ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW

Foundation for a Just Society advances the human rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI people globally, with an emphasis on those experiencing the greatest levels of injustice and discrimination. We do so through supporting organizations that use innovative, intersectional, locally-rooted strategies that meet immediate needs while igniting long-term, structural change in communities and regions that have been overlooked by philanthropy. We seek to strengthen movements that create a world where all people are valued and lead self-determined lives. While the foundation works internationally, our geographic focus areas are: Francophone West Africa, Mesoamerica, South and Southeast Asia, and the US Southeast.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Program Officer for South and Southeast Asia will serve as the key point of contact for organizations in their designated region, review grant requests, conduct due diligence, make grant recommendations, manage a diverse portfolio of grants, carry out and evaluate regional grant-making strategies, supervise a program associate, and manage consultants. In addition, the Program Officer for South and Southeast Asia will strongly contribute to the implementation of the other elements of the foundation’s programmatic work, including accompaniment, strategic communications, and philanthropic advocacy.

The ideal candidate for this position is a strategic thinker, analytical, highly adaptive, technologically savvy, an independent problem solver, meticulous, collegial, and thrives in a dynamic environment. They have a strong working knowledge of relevant movements in South and Southeast Asia — particularly Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, and Thailand — and bring relevant language skills. This position requires international and domestic travel, and is based in New York.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES + RESPONSIBILITIES

Key responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

Grant-making 

• Update and revise portfolio strategy as needed; contribute to the development of in-depth knowledge and strategic analysis of assigned countries and region, including current trends, threats and opportunities, and key resource people and organizations.
• Implement grant-making priorities in the region to advance the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI people.
• Oversee all stages of grant-making in the regional portfolio, including solicitation, due diligence, assessment and evaluation, recommendations for funding, docket writing, and presentation to the director of programs, CEO, and Board of Directors.
• Supervise the work and support the professional growth of a program associate assigned to the region.
• Monitor grant implementation and evaluate performance, including following up on grantee partner inquiries and outreach trips.
• Review and prepare analysis of progress and final reports from grantee partners to highlight achievements and lessons learned, prepare internal status reports, and contribute to programmatic analysis for the program team and Board of Directors.
• Attend Board meetings to present recommendations and provide information and updates and interact with the Board of Directors throughout the year.
• Recruit and manage external consultants.
• Adhere to the foundation’s grant management system and grant-making procedures, including preparation of all relevant documents.
• Conduct outreach to countries and areas that are relevant for the portfolio. 

Accompaniment

• Field emergent requests from grantee partners to support various needs and opportunities. 
• Work closely with individual grantee partners to strengthen their organizational capacities in ways they have identified.
• Support grantee partners learning and experimentation in priority areas, including holistic safety and collective care and strategic communications.
• Work with grantee partners to identify areas of work that could be strengthened at a field level, and develop and implement an approach to do so. 

Strategic Communications

• Contribute to the full integration of strategic communications across all areas of programmatic work, as guided by communications colleagues on the program team.
• Collaborate with grantee partners and communications colleagues on the program team on accompaniment approaches that strengthen the communications work of individual partners and supports movement infrastructure for communications at a field level.
• Work closely with communications colleagues on the program team to identify, conduct due diligence, and make decisions about grants in the regional portfolio that support movement journalists and organizations that use communications as a primary strategy.
• Collaborate with communications colleagues on the program team to develop and implement a regional communications plan that contributes to the foundation’s communications and organizational goals.
• Serve as an ambassador for the foundation’s core identity and strategies to internal and external audiences.

Leadership in Philanthropy

• Contribute to developing knowledge products for funder audiences that are grounded in FJS analysis and learning from our programmatic practice and outcomes. 
• Engage in relevant funder affinity groups and funder collaborations in the region and the US with a focus on leveraging new and appropriate resources for groups that advance the rights of women, girls, and LGBTQI people.
• Develop partnerships with other institutions to extend the impact of our grant-making.
• Represent the foundation professionally at relevant meetings and conferences.

REQUIREMENTS

• Demonstrated commitment to the foundation’s vision and mission, and deep alignment with its values.
• Sophisticated understanding of global and grassroots, intersectional justice movements, with an emphasis on the leadership of women, girls, and LGBTQI people from marginalized communities.
• Understanding of the role of philanthropy in effecting transformative change.
• At least seven years of professional grant-making experience in the areas of gender and racial justice, women’s rights, and LGBTQI rights in South and Southeast Asia, ideally in Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, and Thailand and within the philanthropic sector.
• Substantive knowledge of and familiarity with relevant movements, grassroots groups, networks, and organizations in the region.
• Significant experience writing and speaking about social justice in ways that use an intersectional and gender and racial justice lens; ability to convey the depth and complexity of issues in a way that remains accessible to broad audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to engage in strategic and analytical thinking and planning.
• Understanding of programmatic monitoring and evaluation.
• Exceptional written and oral communications skills.
• Bilingual fluency in oral and written English and one or more other operating language for the region.
• Eligibility to work in the United States.

PREFERRED ASSETS

• Knowledge and familiarity with grant-making processes and procedures.
• Ability to adeptly manage multiple projects simultaneously and precisely.
• Effectively manages competing priorities and can re-prioritize tasks, as needed.
• Excellent interpersonal skills that includes sensitivity to and respect for colleagues’ time, work styles, and needs.
• Experience directly supervising support staff.
• Willingness to embrace critical feedback with a positive attitude.
• Takes initiative, is self-motivated, and has a desire to learn and improve skills.
• Shows discretion and ability to effectively manage confidentiality issues.
• Strong attention to detail.

COMPENSATION + CULTURE

FJS offers a competitive salary, excellent benefits, generous vacation, and a collegial working environment. We are dedicated to promoting an environment of collaboration and work-life balance. The salary range for this position is $92,000 - $115,000.

FJS deeply values equity and inclusion and is committed to the recruitment and retention of individuals from underrepresented backgrounds, including gender identity and expression, race, religion, and sexual orientation.

HOW TO APPLY
Email a concise and compelling cover letter, two relevant writing samples and your resume in one PDF to [email protected] by 5PM EST on April 5, 2019. Please include “Program Officer SSEA – YOUR NAME” in the subject line.

All applications must be received via email. No phone inquiries please.