Senior Manager of Strategic Initiatives

Northern California Grantmakers•San Francisco, CA

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

Northern California Grantmakers (NCG) is a dynamic, growing membership organization that brings the philanthropic community together to shift resources, capital, and power back to historically marginalized communities that are leading transformational change. NCG’s membership is made up of stakeholders across philanthropy including program officers, board members, donor trustees, movement organizers, communicators, visionaries, advocates, dreamers, and believers. We started as the “Lunch Bunch” in the 1960s, a group of philanthropic leaders committed to growing together. We formalized ourselves in the 1980s with the goal of supporting a base of philanthropic members. Currently we have more than 195 institutional and 4,000 individual members. For the past forty years, we have been working to gather, mobilize, and transform philanthropy. We believe in our collective power for good. The Senior Manager for Strategic Initiatives is responsible for the strategy development, day-to-day management and implementation of key efforts in the Strategic Initiatives portfolio. A successful candidate will need to blend diverse perspectives to forge strategies that move NCG priorities and projects forward in support of transforming philanthropic practice throughout the region. NCG’s work recognizes the critical importance of centering racial equity and community voice and mobilizes its member community toward a shared vision of equity and justice in our region. The Senior Manager must embrace racial equity as a core value, demonstrate high emotional intelligence to work effectively with people of diverse backgrounds, and positively contribute to NCG’s culture as an organization committed to racial and economic justice.

Requirements

Excellent group facilitation skills and ability to organize, coalesce, and move groups to coordinated action.
Project management experience and success, demonstrating the ability to organize, prioritize, and manage complex, multidimensional projects to successful completion within desired timeframes and to define goals.
Minimum seven years of successful work experience, preferably working with a member-driven organization or network.
Demonstrated effectiveness and comfort working with committees and volunteers including strong, effective facilitation skills.
Prior experience managing cooperative efforts, partnerships, and/or collaborative initiatives strongly preferred.
Proven ability to work effectively and respectfully with politically, ideologically, culturally, and geographically diverse people and communities.
Solid judgment, analytical, planning, and problem-solving skills.
Experience managing conflicting priorities and seeking out a variety of perspectives.
Willingness to translate mistakes into lessons learned, anticipate future needs, and take action.
Must be based in greater San Francisco Bay Area with the ability to travel throughout the region as necessary.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with the philanthropic ecosystem, functions of the sector, and key regional players.
Familiarity with the nonprofit and movement organizing ecosystem in Northern California.
Familiarity with the climate resilience ecosystem, including nonprofit and /or government partners, and an understanding of the variable climate resilience issues across geography and community.
Familiarity with cross-sector partnerships between philanthropy, business, government, and/or the nonprofit sector.
Technical acumen across Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and Salesforce with the ability to learn and adapt quickly to virtual communications and collaborative applications.

Responsibilities

Manage and support philanthropic collaboratives and networks (60%)
Catalyze, facilitate and manage collaboratives, peer networks, and working groups focused on advancing NCG’s goals.
Support these groups to increase knowledge; catalyze deeper engagement; and strengthen their collaborative work.
Support existing funder networks and collaborations on climate resilience; and democracy-related capacity building and grantmaking, including connecting members to technical assistance, programs, and research.
Develop, coordinate, and host educational programs for funders on the topics of Climate and Disaster Resilience, and Democracy and Movement Building.
Work with NCG leadership, the Director for Movement & Policy, members, and experts in the field to conceptualize program offerings that lift up local strategies and an intersectional approach to engage more funders in support of these issue areas.
Connect funders to pooled funding opportunities, and other aligned efforts that advance public policy, legislation, and movement building.
Develop and maintain relationships with key partners, funders, government agencies, and experts in the field to inform the portfolio, supporting implementation of key priorities.
Support Philanthropy California disaster response efforts in partnership with Philanthropy California staff, including the vetting of philanthropic disaster relief, recovery, and resilience funds, hosting funders briefings, and liaising with government and nonprofit partners.
Strategize with Philanthropy California staff to streamline a cohesive disaster response communications plan across the participating regional associations.
Manage NCG’s local climate and disaster resilience portfolio including wildfire resilience, disaster response, and long-term recovery.
Mobilize philanthropic members and resources to address federal policy impacts on the region (35%)
Play a key role in developing funder organizing strategy, assessing interest in particular approaches, identifying and assessing opportunities for coordination, and developing opportunities for joint funding and collective action.
Develop collaborative programs and events, in partnership with leadership or consultants.
Organize and facilitate meetings as necessary.
Support fund development for collaborative philanthropy efforts.
Write, edit, and disseminate reports, and updates related to NCG’s collaborative philanthropy groups.
Coordinate consultants, projects, tasks, programs, and activities for major initiatives including Philanthropy California’s AdvanceCA effort.
Other activities supporting the Strategic Initiatives strategy (5%)
Cultivate and maintain relationships with members and other philanthropic organizations and key partners.
Respond to members to work on select member-initiated briefings.
Work collaboratively with NCG’s program team and our Philanthropy California partners as needed.
Assist the President & CEO and Vice-President of Strategic Initiatives with special assignments as requested.