Program Officer Civic Engagement and Government

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Description

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• 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 collaboratively with other team members to develop, define and implement program strategies to achieve significant and scalable impact toward team goals.
• Continually scan the fields related to democracy in the US, organizing practice, field infrastructure, and strategy,  follow key developments and debates, keep abreast of the academic and popular literature, share key findings and lessons among colleagues and the field.
• Develop grant-making activities in a team-oriented context, with a ‘grantee-in-the-driver’s-seat’ orientation, that are aligned to the strategic goals of a thematic area and support a connected ‘ecosystem’ of work where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
• Promote engagement with grantees to review opportunities, challenges and advances and encourage collaboration, learning, exchange and strategic partnerships.
• Represent the Foundation and its work to the government, media, academic, business, philanthropic, and civic leaders through meetings, updates, speeches, blog posts, briefings and interviews, with guidance from the CEG Director.
• Promote and participate in fostering open-mindedness and 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 effectiveness of the foundation and grantees’ strategies, and help adapt practice as needed.
• Write and communicate in a lucid and accessible manner; develop and implement grant-making approaches that support the use of strategic communications as part of the program strategy.
• Contribute to the thinking and work of colleagues in the CEG team and foundation overall and advancing team building and team effectiveness.

• BA/BS plus a minimum of 8 years leading social justice strategies and/or subject-matter expertise related to the ideas and approaches outlined above, or equivalent combination of education/experience. This includfes significant experience with demonstrable impact in communities of color and/or other historically disadvantaged communities.
• A strong sense of how to apply racial and gender justice analyses to strategy is required; an understanding of comparative perspectives on political systems is preferred.
• Familiarity and experience working with social justice concepts and frameworks such as racial equity, gender analyses, disability justice, economic justice, intersectionality, and implicit and structural bias.
• The PO must be curious about the intersections of grassroots organizing and power, structural democracy reform, and the value and impact of government in protecting rights and providing public goods.
• Proven experience and substantive knowledge in the formal and informal structures, practices, and processes of democracy and community engagement, ranging from civic participation and community organizing to formal democracy reforms and approaches to co-governance.  
• Demonstrated experience as a connector and convener across relevant sectors and parties, including grantees, practitioners, government officials, scholars, and civil society players.
• Exceptional leadership presence internally and externally, but with a flexible, collaborative, team orientation.
• Demonstrated ability to be a productive member of a community of people at work, respecting differences while working toward shared goals, comfort with periods of ambiguity, constructive participation in ongoing organizational development.

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