Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Spark the Journey

Status: Full-time, exempt employee 

Location: Washington, DC

Deadline: Resume reviews begin immediately. 

About Spark the Journey

Spark the Journey (Spark) is a nonprofit that provides mentorship and a community of support for young adults to chart their own paths to achieving college and career success. Its unique mentorship approach fosters long-lasting relationships between mentors and mentees as young adults pursue the education, career path, or personal goals they want to achieve–with a community of support behind them.   

Founded in 1993 as Capital Partners for Education, the rebrand to Spark the Journey now reflects an expanded strategy to address income inequality. Outgoing CEO, Khari Brown, has led Spark the Journey since 2001, guiding a talented team in partnership with a strong, committed board and donor community through three strategic growth plans over the past ten years. Now a nationally recognized best-in-class mentoring program, in 2024, Spark was awarded $2 million from MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving fund. 

Spark is focused on supporting young adults impacted by income disparity. Mentees attend under-resourced high schools, live in under-resourced neighborhoods, and lack access to the benefits of generational wealth. With Spark’s mentorship, community, and support, these mentees have the resources to find their own individual pathway from high school to increasing economic mobility for themselves, their families, and their communities.

With nearly 400 mentees from seven Washington, DC high schools, Spark’s participants attend college at 1.5 times the rate of their peers and are 3 times more likely to complete college. More than 85% report meeting their GPA targets, participate in career readiness activities, and rate their mentorships as meeting or exceeding expectations. Learn more at sparkthejourney.org. 

Leadership Overview

For more than three decades, Spark has helped hundreds of young people chart their own paths to economic mobility. The next CEO will build upon a foundation of innovative programs and a dedicated base of supporters to fully realize Spark’s mission and expand its reach. 

The next CEO will be an inspirational and experienced leader who champions educational and career attainment as a way to close the opportunity gap and uplift entire communities. The CEO will bring a blend of experience across strategy, change management, and fundraising to develop and lead a sustainable growth plan that elevates Spark’s profile and thought leadership, while expanding its reach to more students. The next CEO will work closely with the board, staff, and key stakeholders to chart a new strategic plan and accompanying financial plan to increase the number of participants served through potential new partnerships, geographic expansion, and workforce opportunities.

The CEO will lead a 20+-person team and oversee the senior leadership team. Their leadership style will be one deeply invested in building positive team cultures, developing internal talent, and empowering staff. The CEO will have a strong orientation toward processes, procedures, and tools that ensure Spark’s operations reflect the organization’s ambition and maturity. 

Spark is well-positioned to sustain its significant growth and achievements. The CEO will be an inspiring spokesperson for its mentorship model and help to extend the organization’s reach, visibility, and partnerships at local, regional, and national levels. 

With a budget of over $3M, the CEO will join a mission-driven organization supported by an active network of major donors. An agile and eager fundraiser, they will build upon and continue to diversify Spark’s base of support, including examining new revenue sources from corporations, governments, as well as potential earned revenue models. 

Like all nonprofit leaders, the next CEO should bring a balanced approach as a visionary and operational executive. They will have the capacity for organized, focused work, and an ability to manage multiple projects under tight deadlines while adapting to changing situations and opportunities. Specific areas of responsibility include: 

Strategic Leadership and Governance

• Set strategy to expand Spark’s reach, elevate its thought leadership, and identify complementary collaborations to advance participants’ long-term success. 
• Champion Spark’s mission and impact to donors, partners, public officials, and media.
• Lead and mentor a diverse, skilled, and values-driven team. Supervise senior leadership so that they manage departments with innovation, sustainability, and professionalism.
• Collaborate with the board to maintain good governance practices. Report regular updates, set quarterly meeting agendas with the Board Chair, and liaise with committees. 
• With the board, recruit other high-profile members to replenish and augment membership over time.

Fundraising and Revenue Development

• With the Board and development team, advance annual and long-term development plans that cultivate support from major donors, individuals, foundations, and corporate sponsors. 
• Steward and solicit major gifts. 
• Play a leadership role sustainably growing Spark’s recurring revenue, including cultivating new major donors and testing the feasibility of new earned revenue models.

Programs and Partnerships

• Oversee a sustainable and youth-centered growth strategy that expands Spark’s effective mentoring model geographically and increases numbers of participants and mentors served. 
• With the programs department, identify effective strategies, new partnerships and alliances, such as educational institutions, as well as corporations and future employers. 
• Ensure data evaluation processes measure and improve program effectiveness. 

Management & Administration

• Ensure Spark is a great place to work by setting a positive workplace culture and inspiring vision for personal and organizational growth among Spark staff.
• Oversee Spark’s financial health, including monitoring revenue and expenses and forecasting multi-year projections that provide a foundation for programmatic strategy. 
• Ensure Spark maintains policies, procedures, and technology to facilitate effective workflow, decision-making, and communication across departments.
• Cultivate an ambitious and high-caliber team by supporting overall talent management and development efforts, including internal professional pathways.

Experience, Skills and Qualities

The Board is seeking an experienced senior leader who will lead the organization with vision, skill, and creativity. While we understand that no single candidate can possess every qualification listed below, the following are considered priority areas:

• Record of Leadership. 10+ years of increasing managerial and supervisory responsibility.  
• Passion for mission. Committed to youth mentorship for college and career success.
• Strategic Leadership. Connects ideas and plans with actions. Develops, executes and communicates short and long-term plans that inspire the board, staff, mentors and mentees.
• Change Management. Builds consensus, makes tough decisions, promotes teamwork, and ensures clarity around organizational goals and performance expectations. 
• Powerful spokesperson. Passionate and effective elevation of Spark’s mission and impact. 
• Emotional intelligence. Leads ambitiously with compassion and empathy.
• Fundraising acumen. Success with fundraising efforts, including strategizing and soliciting support through partnerships, foundations, corporations, governments, and individuals.
• Skilled supervisor. Strong record of hiring, mentoring, motivating, and managing staff performance; delegates and distributes decision-making effectively. 
• Relationship-Building. Cultivates authentic relationships with a broad range of key audiences, including donors, staff, board, mentees/mentors, and partners.
• Powerful storyteller. Passionate and effective elevation of Spark’s mission and impact. 
• Financial acumen. Strong understanding of organizational finance, including nonprofit accounting, budgeting, cash flow, and tax reporting.
• Governance Experience preferred. Work or service with nonprofit or for-profit boards.
• Content Area Expertise preferred. Knowledge of issues, trends and policies affecting high school, college, and career readiness, youth development, and economic advancement. 
• Local ties are considered a plus. Personal or professional connections to youth, education, workforce development, fundraising, or related fields in Washington, DC or the region. 

Compensation 

The budgeted compensation, inclusive of salary and bonus, is up to $275,000. Spark also offers a competitive benefits package that includes health, dental, and vision insurance, retirement contributions, and generous paid leave.

Location

Spark the Journey’s offices are located in Washington, DC and this role requires the CEO’s frequent presence at the DC office, at meetings with donors and partners, and events.

Application Process

Spark is conducting this search in partnership with Good Insight, a national executive search firm serving nonprofits and associations. Interested applicants should upload a resume and a detailed cover letter that describes their qualifications to good-insight.org/careers. 

Early applications are encouraged due to the pace of the search. For best consideration, please apply no later than mid-March. Direct confidential inquiries to Carlyn Madden, Ana Chapa, and Tej Pikle at SparkTheJourney@good-insight.org. 

Equal Opportunity Employer

Spark the Journey is an equal opportunity employer.