Program Officer, Global

Position Title: Program Officer, Global

Reports to: Director of Programs

Direct Reports: Program Assistant

FLSA Status: Exempt

Location: New York, NY                                            

ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW

Foundation for a Just Society (FJS) envisions a world where all people are equally valued and lead self-determined lives. FJS advances the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI people and promotes gender and racial justice by ensuring those most affected by injustice have the resources they need to cultivate the leadership and solutions that transform our world.

FJS makes grants to local, national, regional, and global organizations and networks with an emphasis on Francophone West Africa, Mesoamerica, South and Southeast Asia, and the US Southeast. FJS supports efforts that advance long-term, structural change and meet immediate needs that enable women, girls, and LGBTQI people most affected by injustice to be leaders, strategists, and agents of change.

POSITION SUMMARY

The global program officer serves as the key point of contact for organizations funded through the global portfolio, reviews grant requests, conducts due diligence, makes grant recommendations, manages a diverse portfolio of grants, carries out and evaluates regional grantmaking strategies, shares supervision of a program assistant, and manages consultants. They strongly contribute to the implementation of the other elements of the foundation’s programmatic work, including accompaniment, strategic communications, and philanthropic advocacy.

The distinctive role of the global portfolio is to complement the work being done by FJS’s regional portfolios by filling strategic funding gaps. FJS’s global portfolio supports the following: grassroots organizations through global women’s funds and movement-oriented funds; research and advocacy initiatives to strengthen the visibility and strategies of activists and movements; coalitions and convenings that create spaces for activists to collaborate and build alliance; and strategic communications initiatives.

The ideal candidate is a strategic and creative thinker with a commitment to gender and racial justice and a sophisticated understanding of intersectional organizing globally that is led by women, girls, and LGBTQI people most affected by injustice. They are an excellent relationship builder with strong ties to the relevant movements, grassroots groups, organizations, and networks.

This position is based in New York City and requires international and domestic travel.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES + RESPONSIBILITIES

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Grantmaking

• Update and revise the regional grantmaking strategy, as needed.
• Contribute to the development of in-depth knowledge and strategic analysis of the global portfolio, including current trends, threats and opportunities, and key resource people and organizations.
• Implement grantmaking priorities in the global portfolio to advance the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI people and promote gender and racial justice.
• Oversee all stages of grantmaking in the global portfolio, including solicitation, due diligence, assessment and evaluation, recommendations for funding, docket writing, and presentation to the director of programs, CEO, and Board of Directors.
• Jointly supervise the work and support the professional growth of a program assistant who is assigned to the global portfolio.
• Monitor grant implementation and evaluate organizational performance, including following up on grantee partner inquiries and outreach trips.
• Review and prepare analysis of progress and final reports from grantee partners to highlight achievements and lessons learned, prepare internal status reports, and contribute to programmatic analysis for the program team and Board of Directors.
• Attend Board meetings to present recommendations and provide information and updates and interact with the Board of Directors throughout the year.
• Recruit and manage external consultants.
• Adhere to the foundation’s grant management system and grantmaking procedures, including preparation of all relevant documents.
• Plan and conduct outreach visits that are relevant for the portfolio.

Accompaniment

• Field emergent requests from grantee partners to support various needs and opportunities.
• Work closely with individual grantee partners to strengthen organizational capacities in ways they have identified and prioritized.
• Support grantee partners’ learning and experimentation in priority areas, including holistic safety and collective care and strategic communications.
• Work with grantee partners to identify areas of work that could be strengthened at a field level and develop and implement an approach to do so.

Strategic Communications

• Contribute to the integration of strategic communications across all areas of programmatic work, as guided by communications colleagues on the program team.
• Collaborate with grantee partners and communications colleagues on accompaniment approaches that strengthen the communications work of individual partners and support movement infrastructure for communications at a field level.
• Work closely with communications colleagues on the program team to identify, conduct due diligence, and make collective decisions about grants in the regional portfolio that support movement journalists and organizations that use communications as a primary strategy.
• Collaborate with communications colleagues on the program team to develop and implement a regional communications plan that contributes to the foundation’s communications and organizational goals.
• Serve as an ambassador for the foundation’s core identity and strategies to internal and external audiences.

Leadership in Philanthropy

• Contribute to developing knowledge products for funder audiences that are grounded in FJS analysis and learning from our programmatic practice and outcomes.
• Engage in relevant funder affinity groups and funder collaborations in the region and the US with a focus on leveraging new and appropriate resources for groups that advance the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI people.
• Develop partnerships with other institutions to extend the impact of our grantmaking.
• Represent the foundation professionally at relevant meetings and conferences.

REQUIREMENTS

• At least seven years of relevant professional experience in gender and racial justice, women’s rights, and LGBTQI rights globally and within the philanthropic sector.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including the ability to articulate a clear vision for social justice using a gender and racial justice lens.
• Knowledge and familiarity with grantmaking processes and procedures.
• Ability to adeptly manage multiple projects simultaneously and precisely.
• Experience directly supervising staff and overseeing the work of consultants.
• Ability to collaborate with colleagues in ways that are sensitive to their time and different work styles.
• Willingness to embrace critical feedback with a positive attitude.
• Strong initiative and a desire to learn and improve skills.
• Discretion and the ability to effectively manage confidentiality issues.
• Willingness and ability to travel domestically and internationally (approximately two trips per year to the region).
• Eligibility to work in the United States.

PREFERRED

• Bilingual fluency in oral and written English.