Wenham Museum Seeks Executive Director at Small Museum Association

The Wenham Museum seeks an experienced Executive Director to lead its team and advance its mission of preserving and sharing local history and culture. The Executive Director will oversee all museum operations, including financial management, community outreach, staff leadership, and strategic planning. The ideal leader will possess a hands-on approach, financial acumen, strong leadership skills, and a passion for engaging with diverse audiences. Working in alignment with a Board of Trustees, the Executive Director will be responsible for maintaining the museum's visibility within the community, fostering positive relationships with stakeholders, and ensuring the museum’s continued growth and success.

Roles and Responsibilities

Strategic and Administrative Leadership

• · Preserve, develop, and sustain the Wenham Museum’s unique historical collections and exhibitions, engaging both internal and external partners and resources.
• · Build new and revise existing policies and procedures to accept receiving financial contributions, including in-kind bequests.
• · Foster a supportive environment where staff feel valued and motivated to contribute to the museum's success.
• · Maintain professional standards and pursue initiatives in alignment with professional museum organizations such as the American Alliance of Museums.
• · Attract, hire, train, retain, and supervise both paid and volunteer staff, prioritizing a positive work culture and empowering team members.
• · Engage in a hands-on approach to museum operations, assisting with day-to-day tasks and ensuring flexibility in roles among paid and volunteer staff members.
• · Invest strategically in facilities maintenance, addressing preservation needs while ensuring compliance with safety standards.
• Embrace other strategic and administrative leadership responsibilities, as needed.

Financial Management and Donor Cultivation

• · Collaborate with staff, board of trustees, and donors in fundraising initiatives and strategies to meaningfully increase revenue from gifts, memberships, special events, and admissions.
• · Oversee annual operating and capital budgeting processes, collaborating with staff, board, and volunteers to both ensure proper resourcing and maintaining fiscal responsibility.
• · Obtain consensus for and drive periodic capital campaign(s) and annual fund-raising activities.
• · Explore and identify opportunities to grow and diversify sources of earned revenue which may include seeking grants and awards at the local, state, and federal level, and through collaboration with regional museums and other institutions.
• · Embrace other financial management and donor cultivation responsibilities, as needed.

Civic and Community Engagement

• · Advocate as the face and voice of the organization within the community and amplify its mission at the local, regional, and national networks.
• · Develop an active, annual marketing calendar and robust public relations campaign, as well as expand the Museum’s dynamic website content to reflect and connect with all audiences.
• · Increase the organization’s visibility and relevance through participation in civic functions, community celebrations, conferences, and partnerships with other institutions.
• · Foster new and strengthen existing community relationships to support ongoing operations and strategic initiatives.
• · Sustain and deepen working relationships with local and state government agencies, legislators and public and private museums, universities, and related professional organizations to enhance appreciation for Wenham Museum’s visibility, importance, and unique collections.
• · Advance programming and initiatives to increase opportunities and access for local schools and new visitors of all ages and backgrounds locally, regionally, and nationally.
• · Embrace other responsibilities civic and community engagement, as needed.

Traits and Characteristics

The next Executive Director at the Wenham Museum requires a broad range of people skills. Strengths will include practical thinking and systems judgment, an openness and desire to grow in understanding others, and role awareness. The next leader will be versatile and navigate change capably, ensuring the safety of staff and the continuity of the organization. The job thrives on a harmonious, collaborative, resourceful, and open-to-new-ideas approach. The ideal Executive Director navigates interpersonal dynamics adeptly, makes strategic decisions, and embraces collaboration and innovation, recognizing the experience and contributions of staff while exploring opportunities to apply their collective expertise and maximize the organization’s reach and impact.

Other key competencies include: 

• · Leadership and Personal Accountability – Organize and influence others to align with a vision while creating a shared sense of purpose and direction while staying answerable for personal actions.
• · Customer Focus – Anticipating, meeting, and/or exceeding visitor and community needs, wants, and expectations.
• · Project Management – Identifying, prioritizing, and overseeing all resources, tasks, systems, and people to obtain results.
• · Problem Solving, Creativity, and Innovation – Define, analyze, and diagnose key components of a problem to formulate solutions while creating new approaches, designs, processes, technologies, and/or systems to achieve desired results.

Qualifications

Five years of hands-on, leadership role(s), demonstrating proven success in fundraising, programming, and relationship building in a nonprofit organization is essential. Demonstrated comprehensive revenue building skills. Experience navigating change and inspiring a high-achieving team of museum and arts education professionals and volunteers is required. Extensive experience in financial and operational management is crucial. In addition to exceptional verbal and written communication skills, a profound and demonstrated commitment to creating welcoming, accessible, and safe spaces is required.

Compensation and Benefits

The anticipated salary range for this role is $85,000 to $100,000. The compensation package includes four weeks of paid vacation, accrued sick time (in accordance with Massachusetts law), and voluntary short-term disability, accidental injury, and cancer insurance programs.

The Wenham Museum eagerly welcomes diverse perspectives and talents to enhance our team, ensuring all qualified applicants are considered regardless of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, or disability. We are committed to finding the ideal candidate and appreciate those from non-traditional backgrounds. Your unique experiences and skills are valued; we encourage you to apply and showcase how you can contribute to our mission.