Manager Affiliate Relations

Overview

Join our Team as Manager Affiliate Relations!

Imagine a place where who you are, where you're from, or the circumstances that surround you don't determine your access to experiences or opportunities. Now imagine a mission created to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. That's what we do.

At Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA), we're committed to doing whatever it takes to build great futures for America's youth.

We’re excited to share an opportunity for a Manager, Affiliate Relations to join our Field Operations team. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys bringing structure to complex work, connecting people and processes, and turning information into clear action.

The Manager, Affiliate Relations will help strengthen the systems and processes that support the partnership between BGCA and local Clubs across our federated network. You’ll lead and continuously improve key Affiliate Relations processes, including Membership Requirements, chartering, governance, service-area requests, and organizational name changes, while helping BGCA better understand emerging issues, opportunities, and trends across the Movement.

You’ll also serve as a trusted project and process leader, partnering across functions to move complex work from issue identification through decision and implementation.

You’ll likely thrive in this role if you are a collaborative, highly dependable professional who enjoys creating order from complexity and working alongside others to get things done. You’re comfortable engaging both senior leaders and local Club stakeholders, build trust through your approach, balance diplomacy with accountability, and remain calm and solutions-oriented as priorities shift.

You bring a bias for action and don’t wait for perfect information before moving work forward. You ask focused questions, identify the right stakeholders and decision points, and bring recommended options rather than simply identifying problems. You communicate proactively, surface risks early, and operate with a “no surprises” approach while maintaining momentum and accountability.

About the Team

The Affiliate Relations team serves as a critical link between Boys & Girls Clubs of America and our nationwide network of local organizations. The team works closely with Club leaders, board members, and BGCA internal partners to strengthen organizational health, support membership requirements, and advance strategic initiatives that help Clubs deliver safe, impactful experiences for young people.

As Manager, Affiliate Relations, you will join a highly collaborative Field Service Operations team focused on helping more than 5,000 Clubs and affiliated organizations succeed. You will partner extensively with colleagues across Field Operations, Legal, Finance, Youth Development, Safety, and other national office teams to provide consultative support, resolve complex organizational challenges, and drive alignment across the Movement.

This role offers a unique opportunity to influence the long-term success of local Boys & Girls Clubs by building trusted relationships, supporting organizational effectiveness, and helping affiliates navigate growth, governance, compliance, and change.

Responsibilities

What You'll Do

In this role, you will:

• Lead key Affiliate Relations processes. Oversee and continuously improve Membership Requirements, chartering, governance, organizational name changes, and the Request for Consideration process related to Club service areas.
• Create structure and accountability. Develop and maintain standard operating procedures, tracking mechanisms, workplans, and accountability systems that keep complex, cross-functional work moving forward.
• Turn field intelligence into action. Lead and maintain BGCA’s sentiment tracker and related listening mechanisms, identifying trends and translating qualitative and quantitative information into actionable insights for leadership.
• Drive strategic projects from start to finish. Establish objectives, milestones, stakeholders, decision points, and deliverables while proactively identifying risks and maintaining momentum.
• Build alignment across the organization. Work closely with senior leaders, Field Operations, Organizational Development, Data Strategy, Analytics and Learning, Marketing and Communications, Legal, Governance partners, and local Club leaders.
• Support national and field-based initiatives. Coordinate service engagements such as MLK Jr. Day of Service and support other enterprise priorities that require strong planning and execution across BGCA and local Clubs.
• Equip leaders with clear information. Prepare executive briefings, board and committee reports, project updates, recommendations, and other materials that help leaders make informed decisions.

The Competencies That Will Make You Successful

• Strategic Thinking & Systems Perspective - Understands how individual decisions, processes, and priorities connect across a broader system and considers downstream implications when developing solutions.
• Project & Process Management - Brings structure, discipline, and accountability to complex work; establishes clear plans, milestones, ownership, and processes that drive reliable execution.
• Relationship Building & Cross-Functional Influence - Builds trust across functions and stakeholder groups and effectively moves work forward through collaboration and influence rather than authority.
• Critical Thinking, Judgment & Problem-Solving - Synthesizes complex information, evaluates options, makes sound recommendations, and brings structure and practical solutions to ambiguity.
• Executive & Stakeholder Communication - Communicates clearly, concisely, and proactively; surfaces risks early, brings recommended options, documents decisions, and adapts communication to the audience.

What Success Looks Like

Success in this role means becoming a trusted owner of Affiliate Relations processes, someone who brings structure, accountability, and follow-through to complex work and consistently moves priorities from issue identification through decision and implementation.

You’ll know you’re making an impact when:

•  Key processes are clear and reliable. Membership Requirements, service-area requests, governance matters, and other Affiliate Relations processes are well documented, aligned to established SOPs, and consistently move forward on time.
• Projects stay on track. Agreed-upon milestones and deliverables are met, risks are surfaced early, and complex work is driven to resolution or appropriately escalated when needed.
• Field intelligence informs decisions. The sentiment tracker is maintained weekly and produces timely, meaningful insights that help leaders understand emerging Club issues, opportunities, and relationship-health trends.
• Leaders have the information they need. Executive briefings, reports, and process documentation are accurate, complete, and translate complex information into clear, actionable insights.
• Partners experience strong support and follow-through. Club and internal-partner requests receive timely responses, stakeholders understand decisions and next steps, and cross-functional partners remain aligned as work progresses.
• Enterprise initiatives are executed successfully. Assigned national and field-based initiatives are well coordinated, delivered with quality, and achieve their intended outcomes.

 Ultimately, strong performance will be reflected not only in what gets accomplished, but in how reliably the work moves, through strong documentation, responsiveness, sound judgment, stakeholder trust, and consistent execution.

Qualifications

What You’ll Bring

We’re looking for someone who brings:

• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience, with demonstrated success managing complex projects, processes, or cross-functional initiatives.
• A bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant education and experience.
• PMP or governance-related credential is a plus, but not required.
• Strong project and process management skills, including the ability to create and maintain SOPs, trackers, dashboards, workplans, and executive-level reporting.
• The ability to analyze qualitative and quantitative information, identify what matters, and translate findings into clear recommendations.
• Strong written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to adjust communication for executives, peers, and field stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to work through influence, build trust across functions, and move work forward without relying on direct authority.
• Strong professional judgment, attention to detail, integrity, and follow-through.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity, clarifying objectives, identifying stakeholders and decision points, testing assumptions, and surfacing risks before they become roadblocks.
• Proficiency with Microsoft 365; experience with platforms such as Salesforce and Smartsheet is preferred.
• Experience in a federated, membership-based, nonprofit, association, youth-serving, or multi-site organization is preferred, particularly experience working across national and local stakeholders.

Work Environment & Travel

This is a hybrid role with an in-office presence on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Because our work comes to life at conferences and events across the country, this position requires up to 30% travel and the flexibility to work early mornings, evenings, weekends, and extended days during major events.

Compensation 

The salary range for this role is $90,000.00 to $105,000.00.  BGCA takes into consideration a combination of a candidate’s education, training and experience, as well as the position’s scope and complexity, the discretion and latitude required for the role and other external and internal data when establishing a salary level. We are highly invested in every employee’s total well-being and offer a substantial and comprehensive total rewards package.