Program Officer

Seattle Foundation Group • Seattle, WA

10d • Hybrid

About The Position

The Program Officer advances Seattle Foundation’s community impact priorities by stewarding programs, relationships, and investments across a range of issue areas. The role centers on deep connection to communities in Greater Seattle, with particular interest and skill in narrative storytelling, democracy, civic participation, and grassroots organizing. Working alongside community leaders and partners, the Program Officer identifies opportunities, elevates community knowledge and stories, and supports strategies that build power, belonging, and lasting systems change.

The position manages a multi-million-dollar portfolio of community investments, develops cross-sector partnerships, and contributes to the Foundation’s strategies and public voice. Reporting to the Director, Programs, the Program Officer works across teams to connect grantmaking, convening, learning, narrative change, and community engagement. The role partners closely with the Senior Program Officer to connect community priorities, narrative strategies, and grassroots perspectives with policy opportunities and systems-change efforts, and may steward a small number of government partnerships aligned with the Foundation’s priorities. Prior philanthropy experience is not required; success depends on strong program management, trusted community relationships, sound judgment, and the ability to translate community expertise into responsive action.

Requirements

• Five or more years of relevant experience in community-based work, program management, organizing, advocacy, communications, civic engagement, public service, or a related field; equivalent combinations of lived, volunteer, and professional experience are welcome.
• Demonstrated connection to communities in Greater Seattle or Washington state, including trusted relationships and a grounded understanding of local assets, histories, challenges, and aspirations.
• Demonstrated interest and skill in narrative storytelling, including listening for meaning, amplifying community voice, communicating complex ideas clearly, and connecting stories to strategies for change.
• Working knowledge of democracy, civic participation, grassroots organizing, and community power building, gained through professional, volunteer, or lived experience.
• Strong program and project management skills, including coordinating multiple priorities, managing budgets and timelines, communicating decisions, and following through on commitments.
• Critical, flexible, and multidisciplinary thinking, including the ability to understand and analyze social, economic, cultural, and political forces affecting community well-being.
• Personal and professional commitment to racial equity, diversity, and inclusion, with knowledge of root causes, systems change, and community-led approaches to racial and economic justice.
• Strong interpersonal skills, including building rapport, adapting communication to the audience, active listening, and working collaboratively and respectfully across differences.
• Influencing skills, including building trust and credibility, gaining commitment across teams, and identifying common interests around shared goals.
• Facilitation experience, including creating inclusive spaces, guiding discussions toward clear outcomes, managing group dynamics, and navigating differing viewpoints.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including clear communication of complex information, accurate and organized materials, audience-appropriate writing, and inclusive, accessible language.
• Creativity, humility, curiosity, and adaptability, including comfort learning new issue areas and partnering with people who bring different forms of expertise.
• Commitment to the Foundation’s mission, vision, and values.
• Must live in Washington state.

Responsibilities

• Lead a multi-million-dollar portfolio of community programs and investments, managing strategy alignment, budgets, timelines, partner relationships, and expected outcomes.
• Build and sustain authentic, reciprocal relationships with community organizations, grassroots leaders, and partners, ensuring community priorities and expertise shape the Foundation’s work.
• Manage equitable review and recommendation processes, including proposal analysis, due diligence, site visits, community-context assessment, and written recommendations.
• Facilitate community advisory groups and collaborative decision-making processes, supporting shared learning and meaningful influence by people directly affected by decisions or conditions.
• Provide responsive partnership support by connecting organizations to resources and relationships and addressing barriers to implementation, collaboration, and community impact.
• Monitor grant progress, learning, outcomes, and compliance while supporting transparency, adaptability, and shared accountability.
• Advance community-informed grantmaking, convening, and program practices in collaboration with the Impact team.
• Partner with the Senior Program Officer focused on policy to align community engagement, narrative work, grantmaking, and policy strategies; share partner learning and identify opportunities for coordinated action.
• Hold regular conversations with community partners to understand progress, challenges, emerging needs, and opportunities for collective action.
• Develop and sustain trusted relationships with leaders, organizers, storytellers, and communities most affected by inequity, and use their knowledge to inform program strategy and investment decisions.
• Research, design, and support narrative storytelling strategies that elevate community voice, shift public understanding, counter harmful narratives, and inspire participation and action.
• Track community conditions, democracy and civic participation trends, power dynamics, and funding gaps to identify opportunities for partnership and impact.
• Support grassroots organizations, collaborative funds, and public-private partnerships that strengthen civic infrastructure and community-led solutions.
• Develop accessible, compelling messaging and written products, including stories, briefs, blogs, and reports, connecting community experience to broader systems-change goals.
• Represent Seattle Foundation at community gatherings, neighborhood events, coalitions, and convenings, cultivating trust through consistent engagement.
• Develop and maintain relationships with grassroots and nonprofit organizations, cultural leaders, storytellers, advocates, funders, public-sector partners, and other community stakeholders.
• Steward assigned government partnerships, coordinating relationships, agreements, deliverables, and learning in ways that advance community priorities and complement broader policy and systems-change work.
• Maintain accurate and current information about partnerships, community context, and points of contact in Seattle Foundation databases.
• Implement and manage strategic projects and initiatives, including program and contract management, partnership development, and research, using workplans, risk identification, stakeholder coordination, budget tracking, and progress reporting.
• Support execution of emerging Seattle Foundation projects and initiatives in collaboration with the team.
• Participate in team-wide communication, planning, and strategy development and implementation.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, life, AD&D, and LTD coverage.
• 403(b) retirement plan with employer match at 5%, increasing to 10% over time, with 100% immediate vesting.
• 15 days of accrued vacation, 10 days of accrued sick leave, 4 wellness days, and 13 holidays annually.
• Annual remote work, learning, and commuter benefits.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed