Program Officer, Young Adults Forward Fund

Job Summary: Reporting to the Senior Program Officer, the Program Officer will be relationship lead for a portfolio of grantees within the Young Adults Forward Fund. The Program Officer will be responsible for collective outcomes, grantmaking, capacity building, project management, donor relations, and community engagement as related to the Young Adults Forward Fund.

Young Adult Family Fund Background

Please refer to this document for the vision, mission and strategic objectives of the Young Adults Forward Fund.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

Strategy Development and Implementation:

• Implements mission, vision and strategic objectives as aligned with the fund’s compass (linked above)
• Tracks progress towards strategic objectives, designs new objectives as necessary and course corrects while driving towards common outcomes
• Collaborates with wide breadth of internal and external partners to achieve strategic objectives 
• Assumes primary responsibility for communicating results to multiple audiences and spurring collective action towards common objectives 
• Drives strategy by maintaining depth and expertise in the fund’s areas of interest

Portfolio Management: 

• Manages strategic grantmaking, relationships and projects related to a common set of outcomes and budget 
• Effectively communicates status of portfolio and potential improvements to team 
• Oversees executed grants and maintains ongoing, supportive relationship with partners. 
• Works to strengthen organizational capacity of grantees and sector. 
• Evaluates portfolio investments and initiative outcomes to guide and advance related goals.
• Serves as a thought-partner and content expert to aligned partners and networks

Grantmaking and Monitoring: 

• Ensures that grants are strategically aligned and invested to achieve maximum impact towards shared outcomes
• Conducts due diligence of organizations including review and analysis of grant proposals, organizational documents, financial information, site visits and interviews with other funders and relevant agencies
• Makes funding recommendations to team and donor family
• Produces grant agreement data, reviews progress reports and payment requests, and maintains ongoing communications with grantees
• Works with grant partners to report results by using effective outcome measures to assist team and donor family to better assess the impact of its grants
• Prepares and presents written and oral analyses of grant requests, issue briefs, and portfolio reports for CCF staff, donors, leadership, board, etc.

Community Engagement and Partner Relations: 

• Works directly to maintain and strengthen relationships with grantees, foundation partners, consultants, and various constituency groups, including community-based service providers, policy and advocacy organizations, government agencies, local and state-level elected policymakers, civic and business leaders, etc.
• Represents CCF at special events and on relevant committees, commissions, and boards
• Works directly with community members and prospective grant seekers to provide clarification of CCF priorities, direction regarding application procedures, and feedback on proposals

Communications: 

• Communicates expertly (written and oral) with internal team, donor family, CCF staff, partners and other stakeholders (including the public) about fund priorities, activities, and progress
• Responds to external requests for information as a community ambassador of CCF, the fund and its priorities
• Works in partnership across CCF departments to produce relevant materials for distribution to key stakeholders

Research and Special Projects: 

• Conducts, proposes, and monitors research as related to fund’s interests 
• Uses research process and products to guide strategies and inform partners
• Builds on research projects to identify solutions related to collective outcomes
• Ensures that research is disseminated and presented to appropriate stakeholders Designs, manages, and facilitates special projects for CCF by ensuring timely preparation and coordination of key activities and materials

Facilitation & Convening: 

• Strategically convenes stakeholders to develop and accomplish a shared agenda that moves work towards fund goals
• Plans and coordinates meetings with stakeholders and uses opportunities to engage CCF donors, grantees, staff, board, and community
• Represents the donor fund and stakeholders at community events and meetings with foundation partners, constituencies, and stakeholder groups. 
• Plans and supports events as needed

Integration of Work: Integrates the expertise, resources and goals of CCF’s departments into portfolio to increase opportunity for systemic change towards organizational outcomes. Identifies and pursues opportunities for internal integration of work across functions and departments to leverage strengths and efforts across CCF.

General: Assists team members, donor family, CCF colleagues, and serves on interdepartmental teams across the organization to ensure the effective and efficient CCF operations. At all times, demonstrates cooperative behavior with supervisors and coworkers. Other duties as assigned, dependent on organizational needs and employee skills.

Job Qualifications

• Education: 
  • Bachelor's degree required, preferably in a related field.
  • Master’s level degree in a field related to the primary funding areas of the foundation is preferred.
• Work Experience: 
  • At least five (5) years of demonstrated content expertise, related program design and implementation, grantmaking and/or management experience required with a minimum of three years working in the nonprofit, public and/or philanthropic sector required.
  • Experience in managing consultants and project working teams to achieve results is essential.

Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

Leadership Skills: Ability to make well-reasoned decisions in the best interests of the fund for the present and future, and the ability to work collaboratively and effectively with individuals of diverse backgrounds. Strong ability to set vision and manage partners strategically towards it. Ability to lead a team towards a common vision and set of outcomes.

Project Management Skills: Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail. Ability to implement and manage projects, prioritize work effectively and adjust to multiple demands.

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

Communication Skills: Excellent writing, math and oral communication skills with the ability to write clear, concise analyses and narratives. Ability to prepare and deliver effective presentations, and to comfortably interact with diverse audiences.

Technical Knowledge: Demonstrated mastery in majority of issues or functional area of the family fund (i.e. housing, economic mobility, mental health, strategy development, evaluation, etc.). Demonstrated analytical capabilities and substantive knowledge of best practices in fields of interest to the foundation, familiarity with non-profit financial statements, loan and mission-related investment programs, public policy and legislative process, public and private funding streams related to the foundation’s domains of work, and a working understanding of outcome measures and evaluation methodologies aimed at assessing program effectiveness.

Community Knowledge: Knowledge of the Los Angeles County nonprofit community, familiarity with the geography and diverse neighborhoods throughout the region, and experience in working effectively with diverse and broad-based community constituencies.

Technology Skills: Internet competency and strong computer proficiency, including mastery of the Microsoft Office software suite (particularly Word, PowerPoint and Excel) is required.

Team & General Skills: Ability to work well independently.  Ability to take initiative and follow tasks through to completion. Ability to lead a team toward CCF's goals, leveraging each team member's skill set.