Executive Director

Big Big Table Community Café; Buffalo (NY); On-site; USD 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee Assistance Program

Job summary

Big Big Table Community Café seeks an Executive Director to lead a nonprofit pay-as-you-what-you-can café focused on reducing hunger and food waste. The role directs staff and volunteers, partners with local farmers, and collaborates with the board to stabilize and grow operations.

The successful candidate will drive fundraising, community outreach, and governance while maintaining an inclusive, welcoming culture that serves Buffalo’s diverse community.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of leadership experience including managing people, teams, and budgets.
• 3+ years in nonprofit administration and/or hospitality management.
• 3+ years of community engagement, volunteer coordination, and/or fundraising.
• Experience with housing insecure and/or vulnerable populations.
• Strong written and verbal communication, organizational skills.

Responsibilities

• Maintain a welcoming, safe, and inclusive environment for guests, staff, and volunteers.
• Oversee café operations in collaboration with the kitchen team.
• Ensure a positive dining experience aligned with Community Guidelines.
• Cross-train staff to cover gaps and ensure continuity.
• Develop partnerships with local farmers and suppliers, emphasizing food rescue and local sourcing.
• Lead fundraising efforts and donor relations; manage grants and sponsorships.
• Represent Big Big Table in the community through engagement and outreach.

Skills

Leadership

Nonprofit admin

Community engagement

Housing insecure experience

Interpersonal skills

Marketing & comms

Mental health first aid

Trauma-informed practices

Kitchen/facility familiarity

Job description

Job Title: Executive Director

Reports To: Board Executive Committee

Employee Assistance Program available)

Type Of Position: Full time, 40 hrs/wk

Working Hours: Primarily Monday - Friday, 9am - 4pm; occasional evening meetings (usually Tuesdays), weekends and special events

About the Role

The ideal candidate is looking for a long-term position within a collaborative environment, to help lead and establish an organization in a season of stabilization and growth. As the lead staff member of a young nonprofit, this is an incredible opportunity for professional growth fora leader tohelp shape the future of our community café. We are seeking a highly self-motivated, adaptable, and accountable individual. Our new leader will be a solution-oriented problem-solver with a commitment to collaboration and continuous improvement. Patience, attention to detail, creativity, and the ability to hustle while remaining present with staff and volunteers are a must.

We are seeking an energetic and people focused leader. The right person for this position will be passionate about fostering a welcome and inclusive environment, engaging a highly diverse community.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of leadership experience, including managing people, teams, and budgets
• 3+ years of experience in nonprofit administration and/or hospitality management
• 3+ years of experience in community engagement, volunteer coordination, and/or fundraising
• Experience working with housing insecure and/or vulnerable populations
• Dynamic and effective interpersonal skills, excellent written and verbal communication skills, strong organizational skills and attention to detail
• Ability to manage marketing and communications platforms
• Familiarity with mental health first aid and trauma-informed practices within the community and team settings.
• Comfort with food systems and restaurant service; ability to step into the kitchen as needed

Key Responsibilities

• Maintain a welcoming, safe, and inclusive environment for guests, staff, and volunteers
• Responsible for ensuring successful café operations, including counter service and dining area, in collaboration with the kitchen team
• Ensure a safe and positive communal dining experience through accountability to our Community Guidelines, de-escalation support when necessary, and emergency preparedness
• Cross-train and fill in operational gaps as needed; maintain continuity in absence of key staff
• Collaborate with the kitchen team on resourceful, cost-effective and environmentally friendly standards and practices for sourcing of ingredients and supplies, with a strong emphasis on food rescue and sourcing locally
• Coordinate with kitchen team to track in‑kind donations
• Oversee vendor relationships and ensure timely maintenance of facilities and equipment

Leadership & Supervision

• Supervise and support cafe staff and interns, including conducting performance reviews
• Provide leadership in conflict resolution and team development
• Guide and support internal task forces and cross‑functional planning
• Facilitate consistent internal communications, including team huddles and regularly scheduled operations meetings
• Actively participate in and lead committee meetings as requested by the board
• Serve as liaison between board and staff, facilitating strong communication and shared vision
• Collaborate with staff and board on workforce development initiatives, including developing internships from local colleges and partnerships with hospitality training programs

• Build and manage a diversified funding model that may include individual giving, major gifts, corporate sponsorships, grants, fundraising events, earned revenue, and strategic partnerships.
• Develop and maintain relationships with donors, foundations, corporations, community leaders and other supporters.
• Identify, research and pursue new funding opportunities aligned with Big Big Table’s mission and capacity.
• Oversee the grant development process, including identifying prospects, coordinating proposals, tracking deadlines, and ensuring reporting requirements are met.
• Develop strategies to grow recurring and individual giving; create and strengthen corporate and community partnership opportunities.
• Work with cafe team to understand financial performance and identify opportunities to improve revenue, margins and operational efficiency,
• Lead and actively participate in the Fundraising Committee.

Community Engagement

• Represent Big Big Table’s in the community through speaking engagements, coalitions, and media
• Lead communications and outreach efforts, including social media and email platforms, to promote BBT’s mission and identity as a restaurant, attracting a diverse cross section of engagement
• Help maintain and enhance BBT’s website and public facing platforms, including events calendar, campaigns, and promotions
• Support volunteer engagement and onboarding systems, working with relevant staff
• Cultivate strategic community partnerships aligned with BBT’s mission and capacity, including in‑cafe resources for guests and collaborative workshops
• Lead fundraising efforts, including donor cultivation and retention, grant writing, sponsorships, contract revenue, and events, especially the planning of our annual fundraiser Big Big Bash
• Develop and maintain partnerships with local farmers, businesses and organizations to expand food rescue and collaborative initiatives

Operations & Administration

• Lead and refine internal systems and operational workflows for improved efficiency
• Track and evaluate organizational data, including meals served, volunteer data, in‑kind contributions, monetary donations, volunteer data, meals served, staff reports, and impact
• Utilize customer relationship management tools to manage relationships with donors, volunteers, and community partners
• Support budget management and grant reporting in collaboration with the board
• Ensure appropriate documentation and information sharing across team
• Ability to lift up to 50 pounds, stand for long periods of time, bend, reach, go up and down steps, work in extreme temperatures, and de‑escalate guests and volunteers.
• Other duties as needed

Big Big Table Community Café (BBT) is a non‑profit community café—a pay‑as‑you‑can lunchtime restaurant, focused on addressing hunger, reducing food waste, and building community. Our motto is: “Everybody eats. Everybody gives. Everybody matters.” Our mission is to provide a dignified response to hunger in our community, providing Buffalo with accessible and affordable nutritious meals, regardless of ability to pay. With pay‑as‑you‑can pricing and a significant volunteer component in day‑to‑day operations, everyone is given a chance to earn what they need by giving what they can.

Our culture is centered around inclusivity. As a donation‑based café, we do not have set prices or menu items. Our menu is dynamic and changes daily. Our menu is centered around in‑season produce and food rescue to utilize excess and farm seconds from local farmers, restaurants, and suppliers. Modest staffing is supplemented with volunteer labor. Collaboration and partnerships are central to our operations.

Big Big Table opened to the public in October 2021. As a member of One World Everybody Eats (www.oneworldeverybodyeats.org), we brought a developed sustainable social enterprise model to Western New York. Nationally, these cafés do best where there is income diversity, operating at community crossroads, easily accessible to high‑need communities while also attracting diners who can afford to pay market value or more for a meal.

Big Big Table Community Café values a diverse workplace and strongly encourages women, people of color, LGBTQ individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities and veterans to apply.

Big Big Table Community Café is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, disability, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity, or age.