Job: Business Development Manager, More Than Words, Waltham

Are you ready to apply your business savvy and entrepreneurial spirit to a social enterprise?

Do you love developing and sustaining business partnerships that help create positive social change?

Are you excited to teach youth the art of sales, growing a business, & hitting benchmarks?

You may be More Than Words!

More Than Words (MTW) is a nonprofit social enterprise that employs youth, ages 16-21, who are in the foster care system, court involved, homeless, or out of school to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business. By working as a team to manage their own retail and online used book business, cafe, and community space, youth develop the employment skills, leadership, and self-confidence they need to successfully transition to adulthood. In addition to store-based job training, youth are engaged in personal transition planning to support their progress towards employment and higher education. The MTW model is premised on the belief that an actual job ? one which provides hands-on, real-world training and developmentally appropriate feedback combined with high expectations, accountability and opportunities for personal development, is the best way to equip youth with marketable skills critical for success in work, college and life.

MTW seeks a creative, highly motivated, detail-oriented and organized individual to lead our efforts to create systems and strategies to coordinate ongoing book donations and support youth to build their inventory. All of the books our youth sell online and in their store are donated through book drives and partnerships. This position is critical to helping More Than Words achieve planned growth by building a sustainable model for sourcing book donations that can be replicated at our second site location within our next fiscal year.

Reporting to the Director of Operations, the Business Development Manager will:

• Identify and execute new sustainable book sourcing partnerships that will provide a reliable, high-quality product pipeline to support our retail expansion.
• Develop and manage overall strategy for sourcing used book and media donations to build MTW youth inventory including book drives, systems for pickup and delivery, appreciation and acknowledgement and connecting donors with other ways to support MTW;
• Cultivate and maintain ongoing strategic partnerships with partners such as universities, moving companies, faith-based organizations, and publishers;
• Develop and execute comprehensive systems for community and business book/media drives;
• Support strategy and systems to source additional media items in addition to books;
• Manage Salesforce.com database system to track and deepen connections with individual book donors and partners;
• Support the Executive Director and Director of Operations with strategic planning to develop sourcing partnerships to sustain two locations; and
• Support the adult and youth team with overall operations of the business training programs, including some evening and weekend hours.
• Develop a youth-engaged sourcing department in keeping with young people s skill development goals.
• Develop training manual, tools, systems and structure with youth to manage a sourcing department to secure ongoing donations and support youth to learn marketable sales, business and communication skills;
• Alongside youth, develop strategies and systems for the team to cultivate, manage and track relationships for book sourcing, including Salesforce.com;
• Support youth to plan and execute book sourcing shifts including emails and phone calls to coordinate book drives;
• Support youth to plan, prioritize and go after key book sourcing partners, i.e. university, corporate, and moving company partners to build sustainable, long-term book sourcing partners;
• Review current trends in the book/media industry ? both online and retail - to help youth identify strategies to improve sales by way of book sourcing; and
• Support youth to create presentations tracking MTW sourcing trends and benchmarks to present at weekly team meetings
• Broaden and strengthen existing donor and partner relationships, and identify new opportunities to deepen investment and engagement with MTW?s mission.
• In cooperation with Executive Director, develop and implement strategies and systems to engage book donors and partners with opportunities for deeper engagement including financial donations and in-kind support;
• Manage Salesforce.com to support ongoing communication and cultivation of book and financial donors;
• Support the MTW team to drive foot traffic to the store by engaging book donors and partners with opportunities to visit and shop
• Support the MTW team to engage book donors and partners with opportunities to support youth outcomes including site visits, workshops and transition employment opportunities for youth

The ideal candidate will have at least 5+ years of sales experience and a proven ability to inspire and compel others to exceed expectations. S/he should have successful experience teaching, training or supervising new learners, and a talent for empowering and engaging youth through project and systems work. The Business Development Manager will be an exceptional communicator with a excellent judgment and sensitivity for MTW's diverse constituencies. A natural affinity for networking and demonstrated confidence and poise is essential for success, as is a strong customer-service orientation and willingness to be accountable. Experience with budgeting, recruiting in-kind donations and managing partner relationships, as well as Salesforce.com database software, is preferred.

Competitive salary and benefits will be offered commensurate with experience.

To apply, please send resume and cover letter to resumes AT mtwyouth.org

More Than Words - Empowering youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business.