Posted on February 15, 2012

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Chief Executive Officer

The Milwaukee Jewish Federation has a unique opportunity for a visionary, passionate executive with strong fundraising and financial management skills to lead an amazing, high quality Jewish community. Perched majestically along the great Lake Michigan, the community of Milwaukee is the home of some 30,000 Jews. Greater Milwaukee is an extraordinary place to live, raise a family, form friendships, enjoy world-class performing arts and professional sports, and live out our shared Jewish values. Heralded as the city of festivals, Milwaukee hosts the world’s largest music festival. Those who call Milwaukee home take pride in all their city has to offer.

With a history dating back to 1902, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation raises approximately $6.6 million per year through its Annual Campaign, which is allocated to two direct service programs, ten local partner agencies and other national, Israel and overseas partners. During the current campaign year, an additional $900,000 has been raised for J-Help, a community emergency assistance fund. MJF’s endowment development program, the Jewish Community Foundation, has assets of more than $103 million.

During the summer of 2011, the Milwaukee Jewish Community held its first-ever Jewish Community Summit, a first step in a "Reimagining" process designed to gather input from a wide cross-section of community stakeholders and bring about transformational change in the way Federation supports its mission and carries out its work. The reimaging effort offers the next CEO an exceptional opportunity to build a dynamic partnership with longstanding committed as well as emerging leadership and transform the governance structure, development strategy and resource allocation to align the federation’s operations with its new Community Initiatives.

An integral part of this effort will be for the CEO to engage broader segments of the community, work closely with the board, create a sense of team with the staff, increase the capacity and strengthen the pipeline for new volunteer leadership, and work closely with the agencies and other institutions to achieve the community goals. A strong communicator, the new CEO needs to be a convener of the community and a facilitator in the solution of community issues. Outstanding interpersonal skills, ability to assess and take risks, a proven track record of successful financial resource development, and strong business acumen are essential.

The successful candidate will be:

• passionate about Judaism and Israel, with compassion and understanding of the Jewish people and the needs and welfare of Jews locally, in Israel, and around the world
• a strategic thinker and planner with the organizational expertise to successfully develop and implement a new shared vision for the organization
• an effective and dynamic fundraiser, with a proven track record of success
• an energetic self-starter with highly developed interpersonal skills who can relate well with staff, lay leadership, donors and the community at large
• a collaborator who can develop and steward trusted relationships with donors, prospects, community agencies, and synagogues
• knowledgeable of fiduciary responsibilities, finance and accounting operations of non-profits, as well as general legal and governance requirements
• a good team player able to work with staff in mentoring, setting goals and objectives, driving performance toward their achievement and able to evaluate results according to professional standards.
• a good communicator, listening well, managing time commitments and displaying an outgoing personality
• experienced with a minimum of a 7+ year track record of success in for-profit or non-profit leadership position(s); Bachelor's degree minimum, Masters or equivalent preferred, MBA highly desire

Application Instructions

Interested individuals should submit a cover letter and resume to carin.maher@jewishfederations.org who is conducting the search on behalf of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.