Overview: Groundswell Fund is the largest funder of the U.S. Reproductive Justice (RJ) movement. For more than a decade, we have enabled foundations and individual donors to increase the impact of their giving by offering a different kind of philanthropic model. Different in who we are: A program staff of women of color who come directly out of community and labor organizing and have a combined 70 years of grassroots organizing and civic engagement experience within communities of color; a board comprised of grassroots leaders shaping strategy alongside a few funders and donors. Different in who we support: women of color (WOC), low-income women, and transgender people who are organizing at the grassroots. Different in how we support the field: not just through grants, but through capacity building support focused on boosting grassroots power, and funder organizing that lifts up our grantees with a larger audience of funders and donors who can move resources to their work, whether or not these resources come through our doors. And moving at least 80 percent of the dollars that come in our doors back out to the field.
In the past decade Groundswell has granted more than $20 million to the Reproductive Justice (RJ) movement; provided millions more in capacity building support to RJ organizations; increased the giving of dozens of national and local foundations and helped bring thousands of new individual donors into the RJ movement. Today we support more RJ organizations than any other foundation in the country. Our grantees have grown from trepidation about the political process to engaging thousands of voters and even seeing their own members run for office. They have been instrumental in the passage of more than 150 pro-RJ policies and blocking many regressive policies, and they have built a growing grassroots base of support for RJ across the U.S.
Position Summary:
The Program Officer is responsible for supporting Groundswell’s three funds: the Catalyst Fund, The Rapid Response Fund, and the Birth Justice Fund. Working closely with the Program Director, the Program Officer contributes to the design and implementation of grantmaking, technical assistance, evaluation, communications, and fundraising programs. The Program Officer advances strategic grantmaking that maximizes the impact of donor giving on constituency/base building and movement building to effectively accelerate policy and systems change. The Program Officer plays an important role in the field of philanthropy by generating increased visibility and resources for reproductive justice.
Responsibilities:
Grantmaking
- Stay abreast of trends in philanthropy, reproductive justice, and related social justice movements.
- Identify priorities, gaps, and opportunities to strengthen strategic grantmaking.
- Conduct research on key issues and policies and communicate findings.
- Conduct thorough assessment of grant applicants, including comprehensive proposal review and site visits.
- Regularly monitor and evaluate the progress and impact of grantees.
- Preparation of external and internal communications documents, including dockets/grant summaries by issue, region, etc.
Field Building
- Serve as an effective public spokesperson for Groundswell and raise the visibility of reproductive justice by writing and speaking in diverse forums.
- Build and maintain strong, collaborative relationships with funder colleagues, individual donors, grantees, and other key partners.
- Contribute to the implementation of technical assistance and evaluation programs for grantees, including coordinating logistics for grantee meetings and convenings and managing consultant contracts.
Qualifications:
Required
- Experience working in social justice movements, preferably in grassroots organizing.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate effectively via phone and email, and to serve as a public spokesperson for Groundswell.
- Demonstrated ability to research an issue area and effectively communicate findings.
- Demonstrated ability to engage in strategic and analytical thinking and planning.
- Experience moving a project from conceptualization to completion.
- Experience coordinating the planning and logistics for meetings and convenings.
- Ability to work independently, on multiple projects at a time, and across several time zones.
- Comfort with online communications platforms and technology.
- Willingness to travel 4-10x/year, often cross-country.
Strongly Preferred
- At least ten years of experience working in social justice movements.
- At least three years of experience in funder, labor, community, political or faith-based organizing.
- Strategic communications experience.
- Evaluation experience.
- Fluency in Spanish.
Compensation/Benefits: Annual salary is $75,000 or commensurate with experience. This is a full-time, exempt position. Very generous benefits include fully paid for employee and family health, dental, vision, and matching 401K plan. Three weeks of vacation upon hire and a generous holiday schedule including the last week of December.
To Apply: Please email a resume, three professional references and a cover letter that includes your salary expectations and describes why you feel you are a strong candidate for this position to:
Beverley Avery, Executive Assistant, at: info@groundswellfund.org by April 15, 2016. No phone calls, please. Due to the high volume of applications, only those selected for further discussion will be contacted.
Equal Employment Opportunity: The Groundswell Fund is a 501(c)(3) public charity that incubates new and innovative public-interest projects and grant-making programs. We are committed to attracting, developing and retaining exceptional people, and to creating a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding and enables each of us to realize our potential. Our work environment is safe and open to all employees and partners, respecting the full spectrum of races, ethnicities, national origins, ages, sexual orientations, gender identities, beliefs, religions, faiths and ideologies, cultures, socio-economic backgrounds and levels of physical ability.