Troy, MI

Associate Program Officer – American Cities, The Kresge Foundation
The Organization

The Kresge Foundation is one of the top 20 private foundations in the United States and the only one focused exclusively on expanding opportunities for people with low income in American Cities. With a $3.8 billion endowment and a staff of over 100 employees, the foundation deploys grants and social investments across arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development. The foundation’s state-of-the-art headquarters maintains an array of energy-efficient, water-conserving and health-promoting systems. The foundation also operates an office in Detroit’s Midtown district.

Position Overview

About the American Cities Program

More than 80 percent of Americans – and more than 80 percent of Americans with low incomes – live in metropolitan areas. At the same time, there is a continuing trend towards urbanization. This puts American cities on the frontline of our nation’s most pressing challenges: whether we can drive lasting prosperity, close the widening gap between rich and poor, promote equality and expand opportunity. Kresge’s American Cities Program draws on the depth of the foundation’s experience from working in Detroit and the breadth of the foundation’s national expertise to help find solutions to these challenges—specifically by promoting the use of effective and inclusive community development practice in American cities.

About the position

·         Fostering cross-city exchange of knowledge between community development practitioners through research, publications, and convenings;

·         Seeding and scaling innovative approaches to community development by funding and supporting national multi-city initiatives; and

·         Stewarding the foundation’s place-based grantmaking in Memphis and New Orleans, including community development grantmaking and cross-team coordination.

All this work has the goal of decreasing poverty and increasing social and economic mobility in American cities.

 

Primary responsibilities

 

Supporting Strategy

·         Contributes to the program’s strategy development, including strategies related to national community development and place-based work.

·         Shares collective responsibility for achieving strategic objectives in cities.

·         Manages creation of strategy documents such as board materials, board advisory committee materials, and working group materials

·         Obtains, maintains, and shares knowledge of the current thinking in field – acting as a subject matter advisor externally and internally at Kresge.

Project & Program Management

·            Oversees portions of the program’s convening, research, and knowledge exchange related to equitable development and inclusive growth.

·            Manages the Program’s place-based work in select cities including:

§  Manages relationships with key partners in focus cities.

§  Develops strategic objectives and associated work plans.

§  Facilitates meetings.

§  Maintains and supports internal collaboration through quarterly meetings, site visits and ongoing information exchange.

§  Maintains positive working relationships with key partners – advising, managing and supporting their work.

§  Manages external requests for proposals and open calls for grant applications including RFP development, publication, review and communications.

Conducts Grant Reviews and Serves as Point of Contact for Grantees

·         Manages a portfolio of select grants across national community development, multi-city initiatives and place-based work in cities.

·         Performs end-to-end grant review responsibilities for a combination of sourced and unsolicited applications.

·         Manages and supports the approval and non-approval process.

·         Develops knowledge and supports the team’s use of program-related investment (PRI) and innovative capital tools to achieve program objectives.

Contributes to Research, Evaluation and Learning

·         Works with the Senior Program Officer and Managing Director to develop grant outcomes and evaluation criteria for one’s own grants; reviews reports and interprets results for the broader team.

·         Conducts site visits and partakes of professional development opportunities.

·         Conducts research and contributes to program development within the team.

 

Performs other Duties to Support Foundation and Program Objectives

·         Represents the foundation publicly, sharing program approaches and grant making outcomes.

·         Participate in funder and cross-sector collaboratives to achieve program objectives as necessary.

·         Develops and maintains other external involvement as needed by the team.

·         Works collaboratively – actively supporting and encouraging all members within the team and across teams.

·         Demonstrates a strong commitment to the foundation’s mission and values and demonstrates that commitment in daily interactions.

·         Demonstrates a strong commitment to pragmatically championing issues of inclusion and equity in American Cities.

·         Acts as liaison to other Kresge departments.

·         Participates in internal working groups.

·         Conducts other duties and special projects as requested.

 

Qualifications

·            Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in relevant or related fields is required; completion of a master’s degree is preferred.

·            At least three years of work experience.

·            Demonstrated interest in the public, nonprofit, civic or social sectors.

·            Demonstrated leadership potential.

·            Must be willing to travel extensively. Local, regional and national travel requirements vary by quarter.

·            Excellent analytical, writing, and verbal skills.

·            Strong social skills and experience working across teams, functions or sectors.

·            Demonstrated ability to effectively develop and manage strong and productive working relationships with internal and external partners.

·            Previous experience synthesizing large amounts of information and the ability to execute on strategies.

·            Demonstrated maturity and good judgment. Ability to make decisions and craft support for recommendations.

·            Skill in working effectively as a member of a team.

·            Ability to master a diverse workload.

·            Previous experience in consulting/analysis, project management, strategy (for-profit, non-profit or public sector) or operations is preferred.

How To Apply

https://workforcenow.adp.com/mascsr/default/mdf/recruitment/recruitment.html?cid=87274f4c-cc7a-4ce9-97ab-d86186933f96&jobId=174244&lang=en_US&source=CC3&ccId=19000101_000001

Kresge is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer and strongly encourages applications from people of color, persons with disabilities, women, and LGBT applicants. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

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