect of work
• Strong verbal skills including an ability to effectively address and connect with a range of audiences on all aspects of the Alliance strategy and work, as well as an ability to develop and support Alliance members and staff in effectively speaking about RTTC’s vision, strategy and work around resource development  

Preferred Qualifications

• Ability to write and or speak a second language, preferably Spanish, Mandarin or Cantonese
• Experience as a community organizer and or being part of a local basebuilding organization
• Participation in popular movement mobilizations and or formations
• Experience with integrated capital fundraising, project-related and mission-related investment capital development

General Requirements

• Support the mission, vision and goals of the Right To The City Alliance

• Experience and familiarity with housing justice, gentrification, displacement and anti-eviction work and/or grassroots base-building organizations and transformative organizing
• Experience in multi-racial, multicultural, multilingual settings
• Knowledge of common computer applications: MS Office, Google Suite, Adobe Acrobat, Dropbox, Mac environment, and Zoom video tele-conferencing systems
• Access to reliable internet, phone and remote office arrangements. RTTC provides for costs of home offices.
• Drivers license and auto insurance

Salary and Benefits

This is a full time, exempt position.  The salary range is $115,000-$130,000, compensation commensurate with experience and competitive with our sector.  RTTC offers a generous and comprehensive benefits package including 100% medical, dental and life insurance, employer contribution towards employees’ 401k retirement plan, wellness benefits, staff development resources, and ample sick and vacation paid time off. 

How To Apply

Interested candidates should submit a resume, cover letter, and writing sample or work sample through our hiring portal at: https://righttothecityalliance.rippling-ats.com/. References will be asked for candidates who advance in the process.  Applicants for this position will be required to submit to a background check. Candidates will only be contacted if our hiring team chooses to pursue an interview.

Right To The City Alliance is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.  Applicants from communities heavily impacted by gentrification, displacement and housing insecurity are strongly encouraged to apply. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, familial status, sexual orientation, national origin, ability, age, or veteran status.