DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY BUILDING AT SPIRIT OF JUSTICE in New York, New York at Axis Talent Partners

SOJ is building a spiritual home for those who dare to dream of a more just and loving world — a beloved community where people from all backgrounds can deepen their inner lives, strengthen collective purpose, and transform themselves as they work to transform the world. SOJ was founded by acclaimed civil rights lawyer, legal scholar, and author Michelle Alexander, and is co-founded by Nyle Fort, a gifted minister, organizer, and scholar based at Columbia University; the organization is fiscally sponsored by Union Theological Seminary.

At this pivotal moment in our nation and world, our movements cannot sustain themselves on strategy and resources alone; they require moral vision, courage, and deep reservoirs of love and resilience. SOJ aims to create the spiritually-grounded communal spaces our movements desperately need now – places where people can process fear and grief, cultivate courage and hope, develop moral clarity and sustain themselves for the long haul. As a radically inclusive, non-dogmatic beloved community SOJ is particularly committed to building community with the most vulnerable, including those who are queer and transgender people, from poor and working-class backgrounds, Black and Brown, people with disabilities, immigrants, as well as people who are currently and formerly incarcerated.

This is not a wellness program. SOJ is co-creating a spiritual home rooted in a living tradition of revolutionary love that can be studied, practiced and carried forward, ultimately blossoming into a national network of beloved communities capable of defeating authoritarianism and rising to the challenges of our times.

SOJ’s work rests on three core pillars that provide the home’s foundation: 1) Storytelling, including a podcast hosted by Michelle Alexander that explores the spiritual lives of people committed to justice and liberation; 2) Sanctuary, creating spaces for communities to engage in collective spiritual practice, fellowship and service, anchored by monthly and eventually weekly services, pods, movement chaplaincy and spiritual care, and a digital resource hub; and 3) Seminary, including the development of a curriculum which anchors both political education and spiritual formation in the long lineage of revolutionary love. Together, these pillars lay the foundation for the co-creation of beloved communities nationwide, a spiritual home shaped with care and intention by the very communities SOJ seeks to serve.

The Director of Community Building will work closely with the Co-Founder & Spiritual Director to bring SOJ’s beloved community to life — building and nurturing the relationships, gatherings, and pods where people find belonging, metabolize fear and grief, cultivate creativity and joy, and grow the moral courage to sustain justice work over the long haul.

Areas of Leadership & Responsibility

• Build deep, intentional relationships with individuals and institutions that create a base of diverse people committed to building SOJ's beloved community.

• Lead development and oversee the execution of SOJ's community-building work, with a strategic approach that moves between what is required for small, intimate community pods and a national network.

• Implement SOJ's core community offerings while evaluating and adapting them to ensure they serve the organization's vision and mission.

• Build the infrastructure to create and train a network of pod facilitators.

• Build the infrastructure for a largely volunteer-led model so the work doesn't hinge on any one person, and so that a strong volunteer culture is created and sustained.

• Prioritize depth over breadth in offerings, and build for real diversity across race, class, faith tradition, age, and lived experience.

• Continually learn from the NYC pilots to both improve and inform the national model.

• Year 1: Critical relationships between individuals and institutions are developed; the monthly public gatherings in NYC and the NYC “pod” are launched, reflecting the values, rituals, and practices that characterize revolutionary love; exceptionally strong, collaborative, and close relationships are forming between SOJ leaders, team members, and volunteers.

• Years 2–5: A founding community-building team of staff and volunteers is onboarded, effective in their roles, and feels supported; a blueprint for the volunteer-led model and national expansion is developed; SOJ pods are happening across multiple cities on a consistent, sustained cadence.

• Extensive community- and/or movement-building experience, characterized by comfort and effectiveness engaging institutions and people from a wide range of races, ethnicities, genders, classes, religions and geographies.

• Highly emotionally intelligent relationship and partnership builder, and expert at navigating a wide spectrum of diverse individuals, institutions, personalities, and challenges.

• Visionary thinking paired with operations and management experience, including designing and scaling programs.

• Experience building and sustaining a large network of locally led chapters or groups.

• Passionate about SOJ's mission and the values of revolutionary love.

• Comfort inheriting an existing concept or plan and making it their own, rather than starting from a blank page.

• Must have basic religious literacy and appreciation of interfaith work

Budgeted salary: $175,000

Location: Generally hybrid in the first year, though must be able to commute to New York City for various events and in-person meetings on a weekly basis. A future office location is planned at Union Theological Seminary at 3041 Broadway, New York, NY.

Spirit of Justice has engaged Axis Talent Partners to lead this search, bringing a strong track record of recruiting diverse, mission-driven leaders and centering equity and inclusion throughout the process. Interested candidates should submit a resume and responses to the application questions detailing their qualifications and interest in SOJ’s mission apply via job application link below.

Axis Talent Partners is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals and equitable access throughout the hiring process, including advance interview questions, alternative interview formats, and flexible scheduling. For additional accommodation requests, please contact Nadia Khan at nadia@axistalentpartners.com.