Program Manager (Part-Time)

The Wright, a Colorado-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is growing one of its core initiatives, The Wright Collegiate Challenge (WCC). The WCC prepares Colorado higher-ed students to enter the workforce by providing an opportunity to gain first-hand experience working alongside small businesses, nonprofits, and government organizations across the state to develop actionable solutions to current-day challenges within their respective organizations.

This opportunity is a part-time position, averaging 20-hours per week, for a defined 18-month period beginning October 1, 2023 and culminating March 31, 2025. This position is funded through the Colorado State Outdoor Recreation grant program, a program of the Colorado Outdoor Recreation Industry Office (OREC) of the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT).

In their role, the Program Manager (PM) will work alongside the Executive Director to co-lead and manage the expansion of the WCC program. Key growth areas for the initiative will include bringing additional higher education institutions into the program, engaging a greater number of students, and introducing new challenge partners and innovative challenges to the program. This is a communications intensive role requiring strong organizational and reporting skills. The PM will be responsible for working alongside a Compliance Contractor to create and submit detailed quarterly reports to OEDIT grant administrators.

About you

You are a clear and consistent communicator with strong interpersonal skills. You are highly organized. Project management is your jam. All things operational – timelines, budgets, benchmarks, accountability, reporting. These are the things that make you sing. Nothing makes you happier than seeing the trains run on time. You are cool and composed and quick to think on your feet in fluid environments. You are thoughtful and inclusive, and a proactive communicator when addressing unforeseen challenges.

You thrive on collaboration, care deeply about others and find satisfaction in empowering the people around you to do their best work. Leading and working within teams excites you. You are a listener, eager and open to learning from others. All others.

You are human and curious. Interacting with other humans and engaging with new communities fills your tank. You are a people wrangler. You get all the right people in all their right places for all the right reasons at all the right times. You are self-motivated and able to respond flexibly to the needs of the organization.

Words that speak to you – kindness, equity, the outdoors, place, purpose, humility, community, trust, opportunity, education, reciprocity.

Responsibilities

• Expanding Academic Partner Base and supporting the student experience

• Manage the expanded program, establishing a foundation for long-term success

  • Challenge Partner recruitment, education and support

  • Academic Partner recruitment, engagement and ongoing support

  • Student support

  • Ecosystem Partner development, engagement and support

• Raise awareness of program benefits

  • Expand & diversify employer applicant pool

  • Foster engagement opportunities for WCC alumni community

  • Cultivate a broader-base of engaged Ecosystem Partners

• Update and elevate existing WCC Toolkit

  • Stakeholder roles and expectations

  • Operational processes and procedures

  • Key activities timeline

• Marketing/communications

  • Support Executive Director in developing communications materials, collecting media content from program partners and student teams, and executing a balanced campaign incorporating social and traditional media.

Project Deliverables

• Stakeholder support services (approx. 20% of your time)

  • Ensure the student experience is prioritized throughout the program, helping them to develop their career readiness toolkits.

  • Establish a set of central resources which includes an outline of roles, responsibilities and project goals, ensuring all participating students feel empowered and equipped to take on their respective team project.

  • Manage student project deliverable process and parameters

  • Oversee community coordinators representing each school

  • Execute Certificate of Completion process

  • Develop and execute series of topical workshops

• Communications (approx. 40% of your time)

  • Serve as primary point of contact and information source for Students, Academic Partners, Challenge Partners & Ecosystem Partners

  • Build out materials for kick-off and closing events.

  • Review current WCC program delivery platform, identify areas for improvement, provide recommendations and execute, where appropriate.

  • Aggregate and create relevant content for social media use.

  • Draft blog copy for website. Profiles of students, projects, project partners, etc.

• Operations (approx. 25% of your time)

  • Work in a collaborative capacity to maximize value across the stakeholder ecosystem, understanding the key goals and desired outcomes for each.

  • Organize and lead regular stakeholder meetings

  • Manage Challenge Partner recruitment, review, and selection process

  • Manage the onboarding of new Academic Partners

  • Serve as primary liaison with faculty and challenge partners

  • In tandem with Executive Director, develop a 3-5 year strategic plan for the WCC

  • Manage key events: Kickoff & Closing pitch events.

  • Develop a project management plan designed for year-to-year use

  • Ownership and management of project budget

  • Manage and track project workflow

  • Key document creation and management

• Reporting & Compliance (approx. 15% of your time)*

  • The WCC has engaged an outside contractor to lead compliance and reporting requirements associated with the State OREC Grant Program.

  • PM will support project compliance and reporting requirements by:

    • Diligent recording of time spent on project/grant work, along with detailed accounting of specific work completed.

    • Record keeping, including receipt collection and tracking

    • Providing contractor with necessary information and documentation required for their compliance work.

    • Drafting of quarterly Budget Narrative to share with contractor and be submitted to grant administrator at each quarterly reporting cycle.

    • Working with contractor and Executive Director to produce a final report at the completion of the project.

Required Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Leading and managing initiatives with multiple stakeholder groups.

• Experience managing teams and senior stakeholders in a distributed/remote structure.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

• Excellence in reporting, documentation, document creation and management

• Presentation and slide deck creation skills.

• Budget management experience

Preferred Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Familiarity with Colorado’s higher education ecosystem

• Familiarity with current issues within Colorado’s outdoor industry sector

• Experience working with or alongside students of all types –undergraduate, graduate, traditional, nontraditional

• Familiarity with the innovative and inspiring business, nonprofit and government-related who are advancing and advocating for Colorado’s outdoor sector.

• Experience working within the nonprofit sector.

Employment Details

• Term of Employment: 18-months (in direct alignment with terms of the grant agreement.)

• Start Date: TBD. October 1, 2023 (earliest) - January 1, 2024 (latest)

• Average hours per week for term of employment: 20/hrs. (please note that work flow may vary depending on programmatic schedule)

• Compensation: $2,900/month. Total 18-month compensation = $52,2000 (based on 20hr/week - please note that work flow may vary depending on programmatic schedule)

• Applicants must reside in Colorado, currently and throughout the term of employment.

• Benefits: No benefits are provided with this part-time position.