Executive Director

The Des Moines Historical Society Museum’s mission is to preserve, exhibit, and educate all visitors about the history and culture of Des Moines, Washington and the surrounding area’s unique heritage.

To position itself for aggressive growth and rebranding, the Des Moines Historical Society Museum seeks a passionate and energetic candidate as its first paid Executive Director. This person will serve full-time and would require a flexible daily schedule that will include some weekends and evenings. This is a salaried position with health care and paid state holidays and 10 days of vacation annually.

The successful applicant will be a highly motivated, self-starting individual who thrives on bringing order to chaos. The Executive Director will report to the Board of Directors. The following is a description of the likely duties of the Executive Director:

For the first two years of employment, anticipate spending approximately one-half (½) of your work hours on fundraising and one-quarter (1/4) of your work hours to each the remaining two (2) categories of responsibilities:

I. Fundraising Support, Implementation and Development

The Des Moines Historical Society Museum relies on funding through (a) Membership dues, (b) Special Events, and (c) Grants. To successfully retain an Executive Director and expand that person’s role in the administration of the Museum, the Executive Director will be tasked to help dramatically increase revenue and identify new sources of revenue. The Executive Director will work in conjunction with the Board of Directors to identify new and improved ways of raising revenue through Special Events and to successfully implement those Events resulting in a positive net revenue.

After two years of successful employment, the Executive Director must have their position fully funded.

Also, the Executive Director will assist the Board of Directors in locating and targeting grant opportunities, providing grant writing support, and working with the Board of Directors in development of large gifts and donors.

II. Museum Administration:
Collections, Exhibits and Administrative

Supervising the accession, maintenance, and development of the Museum’s exhibit collection, recommending updates and improvements to accession and collection policies, and entering necessary data on exhibits and collections into Past Perfect or similar software. The Executive Director will also coordinate with the Board of Directors for rotating exhibit development and implementation, assisting the Board of Directors with planning and oversight of all exhibits to meet and advance Museum’s vision and mission, and primarily responsible for the marketing and outreach for each exhibit.

Additionally, the Executive Director will be responsible for Museum Administration, including working toward expanding museum hours of operation, supervising, and coordinating docent services, supervising and coordinate volunteers to assist with Museum operations, and office clerical duties and record keeping.

Finally, the Executive Director will attend Board of Directors meetings as ex officio non-voting Board of Directors member and present Executive Director Reports at all meetings and assist Board of Directors with recruitment and development.

III. Education & Outreach

The Executive Director will supervise education and outreach of the Museum that includes promoting and welcoming school tour groups, coordinating with local libraries and volunteer groups, creating a museum’s speaker series, developing the website and social media as a tool for public research and information, and increasing the marketing to all age group constituencies through all mediums including print, media, website, and social media presence.

The Executive Director will be the “face of the Des Moines Historical Society Museum” and should be active in Des Moines Historical Society and in Greater Des Moines area community engagement and promotion where those opportunities are presented.

The Executive Director will be the principal source of marketing all Museum activities and initiatives through (a) social media, (b) website applications and (c) print media, and (d)…