Program Director

The Community Foundation of South Alabama – located on the Gulf Coast – is seeking a director of community initiatives to join our team. This position will primarily focus on the Foundation’s program work/ initiative called “Closing the Opportunity Gap.” This initiative will engage with the community in three different areas aimed at helping financially fragile families succeed: family, education and work.

This position is for candidates who have a background working in a nonprofit’s program department, writing grants to obtain funding to support the program work, and/or making grants to nonprofits, schools, governments, and religious organizations to support the program/initiative’s work.

Candidates must be willing to relocate to the Mobile, Alabama area. Candidates should have 5 years or more experience with designing, managing, and facilitating all aspects of an initiative including grant writing to support the initiative work, grantmaking, community outreach and leadership, collaborating and convening groups across the eight-county service area, working with the Foundation’s Board, staff, and external committees. Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s level is preferred with demonstrated professional experience in these areas. Competitive salary and benefits. Relocation negotiable.

The Community Foundation of South Alabama is an equal opportunity employer.

Full Job Description follows:

Position Description Summary : Director of Community Initiatives responsibilities covers the following key areas: ascertainment, management and facilitation of the Foundation’s initiatives and oversight of relevant grantmaking. This position requires experience and leadership skills, which will enable The Community Foundation of South Alabama to carry out its initiatives in an accessible, fair, and thoughtful manner. Performance of these duties may include working with other staff, outside volunteers (senior advisors), board and board committee members and external community committees.

Major Responsibilities :

Initiatives: Designs, manages and facilitates all aspects of assigned initiatives. Works with all Foundation departments, other grantmaking organizations, community businesses and governmental entities to ensure a coordinated effort that maximizes impact and provides measurable results. Prepares and delivers presentations to Board, staff and all constituents to ensure full communication and involvement.

Strategy Development, Program Design and Management: Develops and/or oversees the process to implement the overall grant making strategy as it relates to the assigned initiatives of the Foundation. Maintains depth and expertise in the Foundation’s areas of interest, major policy reform efforts and its initiatives that affect the Foundation’s service area.

Portfolio Management: Ensure that CFSA grants are invested in nonprofit organizations and communities to achieve common outcomes and maximum impact as it relates to assigned initiatives. This includes grant making due diligence and comparing the proposed program to other programs in that field. Prepares and presents written and oral analyses of grant requests for CFSA staff, Board of Directors (“Board”), and/or committee members. May work directly with grant seekers to provide clarification of the Foundation’s initiatives, provide direction regarding application procedures, and feedback on proposals.

Grant Monitoring: Monitors the assigned initiative’s grant process, including the production of grant agreements, progress reports, payment requests, by grantees and other related correspondence and meetings with grantees. Works with grantees to strengthen their ability to report results of their use of CFSA grant funding awarded by using effective outcome measures to assist the Foundation to better assess the impact of its grants.

External Grant Funding: Researches, identifies, and applies for grants from local, regional and national funders interested in supporting the work and assigned initiatives of the Foundation and for the areas in which this position oversees. Oversees all grant funding awarded to ensure agreed upon deliverables are met and resources are appropriately used as per the terms of the grant award. Works closely with the CFAO to develop and monitor related budgets, ensure funds are spent appropriately and timely and provides timely reporting to funders, Foundation committees and the Board.

Board Relations: Attends Board and committee meetings, as appropriate, including co-staffing the board committee responsible for oversight of grants and scholarships. May attend other meetings to provide relevant staff support.

Community Relations: Represents the Foundation on different committees, commissions, task forces, boards and other philanthropic activities that are relevant to and further enhance the assigned initiatives. Works closely with other staff to promote philanthropic giving and partnerships with respect to initiatives, prepares information for staff to provide to donors to help educate as it relates to their giving preferences. Works closely with the communications and marketing staff to provide information for promotion and awareness of the initiative work of the Foundation through the Foundations various media such as newsletters, website and social media, print, etc.

General: Works as a member of interdepartmental teams to ensure effective and efficient operations. At all times, demonstrates cooperative behavior with supervisors and coworkers. Other duties may be assigned depending upon organizational needs and employee skills. May supervise other staff, volunteers or interns as needed.

Qualifications :

Experience: 5 years or more related grantmaking experience in the public and/or private philanthropic sector. Previous management and supervision experience is also required.

Education: A Bachelor’s degree is required preferably in a field related to the primary funding areas of the Foundation. A Master’s level degree is preferred.

Technical Knowledge: Substantive knowledge of best practices in fields of interest to the Foundation, familiarity with the public policy and legislative process, public and private funding streams related to the Foundation’s domains of work, and a working understanding of evaluation methodologies aimed at assessing program effectiveness.

Community Knowledge: Knowledge of the Foundation’s nonprofit community and experience in working effectively with diverse and broad-based community constituencies.

Convening and Facilitation Skills: Able to facilitate meetings and group processes for the purposes of fact-finding, decision-making, peer learning and problem solving.

Writing and Analytical Skills: Excellent writing and analytical skills.

Public Speaking Skills: Ability to prepare and give presentations, and to comfortably interact with diverse audiences including donors and Board members as well as nonprofit and community groups.

Technology Skills: Proficiency in Microsoft Office 2010 applications and prior familiarity with database programs.

Organizational Skills: Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail. Ability to prioritize work effectively, work well under pressure and adjust to multiple and competing demands.

General: Highly motivated, with the ability to work independently, take initiative, participate as an effective team member and follow tasks through to completion.

Disclaimer: This description should not be construed to contain every function or responsibility that may be required to be performed by an incumbent in this job classification. This job description is intended to be general and will evolve over time. The description is subject to periodic updating. At management’s discretion, the employee may be assigned different or additional duties from time to time.

Job Type: Full-time

Salary: $60,000.00 to $80,000.00 /year

Required education:

• Bachelor’s

Required experience:

• nonprofit programmatic/initiative: 5 years
• grant writing: 5 years
• grantmaking: 5 years