About The Center for Economic Democracy

As a social movement organization, the Center for Economic Democracy (CED) builds programs and strategies to build the power of working class communities of color across the United States. Specifically, CED works to support a Just Transition from racial capitalism towards economic democracy, where communities govern land, labor, and capital to sustainably meet collective needs.

As an intermediary, all of CED's programs are built in partnership with community power building groups and alliances rooted in working class BIPOC communities. At the local level, CED fiscally sponsors key community organizations, and is seen as an important resource mobilizer for post-capitalist enterprises and policy strategies. In addition, CED provides staffing and resources so that diverse organizations can act in coalition to advance larger, more resource intensive goals. As a multi-disciplinary organization, CED also helps bridge the divide between community organizing, cooperative economic development, social justice philanthropy, impact investing, and post-capitalist economic theory.

In the national social movement landscape, CED has played a leading role in popularizing Just Transition strategies to "build the new" while also "fighting the bad." CED is known for translating the highly theoretical models for democratically governed economies into concrete pilots and policies that everyday people can build, experience, and defend. CED has shared its learnings and strategies with hundreds of organizations across the US, and helped connect groups in its geographic region to the rest of the country. Lastly, CED directly joins or helps build key national coalitions like the ‘Rising Majority’ and ‘United Frontline Table’ to share local learnings and advance trans-national political and narrative strategies.

CED runs four program areas to build community power in Boston, MA, across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and trans-locally across the U.S.: Popular Education & Narrative Change, Movement Infrastructure, Campaigns & Collaboratives, and Capital Strategies.

For more information on the Center for Economic Democracy please visit its website at https://www.economicdemocracy.us/

The Opportunity

As a social movement organization, the Center for Economic Democracy (CED) not only centers anti-oppression practices in its partnerships, programs, and operations, but also works to model forms of liberatory collective stewardship within its own organizational governance. CED is worker directed with much of its key decision making, including budgeting, hiring, salaries, and strategy, being made by the staff collective. CED empowers all staff (regardless of title) in these decisions operating with a commitment to shared leadership.

CED is excited to operate with a Co-Executive Director model. The role of the Co-Executive Directors is to collectively, between themselves and with staff, lead the organization to achieve even greater levels of strategic influence, impact and innovation. In partnership with a Board of six and working in deep collaboration with an exceptional team of 18 staff members, the Co-EDs will have overall strategic and operational responsibility for a budget of $3.1million, CED staff, programs, sustainability, and the achievement of CED’s mission.

Shari Davis has assumed one of the Co-Executive Director roles as of August 2024, and the organization is conducting an external search for an exceptional leader to partner with them as the second Co-Executive Director. The ideal candidate will be local to the Boston area and bring the expertise necessary to play a pivotal role in strategy, organizational management, and fundraising. More about Shari and the rest of CED staff bios here.

Co-Executive Director Responsibilities

The Co-Executive Directors will divide responsibilities between themselves and be expected to work with the appropriate staff to perform key duties and responsibilities including, but not limited to:

Organizational Strategy

Co-lead the creation of a strategic plan that is values-aligned and actionable with measurable milestones and outcomes that leads to the fulfillment of CED’s mission.
Operationalize CED’s strategic plan in a way that ensures that strategy, structures, systems, staffing, and processes are aligned, adequately resourced, informed by the broader solidarity economy ecosystem, and functioning for maximum impact.
Manage organizational growth including overseeing the design and leading the administration of policies, procedures, and internal infrastructure in collaboration with other staff.
Identify challenges to timely progress and pinpoint and implement solutions with foresight; respond to crises with creativity, discernment, and a solutions-oriented mindset.

Development and External Relations

Co-lead CED’s fundraising strategy and initiatives, build fundraising capacity across the organization that ensures a strong base of institutional and individual funders.
Fundraise for grants and/or program-related investments to support racial and economic justice projects; advise and organize funders and philanthropic networks in support of these projects.
Contribute to the writing of grants and grant reports as needed.
Maintain excellent, consultative, and deeply authentic relationships with CED’s stakeholders, and serve as one of the external ambassadors for CED with the media, donors, and other external stakeholders.
Advance and disseminate CED’s mission by participating in public forums, movement spaces, and press outlets, and sustain a regular public presence through writing and public speaking that expands CED’s reach and makes its work highly visible; support staff in doing the same.

Team Leadership

Co-lead CED’s management circle fostering collaboration across the organization, ensuring programs and teams are communicating, partnering, and working in concert at an appropriate pace toward a broader vision and set of goals.
Respect the expertise of staff and cultivate areas for power sharing and staff autonomy.
Maintain and build upon a culture of collaboration, innovation, and accountability while managing conflict with care and a restorative framework that is attentive to power dynamics and systems of oppression.
Provide strong partnership to the CED Board, cultivating open lines of communication and high levels of engagement.
Along with the Senior Director of People & Culture, support staff in professional development, ensuring organizational policies and organizational culture are designed to encourage staff to show up as their full selves and step into their power.

Programmatic Support and Strategy

Provide strategic and thoughtful guidance to CED’s four programs with an eye to maintaining morale, building strategy, and working through tactical challenges and solutions.
Work closely with the Program Directors and actively contribute to the work of programs including through representing CED externally with elected officials, business leaders, and other partners.
Co-develop new program areas through research, relationship building, and program conception and design.
Connect programmatic work back to CED’s larger mission and vision by working with staff to understand and advance theories of economic democracy in each programmatic area.

Administration, Finance and Operations

In partnership with the Senior Director of Finance, develop and monitor short- and long-term financial plans, and set financial priorities including CED’s investment priorities.
Act as final signatory for CED and oversee legal and compliance functions.
Create, refine, and manage processes and systems to improve organizational function while managing a growing team.

Candidate Profile

Co-EDs will use a shared leadership model to collaborate with each other and the broader team. For this hire, CED is looking for a Co-ED who specifically brings experience in most, if not all, of the following areas:

Business Development: experience with or detailed knowledge of collectively owned real estate or land, incubating or operating solidarity economy businesses and co-ops and the ability to share this experience/knowledge with partner organizations that are pursuing these models.
Multi-issue Program Development: experience leading the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs that support workers, influence corporate governance, invest in philanthropy, and ultimately leads to policies and practices that support economic democracy.
Local Campaigns / Networks: experience in or detailed knowledge of the Boston campaign ecosystem as well as the networks and partners specific to CED.
Fundraising: is a core responsibility of both Co-EDs in order to support the continued growth of the organization.

Additionally, the Co-ED’s will provide programmatic support and strategy experience and knowledge in the following areas:

Social Movement Ecosystem: working in or supporting grassroots and/or labor organizing sectors; experience with policy and/or corporate research and advocacy campaigns that advance racial justice, economic justice, and/or other forms of social justice.
Solidarity Economy: familiarity with theories and practices that aspire towards more democratic, just, and sustainable worlds beyond capitalism; experience working with solidarity economy movements that are emerging in the U.S. and beyond.
Capital Strategies: familiarity with multiple dimensions of the US social capital ecosystem, ranging from community-based lenders to social justice philanthropy to shareholder activists; affirm the need for critical capital and finance interventions in further visions for just transition.

General Expectations of all CED Team Members

Committed to social, economic & ecological justice; working towards liberation & wellbeing of all people.
Is proficient with common technology platforms (Google Suite, Zoom, Microsoft etc.).
Can align with CED’s guiding team principles:
- Practice trust through rigorous communication, collective reflection and input, and democratic work planning.
- Create a community of collective care through support and accountability to our own lives, each other, our organizational partners, and the movement.
- Find joyful abundance through collective problem solving.
Enjoys collaborative work environments and is interested in supporting the growth and success of teammates.
Balances initiative, vision, commitment to values & purpose with consistent attention to detail + ability to manage, prioritize, meet deadlines in a fast-paced work environment; embodies the venn diagram here.

Location & Travel

CED is headquartered in Boston, MA. A majority of staff are located in Massachusetts, with some staff in California and the DC metro region. CED will hire a candidate who lives in or will move to the Boston area. The Co-Executive Director will be required to be in the office bi-weekly to attend in person team meetings which are located in Jamaica Plain. The role will also require periodic travel for programmatic and fundraising activities.

Center for Economic Democracy

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