Be a part of the change!
Join a team of committed, results-oriented, and successful professionals who work to support and advance United Way of Southern Maine’s (UWSM’s) mission to improve people’s lives by mobilizing the caring power of our community.
Position Title: Director, Evaluation
Department: Community Impact
Salary: $76,000.00
Reports to: Senior Director, Community Impact Operations
Date: October 2023
GENERAL SUMMARY:
The Director, Evaluation is responsible for leading efforts to support evaluation activities connected to United Way of Southern Maine’s initiatives and investments and those of Thrive2027. This position will provide strategic planning, oversight, and execution connected with data collection and evaluation at both the program and community levels. The Director, Evaluation will identify key areas for evaluation, build capacity for on-going evaluation efforts, and lead work to conceptualize and implement long-term strategic evaluation plans to improve internal practices and inform external community-based work. This position will support management of external research contractors, training and technical assistance to organizations on various evaluation designs, and training and technical assistance on scaling evidence-based programs. This position also serves on the organization’s strategic planning team.ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:
- Implement and manage internal systems for conducting outcomes measurement and assessment tied to current United Way of Southern Maine work (such as United Way programs, public policy, and community investments) and community-wide goals (such as Thrive2027):
- Work in collaboration with key stakeholders, including the community impact team, to determine appropriate metrics and benchmarks.
- Review and consolidate, if appropriate, all current tools and practices for measuring impact to ensure cohesive, consistent, high-quality data collection and analysis.
- Ensure timely monitoring and that measurement of changes in program conditions are considered in planning, assessing impact, and reporting on progress to date.
- Analyze data and make recommendations for how United Way can have the best impact with its programs, public policy and convening work, and community investments.
- Plan, execute, and manage evaluation components for various initiatives, programs, and investments.
- Work closely with internal and external program staff to ensure that evaluations provide quality, useful, and timely information.
- Develop and provide training and technical support to United Way of Southern Maine’s funded programs and other partners on evaluation, design and management, performance improvement, and use of data.
- Assess capabilities of software programs to capture data of our partner-led programs and initiatives, as well as our UWSM-led programs.
- Facilitate relationships with partners to execute evaluation plans.
- Manage contracts with external evaluators to ensure the design, execution, and completion of various third-party evaluations.
- Collaborate and coordinate with various working groups and external partners; serve on coalition working groups on data/measurement/evaluation.
- Support internal teams (especially the Resource Development and Marketing/Communications departments) with data to inform written and presented need for support materials and funder updates/reports.
- Represent United Way of Southern Maine in community meetings, boards, coalitions, and forums as assigned.
- Support organizational leadership in researching and publishing findings about our evaluation work.
- Provide superior service that exceeds the expectations of both internal and external customers.
- Actively participate in projects, special events, cross-functional teams, or workgroups that support the entire organization’s work.
- Other activities and duties as assigned.
PREFERRED EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:
- Advanced degree (Ph.D. preferred) and five to seven years of related experience in evaluation, statistics, research design, or measurement fields or equivalent education and experience with progressively increasing responsibility.
- Well-developed technical and analytical skills related to human services planning and evaluation.
- Ability to present data in written, electronic, and oral forms.
- Practical understanding of research, evaluation, data collection methods, and statistics, and the ability to articulate results.
- Ability to analyze problems develop and implement creative solutions.
- Advanced computer abilities.
- Commitment to sharing knowledge and information, building the community’s research and evaluation capacity, and managing the evaluation process using a collaborative approach.
- Superb verbal and written communication skills.
- Exceptional emotional intelligence, social and interpersonal skills such as self-awareness, empathy, and teamwork.
- Ability to work independently and as part of a team, manage multiple tasks, set goals, and establish priorities promptly.
- Attention to detail.
- Comfort working through ambiguity.
- Experience in organizational and community development principles and practices, outcome measurement processes, and collaboration principles.
- Experience with and ability to plan, manage, and report on program-level activities.
- Demonstrated understanding of evidence-based practice at the programmatic and policy levels.
- Experience working with large quantitative and qualitative datasets and working knowledge of analysis methods and software.
- Experience with supporting the implementation of evidence-based practice in education and/or community settings.
- Experience with evaluation in education and/or community settings.
- Experience working with and supporting volunteers.
- Experience facilitating focus groups.
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY:
NoneWORK ENVIRONMENT:
This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, filing cabinets, and fax machines.PHYSICAL DEMANDS:
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is occasionally required to stand; walk; sit; use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; balance; stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl; talk or hear; The employee may occasionally lift or move up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.POSITION TYPE/EXPECTED HOURS OF WORK:
This is a full-time position. Days and hours of work are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. At UWSM, we are focused on creating connections within the Southern Maine community. Our current hybrid model is focused on doing just that, requiring our team members to spend at least 16 hours per week creating connections. Examples of creating connections include office time, external meetings/gatherings, training, volunteer engagement events, and even a cup of coffee with an internal/external partner. Our work can require long hours, including those outside the normal 8:30-5:00 schedule.TRAVEL:
Travel is primarily local during the business day.OTHER DUTIES:
Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time, with or without notice.WHY CHOOSE UNITED WAY OF SOUTHERN MAINE?
Advancing the common good is about helping one person at a time and creating community change that benefits every community member. We are all connected and interdependent; we all win when a child succeeds in school, families are financially stable, and people are healthy. We have a staff of 40 dedicated employees to help us achieve our goals and fulfill our mission: To improve people’s lives by mobilizing the caring power of our community. To support the great work of our employees, we offer a competitive salary and a robust benefits package, including health and dental insurance, a 403 (b) plan, life insurance, generous paid vacation, holiday, and sick time off. Additionally, United Way of Southern Maine offers:- Convenient and central Portland and Kennebunk locations with free parking
- Tuition assistance and opportunities for professional development
- Wellness resources and Employee Assistance Program Access
- Personal and floating holidays
- Paid volunteer time off
- An excellent team of top-notch professionals that share your passion for strengthening our community
- Community Centered
- Results Focused
- Intentionally Collaborative
- Committed to Excellence
- Leading with Integrity
