Program Officer

JOB TITLE: Program Officer
REPORTING RELATIONSHIP: Vice President, Community Investments

The Program Officer will have responsibility for strengthening the Foundation's grantmaking programs, fostering and maintaining relationships with communities and grantees to advance the Foundation's impact agenda. The Program Officer will focus on implementing strategies to increase the overall impact of its portfolio and ensure that the Foundation is delivering high-quality support and leadership.

The Program Officer assists with the Foundation's grantmaking programs relevant to various Foundation funds, including unrestricted and field of interest funds, special grant initiative funds, donor advised funds, corporate funds and Foundation subsidies. This particular role will focus on working with the Foundation’s corporate partners and family philanthropy.

The Program Officer operates in a highly matrixed, collaborative environment where teamwork is valued.

Major Duties and Responsibilities

• Proactively cultivate and maintain relationships with diverse communities, organizations and individuals across the region
• Actively source and cultivate new ideas, organizations and individuals with the potential to drive transformative change in community problem-solving efforts
• Lead comprehensive evaluations of proposals and applications; provide clear, constructive feedback on ideas and applications, including guidance when proposals are unlikely to be competitive
• Manage a portfolio of grantees, providing ongoing guidance, support and encouragement throughout the duration of their grants
• Review and process grant reports and synthesize data into portfolio-wide summaries to measure and communicate the Foundation’s impact
• Actively participate in organization-wide initiatives, including strategic projects, community engagement activities, learning opportunities, equity efforts, work groups, events and internal committees
• Maintain actionable, up to date contact, organizational, and related records and data in grantmaking database about each grant for which the officer is responsible
• Contribute expertise and knowledge to strategy development and fund or portfolio implementation

Minor Duties and Responsibilities

• Conduct research to assess community needs, identify best practices in similar communities and inform the Foundation’s grantmaking strategy
• Identify and present novel funding opportunities, including ideas for new programmatic initiatives
• Collaborate with Foundation staff to appropriately publicize the Foundation's grants and community service programs
• Works cooperatively with other staff to assist as needed with their responsibilities and to ensure a smooth and timely flow of support services within the Foundation

Qualifications for the Job

• Required Education: Bachelor's Degree required
• Required Experience: Seven to 10 years of successful experience in foundation grantmaking programs and/or nonprofit management with a broad knowledge of nonprofit organizations
• Preferred Experience: Three to five years of experience leading corporate social responsibility and/or working in private family philanthropy

Key Competencies

• Knowledge about the greater Toledo community and region
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability and willingness to work and communicate with people of diverse backgrounds, including grantees, donors and other constituents, and ability to work closely with other colleagues as a collaborative Foundation team member
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including demonstrated ability to synthesize and present information to a variety of stakeholders
• Familiarity with nonprofit and foundation operating models, financial principles, and risk mitigation strategies
• Ability to assess organizational capacity, stability, and potential for achieving impact
• Ability to design and facilitate collaborative meetings and workshops to achieve specific goals
• Exhibits a growth mindset, remaining open to and curious about diverse perspectives, new information and receptive to feedback
• Proven ability to exercise good judgment and represent an organization to external stakeholders with professionalism
• Demonstrated commitment to the values of the Foundation and ethical practices for grantmaking organizations and staff
• Bias towards action and ability to work well with minimal supervision by taking initiative and ensuring successful project management and timely project completion
• Extensive experience with MS Outlook, Excel, Word, and PowerPoint and basic skills with Adobe

Benefits

The Community Foundation offers an exceptional benefits package, including medical, life and disability coverage, a fully vested 403(b) retirement plan, 10 paid holidays, 15 vacation days and 12 sick days, prorated the first year of service based on the date of hire. Our flexible workplace policy provides one day of remote work per week.

Physical Requirements

• While this is mainly an office position, the ability to lift small boxes (letter stock, postcard stock, booklets) is required occasionally.
• Additionally, this position will require travel outside of the office to meet with current/prospective grantees and occasional attendance at night and weekend events, as needed.
• Occasionally, out-of-town travel may be required for professional development opportunities.