PROGRAM OFFICER – PEOPLE QUALITY

Position Description

Organization

The Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck (PCLB) Foundation is a private family foundation that seeks to help people solve problems in their communities. Our Program Areas include Education, Outdoors, Medicine, Science, and Family Projects. In these areas, we identify and support dynamic leaders and effective organizations who work unselfishly to improve and empower those around them. We provide problem-solvers with connections, information, experience, and money that they need to provide their communities with critical skills and resources—ultimately, to do something remarkable.

Position Summary

As a member of PCLB’s Education Team, the People Quality Program Officer will lead the overall work of the People Quality portfolio, in alignment with the Foundation’s strategic plan and 10-year goals. Research shows that teachers are the number one in-school factor that drives student success. Not all schools and communities, however, have the effective teachers they need because of declining interest in the teaching profession, mismatched supply and demand, poor training, and insufficient retention. Because of this, PCLB’s People Quality grantees seek to recruit, train and retain a workforce that can best teach kids. This work unfolds across three key strategies: improving teacher preparation to better cultivate highly effective teachers, eliminating teacher shortages in subjects where teachers are most needed, and diversifying the teaching workforce.

The People Quality Program Officer supports the Foundation with the development, prioritization, and execution of grant strategies for this portfolio, work which includes seeking rigorous evidence about strategy effectiveness and impact; identification and vetting of potential grantee organizations; monitoring of grant awards; and relationship building with grantees and relevant field experts.

The ideal candidate for this position can think strategically about PCLB’s broad goals while remaining focused on the detail-oriented work and follow-through required of our grant-making process. They are an avid learner and expertly apply pre-existing and new knowledge to further PCLB’s 10-year goals, ultimately to make the world a better place. They thrive on building relationships and strategic partnerships — to go further and faster together on shared goals — while holding everyone accountable for results.

 Responsibilities

Grant Strategy Development

• Participates in the ongoing development and execution of grant strategies to achieve PCLB’s 10-year goals, including design of clear action plans that prioritize the implementation of demonstrated high-impact tactics or high-potential, innovative projects that will accelerate progress on our goals.
• Stays up to date on and synthesizes relevant academic and popular research, activities, insights, and trends in the field to shape/evolve strategies and tactics in assigned portfolio.
• Establishes rigorous evaluation processes and measures to assess impact and progress toward PCLB’s goals and uses evaluation results to improve/inform next steps.

Grant-making

• Manages a portfolio of grants aligned to PCLB’s strategic priorities and in support of PCLB’s 10-year goals.
• Identifies potential grantees through research and conversations with practitioners/field experts.
• Becomes familiar with potential grantees’ work through research, site visits, calls, and other communications. Actively engages with existing grantees to support PCLB’s grant-making and the organizations’ success throughout the grant period.
• Executes grant-making process within deadlines, including review of applications/reports and creation of internal-facing assessment documents.
• Makes internal presentations to explain overall portfolio strategy and rationale for the recommended docket of grants.
• Establishes the appropriate indicators or methods to assess the success and progress of grantees’ work, adjusting grant-making activities as needed based on assessment.

Grantee Relationship Building

• Actively engages with grantees through site visits, meetings, phone calls and other channels to understand the organization’s work; to review opportunities, challenges, and advances; encourage collaboration and exchange learnings; and celebrate/champion grantees’ successes.
• Partners with grantees to address emerging challenges, offering experienced-informed assessments and supports (technical assistance, referrals to resources, etc.) for moving forward.
• Preserves institutional knowledge and shares learnings internally by documenting critical information about grantee work and relationships.

On-going Learning and Development

• Internally, promotes and participates in a culture of learning and continuous improvement.
• Externally, identifies and pursues opportunities to learn from, collaborate, and build external relationships with peer funders and leaders in the fields related to the People Quality strategy portfolio.

Qualifications

A qualified candidate possesses:

• Commitment to the Foundation’s core values of Excellence, Fairness, Humility, Self-Reliance, and Trustworthiness.
• Commitment to and belief in the Foundation’s core Program Areas and strategies.
• Subject matter knowledge, experience, and interest in the topics of the assigned portfolio.
• Excellent quantitative, qualitative, and analysis skills and comfort in using applicable technology.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with a wide range of individuals.
• Superb project management skills to manage multiple projects simultaneously and complete work on-time.
• Discretion and commitment to organizational confidentiality.
• Willingness to travel and to work flexible hours, as necessary.
• A bachelor’s degree; master’s degree preferred. Must have a minimum of 5-10 years of related experience, preferably to include work with nonprofits.

Compensation & Location

The starting salary is $115,000 to $135,000, and the salary is commensurate with the candidate’s skills and experience. PCLB also offers a strong benefits package. Staff spend three days per week “with people,” i.e., in the field with grantees or in the New York City office with colleagues. The other two days may be remote.

Application Process

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter and resume to [email protected]. In the subject line, name the title of the position for which you are applying and indicate where you saw the announcement. We will review applications on a rolling basis until the position is filled.

The Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation is an equal opportunity employer.