Company Background/Culture

The Kresge Foundation is a $3.6 billion private, national foundation that works to expand opportunities in America's cities through grantmaking and social investing in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development in Detroit.

In collaboration with our nonprofit, public, private and philanthropic partners, we help create pathways for low-income people to improve their life circumstances and join the economic mainstream.

“Creating opportunity for low-income people is a hallmark of our work at The Kresge Foundation,” says Rip Rapson, president and CEO. “Our programs reflect the inflection points where we think we can actually make a difference in the life trajectories of people who are poor, disadvantaged or underserved in fundamental ways.”

Our Values

These five values shape who we are as an organization and guide how we work – with each other and with our many grantees and partners. 

Stewardship

How we manage our resources

We commit to exhibiting the highest levels of integrity, humility, excellence, and an abiding sense of responsibility in acting as stewards of the human, reputational, and financial resources entrusted to us to advance the foundation’s mission and to animate the credo of our founder, Sebastian Kresge to leave “the world a better place than we found it.”
 

Respect

How we treat one another

We will treat with respect every staff member, and everyone with whom we work, valuing each person’s distinctive background, personal style, and perspectives, while displaying honesty, dignity, kindness, trust, and collegiality in all of our interactions with one another.  

Creativity

How we approach our work

We will embrace experimentation, reasoned risk-taking, and continuous improvement, recognizing that we must balance support for proven and effective approaches with the pursuit of new approaches that, although unproven, hold the promise of breaking through stale or unproductive approaches to the seemingly intractable challenges our society faces.

Partnership

How we work with others

We will actively seek out and embrace opportunities to partner and support others to devise and implement solutions, recognizing that by cooperating, coordinating, and aligning with others and one another we will leverage collective experience, insight, networks, and resources to more effectively advance the foundation’s mission to promote human progress.  

Opportunity

How we seek to improve the lives of low-income people living in America’s cities and how we invest in our staff

Through the work of our programs and partnerships, we will deploy an array of grantmaking and investing tools to expand opportunities for low-income people living in America’s cities so that they may improve their life circumstance and join the economic mainstream.

We will foster a workplace environment and culture in which staff members have the opportunity to express their talents and ambitions, be acknowledged and rewarded for their achievements, grow in their effectiveness and careers, and see their efforts reflected in a strengthened sense of common purpose.

Foundation History

In 1924, with an initial gift of $1.6 million, Sebastian Spering Kresge established The Kresge Foundation in Detroit. He did this to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the S.S. Kresge Company, which began as a single five-and-10-cent store – a revolutionary merchandising idea at the time – and grew into a nationwide chain of stores. Many years later, the enterprise became known as Kmart Corp.

Mr. Kresge chaired the first foundation board meeting and then served as treasurer until his death in 1966, at age 99. By then, he had contributed $60.5 million to the foundation. All along, he maintained a steadfast commitment to charitable giving.

For more than 80 years, his mandate to promote human progress was realized through the support of fundraising campaigns to build capital projects – libraries, hospitals, schools, museums, community centers and the like – that, over the years, have contributed to the creation of the nation’s nonprofit infrastructure. The Kresge challenge grant created community excitement, spurred the growth of a nonprofit’s donor base, and helped the organization reach its fundraising goal.

In 2006, we embarked on a multiyear transition to redefine ourselves for the needs of the 21st century. What resulted – and is in full operation now – is a strategic philanthropy. We view issues in their entirety, take measured risk, and employ an array of grantmaking and social investing tools to help expand opportunities for low-income people living in cities.

Our programs and their specific strategic objectives emanate from the six disciplines in which we have traditionally worked: arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services, and community development in Detroit.

Since our founding, improving the life circumstances for low-income, underserved adults and children has been our constant philanthropic focus. In 2012 we narrowed our geographic focus to the nation’s cities. More than 80 percent of the U.S. population lives in and around cities. Working in them offers us the greatest potential to assist the largest groups of people experiencing hardship and poverty.

Ongoing Kresge Family Involvement

Mr. Kresge established The Kresge Foundation in 1924 and since then the Kresge family has provided guidance and inspiration for the private philanthropy. Following Mr. Kresge's tenure on the board of trustees, which ended with his death in 1966, his son Stanley S. Kresge assumed the chairmanship of the board. Since then, descendants have had continuous representation on the board, including grandson Bruce A. Kresge and great granddaughters Deborah McDowell, Katherine Lutey and Susan Drewes. Cynthia Kresge, another great granddaughter, is currently serving as a trustee.

Key Responsibilities

The Director of Talent and Organizational Development is responsible for developing, implementing and managing talent and organizational development initiatives that support the The Kresge Foundation’s vision for Talent and Human Resources. The Director will work with the Chief Talent Officer and the Talent and Human Resources team to develop strategies, programs, processes and policies that build out, support, and advance the vision. The Director will create and maintain an environment that values diversity, equity and inclusion.

Specific responsibilities include:

Talent Management

• Develop and execute the talent strategy, drive the implementation, and build the talent management practice.
• Define required talent needs, skills and competencies and anticipate future requirements to ensure the workforce has the skills to address current and future business needs.
• Support continuous assessment of the foundation’s talent, identify gaps with talent needs, and develop and implement strategies to address the gaps.  
• Define and manage processes for internal talent movement and succession planning.  
• Lead the implementation and continuous improvement of the performance management and annual objective setting processes, tools and systems.
• Build organizational capacity in talent management by training managers to effectively coach and manage people.

Organizational Development

• Provide ongoing leadership and support to change management activities.
• Manage across multiple dimensions of organizational development that enhance effectiveness, including strengthening teams, leaders, and culture.

Talent Engagement

• Assess employee engagement and create processes and initiatives to continuously improve engagement.
• Develop and implement employee engagement strategies, leveraging employee feedback, as well as industry best practices.

Talent Attraction and Acquisition

• Develop and execute cohesive recruiting strategy that meets the unique needs of each of the Foundation’s teams and attracts and hires diverse, top talent.
• Manage the end to end sourcing, selection, and onboarding process.
• Develop and project a clear and compelling Foundation employment “brand” to candidates.  
• Design, develop, and execute talent attraction and acquisition solutions that continuously improve the process and create competitive advantages for the Foundation.
• Determine when staffing firms are required; lead the selection and negotiation of contracts with staffing firms.

Learning and Development

• Develop and execute learning and development strategies aligned with the Foundation’s needs.
• Design, implement and continuously improve learning and development approach, processes, tools, and systems.
• Design and oversee the implementation of individual employee career development plans.
• Create and ensure the effective implementation of an onboarding program.
• Facilitate internal learning where appropriate.
• Lead the selection and management of training providers when external partnerships are required.
• Develop knowledge sharing processes and programs that encourage learning and collaboration.

Professional Experience/Qualifications

The successful candidate must have a minimum of 7+ years of progressive experience in talent and organizational development. The successful candidate would ideally have experience with multiple sectors including corporate or consulting. She/he should have a proven track record of partnering with clients/business partners and leading complex, high-risk, challenging initiatives.

The successful candidate will need to be energized by tough challenges, be forward thinking and creative, attentive to details, credible and driven to producing work of the highest caliber.  She/he will need to be a strategic planner who is well-organized and self-directed with adaptive skills, analytical ability, good judgment, and ability to deliver results.

The incumbent will need to be an intelligent and collaborative individual who can relate to people at all levels of an organization, possesses excellent communication skills and be comfortable navigating organizational dynamics.  This individual will have had responsibility for developing and driving organizational change and creating the programs and processes necessary to implement that change.

Additional requirements:

• Progressive experience in the design of talent and organizational development strategies, programs, and policies that align with the Foundation’s strategy.
• Possesses the maturity, experience, energy and resilience to be a partner who can tackle multiple priorities and lead change.
• Strategic decision maker.
• Ability to organize complex information and communicate it in clear and succinct ways both verbally and in writing.
• Leads and influences through collaboration and teamwork.
• Can effectively work with all levels of the organization.
• Motivates and focuses teams that report both directly and indirectly to her/him.
• Has a growth mindset and exhibits strong emotional intelligence.
• Can handle day-to-day problem solving in a logical, effective way.
• Strong project management skills and ability to deliver on complex initiatives.
• Needs to maintain confidentiality and discretion. Trustworthy.
• Excellent judgment skills. Knows when it is appropriate to deviate from guidelines and when it is not.
• Experience across multiple sectors preferred.   
• Commitment to equity and diversity in the workplace.
• Knowledge of Microsoft Office suite applications and HR technology (HRIS).

Education

Bachelor’s degree in a related field is required and master’s degree or particulary an MBA is preferred.

Compensation

The Kresge Foundation will provide an attractive compensation package based on background and experience.

To Apply

Candidates can apply by email with a cover letter and resume to Camille Jackson, Camille[email protected].