Managing Director, Effective Philanthropy

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation (AMBFF) invites nominations and applications for the newly-created role of Managing Director, Effective Philanthropy. Reporting to the Foundation’s President, the Managing Director will: design and build a high impact advising and learning team that will serve as a resource to portfolio teams, to leadership and the Board on strategy, evaluation; progress tracking and learning; and curate high impact programming for the West Creek Ranch in Montana.

A renowned entrepreneur and co-founder of The Home Depot, Arthur M. Blank is now recognized for his values-based Blank Family of Businesses and as one of America’s leading philanthropists through The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation. All of his industry-leading businesses and the Blank Family Foundation operate on six core values: Put People First, Listen and Respond, Include Everyone, Innovate Continuously, Lead by Example, Give Back to Others.

After 25 years and more than $800 million in giving as of July 2021, the Blank Family Foundation has committed to significantly escalating the impact of its philanthropy over the next 10+ years. This milestone coincides with deeper participation among the next generation of Blank family members on the board and in advisory capacities, partnering around their shared core beliefs, including the Jewish value of tikkun olam (“heal and repair the world”), and seeking a fuller realization of American ideals.

The Board is embarking on a journey of deeper learning and strategy setting for its new collective areas of giving which include: Youth Development, Democracy, and Environment. Across these portfolios, the Blank Family Foundation will look for opportunities to address the growing crisis of disconnection in our nation. Geographically, much of the work will continue to prioritize Georgia (with a focus on Atlanta) and Montana (to include West Creek Ranch and other AMB West programs), while also considering the potential for greater national impact and influence.

In addition to the collective areas of giving, the Blank Family Foundation will continue to oversee a large portfolio of Founder-led initiatives and guide the eight Associate-led giving committees operating across the Blank Family of Businesses.

In this newly created role on the Foundation’s leadership team, the Managing Director, Effective Philanthropy will oversee the design and delivery of tools, frameworks and tailored advice that support effective philanthropic practice and ambitious outcomes across multiple portfolios and initiatives. The Managing Director will identify external resources and iterate approaches that can add value - and rigor -- to programmatic grantmaking and learning.

This is an exciting opportunity for a collaborative leader with: deep knowledge of effective philanthropy; an entrepreneurial mindset (to build a team and its practice while also operating across sectors to drive impact); and a track record of tailoring and adapting strategy, measurement or evaluation solutions, ideally across programs known for their multiple impact levers (public-private, influencing systems, etc.).

 

MISSION OVERVIEW

The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation (AMBFF) has long played an important role in Atlanta and Montana where the Blank Family of Businesses (BFOB) continues to operate.  The Blank family has brought the spirit of innovation, commitment to values, and humility of purpose to their work and endeavor to harness the power of the businesses as well as their philanthropy to support the underlying conditions in which youth and their families can thrive. 

In February 2021, Fay Twersky joined the Foundation as President and Director to steward in a new strategic era of investment together with the Board. They are embarking on a journey of deeper learning and strategy setting for new collective areas of giving, to include :

Youth Development, with a focus on workforce development and economic mobility; Democracy, with a focus on Voting Rights, and Journalism; and Environment, with a focus on Conservation and Climate Resiliency. Poised for this exciting growth, the Foundation is now building the leadership team. Recently announced leaders include: Kelley Gulley as Chief of Staff to support the building of effective operations and a cohesive, high-performance team culture, and Margaret Connelly as Acting Managing Director for Founder Initiatives. There are several newly created Managing Director roles: for the above collective areas of giving, as well as for Effective Philanthropy.

 

OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE MANAGING DIRECTOR, EFFECTIVE PHILANTHROPY

The Managing Director will support the AMBFF in multiple, critical ways, notably as: a designer of tools that support effective philanthropic practices; a promoter of a dynamic learning culture; a manager and mentor to an advisory team that will be known for its adaptive, tailored approaches; a program leader curating programming for the West Creek Ranch; a colleague partnering across the AMBFF and BFOB; and a representative of the AMBFF in the field of effective philanthropy. This leader will help shape the foundation’s future as a key member of the leadership team working in concert with the President, other Managing Directors and finance and operations leads to set a new course for the foundation with respect to programs, operations and culture in ways that together advance the foundation's mission.

 

Detailed challenges and opportunities ahead include:

 

Designing and supporting tools and structures for program strategy, monitoring, learning and evaluation.

Acting as an internal resource on effective philanthropic practice, the Managing Director will partner with the Board, Foundation leadership and portfolio teams.  As an adviser and sounding board, the Managing Director will facilitate the development of strategies that are evidence based and “swing for the fences” in terms of impact, and an evaluation framework for measuring outcomes and progress along the way. 

 

Promoting a dynamic culture of learning

The Managing Director will develop internal structures, tools and interactions (learning sessions, team development efforts, etc.) for cross-program sharing and dialogue.

 

Managing and mentoring a high performing team

The Managing Director will recruit, manage, and mentor a small team (2-3) that will collaboratively bring advice, insights and capacity to program teams.

 

Curating the West Creek Ranch program

West Creek Ranch is a unique asset in Montana that operates approximately 30 weeks per year. A large proportion of those weeks are dedicated to social purpose uses – convening people in a beautiful setting for important purposes, to engage in blue sky thinking in the big sky of Montana.  Through the design and curation of the West Creek program, the Managing Director will bring another resource to portfolio teams and AMBFF staff and Board as they evolve their strategies, learn from and with grantee partners, experts and practitioners in fields of interest to the AMBFF as well as each other.

 

Collaborating within AMBFF and across the BFOB to recognize and realize synergies and opportunities for impact across a diverse portfolio of social impact work

The Managing Director will participate in building the AMBFF’s leadership team and organizational culture, while also collaborating across the BFOB, identifying opportunities to partner and provide helpful resources that drive impact.

 

Building and nurturing partnerships locally, regionally and nationally with like-minded advisers and peers

The Managing Director will serve as an effective spokesperson for AMBFF’s vision and act as an engaged partner in the philanthropic field. A skilled network builder, the Managing Director will: identify strategy and evaluation consultants that can add value to AMBFF’s portfolios; and represent the Foundation at meetings, conferences, or with formal or informal affinity groups. Over time, the Managing Director will identify and leverage select opportunities to share lessons and evaluation findings, for the benefit of grantees, partners and other interested parties.

 

CORE EXPERIENCE, SKILLS & ATTRIBUTES

The Managing Director, Effective Philanthropy is most likely a senior leader in strategy or measurement and evaluation within a high-performing, outcomes-focused philanthropy, or partners as a consultant to foundations and social impact organizations.

While no one candidate will bring a track record that is deep across each of the following, the ideal candidate will bring a compelling combination of as many experiences or competencies as possible:

Strategy, Measurement and Evaluation leadership, having:

Facilitated the development of bold strategic plans that are grounded in data, outcomes-focused and tailored to leadership aspirations.

Synthesized and communicated complex information in a simple to understand fashion.

Applied data analysis and rigor to problem-solving and decision-making.

Designed and implemented measurement and evaluation tools, approaches and frameworks that have been used, in practice, by program leaders.

Added value to projects – and collaborated -- across a multi-program or multi-entity organization (multi-division, public-private partnership, etc.).

Identified trends and distilled learning from programs, ideally having examples of when/how strategic adjustments were made.

Participated in field-level, collaborative learning efforts.

 

Team Management and Development, having: 

Managed a small team to deliver on multiple, parallel projects.

Invested in colleagues and their career development.

Developed a healthy team culture that allows colleagues to contribute fully.

Clarified workloads even when it requires difficult trade-offs.

 

The ideal candidate’s leadership skills and personal attributes should include:

Genuine commitment to the Blank family values.

Deep awareness of systemic inequities and knowledge of methods for incorporating equity, inclusion and belonging into the work.

Curiosity and humility, with a deep learning and listening orientation.

Flexibility to adjust when advice isn’t fully adopted.

Clear and nuanced written and oral communication skills, with an ability to demystify complex concepts without jargon and to give and receive feedback candidly and graciously.

Entrepreneurial and agile mindset.

Authentic relationship-builder who thrives on multi-disciplinary teams; brings humor and the highest level of personal and professional integrity.

 

TO APPLY

AMBFF is offering a competitive total compensation package.

For more information, to nominate a leader or to submit resume and cover letter (in non-pdf, ideally MS Word format), please contact Viewcrest Advisors’ founder/president, Kathleen Yazbak, at: blankfamilyfoundation@viewcrestadvisors.com. If needed, the phone number is: (617) 564-3779.

Cultivating a diverse and inclusive team is an essential component of the Blank Family Foundation’s work to advance equity. Candidates of all backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply.

Viewcrest Advisors is committed to social justice and access to opportunity; we actively cultivate relationships with leaders who have varied life experiences as well as the skills needed to lead strong, innovative organizations. We are also committed to your privacy and to protecting your personal data. To view our privacy policy, please visit our website www.viewcrestadvisors.com.