Fast Facts

The Associate Director of College Relations will manage lead generation, cultivate relationships with community colleges, and ensure successful service fulfillment to drive student success initiatives at Achieving the Dream (ATD). This remote position requires strong interpersonal and project management skills, as well as experience in the nonprofit sector and community college environments.

Responsibilities: Key responsibilities include overseeing lead management, nurturing college relationships, and supporting college engagement to enhance student success.

Skills: Required skills include strong interpersonal and relationship-building abilities, project management experience, and proficiency with CRM systems such as Salesforce and MS Office 365.

Qualifications: Preferred qualifications include a Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of five years of related experience in membership management within the nonprofit sector, particularly in community colleges.

Location: This position is remote, with occasional travel required depending on departmental needs.

Compensation: $80000 - $90000 / Annually

Position Details:

Position Type: 

Full Time, Exempt 

Reports To: 

Executive Director, Services Management 

Work Location: 

Remote 

Mobile First Work Policy: Upon hire, employees are notified of their work location (Silver Spring or Remote). Fully remote may not be appropriate for all positions at ATD (Achieving the Dream). ATD wants to ensure that both employees and ATD will benefit from these arrangements. 

Level of Travel Required: 

Occasional travel per department and organizational needs 

Job Overview

This position encompasses comprehensive lead and relationship management for all new and former leads, ensuring they receive personalized guidance and support throughout the service fulfillment process. The Associate Director oversees the receipt and filtering of leads and supports the guidance and college matching with ATD services. The Associate Director nurtures relationships with community colleges across the country. Through effective college engagement and insightful analysis, the position supports the matching of services that drive both internal success and college satisfaction. 

Duties and Responsibilities: 

Lead Management (30%) 

• Receive and evaluate incoming sales leads to determine their potential and direct them appropriately. 
• Maintain and update customer relationship management (CRM) systems to ensure data accuracy and completeness as aligned with leads management role. 
• Develop and implement strategies to nurture leads through the sales funnel, increasing conversion rates.
• Monitor the progress of leads through the pipeline, providing regular updates and insights to the Services Management team and CSO. 
• In collaboration with program team members, guide leads to the appropriate ATD services based on their needs and student success goals in collaboration with ATD programs and coaching teams. 
• Work closely with the Marketing and Communications office to develop and refine strategies that effectively nurture existing leads and attract and bring new leads into the pipeline.
• Lead efforts with college relationship coordinators across the organization to support colleges to and through fulfillment of desired services. 

Relationships Stewardship (30%) 

• Develop and maintain strong, trust-based relationships with key institutional stakeholders.
• Maintain regular communication with institutions both as they enter the sales pipeline as new or returning leads, and when institutions convert to former institutions.
• Acquire deep knowledge of institution decision-making processes. 
• Develop and implement strategies to keep colleges engaged even in the absence of service participation. 
• Stay with the college until they are ready to join or re-engage with the organization, ensuring a seamless transition. 
• Organize and/or attend events to maintain and enhance new and existing college relationships. 

College Engagement & Insight (20%) 

• Develop a comprehensive understanding of college organizational student success goals and strategic objectives. Develop reports demonstrating college needs and relevant background.
• Regularly engage with college to gather insights, identify emerging needs, and anticipate future opportunities for collaboration. 
• Utilize data and feedback to assess college satisfaction and identify areas for improvement in service offerings and customer service efforts. 
• Leverage college insights to recommend and implement solutions that align with their specific goals and needs. 
• Develop a comprehensive understanding of ATD services and how they will meet college student success goals.
• Stay informed on trends, policies, and developments within higher education and the broader industry to ensure we are well-equipped to support and advise colleges effectively.
• Collaborate closely with the Marketing and Communications team to provide insights on higher education trends, college experiences, and industry-specific language that enhance targeted communications and outreach strategies.

General Operations (20%) 

• Manage role operations to ensure seamless workflow and productivity across teams impacting lead generation and college fulfillment including quote building, build and monitor Statements of Work and invoices when needed.
• Support the development and execution of standard operating procedures aligned with Associate Director responsibilities.
• Participate in staff meetings, attend events, and otherwise contribute to strengthening the impact of the team and organization.
• Manage, train, and support College Relationship Coordinators. 
• Serve as the interface between College Relationship Managers and the Finance team to ensure the accuracy of college invoicing. 
• Engage in professional development opportunities to enhance knowledge of ATD program and services. 
• Collaborate with staff in supporting the execution of ATD's strategic plan.
• Manage the CRM system to maintain pipeline and reporting accuracy, including but not limited to updating unique records with relevant and timely information.
• Conduct thorough research and analysis to gather and report on key intelligence related to colleges, enabling data-driven recommendations on how best to meet their needs through our services. 

Skills/Qualifications/Experience: 

• Bachelor’s degree with a minimum of five years related experience, preferably in membership management in the nonprofit association field.
• Experience within a community college setting required. 
• Prior relationship building and customer service experience. 
• Strong interpersonal skills and an ability to build rapport with higher education network participants and with coworkers. 
• Comfort with absorbing and interpreting large amounts of quantitative and qualitative data from different sources. 
• Ability to efficiently craft clear and concise actionable written summaries and supporting evidence for relationship managers. 
• Strong project management skills and experience managing multiple projects simultaneously. 
• Working knowledge of Salesforce, MS Office 365, MS Excel, and Tableau preferred. 

Core Competencies: 

Collaboration: Demonstrates respect, humility, and willingness to collaborate when seeking to understand others and making decisions. 

Equity Mindset: Demonstrates capacity to recognize and address racialized structures, policies, and practices that produce and sustain racial inequities. 

Learning Orientation: Embraces challenges, new ideas and different perspectives as an opportunity to learn; continually seeks out and applies new learning to activate change or improvements. 

Systems Thinking: Defines the system and one’s role in the system. Sees relationships and the dynamic elements of the holistic system and executes work accordingly. Influences the system and maps connections to ATD’s external landscape. 

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 sit, use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus. 

Equal Opportunity Employer: 

Achieving the Dream is committed to creating and maintaining a diverse work environment. Employment policies and decisions are based upon merit, qualifications, performance, and business needs. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), gender identity or expression, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, legally- protected genetic information, marital status, veteran status, or sexual orientation.