Executive Director - GiGi's Playhouse, Inc.

Founded in 2003, GiGi's Playhouse Inc.’s mission is to change the way the world views Down syndrome and send a global message of acceptance for all.  We profoundly change lives through national campaigns, educational programs, and by empowering individuals with Down syndrome, their families, and the community.  All programs are free and are therapeutic or educational in nature. Each one of our programs is designed to work on specific skill development, including speech and language, literacy, socialization, and fine and gross motor skills. GiGi’s Playhouse currently has over 50 locations across North America and growing by several locations annually.  

Job Description 

The Executive Director is a marketing-minded and development-minded individual who ensures long-term sustainability, prominence, and operational excellence at GiGi’s Playhouse Wausau.  This includes helping to ensure operations are fully funded and that the community is aware of the scope and impact of programs offered.  The Executive Director will be actively involved in fund development and fundraising activities, driving community members to the Playhouse, and building a strong community presence and local donations through donor outreach, developing media contacts, and other related activities. The role is estimated to be roughly 50% development and 50% playhouse management and marketing. 

Primary goals for this role include: 

• Deepen family engagement and connection with the playhouse. 

• Increase funding through individual donors, sponsorships, in-kind, and corporate support. 

• Maximize awareness of GiGi’s Playhouse and Down syndrome across Wausau and North Central Wisconsin. 

• Ensure delivery of highest quality operational execution and outstanding customer experience. 

 Essential Job Functions: 

• Operational and Strategic Management 

• Hire, onboard, and manage all who work to support the Playhouse operation, including staff and key volunteers. 

• Motivation and stewardship 

• Performance management and coaching 

• Ensure all programs, events, and activities are fully staffed to support the needs of the Playhouse (we are 99% volunteer-run) 

• Drive the Playhouse’s achievement of the GiGi’s Standards of Execution (SOE), continually striving to achieve Center of Excellence level on all SOEs. 

• Deliver outstanding operational execution in the Playhouse to ensure a high-quality experience for families, volunteers, donors, and community members. 

• Support the team’s ability to maintain all Playhouse hours. 

• Ensure the proper upkeep of the Playhouse facility and its assets. 

• Financial management and fundraising 

• Budget responsibility for the Playhouse 

• Manage a donor portfolio to help ensure local funding meets Playhouse needs 

• Grants 

• 3rd party partnerships 

• Family and Community contributions and sponsorships 

• Event revenues 

• Achieve hard dollar fundraising objectives, continually seeking revenue generation opportunities. 

• Develop and implement fundraising plan to achieve revenue targets in partnership with the local board and fundraising committee. 

• In close partnership with the event chair for each fundraising event, support and heavily engage with all events, particularly in terms of committee representation, revenue-generation, marketing, securing in-kind donations, volunteer recruitment and management, and overall community engagement. 

• Develop and implement stewardship strategy for donors and volunteers 

• Marketing & Communications 

• Responsible for oversight of consistently promoting happenings and impact stories within the playhouse to drive both families and community members into the playhouse and to events. 

• Ensure quality execution of monthly e-newsletters. 

• Oversee the local website and social media platforms to ensure they reflect brand standards, and provide inspirational and relevant content to promote local Playhouse events and activities 

• Identify and foster relationships with local media sources 

• Leverage national marketing tools and strategies, ensuring the GiGi’s mission and messaging is drip-fed throughout all communications and engagements. 

• Partner with the Board to leverage additional marketing leadership and support. 

• Engagement with Program Participants and Families 

• Ensure the program lineup and quality serves the needs of the community while executing the full fidelity expected of GiGi’s Signature programs. 

• Connect with families in the local Down syndrome community to help them further engage in playhouse programs, volunteer activities, and events. 

• Provide a welcoming support network to families new to the Down syndrome diagnosis, actively connecting them to resources, programs, and other families. 

• Passionately serve the needs of the local families and build relationships with them such that they understand that GiGi’s makes a lifetime commitment to them. 

• Build and engage with a formal Family Committee/Board that is involved in fundraising, volunteerism, community outreach, program input, and event support. 

• Continually gather stories and pictures of Playhouse programs and activities to effectively demonstrate impact. 

• Demonstrate sufficient understanding of program objectives and execution models to be able to fill in on occasion to help support program needs. 

• Community Outreach and Acceptance-Building 

• Grow community awareness by proactively bringing groups, organizations, and individuals to the playhouse to engage in the work we do. 

• Engage with the local Chamber of Commerce, schools, and other community organizations to seek donors, volunteers, and partners, through presentations, newsletters, in-person visits, and press releases. 

• Engage in and proactively initiate acceptance initiatives throughout the community, employers, schools, etc. to help build a more accepting environment for our participants and families. 

• Alignment with GiGi’s Playhouse national office, Playhouse network, and local Board of Managers 

• Liase with Board members, work with Board President on agenda and materials for board meetings; effectively communicate Playhouse impact, activities, needs, and concerns. 

• Attend GiGi’s annual National Leadership Conference and ensure completion of monthly Impact Report. 

• Leverage all nationally developed tools and resources in lieu of building new processes, programs, and tools from scratch. 

• Follow all national Standards of Execution and policy manuals; collaborate and work closely with the National Program, Operations, IT, Marketing, and Development teams to ensure outstanding execution of all national resources.  

• In partnership with other Executive Directors across the GiGi’s Playhouse network, provide leadership and act as an example for other Playhouses to follow.  Proactively engage with peers to share ideas, solve problems, and collectively raise the bar of performance nationwide.  

Competencies: 

• Visionary Leadership: displays passion and optimism; inspires respect and trust; mobilizes others to fulfill the vision; provides vision and inspiration to peers and subordinates. 

• Written and Oral Communication: Ability to express ideas and thoughts verbally; expresses ideas and thoughts in written form; exhibits good listening and comprehension; keeps others adequately informed; selects and uses appropriate communication methods. 

• Teamwork: Balances team and individual responsibilities; exhibits objectivity and openness to others' views; gives and welcomes feedback; contributes to building a positive team spirit; puts success of team above own interests; able to build morale and group commitments to goals and objectives; supports everyone's efforts to succeed; recognizes accomplishments of other team members. 

• People Management: Includes staff in planning, decision-making, facilitating and process improvement; takes responsibility for subordinates' activities; makes self-available to staff; provides regular performance feedback; develops subordinates' skills and encourages growth; solicits and applies customer feedback (internal and external); fosters quality focus in others; improves processes, products and services; continually works to improve supervisory skills. 

• Collaboration: Ability to work collaboratively and professionally with staff, board members, committee members, volunteers, families, and donors. Ability to work collaboratively within the community; expand networking opportunities for GiGi’s Playhouse. 

• Problem Solving: Identifies and resolves problems in a timely manner; gathers and analyzes information skillfully; develops alternative solutions; ability to be creative, open minded and flexible; works well in group problem solving situations; uses reason even when dealing with emotional topics. 

• Customer Service: Manages difficult or emotional customer situations; responds promptly to customer needs; solicits customer feedback to improve service; responds to requests for service and assistance; meets commitments. 

• Planning/Organizing: Prioritizes and plans work activities; uses time efficiently; plans for additional resources; sets goals and objectives; organizes or schedules other people and their tasks; develops realistic action plans. 

• Efficiency: Able to produce significant output with minimal wasted effort. 

• Initiative: Volunteers readily; Seeks increased responsibilities; Takes independent actions and calculated risks. 

Qualifications  

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. 

• Education and/or Experience:  Bachelor’s degree required and 7+ years related experience and/or training in social services, non-profit, and/or related field. 

• Language Skills: Ability to read, analyze, and interpret general business periodicals, professional journals, and technical procedures. Ability to write reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals.  Ability to effectively present information and respond to questions from managers and the general public. 

• Computer Skills: To perform this job successfully, an individual should have advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams), social media platforms (Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook). Ability to work proficiently in a database program (Sales Force) to manage interactions with all individuals who interface with this location. 

• Physical Demands: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is regularly required to use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms and talk or hear.  The employee is frequently required to stand; walk; sit; climb or balance and stoop, kneel, crouch, or crawl.  The employee is occasionally required to taste or smell. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 50 pounds.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include ability to adjust focus. 

• Work Environment: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this Job, the employee is occasionally exposed to outside weather conditions. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. 

GiGi’s Playhouse Core Values:  GiGi’s challenges all staff and volunteers to embody the following core values: 

• Enthusiasm:  Bringing positive, high energy to our work 

• Best of All:  Always looking to improve in all that we do.  Challenge yourself every day. 

• Get It Done:  Making things happen and blasting through barriers when needed; figure it out together. 

• Believe:  Believe in ourselves, believe in our mission, believe we can achieve all that we set out to achieve 

• Locally Concerned, Enterprise Minded:  To best serve our local communities, we share best practices and have the humility to leverage the collective learnings from across the GiGi’s network.