Senior Economic Development Manager

Interise stimulates economic revitalization in lower income communities with a proven model for accelerating the growth of existing small businesses. Our StreetWise ‘MBA’™ (SWMBA) provides established small business owners with a hands-on, stage-specific, business curriculum; a professional support network; and increased access to capital and procurement opportunities. As our national network of alumni—75% of whom are either located in a lower income community or are a member of economically disadvantaged group—grow their businesses, they contribute to economic development, job creation, and community leadership.

Interise is a national not-for-profit organization with offices in Boston. Since 2004, we have been a national leader in business-led economic development. Interise was ahead of the curve then; we are always ahead of the curve.

We license the use of SWMBA to partners across the country—government agencies, business associations, anchor institutions, and economic development organizations. As well as use of the SWMBA, we provide training, and support for our partners’ staff, and performance and outcomes assessment. We build the capacity of our partners to work successfully with established small businesses as they build the capacity they need for continued growth. Our partners bring the local relationships, know-how, and commitment needed to have impact in their own community.

Our innovative approach to leveraging the growth potential of businesses in lower income communities has been recognized by the following: University Economic Development Association (2017), World Bank (2014), Social Impact Exchange Social Impact 100 (2014), SBA’s Emerging Leaders Initiative contract (since 2008), and New England Business Association (2008)

Our Impact:

• Since 2004, 6,000+ established small business owners have completed our StreetWise ‘MBA’™ capacity building program. Each year an additional 1,500 join them.
• Over the last five years, alumni created new jobs at 6x the rate of the private sector as a whole, and have secured over $3 billion in government and institutional contracts. During the Great Recession, they created jobs at 14X the rate.
• In 2015, the average net revenue growth of Interise alumni businesses was 19 percent, while the average among employer businesses was 3.5 percent.
• Thirty percent of alumni reported that in 2017 they won new procurement contracts with an average value of $2.4 million to each business.
• Our minority business owners outperform our alumni as a whole in job creation and revenue growth.

We expect our ecosystem approach to promoting inclusive and equitable economic growth will generate even greater impact as the size, depth, and variety of businesses and partners in our national network increase. Interise is the right organization for you if you want to work in a social enterprise that is making a significant impact in an environment aligned with our values (http://www.interise.org/about-us/our-mission-and-values). We want to talk with you if you are fearless in getting to yes!

Revenues:

$5MM You can learn more about our innovative approaches to small business development and scaling impact at our website (www.Interise.org)

Position Overview:

The Senior Economic Development Manager will be getting in on the ground floor of a new organizational vertical, leading the expansion and continued development of two new place-based, equitable economic development initiatives.

• Leadership in Local and Equitable Anchor Procurement (LLEAP), a systems-approach to building collaboratives of anchor institutions, small business capacity-builders, and financial institutions that increase the number of mutually beneficial contracts between anchor institutions and local and minority small employers.
• Latin Business Growth Initiative, a national, city government competition to catalyze the scaling of Latino-owned businesses informed by research from the Aspen Institute Latinos in America Program.

We will also look to the Senior Economic Development Manager to identify and develop additional equitable economic development opportunities. The successful candidate will work independently, as well as within and across teams and with our national network of partners to ensure cross-functional integration of new initiatives.

Required experience and skills

• 8 to 10 years of experience in economic development with demonstrated success, and increasing responsibility, preferably at the municipal or regional level.
• Proven track record of successful consultative sales—leveraging the value of shared knowledge to get to “yes.”
• Proven track record in building and working with successful collaborations that generate measurable impact.
• Proven experience in successfully understanding and utilizing organizational behavior to achieve systemic change.
• Experience in applying systems thinking to social, economic, or physical ecosystems.
• Ability to lead concept development, strategy development, and implementation for a national initiative.
• Demonstrated excellence in organizational and managerial skills.
• Highly developed interpersonal, oral and written communication and presentation skills.
• Proficient computer skills: MS Office Suite (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint), customer relations management database (preferably Salesforce).
• Bachelor degree required, graduate degree preferred.

Preferred experience and skills

• Up to date knowledge of policy and trends in small business development within lower-income communities and/or minority business ownership.
• Awareness of the policy and trends in leveraging anchor institutions for economic development, mayors and economic policy.
• Awareness of the challenges faced and strategies used by Latino-owned businesses to achieve scale.
• Experience with motivating members of collaborations to collect supporting data for research and impact evaluation