Candace E. Hardnett
Summary
Leadership-oriented professional with over a decade of proven experience in program development, organizing, volunteer management, training, public speaking, marketing, fundraising and business and non-profit growth and expansion. Professional skills include over 15 years volunteer management, effective communication, thinking outside of the box, and building community partnerships. A technologically savvy self-starter with a proven track record for success.
Overview
23
23
years of professional experience
Work History
Lead Organizer
EducateUS
01.2023 - Current
- Worked with State partners in key focus states to add capacity to their organizing work, training and strategizing innovative ways to expand progressive policies, especially on the local level.
- Created, developed, marketed and facilitated a 3-part civic engagement training to educate community members to become civically engaged by speaking up to politicians at the local level and beyond. Trained over 300 people.
- Worked directly with school board candidates throughout the country to add capacity, support, and strategic thought to help them win campaigns. With a win rate of 70%.
- Successfully ran several relational organizing campaigns using the Empower App to engage thousands of people in conversation about Project 2025, GOTV, and organizational campaigns.
- Maintained forms, emails, and data through EveryAction CRM. Creating tags, making automations, creating reports, creating integrations, and maintaining overall data hygiene within the technical system.
- Wrote e-mails, promoted events via relations with partners and key community leaders.
- Trained effective social change leaders to run strategic campaigns by organizing town halls, building strong coalitions, and generating grassroots support.
- Developed comprehensive project plans for successful event execution, leading to increased brand visibility.
- Mentored junior staff members by providing guidance on best practices in organizing techniques and strategies.
Senior Pastor
Agape Empowerment Ministries/Agape Bible College
01.2008 - 05.2025
- Oversaw administration and management of all areas of ministry.
- Provided crisis response and counseling to church members.
- Coordinated and spearheaded programs to increase church members' service throughout community.
- Officiated special services such as weddings, funerals, baptisms and nursing home services.
- Led programs such as worship, study, fellowship and service opportunities.
- Supervised associate pastors and staff leading education, youth, pastoral care, and older adult ministry programs.
- Provided spiritual care through visitation, counseling and prayer.
- Planned and conducted worship services, wrote sermons and worked with key church leaders to carry out church mission.
- Established and managed church budget of $160K per year.
- Collaborated with church leadership to plan master calendar of events.
- Partnered with city officials, non-profit resource organizations, civic groups and members of public for outreach to homeless, and LGBTQ community
- Launched ministry expansion program and scaled church to triple in size.
- Led, developed, organized, marketed, and promoted robust online ministry
- Cultivated inclusive environments which foster growth, love, and compassion for all people.
Community Organizer
One Georgia
08.2022 - 11.2022
- Participated in strategy development and planning to grow organizing program and advance campaigns.
- Fostered collaborative efforts to schedule, host and facilitate events and identify further opportunities to reach members of community.
- Identified community organizations and leaders to establish and nurture relationships to help build awareness and win reforms for public.
- Generated reports to evaluate program success and make modifications.
- Liaised with Regional directors and Community Captains to coordinate volunteer activities and facilitate distribution of promotional and marketing materials.
- Recruited 10 Community Captains and managed volunteer teams of over 50.
Field Canvasser
New Georgia Project
11.2021 - 12.2021
- Went to over 100 doors over 30 miles daily to educate and sign up potential voters.
- Collected and documented voter opinions on Democratic local, regional and national topics.
- Interacted with and educated 1000 voters in Garden City, GA to promote voter turnout in runoff campaign.
Account Executive/Sales Executive
Vanguard Economics
01.2018 - 01.2020
- Manage accounts of existing clients and communicate business strategy to reach goals
- Detailed analysis of client needs and reports of sales, inventory, and order fulfillment
- Work closely with all Vanguard operations and business personnel to insure client accounts run smoothly
- Automated Marketing, cold calling, closing sales for services for accounts amassing over $1M in revenue.
- Mastered and constantly improved sales prospecting, follow-up and upsell processes.
- Negotiated sales deals between customers and agency, resulting in mutually beneficial agreements and cultivated relationships.
- Developed and managed strong and growing pipelines of prospective small business customers.
Sergeant/Systems Administrator/Communications
US Marine Corps
01.2003 - 01.2008
- Lead, train, and assist team of 150-200 service members to assist in air traffic control
- Keep detailed reports of all personnel and equipment, analyze best practices regarding maintenance
- Work with senior leadership to develop training curriculum and set and monitor goals for each quarter.
- Orchestrated integration and communication of software upgrades.
- Spearheaded inventory control measures to replenish and maintain IT equipment, supplies, tools and replacement parts.
- Coached and mentored employees and offered constructive feedback for performance improvement.
- Worked closely with Commanding Officer to create overall positive work environment to ensure all service members were aware of resources.
Education
Master of Divinity - Theology
Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary
Lynchburg, VA05.2020
B.S - Religion
Liberty University
Lynchburg, VA05.2010
High School Diploma -
Culpeper Co. High
Culpeper, VA1997
Skills
- Complex Problem Solving
- Employee Motivation and Performance
- Annual Planning
- Effective Communicator and Public Speaker
- Executive Leadership
- Organizational Development
- Judgement and Decision Making
- Relationship and Team Building
- Leadership and People Development
- Strategic Planning
- Volunteer Management
- Exceptional Communication Skills
- High-Pressure Environments
- Experienced in digital tools
Accomplishments
- Organized, marketing, and ran successful Relational Organizing campaigns to engage thousands of volunteers and conversations.
- Doubled the HRC MEI score for Savannah, GA by completing a revised non-discrimination ordinance with accuracy and efficiency which passed unanimously.
- Led a virtual platform overhaul by introducing OBS (Open broadcaster Software) for live streaming.
- Developed and introduced a TikTok platform to increase engagement and expansion of ministry.
- Established solid presence in community, successfully growing church membership 10% year over year.
- Led a team of LGBTQ+ advocates to provide a city-wide discrimination and grievance pipeline which ensures that all reports of discrimination within the city are investigated and resolved.
- Led a team of LGBTQ+ advocates to develop a LGBTQ police liaison which helps train our officers regarding diversity and respect of the LGBTQ+ community.
Languages
English
Bilingual or Proficient (C2)
Spanish
Intermediate (B1)
Timeline
Lead Organizer
EducateUS
01.2023 - Current
Community Organizer
One Georgia
08.2022 - 11.2022
Field Canvasser
New Georgia Project
11.2021 - 12.2021
Account Executive/Sales Executive
Vanguard Economics
01.2018 - 01.2020
Senior Pastor
Agape Empowerment Ministries/Agape Bible College
01.2008 - 05.2025
Sergeant/Systems Administrator/Communications
US Marine Corps
01.2003 - 01.2008
B.S - Religion
Liberty University
High School Diploma -
Culpeper Co. High
Master of Divinity - Theology
Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary
Volunteer Board Positions
- The Reformation Project: term ends 2025
- PROUD Savannah Taskforce: 2019-2025
- Savannah Morning News Advisory Committee: 2020-2021
- First City Network (Board Chair): 2010-2014
Hobbies
Textiles, art, music