Director of Partnerships & Community Engagement
Reports to: Catherine Read, Senior Director, Field Strategy and Advocacy
Type: Full-time employee
Compensation: Commensurate with experience
Position Overview
Right to Start is seeking an experienced Director of Partnerships & Community Engagement to provide leadership and hands-on management to build, engage, grow, and mobilize action for Right to Start's national networks. The current focus is on three core networks: Partners (organizations), Founders (committed supporters), and Ambassadors (civic influencers). These networks are critical to the success of both Right to Start’s mission and the "America the Entrepreneurial" campaign. The organization’s networks will likely change and evolve over time, and the Director’s responsibilities would likely adjust as well.
This is a dedicated, full-time position on the R2S team. The Director will design, test, build, and operationalize programs to grow network membership, engage and mobilize our national networks to drive impact, and ensure continuous communication with R2S leadership.
This role blends people leadership, community engagement, and organized planning and follow-through. It is ideal for someone who loves working with people, thrives in a fast-moving social impact environment, and wants to help grow a nationwide movement for entrepreneurship.
This role requires the ability to use R2S's software systems, including Quorum and Monday.com, to track network growth, engagement, and campaign outcomes. Effective tracking of results is a primary expectation.
Primary Responsibilities
The Director of Partnerships and Networks will initially focus on three core networks, ensuring their building, engagement, growth, and mobilization-driven action advances the Right to Start mission and the "America the Entrepreneurial" campaign.
Founders Network (National Community of Committed Supporters)
The Founders Network serves as the national community of committed supporters for the America the Entrepreneurial campaign. At the completion of the campaign, this network will continue and transition into the community for Right to Start as a whole. The Founder network generates its support from the main call-to-action (CTA) of the America the Entrepreneurial campaign to "become a Founder" of America’s future.
Community Growth & Recruitment: Own the execution for recruiting new Founders and meeting goals to expand the national community, which is core to building R2S's national base of supporters.
Active Engagement:
Provide regular touches with the community: emails, updates, CTAs, texts, and opportunities to participate.
Activate Founders around campaign pushes (examples: storytelling, activation events, civic engagement).
Highlight and engage top-performing Founders via the newsletter, social media, and other R2S communications channels. Ensure that top-engaged Founders feel celebrated and connected to the broader national effort.
Metrics: Oversee tracking of community growth and engagement data within Quorum, including the number of Founders recruited and actions taken.
Partner Network
The Partner Network consists of organizations dedicated to participating and taking actions in the America the Entrepreneurial campaign across the country. At the completion of the campaign, this network can be transitioned into the organizational partner community for Right to Start as a whole.
Network Building & Engagement: Lead the strategy for building and expanding the Partner network, including building, managing, and fulfilling partner relationships and ensuring regular engagement across the full network.
Strategic Partner Management: Work directly with our most active partners to align strategic goals, foster collaboration on campaign initiatives, craft formal partnership agreements as necessary, and manage fulfillment of any such agreements.
Action Calls: Plan and lead Partner Calls that serve as opportunities for collective action for partners. The calls should ideally be held monthly, but may be adjusted as needed. These calls will provide clear, high-impact actions for partners to take in alignment with the America the Entrepreneurial monthly CTA.
Campaign Alignment: Ensure partners are consistently activated with clear calls to action that align with the national campaign.
Data Tracking: Maintain accurate and comprehensive records of partner agreements, engagement metrics, and outcomes in Quorum and Monday.com.
Ambassador Network (Volunteer Civic Leaders)
The Ambassador Network is composed of volunteer civic leaders who are influential in their communities, help us drive impact, and serve as champions for the movement.
Recruitment Pipeline & Coverage: Manage the Ambassador recruitment pipeline to identify, engage, and onboard new members and build strong, diverse representation (across backgrounds, geographies, and ideologies) from volunteer civic leaders across the country.
Monthly Call Strategy & Execution: Plan, script, and deliver polished, purposeful monthly Ambassador Calls that:
Highlight Ambassador activities, personal stories, and successes
Provide practical, actionable educational content (including guest speakers) to advance Ambassadors’ day-to-day work
Curate “workshop-style interactive sessions where the group can work on Ambassador efforts, challenges, and projects to cultivate peer learning and shared problem-solving
Equip Ambassadors to take action within their communities by giving them tools, data, ideas, policies, connections, and other resources
Mobilize Ambassadors around monthly America the Entrepreneurial campaign calls to action
All call materials (including agendas, slides, talking points, examples, and follow-up notes) must be prepared in advance. Meetings should be executed with intention, clarity, and high production value.
Meeting reminders should be sent in advance that motivate Ambassadors to attend. Follow-up communications should be sent out afterwards that promote learning and continued engagement.
Annual Ambassador Projects: Oversee the full cycle of the annual Ambassador project (each person’s individual commitment of how they will advance the mission), including:
Setting expectations and timelines
Providing tools, support, and structured guidance
Tracking progress and deliverables
Ensuring high-quality project completion across the network
Elevating completed projects through calls, newsletters, and social channels when appropriate
Ensure that every Ambassador understands their annual project responsibilities and has the support necessary to execute successfully.
Support & Engagement: Maintain ongoing, personal engagement with Ambassadors through regular check-ins, updates, and recognition
Ensure Ambassadors feel supported, connected, and empowered as volunteer civic leaders advancing Right to Start’s mission
Identify highly engaged Ambassadors and provide additional opportunities for visibility or leadership when appropriate
Tracking progress and deliverables
Ensuring high-quality project completion across the network
Elevating completed projects through calls, newsletters, and social channels when appropriate
Ensure that every Ambassador understands their annual project responsibilities and has the support necessary to execute successfully.
Cross-Network Alignment
Collaborate with the Sr. Director of Field & Campaign Strategy to align all Right to Start networks with the work of statewide coalitions, ensuring shared goals, consistent communication, and mutually reinforcing actions.
Ideal candidate profile
Proven experience in community management, volunteer coordination, partnership development, or network building, preferably within a fast-paced non-profit, political, or advocacy environment.
Skilled at building trust and strong relationships with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds, sectors, geographies, ideologies, and lived experiences.
Demonstrated ability to recruit, manage, and motivate large, dispersed volunteer or membership groups.
Strong organizational skills with a meticulous approach to data entry, reporting, and project management. Experience with Monday CRM and Quorum is a plus.
Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills.
A passion for entrepreneurship, economic opportunity, and the mission of Right to Start.
Who you are
Highly entrepreneurial, with a dynamic “get the job done” spirit.
Cares deeply about everyday people trying to start and grow businesses, especially those whose voices are often unheard.
Understands that the real day-to-day work of business is quiet, hard, and does not make headlines.
Possess personal qualities of humility, integrity, dependability.
Able to work effectively with people across highly diverse backgrounds, geographies, and ideologies.
Self-directed, dedicated, motivated, and disciplined, especially in a remote work environment where one is expected to perform at a high level without monitoring.
Very strong writer.
What we offer
Highly flexible remote work arrangements (live anywhere)
Highly flexible hours (no fixed office hours; but we schedule regular online virtual meetings and quarterly in-person team retreats)
Comprehensive insurance: medical, dental, vision
401(k) benefits
Competitive salary
Annual Remote Work Stipend to cover office-related costs, such as internet connection, coworking space, and computer/phone equipment (currently $3,000 per year)
Flexible vacation policy and generous holiday observances
Family leave
Our Principles
Everyone has a fundamental Right to Start.
We have the right to pursue our entrepreneurial dreams and shape the destiny of our own lives.
We must protect and nourish starters.
Society should provide equal access to resources for all of us to start and grow.
To level the playing field, tilt it.
Americans don’t seek favors, but every starter deserves an equal shot to succeed.
Renewal comes bottom-up.
Communities and nations are transformed by lifting up their people.
Grow ecosystems to grow economies.
Prosperity for all comes by breaking barriers, fostering trust, bridging differences.
All of us matter.
Every big idea starts small and vulnerable, and needs all of our help to grow.
Right to Start is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity and inclusion. All employment decisions at Right to Start are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status, marital status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate.