Sustain Ontario Seeks Acting Director

Job Posting: Acting Director

One-year Maternity Leave Contract

3 – 5 days/week

Position Overview

Sustain Ontario – The Alliance for Healthy Food and Farming is a province-wide, cross-sectoral alliance that promotes healthy food and farming. Sustain Ontario, a Project of Tides Canada Initiatives Society, takes a collaborative approach to research, policy development and action by addressing the intersecting issues related to healthy food and local, sustainable agriculture. Sustain Ontario advocates for a food system that is healthy, ecological, equitable and financially viable by:

• Strengthening Ontario’s farm and food networks
• Showcasing food system innovations and champions
• Pressing for farm and food policy reform

At this significant time for local, sustainable food systems, Sustain Ontario is seeking an Acting Director to provide support and mentorship while the current director is on leave for one year.  

Anticipated Start Date: This position will ideally start mid-February, and no later than March 1, 2013

Location: Location is flexible, but responsibilities will require regular work from Sustain Ontario’s Toronto office as well as the ability to attend in-person meetings in Toronto and Guelph.

Salary: Hours and salary are also flexible. The selected candidate must be available 20 – 37.5 hours a week; salary is dependent on experience.  The maximum salary will be $60,000, but up to $85,000 pro-rated. Please state your desired weekly time commitment in your cover letter.

Key Responsibility Areas

Reporting to the Steering Committee, and working closely with the Tides Canada Initiatives (TCI) support team and Sustain Ontario’s Program Manager, the Acting Director will steward the network during the leave period and build capacity within the network for the long term. Duties will include:

• Build financial sustainability for the network;
• Strengthen the network’s relationships with government;
• Steward, and continue to develop strong relationships with, key players in the food and farming system;
• Support on-going strategic planning, evaluation, and development;
• Develop capacity within the network to continue to build and enhance financial sustainability, government relationships and a strong alliance.

To ensure that all activities are cohesive, coordinated and increase the network’s long-term capacity, and to successfully carry out their role, the Acting Director will undertake the additional following activities:

• Consultation and engagement of diverse stakeholders
• Development of strategic partnerships
• Strategic consensus building
• Coordination and implementation of government relations activities along with key stakeholders and alliance members
• Creation and facilitation of collective actions and collaborative initiatives
• Implementation of the network’s developmental evaluation approach
• Creation and implementation of fundraising and financial sustainability plans
• Manage preparation of funding/grant proposals, liaise with donors/supporters and fulfill reporting requirements
• Responsible for fiscal health of the project, including budgeting, setting and following financial controls, meeting revenue and expense targets and ensuring accurate and timely reporting (recognizing that this day-to-day work will be managed by the Program Manager)
• Responsible for human resources including overseeing staff, workplans and evaluation (day-to-day project operations will be managed by Program Manager)
• Mentorship of the network’s staff and leadership
• Facilitation and support of the steering committee, advisory council, member and partner engagement
• Report regularly to the steering committee on key issues and factors affecting the project
• Maintain a working knowledge of developments and trends in local sustainable food systems and assist in identifying strategic research and advocacy issues of benefit to Sustain Ontario and its members
• Refinement, as necessary, of the network’s processes, procedures and structures

Qualifications Required

• Minimum Bachelor’s Degree with at least 10 years of relevant work experience
• Strong understanding of food sovereignty and food security issues, or, transferable experience and knowledge working on related issues
• Very strong facilitation, consensus building and negotiation skills
• Proven experience and ability in government relations
• Proven ability to fundraise from diverse sources
• Ability to encourage collaboration and develop strategic partnerships
• Ability to engage and bring together a diverse range of stakeholders and work cross-sectorally
• Strong skills in strategic thinking and planning, with an ability to identify challenges and opportunities, create effective plans and deliver results
• Self-directed with exceptional time management skills and the ability to work autonomously as well as part of a collaborative team
• Experience establishing an organization or alliance preferred
• Experience with non-traditional alliance / cross-sectoral networks
• Experience acting as a mentor and capacity builder
• Comfortable using technology including word processing, basic spreadsheets and cloud-based document sharing
• Personal creativity, strategic judgment, and vision
• A high level of personal and professional integrity

Additional Skills and Experience Considered Asset

• Strong knowledge of agricultural programs and policies in Ontario
• Experience in media and communications
• Marketing abilities
• Public awareness and engagement campaign experience
• Ability to speak French

How to Apply

 Together with your resume, please forward a cover letter, which includes your responses to the following questions:

 1. What interests you most about this position?

 2. Based on our requirements, why are you a strong candidate?

 3. How many hours a week are you interested in working?

Please send your resume and cover letter with your responses to the above questions to director@sustainontario.ca.

Application Deadline: Wednesday January 16, 2013; interviews will take place the last week of January.

Please direct any questions or inquiries to Ravenna@sustainontario.ca

For more information about Sustain Ontario and Tides Canada Initiatives, please visit:

www.sustainontario.ca

http://tidescanada.org/projects/

 As Sustain Ontario is a Project of Tides Canada Initiatives Society (TCI), the selected candidate will be an employee of TCI.

TCI is a registered Canadian charity dedicated to providing uncommon solutions for the common good by leading and supporting actions that foster a healthy environment and just Canadian society.  TCI is a shared administrative platform, providing governance, human resource, financial, and grant management, for 40 projects across Canada, allowing projects to more effectively achieve their missions.