Vice President, Volunteer Leadership
Human Rights Campaign
Washington, DC, USA
We strongly encourage people of color, transgender and non-binary people to apply. HRC is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes everyone, including non-LGBTQ+ people, to join our team. Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that people from marginalized communities are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At HRC, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
Position Summary:
The Vice President of Volunteer Leadership leads HRC’s national volunteer program, driving local fundraising, membership growth, and community engagement across 32 markets. This role partners with volunteer leaders and the Board of Governors to advance HRC’s mission, develop high-impact teams, and mobilize grassroots and grass-tops networks as effective advocates and fundraisers. The Vice President sets strategy and provides hands-on leadership to strengthen volunteer capacity, expand long-term impact, and ensure consistent execution of best practices nationwide. The position champions diversity, equity, and inclusion across all efforts while managing a small team and a portfolio of communities.
Position Responsibilities:
Volunteer Leadership Program Management:
- Provide direction, training and support to the members of HRC’s Board of Governors and 32 steering committees to meet/exceed individual and organizational fundraising, ambassadorship and leadership goals.
- Develop and deliver in-person annual retreat content for communities nationwide.
- Align volunteer supporting staff partners to determine the best ways to support individual communities.
- Play an integral role in the annual Equality in Action weekend including Board meeting and workshop content and the annual Awards Ceremony.
- Model best practices for the team by managing a portfolio of Steering Committee communities.
- Travel regularly to maintain meaningful connection to volunteer communities, travel for annual steering committee retreats. Additional travel may include attending and representing HRC at events, and other organizational activities across the country.
- In addition to all steering committee-led fundraising positions, oversee strategy and day to day volunteer management of Digital Engagement & Political Action, working in close collaboration with members of the Campaigns & Communications team.
Team Leadership & Program Operations
- Lead and develop a high-performing Volunteer Leadership team.
- Facilitate the annual goal and quarterly reporting process to measure impact of volunteer contributions.
- Create and manage annual budget and resource allocation.
- Serve as a member of the Development & Membership leadership team, collaborating with VPs and Senior Director across programs to advance volunteer engagement strategies and volunteer driven fundraising outcomes.
Board of Governors Strategy & Partnership:
- Partner with and provide strategic advice to the national Chair, Vice Chair and members of the Board of Governors Executive Committee to recruit, onboard and educate new Governors to be successful fundraisers, ambassadors and leaders in their communities.
- Serve as staff lead for the annual Executive Committee retreat and all Board of Governor meetings.
Training, Development & Reporting:
- Develop, promote and deliver effective training for HRC volunteers and the staff who support them.
- Analyze best practices and programmatic outcomes to regularly update content.
- Ensure that HRC’s digital volunteer engagement platform is up to date and relevant, and that volunteers have the training necessary to use it.
- Establish benchmarks for annual volunteer recruitment and retention goals and report on performance in comparison.
Leadership Recruitment:
- Develop and implement strategy to recruit high-impact volunteers for key leadership roles to meet increasing organizational needs.
Affinity Program Management:
- Convene the staff leads for HRC’s affinity programs in the service of supporting volunteer led organizational growth.
- Ensure successful integration of affinity programs with overall fundraising & volunteer leadership.
- Manage budgetary spending across all groups.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging:
- Embed diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging strategy across volunteer leadership programs in partnership with the DEIB team.
- Expand engagement of underrepresented communities.
- Partner to strengthen cultural competency across volunteer networks.
- Other duties as assigned.
Position Qualifications:
- A bachelor’s degree (or equivalent work experience) and a minimum of 10-15 years' experience in managing communications and liaison efforts with external constituencies and large-scale project management.
- Demonstrated success in healthy volunteer relations and community building efforts is a must.
- An established strong professional ethic is required to deal with confidential and sensitive board and organizational matters.
- Strong, proven conflict resolution skills are required.
- Previous board member or local volunteer management experience required.
- Must possess the ability to advocate within the organization for the volunteers while helping volunteers develop appropriate expectations.
- Must be well organized, skilled in high-level conflict resolution, detail-oriented and able to prioritize multiple assignments and handle tasks in a positive, timely manner in a fast-paced environment.
- Must have exceptional writing skills and strong verbal communications abilities with particular emphasis on customer service.
- Strong skills with Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) and Google Apps (Gmail, Google Docs and Drive).
- Experience with volunteer engagement platforms and/or membership database programs (Digital Cheetah and/or ROI Solutions’ Revolution Online) a plus.
- Flexibility with work schedule; this position does require evening and in-person weekend work.
- Ability to travel frequently, 1-3 weekends/trips per month. Peak travel season for this role falls between February and June, with the season including at least 2 trips per month.
- Strong interest in and knowledge of the rapidly changing LGBTQ+ equality movement.
All positions at the Human Rights Campaign may require travel on a regular basis or periodically. Where the need arises for business travel, appropriate compensation as outlined by the Fair Labor Standards Act will apply.