Position Title: Director, Events and Strategic Partnerships

Status: Full Time

FLSA: Exempt

Location: Hybrid (Washington D.C.) or Remote

JOB SUMMARY & KEY PRIORITIES

The Director of Events and Strategic Partnerships leads the vision, strategy, planning, and execution for Active Minds events and experiential marketing while cultivating the strategic partnerships that make them successful. This role oversees a comprehensive events landscape including national and regional conferences, experiential marketing, local activations, and the end-to-end design of the annual gala fundraiser. This role is responsible for ensuring in-person events, activations and experiential marketing aligns with Active Minds' strategic goals and desired experiences. By balancing event planning with relationship management, you will create events and brand activations that expand organizational reach and deepen Active Minds' engagement.

Leading with both creativity and structure, you will manage and mentor a dedicated team while overseeing day-to-day event operations and cross-functional collaborations to identify new experiential marketing opportunities. You will work to ensure all events run efficiently and within budget. Ultimately, this position serves as the primary project leader to execute impactful events, bring critical partnerships to life, engage new audiences, and establish meaningful pathways for youth and young adults to become aware of Active Minds and take action for mental health.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Develop and Manage a Comprehensive Events Strategy and Plan

Collaborate cross-functionally to identify optimal methods for reaching and engaging target audiences (conferences, local events, experiential marketing) and develop strategies and execution plans. Pursue events and experiential marketing opportunities that align with organizational goals.

• Fundraising & Supporter Engagement Events: Lead the end-to-end experience design and serve as the key project manager for the annual gala hosted in the Washington, D.C. area, and collaborate cross-functionally to plan regional in-person supporter engagement experiences.
• National and Regional Conferences: Lead the event design and planning for an annual Active Minds Conference as well as regional conferences and convenings. Focus on the user-experience, marketing activations, venue and partner coordination, site logistics, scheduling, and on-site management.
• Youth & Young Adult Awareness Events: Lead the strategy, planning and implementation of experiential marketing activations that expands our reach, stands out and engages youth and young adults.
• Experiential Marketing & Onsite Branding: Lead the strategy and development of an interactive and impactful presence at tabling events and high-visibility conferences and public spaces. Manage onsite engagement, data capture, documentation (photography, video, testimonials) and optimize attendee conversion and post-event engagement strategies.
• Partner Events & Activations: Lead the ideation, planning and implementation of joint events and experiential marketing opportunities with strategic partners to position Active Minds as a national leader in youth mental health advocacy.

2. Strategic Partnerships Cultivation and Management

• Strategic Partnership Identification & Growth: Identify, secure, and amplify strategic marketing partnerships with organizations-such as sports teams, entertainment venues, Greek-letter organizations, clubs, and associations-to reach core audiences, drive awareness and create experiential marketing opportunities.
• Relationship Management: Serve as the primary point of contact for experiential marketing and events partnerships. Build and nurture long-term relationships through consistent communication, ensuring all contractual obligations and Memorandum of Understanding/Agreement (MOUs/MOAs) are established and met. Vet inbound event opportunities, assessing alignment with organizational goals in collaboration with internal teams.

3. Project Management & Continuous Improvement

• Project Management & Implementation: Lead project management including developing detailed project briefs and cross-team meetings. Leverage Active Minds' project management protocols and technology to establish explicit expectations, detailed timelines, and budgets.
• Performance Monitoring: Establish key success metrics, timeline adherence, monitor budget projections, and track attendee engagement data. Gather feedback to generate impact reports for funders, partners, and the broader Active Minds network.
• Budget management: Set and monitor budget adherence and efficiency for all partnership and event initiatives

4. Team Support & Collaboration

• Manage, mentor, and develop direct reports within the Events and Strategic Partnerships team
• Provide day-to-day leadership, guidance and oversight including assigning tasks, reviewing projects, approvals and supporting skill development. Oversee recruitment, training, and retention of high-caliber talent
• Set performance goals, provide objectives, coaching, and foster professional growth
• Serve as a key point of contact for internal teams seeking support, helping gather insights and ensure timely execution.

ABOUT YOU

• Innovation & Growth Mindset: Proven ability to lead creative ideation and foster a culture of innovation. Highly skilled at executing iterative test-and-learn strategies to drive continuous improvement, elevate user experiences, and achieve breakthrough results.
• Event Portfolio Leadership: Proven track record of leading, planning and managing complex meeting and event portfolios and teams including large-scale fundraising galas, national conferences, and experiential marketing activations.
• Strategic Relationship Management: Demonstrated ability to source, build and maintain mutually beneficial relationships and strategic partnerships across corporate, educational, and non-profit sectors.
• Project Management Expertise: Strong capability in navigating cross-functional team collaborations, executing project briefs, managing vendor contracts, and handling event logistics.
• Budgeting & Analytic Tracking: Experience in managing financial projections, setting timelines, and establishing key data-tracking metrics to ensure continuous programmatic improvement.
• Self-starter with a positive attitude who is accustomed to leading diverse teams, working cross-functionally and working on multiple projects with different deadlines simultaneously.
• Belief that equity and social justice are important and driven to hear, reflect, and act on this belief.
• Passion for youth and young adult mental health

You need to have:

• 8+ years of professional experience in event/experiential marketing, event production
• Demonstrated experience leading and planning major events, experiential marketing and partnerships
• Experience supporting or mentoring junior staff and interns.
• Familiarity with project management protocols and tools including MOCHA and ClickUp.
• Digital literacy with Microsoft/Google tools and online collaboration platforms.

COMPENSATION

This position offers an initial range salary of $105,000-$119,700 along with robust benefits. The starting pay for this position is equal to others at the same level throughout the organization. Candidates whose experience meets both the minimum and preferred qualifications may be considered for a starting salary that exceeds the current amount. The role sits within Active Minds Level 5 salary band, and as such, has the potential to grow to $149,000 over time. FLSA Status: Exempt.

Active Minds has an industry-leading and competitive benefits package that includes Health, Vision and Dental Insurance, Paid Vacation and Sick Leave, Paid Holidays, Company Wide Mental Health Days, 401(k) Matching, HSA and FSA Options, Life Insurance, Short Term, and Long Term Disability, Fully Paid Parental Leave, Wellness Reimbursement Program, and Professional Development Stipends.

HOW TO APPLY

Please submit a resume and questionnaire responses through this application form.