Senior Director, Grantmaking and Capacity Building

Liberty Hill Foundation • Los Angeles, CA

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

For 50 years, Liberty Hill Foundation has been at the center of Los Angeles’ fight for justice and equity. We are a laboratory for social change—where bold ideas are tested, refined, and scaled to strengthen movements and improve lives across Los Angeles County.

Our North Star is to build power in communities most impacted by systemic oppression to achieve justice and equity. We pursue this through strategic grantmaking, leadership development, and alliance building that support organizers, advocates, and community leaders working to advance racial, economic, environmental, and social justice.

At Liberty Hill, we hire skilled, results-oriented staff who bring both expertise and heart to this work. We hold ourselves to high standards of collaboration, accountability, feedback, and learning, recognizing that reflection and adaptability strengthen both our organization and the movements we serve.

We live our values of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) every day—shaping how we work with one another, how we partner with communities, and how we make decisions. As we mark 50 years of powering movements, we are laying the groundwork for the next 50: a more just, inclusive, and equitable Los Angeles for all.

Position Overview

The Senior Director, Grantmaking and Capacity Building (SDGCB) provides senior-level leadership for Liberty Hill Foundation’s external grantmaking and capacity-building strategies, including expertise on best practices for capacity building in movement organizations and for social justice organizers. Reporting to the Chief Program Officer, this role is responsible for shaping, aligning, and advancing how Liberty Hill resources movements through grantmaking and capacity-building work that reflects community needs, organizational priorities, and best practices in progressive philanthropy.

In parallel, the SDGCB holds primary responsibility for staff leadership and supervision within Liberty Hill’s capacity-building portfolio, directly managing Program Directors and ensuring alignment, performance, and impact across program areas. This role anchors quality, coherence, and strategic execution, while partnering closely with Liberty Hill Foundation’s senior leadership to advance organizational priorities.

The SDGCB serves as the organization’s senior grantmaking strategist, overseeing participatory grantmaking programs such as the Community Funding Board, core funds including the Fund for Change, Liberty Vote!, Rapid Response grantmaking, and donor-advised fund and giving circle grantmaking on the grantee side. The role owns the external grantmaking lifecycle from strategy and program design through execution, systems, staffing, and continuous improvement.

Requirements

• BA/BS or equivalent experience, with a preference for a combination of personal lived/professional experience.
• 8+ years of experience supervising people and teams, with a demonstrated track record of effective coaching and people management to achieve meaningful impact.
• 5+ years of experience supervising mid-career or senior-level program leads.
• Significant senior-level experience in social justice grantmaking, philanthropy, or related movement-facing work, with responsibility for complex, multi-program portfolios.
• Demonstrated ability to conceive and advance strategy, influence organizational direction, and lead execution of high-impact initiatives.
• Fluency in grants administration systems, policies, and workflows.
• Some experience with government-funded contracts or publicly funded programs.
• Excellent strategic communication skills and the ability to translate complex ideas for executive leaders, board members, donors, and community partners.
• Demonstrated commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, and the ability to integrate these values into leadership and decision-making.
• Resilience, sound judgment, and comfort making high-stakes decisions that shape organizational impact.

Nice To Haves

• Deep understanding of the Los Angeles County grantmaking and organizing ecosystem, including strong relationships with community partners and knowledge of movement needs, would be an asset.
• Experience with participatory grantmaking models strongly preferred; experience with donor-advised funds, giving circles.
• Knowledge of capacity building approaches in social justice organizations; technical training or curriculum design expertise.

Responsibilities

• Supervision, Leadership, and Organizational Influence
• Serve as a senior leader providing clear leadership, supervision, and coaching to develop Program and grantmaking staff, and other staff, with direct responsibility for performance, alignment, and results across grantmaking and capacity building functions, including current programs such as Ready to Rise, Department of Youth Development Incubation Academy. Environmental Leadership Initiative (ELI) and EJ Ready
• Supervise and provide clear leadership and decision-making for Program Directors overseeing Ready to Rise, Department of Youth Development, ELI, and EJ Ready, ensuring consistent, high-quality, and equitable practice while respecting program-level implementation ownership.
• Build leadership capacity and internal bench strength, fostering a culture of accountability, collaboration, learning, and continuous improvement.
• Partner with Advancement, Finance, Operations, and senior leadership to support board, donor, and funder engagement related to grantmaking and capacity building, and integrate insights from these portfolios into broader organizational strategy and learning.
• Grantmaking Strategy and Implementation
• Lead the conception and evolution of Liberty Hill’s grantmaking strategy, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities, movement needs, and the evolving philanthropic landscape.
• Steward core grantmaking programs, including LibertyVote!, participatory grantmaking programs such as the Community Funding Board, the Fund for Change, and Rapid Response funding.
• Ensure the same community-driven approach to making funding decisions across all our grantmaking, DAFs, and giving circles.
• Serve as Liberty Hill’s primary internal philanthropic advisor for DAFs and giving circles, providing strategic oversight of dockets and grantmaking recommendations in close partnership with the DAF team.
• Represent Liberty Hill in participatory grantmaking cycles and donor-facing grantmaking engagements as needed.
• Set and steward the governance, systems, and decision-making frameworks for the external grantmaking lifecycle, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities, institutional learning, and long-term sustainability.
• Capacity Building Strategy and Implementation
• Set and steward Liberty Hill’s overarching capacity-building strategy in alignment with grantmaking priorities and movement needs.
• Directly supervise Program Directors responsible for capacity-building implementation across our programs.
• Coach and support Program Directors as senior leaders, ensuring quality, consistency, and equity across capacity-building efforts.
• Identify strategic gaps, opportunities, landscape issues, and resource needs to ensure high-quality, effective, innovative approaches to capacity building to support movements.
• Leadership, Collaboration, and Organizational Influence
• Work closely with the communications team to enable impact reporting and storytelling.
• Partner with Advancement, Finance, Operations, and senior leadership to support board, donor, and funder engagement related to grantmaking and capacity building.
• Support fundraising from foundations and institutional funders for capacity-building and grantmaking work in collaboration with Advancement.
• Ensure insights from grantmaking and capacity building inform organizational strategy, learning, and continuous adaptation in alignment with the strategic plan.

Benefits

• Comprehensive coverage for employee healthcare, vision, and dental at 100%.
• Employer contribution and match for 403b retirement savings.
• Stipend to support remote work.
• 10 Days of paid vacation time the first year, and 58 hours of sick time.
• Generous benefit of 22 paid holidays.
• 2 dedicated Volunteer Days.
• Fridays off throughout August.
• Summer Break is the first week in July, and Winter Break is the last two weeks of December.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director