The Organization
Founded in 1948, the San Francisco Foundation is one of the nation’s largest community foundations — a grantmaking public charity dedicated to improving life within a specific local region. We are committed to racial equity and economic inclusion so that all people in the San Francisco Bay Area are economically secure, rooted in vibrant communities, and engaged in civic life. Our mission is to mobilize resources and act as a catalyst for change to build strong communities, foster civic leadership, and promote philanthropy in the San Francisco Bay Area.
POSITION SUMMARY
Senior Director, Place Pathway (Anchoring Communities)
The San Francisco Foundation believes that a focus on People, Place and Power provides the pathways to greater racial and economic equity in the Bay Area. Since the launch of its equity agenda in mid-2016, the Foundation’s Community Impact Department has also been organized around these three Equity Pathways. The three Pathway Senior Directors are members of the Department’s leadership team. Under the leadership of the Chief Impact Officer and the Vice President of Programs, they act as major contributors to the development and implementation of the Foundation’s equity agenda, determining the short and long-term program results and the associated strategies to achieve them—grantmaking, advocacy, and civic leadership—across a range of issues. Senior Directors also work to foster greater alignment and partnership internally as well as with the Foundation’s extensive network of donors and partners from across the philanthropic, nonprofit, for-profit and public sectors.
Authority
The Place Pathway focuses on anchoring the region’s neighborhoods so that all residents, particularly low-income families and people of color, can live, work, thrive, and create. The portfolio supports grantees that are protecting residents from displacement, preserving and producing affordable housing, anchoring communities as trusted neighborhood organizations providing community members clear paths of self-determination, and those that are advancing equity through the arts. The Place Pathway’s focus on housing at the neighborhood to county level in the Bay Area complements the work of the Foundation’s Policy and Innovation Division, which supports housing policy and advocacy at the regional and state levels.
The Place Pathway also supports efforts to reduce the displacement of not-for-profit organizations (neighborhood anchors) that create a sense of belonging for people of color and low-income residents. The Place Pathway is a team of eight professionals, including staff for the Hope SF public-private partnership and staff who prepare the social impact analyses for the Foundation’s Program Related Investment loan program (the Bay Area Community Impact Fund).
The Place Pathway Director is a member of the Community Impact Department’s leadership and is responsible for the following:
- Strategy development and implementation
- Determining and refining pathway results and strategies, including grantmaking, convenings, advocacy, research, and partnerships,
- Engagement with grantees, community partners, other funders and civic leaders to build collaborative relationships and advance results
- Oversight of grantmaking strategies, budget, and processes, ensuring collaborative and responsive relationships with grantees and applicants
- Integrate a strategic focus on policy and systems change at scale.
- Participating in department leadership groups, and with other directors and leaders across the Foundation to make decisions on grantmaking and other investments, and to develop alignment and synergy across pathways to accelerate momentum towards results.
- Advising the Vice President of Programs on new partnerships and engagements on larger policy and system change efforts, and department- and foundation-wide efforts.
- Working with donors to advise on their philanthropic giving.
- Mentoring, training, and providing professional and leadership opportunities for multicultural fellows.
Team Management and Oversight
- Supervise and mentor a team of seven staff members, with six direct reports.
- Nurture a culture of collaboration, with a focus on results.
- Accountable for team performance and budget management.
Interdepartmental Leadership
- Coordinate across pathways and organization, develop collaborative relationships with other directors and staff, participate in organization-wide directors’ team and other efforts, as assigned.
- Collaborate with SFF Philanthropic Advising and Planned Giving on donor and private sector aligned investment, including participating, delegating, and supervising regular engagement with individual donors and coordinated efforts.
- Collaborate with Marketing and Communications staff to advance pathway and overarching equity goals.
Evaluation, Impact, and Culture of Learning
- Work with Director of Strategic Learning and Evaluation to develop and track metrics for pathway results and make needed adjustments to strategy development and implementation.
- Seek opportunities to learn from and share new grantmaking and approaches to reach population level impacts.
Stakeholder Engagement
- Provide external leadership for advancing pathway results and for the overarching regional equity agenda.
- Participate in leadership and oversight of HOPE SF multi-funder collaborative.
- Develop and maintain strong relationships with funder, community, public sector, and institutional partners.
- Develop multi-sector partnerships focused on Place pathway agenda.
- Create opportunities to collaborate and network among all Place Pathway grant partners
- Monitor, maintain knowledge of, and assess emerging equity issues, policies, and practices at the local, regional, state, and national levels — particularly those connected to the Place pathway agenda
- Identify themes and trends across the team’s grant portfolio and in the nonprofit sector to inform and refine PRI strategy and potential opportunities.
Qualifications:
Education
Master’s degree or a combination of education and experience required. Disciplines include (but are not limited to) affordable housing, community development, planning, and public policy/systems change.
Leadership Experience
- Minimum of ten years of increasingly responsible professional experience in the nonprofit, philanthropic, private and/or public sectors.
- Experience and commitment to successfully developing, managing, and mentoring a diverse team.
- Strong collaborator with experience with managing complex initiatives.
- Experience with philanthropy, grantmaking, and/or fundraising.
- Strong interpersonal skills and ability to build relationships with diverse individuals, organizations, and communities.
- Team leader, skilled at building collaborative and results-driven teams with cultures of inclusion and mentorship
- Familiarity with policy and systems change, with particular emphasis on communities which have significant people of color and/or low-income residents.
- Experienced public speaker and institutional ambassador.
- Demonstrated personal integrity and commitment to racial equity and the ability to engender trust, credibility and confidence across racial, economic, ethnic, and geographic differences.
Content / Issue Area Knowledge
- Demonstrated deep commitment to and experience working with the principles and practices of racial equity and economic inclusion.
- The ideal candidate has knowledge and experience in affordable housing (particularly anti-displacement and residential protections, preservation and production of affordable housing), and the nexus of housing/jobs/nonprofit anchors with neighborhood stability in the Bay Area region.
Technical abilities and skills
- Ability to lead collaborative efforts internally and with a range of community partners.
- Excellent facilitation, listening, oral and written communications skills.
- Ability to effectively manage multiple priorities, projects, and staff.
- Customer-service orientation to supporting grant partners and fellow staff in achieving goals and results.
- Self-starter with a results-and problem-solving orientation and an ability to thrive in a fast-paced, changing environment.
- Computer literacy in Microsoft environments, and ability to adapt to new platforms and technologies as needed.
Compensation: Commensurate with background and experience in addition to a competitive benefits package.
Remote Work Policy: The Foundation is adopting a long-term hybrid in-person and remote work policy. Dedicated to its employee health and safety, the Foundation will continue to make decisions in accordance with San Francisco County and California mandates. Employees must reside or plan to relocate to the Bay Area if hired.
Requesting Accommodations: The Foundation is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, the Foundation will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact hr@sff.org.
The San Francisco Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and encourages people of diverse backgrounds to apply.
How To Apply
https://tsff.applytojob.com/apply/AKoNNpANRX/Senior-Director-Place-Pathway