Job Summary

Wellspring Philanthropic Fund is seeking a program officer to support strategy refinement and grantmaking, as well as internal and external collaboration focused on advancing a locally-rooted, inclusive vision of human rights and social justice, with a focus on Latin America.

Key Responsibilities

• With the Country Programs team and in close partnership with local experts, support the program’s strategy refinement and grantmaking in Latin America through a combination of research; site visits; engagement of local experts, advisors, and organizations; and pro-active coordination and collaboration with Wellspring and with peer grant-makers.
• Act as point person at Wellspring for international program collaboration and coordination in Latin America. With the Country Programs team, develop and advance a learning agenda within Wellspring focused on the Latin American region; identify and engage the appropriate expertise, resources, and support to Wellspring programs to strengthen their work; and support Spanish language use and translation.
• Support learning and collaboration within the program team and across geographic contexts.
• Stay abreast of new developments and trends and provide analysis and synthesize implications for Wellspring.
• For grants in which staff is directly responsible, conduct comprehensive due diligence, including: monitoring and evaluating grantee performance; recommending new, renewal, and final grants; and ensuring grantees satisfactorily complete applications and reports.
• Manage relationships and maintain regular and responsive and respectful communications with all relevant partners.
• Prepare written summaries and evaluations of grant proposals; track spending; enter all information in grants database; prepare and manage consultant contracts.
• Support the development of external reviews and strategic plans for the program; create presentations and written reports for internal learning.
• Perform other duties and responsibilities as required.

Knowledge and Skill Requirements/Qualifications 

• Minimum of 7 years of experience working on Latin America with local human rights and social justice organizations required, including working with marginalized communities.
• Experience working in multiple Latin American countries strongly preferred; experience working with regional mechanisms and regionally-focused organizations in Latin American a plus.
• Collaborative, team-oriented workstyle required; ability to connect and coordinate with staff internally as well as with peer grantmakers externally to deepen impact.
• Spanish fluency required; Portuguese a plus.
• Experience working in other developing country contexts, including sub-Saharan Africa, a plus.
• Substantive grantmaking experience strongly preferred; experience with organizational development and leadership support a plus.
• Strong organizational skills; ability to handle a variety of programmatic and administrative tasks independently and meet deadlines.
• Excellent research, writing, editing, and communications skills.
• Initiative, resourcefulness, flexibility, and strong cross-cultural skills.
• Ability to handle confidential information with complete discretion.
• Relevant graduate degree or commensurate experience.
• Understands and values social justice, including racial and gender equity as an organizational operating principle – and is committed to continued learning on issues related to race, gender, equity, diversity, and inclusion.=

Salary and Benefits

Salary range: $110,000‐$120,000 based on experience. Wellspring offers a very generous benefits package including payment of 100% of the health insurance premiums for employees (and 80% of the premiums for spouses, domestic partners and qualified family members). Wellspring also offers other benefits including life insurance, long‐term disability protection, a group 401(k) retirement plan (with an employer match), support for continuing education, up to $5,250 in annual student loan repayment or college savings assistance for qualified dependents and is committed to providing transgender‐inclusive healthcare.

About Wellspring Philanthropic Fund

Wellspring Philanthropic Fund is a private grantmaking foundation dedicated to advancing the realization of human rights and social and economic justice for all people. Wellspring has offices in New York, NY, and Washington, DC. Wellspring’s work is rooted in respect for the dignity and worth of every human being and is informed by the following beliefs:

• Social institutions and structures should promote the full realization of human rights and human potential, and should be accountable to these ends.
• The rights of all people are advanced when the rights of the most marginalized and vulnerable peoples are protected.
• Social justice movements should employ means that are consistent with their ideals, and should give agency to the people whose interests they seek to advance.
• As responsible stewards, we must strive to maximize the impact of our charitable investments.

As a private foundation, Wellspring’s key functions are to conduct research and education tailored to our mission; manage a grantmaking portfolio of various programs, administer grants and monitoring grantee performance; and work to promote the effectiveness of programs that receive donor funding.

Wellspring Philanthropic Fund believes we are strengthened by the diversity of our staff, and welcomes such diversity including race, gender identity or expression, educational attainment, disability, veteran status, and personal experience with the criminal justice system.  We welcome applications from people of all cultures, backgrounds, and experiences, and we strongly encourage people of color and persons with disabilities to apply. We actively cultivate an institutional culture that reflects the values of respect, equity and inclusion that we seek through our work to amplify in the larger world. 

Wellspring hires, promotes and retains employees based on their professional qualifications, demonstrated abilities and work performance, as well as on the degree to which these qualities are required in the employment positions made available by the Foundation’s service needs and business requirements.  All personnel decisions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, compensation, assignment, training, promotion, discipline and discharge, are made without discrimination based on any protected characteristic as defined by law (e.g., race, color, religion, national origin, citizenship, ancestry, age, disability, gender identity or expression, sex, sexual orientation, marital or familial status, domestic partner status, veteran or military status, genetic predisposition or carrier status, and prior criminal convictions, as well as educational attainment.

How to Apply

For employment consideration, please submit application to [email protected] Subject

Line: “[Your name]— Country Programs PO.” All applications must include:

• a resumé;
• a thoughtful cover letter, including how you became aware of this opportunity (i. job portal, referral, etc.) and salary requirements (must specify actual amount and range); and
• one writing sample (no less than 3 and no more than 5 pages, attached in PDF format). No phone calls please.

NOTE: To be employed at Wellspring, you must be legally authorized to work in the United States.  If you are not currently authorized to work in the United States and will need to be sponsored,  please let us know in your cover letter.