Program Officer

The CARE Fund will invest $50 million over five years in movement building for universal publicly supported care infrastructures that fuel economies, improve for the wellbeing of kids and families, create millions of good jobs, promote equity, and enable people with disabilities and older adults to live independently with safety and dignity.

Envisioned over several years, the CARE Fund became operational in January 2021 and publicly launched in May 2021 in the midst of a global pandemic—a time of unprecedented national and international attention on the essential nature of caregiving to thriving families and economies and amidst unique political and cultural momentum shift. The Fund’s development is rooted in years of experience supporting movement leaders (in both the United States and in some global arenas) to work across sectors and priority areas within care, and an understanding of the magnitude of possible impact when a field of changemakers aligns around common vision and strategy.

The CARE Fund seeks to advance this approach within philanthropy, bringing together funders with diverse missions and strategic priorities. Donor partners who join the Fund commit to aligning around a shared vision and funding strategy that includes their respective priority areas, but holds at its center a broader goal to achieve holistic and bold care infrastructures that meet the needs of all families, workers, and consumers.

In the U.S., the Fund has engaged donor partners whose work ranges from early care and education, to gender equality, health and aging justice, healthy families and communities, disability rights, and economic justice—and seeks to continue to include funders from other key movements. Globally, the Fund is exploring the connections between women’s rights, disability rights and justice, racial equity, low wage and migrant worker rights, social protections, climate justice, and early childhood development and education within a care infrastructure approach.

Opportunities and Challenges Facing the New program officer

The Program Officer will join the Fund as it transitions into a full-time staffing model. They will serve as the Fund’s primary U.S. grantmaking staff and will work with the Executive Director to develop all U.S. grantmaking and program work, so that the Fund has the desired strategic impact over the duration of its lifespan. Specifically, they will:

Develop targeted, impactful grantmaking strategies grounded in racial, gender, disability, and economic justice. The Program Officer will work with the Executive Director to develop, recommend, and implement domestic grantmaking strategies that include equitable policy implementation; advocacy for local, state, and national policy innovation; narrative and culture change; and field and power building. These strategies will build upon initial rounds of rapid response grantmaking and several months of strategy development by the funder partners. All work will be based squarely in movement building, while balancing the need to meet immediate opportunities with long term needs and capacities. The Program Officer will also lead all aspects of the grantmaking process, including development of solicitation and review of proposal materials; regular due diligence; and developing clear grant recommendations to the funder partners. As part of the grantmaking process, the Program Officer will work closely with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors to meet its requirements for grantmaking and official board approval.

Design innovative, community-building programmatic activities that build capacity, knowledge, engagement, and collaboration. Important features of the Fund are its learning meetings and technical assistance opportunities for both funder and grantee partners. The Program Officer will work closely with a staff and consultant team to design and carry out these activities, ensuring that they bring together the perspectives of multiple sectors and stakeholders to help build a broader base that takes a holistic approach to care infrastructure work. The Program Officer will also contribute to the Fund’s efforts to design and implement innovative approaches to learning, monitoring, and evaluation. This includes production of program related documents (strategy papers, portfolio reviews, and impact reports), and sharing impactful work by the Fund and its grantee partners.

Build and cultivate strong, collaborative, mutually accountable relationships with funder and grantee partners, and movement leaders. The CARE Fund is committed to designing decision making processes that include in-depth insights and analyses, as well as accountability and feedback loops from movement leaders. The Program Officer will work closely with the Executive Director and funder partners to specifically explore and pilot participatory grantmaking models that engage, rely on leadership from, and share decision making with grassroots experts, movement leaders, and/or those most impacted by the lack of equitable, publicly supported care infrastructure. The Program Officer will consistently and authentically build relationships with current grantees, donor partners, and other movement leaders. They will promote trust-based engagement among donors and grantees by engaging in active listening across multiple fields and incorporating insights from multiple partners into the Fund’s grantmaking and program work. This will include parents, older adults, care workers, and people with disabilities and chronic health conditions.

Actively participate in other organization-building activities as needed. The Program Officer will be a part of a small, nimble, entrepreneurial team, and will help support the CARE Fund’s fundraising efforts, communications, and operational work as needed. They will bring proactive and creative spirit and an “all hands-on deck” attitude to the Fund’s work.

QUALIFICATIONS OF THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

While no one candidate will embody all the qualifications enumerated below, the ideal candidate will bring significant expertise in at least one—if not multiple—aspects of the care agenda (e.g., paid leave, early care and education, long-term services and supports), as well as passion for the Fund’s movement building approach to achieve equitable and publicly supported care and infrastructure. In addition, successful candidates will possess many of the following professional and personal abilities, attributes, and experiences:

• 7+ years of professional experience working on care infrastructure or related issues.
• Deep expertise and familiarity with domestic care infrastructure issues, movement leaders and key efforts to achieve change—at a local, regional, and/or national level.
• Experience advancing social change strategies within or outside of grantmaking, including through direct organizing, advocacy, public policy, and other democratic processes.
• Strong credibility as a social justice leader, with a demonstrated commitment to the CARE Fund’s vision and values, as well as understanding of gender, racial, disability, and economic justice.
• Ability to think strategically, analytically, and creatively, and to translate ideas into action through grantmaking and related programmatic work.
• Excellent judgement, resourcefulness, and problem-solving skills.
• Proactive and self-motivated work style, with close attention to follow-up and detail, and ability to manage several tasks simultaneously.
• Commitment to physical and programmatic accessibility and inclusion of people with disabilities and chronic health conditions.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, and ability to compose effective, thoughtful correspondence, including plain language.

• A sense of humor, team orientation, willingness to play multiple roles as needed, and an entrepreneurial spirit.

Core Knowledge and Skills

• Familiarity with philanthropy and grantmaking in a variety of contexts, including work in foundations, philanthropy serving organizations or intermediaries, non-profits, or government agencies.
• Experience with participatory grantmaking.
• Understanding of the power dynamics inherent in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors, and commitment to addressing those.
• Lived experience with the communities and issues that the collaborative fund prioritizes.

COMPENSATION AND OTHER INFORMATION

The compensation range for the Program Officer role is $140,000 – 160,000, plus a competitive benefits package that includes health coverage, retirement benefits, paid sick leave, vacation and holidays, tuition reimbursement, and access to professional development resources.

The CARE Fund is a virtual organization. The Program Officer can be based anywhere in the United States and is required to have legal authorization to work in the United States. The CARE Fund is open to discussing flexible work arrangements with the Program Officer, in consultation with and approval by the Executive Director. The CARE Fund is a fiscally sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, and the Program Officer will be a full-time employee of RPA. Once it is safe to travel, this position will require 10-20% domestic travel, with variances month to month.

TO APPLY

More information about the CARE Fund may be found at: carefund.org

This search is being led by Cara Pearsall and Yuniya Khan of NPAG. Due to the pace of this search, candidates are strongly encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Candidates may submit their cover letter, outlining their interest and qualifications, along with their resume via NPAG’s website.

Accommodations:  If you should require any reasonable accommodations to submit your information or participate in an ensuing process, the CARE Fund is eager to be supportive. Please contact Yuniya (yuniya@npag.com) or Cara (cara@npag.com) at NPAG.

CARE Fund/Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors is an equal opportunity employer.