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SUMMARY DESCRIPTION

The Ford Foundation seeks a visionary, strategic and innovative individual to lead and oversee its US Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice (GREJ) program.

Based in New York, the Director will manage a team of program staff who are working toward delivering the strategic goals of the GREJ portfolio, which seeks to build an inclusive society and democracy in which people of all backgrounds and genders thrive in shared power, agency and belonging. GREJ supports work that mitigates the harm of oppressive policies and systems on immigrants, women, BIPOC and LGBTQ people and those caught in the criminal legal system.

The ideal GREJ Director will be a visionary, proven field leader who has at least 10 years’ experience in strengthening movements to build an inclusive society and democracy through a combination of leadership, policy analysis, advocacy, communications, and implementation experience. Specifically, they will have familiarity and experience with one or more of the three areas of work within the program – immigrant’s rights, reproductive justice, and criminal justice. They will have managed complex processes involving multiple institutions and individuals in a team arrangement. They will also have a track record of successfully achieving specific policy and programmatic outcomes working with a range of stakeholders, including issue specific and community-based organizations and networks, the private sector, governments, and other non-governmental organizations. Moreover, the Director should be an exceptional people manager, with a strong track record of constructively leading and coaching a diverse and high-functioning staff and instilling teams with a sense of shared commitment and purpose.

BACKGROUND

The Ford Foundation, created in 1936, is a US-based philanthropic organization and private international donor focusing on social justice. It has ten offices across the world in Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as in the US. The Foundation’s core mission is to help reduce inequality in all its forms: political, economic, and cultural. The Foundation aims to address the key drivers of inequality: entrenched cultural narratives that undermine fairness, tolerance and inclusion; failure to invest in and protect vital public goods, such as education, natural resources and climate; unfair rules of the economy that magnify unequal opportunity and outcomes; unequal access to government decision-making and resources; and persistent prejudice and discrimination against women, people with disabilities and racial, ethnic, and caste minorities.

GENDER, RACIAL, AND ETHNIC JUSTICE PROGRAM

Despite significant progress, structural inequality based on gender, race, class, disability, and ethnicity persists in the United States and is compounded and complicated by today’s challenges. The rollback of abortion rights threatens the strength of our democracy and the health, safety, and economic opportunity of pregnant people and their families. People of color are disproportionately policed and incarcerated. Immigrants and LGBTQ+ people are targeted simply because of who they are.

But today’s realities have helped fuel vibrant new leaders and movements engaging in innovative advocacy and forging powerful alliances. In the United States, young people are leading new movements for immigrant rights and for racial justice that are challenging xenophobia, standing up for Black lives, and interrogating the equation of police and prisons with public safety. The work of GREJ is to support the courageous people and organizations at the center of this fight to achieve lasting political and social change.

We recognize that race, gender, class, disability, and ethnic identity are deeply connected—often inextricably so—and make sure our efforts are rooted in this understanding. It’s an understanding that informs our commitment to shifting repressive power dynamics and strengthening the rights and influence of those most affected by violence, oppression and injustice across the globe.

To learn more about our priorities and strategy, please visit our website.

THE ROLE

Working as part of Ford’s program leadership team, Directors are responsible for program development and oversight of grantmaking strategies in specific lines of work implemented in the US, and aligned and coordinated (where appropriate) with global grantmaking to advance the Foundation’s vision and mission.

Reporting to the Vice President of US Programs, the GREJ Director provides leadership and has overall responsibility for recommending program strategies and resource allocation and for assuring that GREJ grantmaking under their purview directly links to these strategies.

The Director is responsible for the effective functioning of a grantmaking team that is comprised of professional and support staff, including Program Officers, Program Associates, Program Assistants in the U.S. They provide operational oversight, ensure strategic coherence, and promote a culture of trust and team-level effectiveness to advance the Foundation’s vision and mission. In addition, they also work to ensure conditions for collaboration with other grantmaking programs and regional offices around the world.

The Director has day-to-day responsibility for ensuring that Program Officers have goals and clear programmatic objectives, with a direct link between those objectives and their grantmaking. They are also responsible for fostering learning within and across program areas and strategies, and for creating conditions conducive to collaboration and communication among US-based staff and overseas offices.

Directors work closely with their peers, with Program Officers, and with Foundation leadership to shape, implement, learn, and adapt the program strategies of the Foundation.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Specifically, the Director will:

Programmatic Leadership

• Use strategic vision to guide GREJ’s programming so that it aligns with the mission and values of the Foundation. Share a strategic vision, operational framework, and deep knowledge of the area of programming with team members working on the GREJ team.
• Represent the Foundation and its work to the government, media, academic, business, philanthropic, donor community, and civic leaders relevant to GREJ’s programming through meetings, updates, speeches, briefings and interviews.
• Initiate and foster strategic partnerships with key external constituencies to advance GREJ goals, and potentially, other sources of funding.

Program Strategy Development and Implementation

• Collaboratively design and propose the goals for GREJ, including outcomes, strategies, and approaches for achieving the social change objectives of the team, as well as, the learning and evaluation plans for the GREJ strategy.
• Work with the Strategy and Learning team to build a monitoring framework to assess impact and synthesize learning; works with the team to determine and agree on a formal evaluation process.
• Work with the Office of Communications to ensure that GREJ’s portfolio is optimizing communications venues to ensure reverberation of work and impact.
• Supervise the unit’s activities for timely grant making, and effective portfolio monitoring and management for accountability and impact.
• Recommend biennial and yearly grantmaking budgets for approval by the Vice President of US Programs, and oversees and reports on their implementation at the unit level.

Collaborative Management and Team Building

• Build and manage a team of Program Officers and support staff and hold full responsibility for performance management of the GREJ team as a whole, and direct reports individually.
• Facilitate ongoing conversations with staff about goals and progress, providing clear and constructive feedback and coaching for success. Carry out the development and appraisal of team members—including establishing annual performance goals and professional development needs.
• Manage and promote a collaborative working environment within and across program teams, and areas of expertise that maximizes the diverse backgrounds, perspectives and skills of staff to accomplish Foundation goals.
• As part of the US program management team, contribute to the development and implementation of the organization’s mission, policies, strategies, and operations.

Fiscal and Administrative Leadership

• Demonstrate a commitment to fiscal stewardship in grantmaking and administrative activities.
• Develop and manage an annual management budget for the administrative costs of the unit for review and approval by the Vice President of US Programs. Periodically review expenditures against budget and recommend spending adjustments or budget modifications as necessary.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• A minimum of 10 years of experience leading strategies, people and teams.
• Subject-matter expertise in Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice-related programming, and/or demonstration of strong generalist cross-cutting work in social justice arena.
• An advanced degree in a relevant field of study or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Demonstrated exceptional people management and team management skills, including the ability to build teams, constructively lead and coach a diverse and high-functioning staff and instill teams with a sense of shared commitment and purpose.
• Strategic thinker with an understanding of the various mechanisms and venues through which philanthropy and our grantees can affect change (e.g., organizing and movement building; policy change, including legislative, legal, regulatory, federal, state, and local; applied research; strategic communications and narrative strategies; business practice shift; and etc).
• Exceptional communications skills – strong active listening skills, constructive verbal and written skills, strong public presentation skills.
• 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 on-going organizational development.
• Experience with grantmaking is desirable.

ATTRIBUTES:

• Exceptional leadership presence—internally and externally including recognition as a leader in work of Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice Program.
• Be extremely well-networked with multiple stakeholders that can help advance the strategy of the program.
• Intellectual agility and ability to analyze evidence, think critically, and understand policy studies that are directly relevant to programmatic funding areas.
• Brings a strong intersectional analysis to the work.
• Possesses an understanding of how to bring evidence and communications to bear in decision-making.
• Demonstrates a deep understanding of, and commitment to, social justice and the approaches necessary to achieving it.
• Possesses cultural competence and the ability to work across lines of difference, with an explicit commitment to advancing racial, gender and disability justice, both within the institution and externally.
• Demonstrates a commitment to creating and reinforcing a transparent, accountable, and mutually respectful work environment that foster conditions of psychological safety, the growth of staff, and instill teams with a sense of shared commitment, purpose, and trust.
• Be a well-regarded manager with experience in philanthropy and possess a high-degree of emotional intelligence, a learning orientation, and humility.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: This position is primarily a sedentary role. However, the person in this position may need to occasionally move about inside the office to liaise with internal staff, access files, office machinery and a copy machine/printer. Additionally, domestic/international travel will be expected; some travel is directly related to grantmaking, but also to attend team conferences, retreats and meetings.

The Ford Foundation is committed to providing access, equal opportunity and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment, its programs, and operations. As part of this commitment, the Foundation will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application process, please contact [email protected].

LOCATION: New York, NY

TARGET START DATE: Jan 2023

SALARY: The Ford Foundation is committed to practicing salary transparency. The compensation for this position is at minimum $265,000 and maximum is $297,000.

#LI-Hybrid

Alignment to Culture and Values

• Commitment to the Foundation’s mission and core values of equity, openness, collaboration, trust, accountability and urgency
• Personal qualities of humility, capacity for self-reflection, and a sense of humor
• Discretion and ability to handle confidential issues
• Action-orientated and entrepreneurial self-starter who can work well independently and in teams

Benefits

• Hybrid Workplace and Flexible Work Arrangement policies
• Medical and dental benefits for employee and immediate family on first day of work
• Retirement savings account with matching company contributions of up to 13%
• Three weeks’ paid vacation in first year of work; four weeks in subsequent years
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Office closed the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day
• Professional development initiatives for growth
• Generous parental leave (maternal and paternal) during new child’s first year (born into family or adopted)

Equal employment opportunity and having a diverse staff are fundamental principles at The Ford Foundation, where employment and promotional opportunities are based upon individual capabilities and qualifications without regard to race, color, religion, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation/affectional preference, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status or any other protected characteristic as established under law. The Ford Foundation does not discriminate against formerly incarcerated individuals.