The Ford Foundation’s US Programs seek a fixed-term program officer to coordinate the Racial Justice Initiative. Now in its fourth year, the five-year Racial Justice Initiative is a cross-program grantmaking and learning initiative that aims to address the crisis of rapidly accelerating regression on racial justice.
Responsibilities:
Contribute to the ongoing definition and development of the foundation’s US Racial Justice Initiative and strategy to scale impact.
Engage with grantees to review opportunities, challenges, and advances and encourage collaboration, learning, exchange, and strategic partnerships.
Manage, monitor, and coordinate a grants portfolio, including long-term grant planning; identifying and working with prospective grantees to develop proposals for grant recommendations (including helping determine the goals for a grant, its activities, expected results, indicators of success, and budget); conducting organizational assessments; undertaking periodic reviews of progress with grantees; and reviewing financial and narrative reports.
Work closely with other funders and with donor collaboratives to encourage philanthropic contributions and align giving to the racial justice field.
Manage and create strategic learning opportunities to both sustain and deepen the US Program’s staff’s understanding of what it means to embed a racial justice analysis and approach across issues and identities.
Foster a culture of learning—including learning and evaluation activities to guide the evolution of programmatic work—seeking to continually ask hard questions, gather independent and rigorous data and evidence about the effectiveness of the Foundation and grantees’ strategies, and help adapt practice as needed. Serve as an accessible resource for the field accordingly.
Represent the Foundation and its work in key venues through participation in relevant meetings, public speaking, writing, speeches, briefings, blog posts, and interviews.
Work closely with a grantmaking team of grant managers to manage all aspects of grants processing and compliance.
Contribute to the thinking and work of colleagues across the Foundation and the field of grant seekers and philanthropic peers overall.
Requirements:
8 years of experience leading social justice strategies.
Racial justice and civil rights subject-matter expertise and knowledge of how racial justice analyses connect with diverse social justice issues.
Knowledge of racial justice advocacy across multiple identity constituencies.
Familiarity with philanthropy and grantmaking practices, portfolio management, and strategy development.
Deep understanding of organizational change and social change theory.
Close knowledge of the various mechanisms and venues (organizing, legislative, legal, regulatory, applied research, strategic communications) for public policy change on racial justice and civil rights.
A track record of donor advocacy, including learning events and knowledge sharing and experience with events planning; and
Exceptional communication skills—strong active listening skills, constructive verbal and written skills, strong public presentation skills, including experience in strategic communications for social impact
Superb analytical skills and ability to strategize, plan, prioritize and identify/assess opportunities, challenges, and institutions with which to engage
Comfort with periods of ambiguity and constructive participation in ongoing organizational development.
