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African Library Project

Open Board Positions 2017

The African Library Project (ALP) changes lives book by book by starting libraries in rural Africa. Our grassroots approach mobilizes U.S. volunteers, young and old, to organize book drives and ship books to partner libraries in Africa. Our method makes a concrete and personal difference for children and adults on both continents.

We work with our African partners to create small sustainable libraries in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Swaziland. Our model provides many benefits for the U.S. too, including greater knowledge of Africa, leadership opportunities for young Americans, recycling of books, and many books donated to American organizations (those not appropriate for Africa). Our model is scalable and, while already making a significant difference, it has the potential to do much more. We have helped develop over 2000 libraries in 12 years!

We are looking for board members who have one or more of the following skills/experience:

• CRM/Donor Management

• Donor Cultivation

• Event Planning

• Fundraising

• Marketing/Public Relations

• Operations

• Project Management

• Salesforce Administration or Development

• Social Media

• Website Design & Content Management

• Media Relations/PR Experience

• IT Strategy/Business Analysis

We are a lean, primarily volunteer-based, non-profit organization. Our Board of Directors consists of talented, energetic professionals who volunteer their efforts to bring millions of wonderful books to children who have none. Our monthly board meetings are working sessions, filled with laughter, camaraderie, and lots of potluck food. We are candid, rigorous, and serious about making a difference, yet we are light-hearted with each other at the same time.

Our ideal board member will have a passion for Africa and literacy, and we prefer board members with experience in Africa. As a board member you will be responsible for one primary area (see specific position descriptions below). In addition, as part of our working board, you will participate in making decisions around both strategy and direction of the organization and then execute those decisions with the help of other volunteers. Each board member is expected to make a personally significant financial donation yearly and to participate in fundraising. Our CRM database is Salesforce, and we would prefer if you have experience using the system, but it is not required.

Time Commitment: 10-20 hours/month. You are required to attend our monthly board meetings in person. They are held on the second Saturday of every month from 9am-noon and rotate between Portola Valley, San Francisco, and Berkeley. The remainder of your volunteer time can be scheduled at your convenience.

Board Position Descriptions

Social Media Director:Social Media Director will leverage social media to build community among existing book drive organizers and donors and find new, first-time book drive organizers and donors. Engage with a growing community to maintain engagement, share success stories, encourage repeat book drives and/or donations. Work with Communication and Marketing Directors to keep a steady flow of content to existing platforms; Facebook (7000+), Twitter (2000+), Instagram, YouTube and Google+. Help find ways to increase the number of past and present book drive organizers following ALP on social media to grow online audience. Experience using social media in a professional capacity is ideal.

Marketing/PR Director: Marketing/PR Director will leverage paid marketing vehicles and public relations to find new, first-time book drive organizers and donors. Use paid and content marketing vehicles and manage existing Google AdWords account. Develop relationships with media interested in covering ALP activities and distribute press releases to print and digital media appropriate for ALP stakeholders. Based on a communications calendar, partner with the Communications and Social Media Director to develop targeted campaigns to attract Book Drive Organizers and donors. Ideal skills include experience with SEO, Google Analytics, managing Facebook and ad campaigns, public relations and creative ideas about how to reach new audiences and expand existing ones.

Development Director:Development Director will oversee and manage event-related fundraising to meet annual fundraising targets, cultivate new donor relationships, and stay connected to donors throughout the year. Support the CEO in implementing fundraising strategies across the organization, including helping to identify and develop corporate, community and individual prospects to meet the organization's fundraising priorities. ALP has one major fundraising event every two years for which the Development Director takes the lead on managing and coordinating various sub-committees. This biennial event, Harambee! (Let's All Pull Together to Get it Done in Swahili), in the past has comprised a dinner for ~150 guests, live and silent auctions, and live entertainment. In addition to Harambee!, ALP fundraising strategy includes several small to medium events hosted by various board members throughout the year. The Development Director is responsible for ensuring that board members have the resources and support needed and the organization is on track to meet annual goals. Other events that the Development Director may be called upon to coordinate include receptions for visiting African partners, board social events, ALP Anniversary parties, etc. Ideal skills include excellent organizational and project management skills, passion for event planning, and experience fundraising and cultivating donor relationships.

Operations Director: The Operations Director, in conjunction with the CEO, is responsible for U.S. operations, from the time book drive organizers sign up for book drives until the container of 30-60 libraries leaves the warehouse enroute to Africa. Manage a small team of volunteer intake coordinators and container managers who together assume responsibility for all day-to-day operations, including coordination of and support for book drive organizers; maintain records in Salesforce; engage with the warehouse to manage inventory and shipping from the U.S. to Africa; and work with ALP's liaisons to each African country to ensure library applications are submitted on-time and processed accurately. Develop and implement strategic plans to increase efficiency and ensure all aspects of the operations pipeline can scale to keep pace with the increase in book drives. Must have excellent project management, organization, communication, and problem solving skills as well as a strong work ethic and sense of responsibility. Experience with Salesforce and Google G Suite a plus but general comfort with technology is required.

Technology Director:Technology Director will manage ALP’s technical portfolio, assess technology needs of the organization, research and assess software options, and ultimately ensure alignment between needs and technology to support organizational goals. Set standards and best practices for all technical tools and train board members and volunteers to ensure proper usage and compliance in following best practices. Salesforce is integral to ALP operations; used for CRM to manage donors, book drive organizers and prospects; book drive application management; marketing analysis to better target book drive organizers; matching applications to book drive organizers; tracking donations; shipment tracking; and reporting. The Technology Director will need to be intimately familiar with the capabilities and capacity of Salesforce, work with all other committees such as MarCom, Operations, and Development to explain how Salesforce interfaces with each role and leverage it effectively to improve efficiencies across the organization. Perform routine Salesforce administrative tasks including manage users, data and security; build reports, dashboards and workflows. Serve as primary point of contact for board members needing reports or general user support. Partner with Salesforce account manager, consultants and volunteer developers to define requirements and implement customizationsincluding integration of third party tools to extend functionality (e.g., Zapier, PayPal, Quickbooks). The ideal candidate will have broad knowledge of Salesforce and its capabilities; experience evaluating vendors and software; experience overseeing information technology strategy, developing, and implementing IT policies and goals for an organization; experience managing developer resources and defining software requirements.

Website Director: Website Director is responsible for design, development, and maintenance of the ALP website; keeping it fresh, secure, useful and aesthetically pleasing and consistent. The ALP website is central to the organization. It is the primary vehicle used to facilitate interaction with prospective book drive organizers and provide support to active book drive organizers. More specifically, the Website Director will update and develop new web content and graphics; train other staff to use the website and make minor content updates; guide creation and implementation of long-term plans to improve functionality; diagnose and repair problems with website and databases; track site usage/statistics; ensure and improve security features; perform backups; and maintain hosting and dependent third-party relationships. For major or complex changes, collaborate with paid consultant and provide oversight and direction as needed. Other responsibilities include build, improve, and troubleshoot web-based applications; ensure functionality of book drive applications is maximized; and act as primary email administrator. Future enhancements to the website may include setting up landing pages (using Unbounce or similar) and enhancing/replacing technologies used to integrate site with Salesforce and funding platforms.

The ideal candidate will be detail oriented and able to evaluate and prioritize requests from multiple board members. Desired technical skills include experience with Joomla; Google apps; Google Analytics; Adwords; command of HTML, CSS, and other mark-up languages; fluency in Content Management Systems; understand cross-browser compatibility, W3C web design standards, accessibility and usability; ability to troubleshoot problems with web hosting services and leverage hosting service interfaces (such as CPanel) to carry out necessary tasks (e.g. backups, restores, security enhancements, etc.); experience with online payment methods and e-commerce, particularly relating to donations; third party apps FormAssembly, PayPal, and Zapier; and Gmail account administration.