Associate Director, External Affairs

Democracy Fund•Washington, DC

22h•$172,527•Hybrid

About The Position

Democracy Fund champions leaders and organizations who defend democracy and challenge our political system to be more open, just, resilient, and trustworthy. We believe that experimentation, learning, and adaptation are key to the health and resilience of any system, whether it is our organization or the American political system. As grantmakers, we focus on listening and being of service to our grantees, who are visionaries and our collaborators, and on ways we can more deeply embed diversity, equity, and inclusion as values central to the success of our work and mission. Since we believe in the power of human connection, we follow a hybrid work model that balances remote flexibility with purposeful collaboration. Remote candidates are required to travel to the D.C. office for all mandatory all-employee retreats (2–3 times per year) and periodic team-building sessions a few times a year. All required travel expenses will be fully covered by the foundation. While we prefer applicants residing in the Washington, D.C. metro area (DMV) to facilitate regular in-person engagement, we may consider candidates residing in other locations for exceptional applications if we already have staff in those states.

Requirements

A strong commitment and proven high-impact experience related to strengthening American democracy and to Democracy Fund’s mission and values, including racial equity and justice.
A high level of integrity that embodies and reflects Democracy Fund values.
8-10 years of experience working in roles that engage in philanthropic field-building, with a preference for pro-democracy work or experience working across issue areas, sectors, or fields and the ability to identify opportunities to connect funders and ideas across traditional boundaries.
At least 4 years of demonstrated management responsibilities with a demonstrated ability to set expectations, coach and develop staff, give useful feedback, manage performance, and build an effective and inclusive team.
Demonstrated experience designing and leading complex campaigns, partnerships, or multi-stakeholder initiatives from strategy through implementation and learning.
Strong knowledge of philanthropy and how funders make decisions, collaborate, learn, and respond to emerging needs; demonstrated experience organizing funders or philanthropic stakeholders toward collective action; and an established network of philanthropic relationships.
Excellent relationship-building skills and the judgment to work effectively with senior leaders, funders, programmatic experts, grantees, consultants, and colleagues across different roles and perspectives are required.
Strong project and portfolio management skills, including the ability to manage multiple concurrent priorities, clarify ownership, maintain momentum, and improve systems and workflows.
Demonstrated ability to lead through ambiguity and change, including reassessing plans, making timely course corrections, and developing practical, creative solutions when circumstances shift.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize nuanced information, facilitate productive discussions, and present recommendations to senior audiences.
Sound judgment, organizational awareness, discretion, and comfort operating in situations with ambiguity, urgency, or reputational sensitivity.
A collaborative leadership style, paired with initiative, creativity, accountability, and a willingness to make decisions and drive work forward.

Nice To Haves

Experience working within an intermediary, funder collaborative, donor network, philanthropy-serving organization, or similar setting is highly valued.
An established network among funders, within or outside the traditional democracy/philanthropy ecosystem, including areas such as health, climate, or other fields is preferred.

Responsibilities

Provide strategic leadership for philanthropic partnerships, campaigns, and special projects that advance External Affairs outcomes and organizational priorities.
Effectively manage and develop staff with distinct portfolios, creating clarity, coordination, and shared accountability across campaigns and program development.
Design and lead philanthropic campaigns that mobilize resources, strengthen funding practices, and help pro-democracy organizations respond to emerging opportunities and threats.
Serve as a co-strategist to program teams, translating program influence goals into actionable funder engagement, partnership, and campaign strategies.
Coordinate high-priority work originating with the President, Vice President, or program leadership, clarifying ownership and driving work from concept through execution.
Maintain momentum in a changing environment by recognizing when strategies or plans need to shift, developing creative alternatives, and helping staff and partners adapt while staying focused on the intended outcomes.
Contribute to the three-person External Affairs leadership team by setting direction, managing tradeoffs, monitoring progress, and adapting the team’s work as conditions change.
Represent Democracy Fund with funders, partners, and other external audiences and build trusted relationships that extend the organization’s reach and influence.
Take on additional duties and projects as assigned.
Partner with the Senior Director and Director to set External Affairs priorities, translate strategy into annual and near-term plans, and make clear choices about sequencing, capacity, and tradeoffs.
Contribute to team and organizational planning, learning, budgeting, and risk assessment; surface implications and decisions to senior leaders in a timely way.
Bring an integrated perspective across External Affairs (partnerships and communications); Strategy, Impact, and Learning (SIL); and program strategies so that relationships, messages, and activities reinforce one another.
Track developments in democracy, philanthropy, and the organization’s operating environment and recommend where External Affairs should deepen, adapt, accelerate, or stop work.
Oversee a portfolio of partnerships, campaigns, and special projects, ensuring each effort has clear goals, decision rights, workplans, communication practices, measures of progress, opportunities for learning and impact assessment, and connection to broader External Affairs outcomes.
Develop and lead strategies to organize, align, and activate funders around urgent needs, longer-term opportunities, and shared approaches to strengthening democracy.
Design philanthropic campaigns that combine compelling goals, credible messengers, useful information, funder engagement, and clear opportunities for action.
Build and steward trusted relationships with funders, philanthropic networks, advisors, and other partners who can expand resources and improve practice in the pro-democracy field.
Partner with communications-focused colleagues to develop campaign narratives, materials, events, and outreach strategies tailored to philanthropic audiences.
Partner with learning and impact colleagues to evaluate partnership and campaign results, capture lessons, and use evidence and feedback to strengthen future efforts.
Serve as a primary strategic partner to program leadership on influence goals, helping define the audiences, relationships, messages, and actions needed to advance them.
Represent External Affairs in internal planning and strategy discussions and communicate decisions, dependencies, and risks back to the team.
Facilitate cross-functional working groups and decision-making processes when a priority requires contributions from multiple teams or leaders.
Connect program teams to relevant External Affairs capabilities and ensure requests are assessed and prioritized against team capacity and organizational goals.
Coordinate, manage, or advise on high-priority initiatives requested by the President, Vice President, or program leadership, establishing scope, roles, timelines, and decision points.
Translate program knowledge and emerging needs into clear opportunities for funder education, coordination, and action without positioning Democracy Fund as the sole broker or gatekeeper.
Build alignment and influence across teams and stakeholders with different areas of expertise, authority, incentives, and perspectives, using sound judgment and relationship-building to move complex work forward.
Manage, coach, and develop staff responsible for campaigns/special projects and program development, setting clear goals and expectations and providing timely guidance, feedback, and performance evaluation.
Create shared direction across differentiated roles, helping staff understand how their portfolios connect and where collaboration or coordinated sequencing is required.
Create clarity and shared accountability across differentiated roles, delegating meaningful ownership while remaining accountable for quality, progress, stakeholder management, and results.
Build a team culture grounded in trust, candor, learning, inclusion, collaboration, and follow-through.
Support staff in navigating ambiguity, competing demands, complex relationships, and changing external conditions.
Contribute to effective External Affairs leadership, team meetings, retreats, workflows, and communication practices.
Embody positive, accountable, high-impact organizational citizenship as a leader, manager, and contributor to the External Affairs strategy and organizational mission and vision.