Program Director, Children’s Rights Innovation Fund (TF)

Tides Foundation; San Francisco, Washington, New York (CA, District of Columbia, NY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Tides Foundation seeks a Program Director for the Children’s Rights Innovation Fund (CRIF) to lead the fund’s vision, steer grantmaking, and coordinate partnerships with Wellspring GCR and other teams. The role charges you with launching priorities and shaping an innovative, learning-driven grantmaking program that strengthens the field of children’s rights.

The ideal candidate has senior philanthropic leadership experience, a track record of building collaborative programs, and the ability to

Qualifications

• Experience leading grantmaking and partnerships in philanthropy.
• Ability to guide strategy and learning across programs.
• Strong collaboration with diverse field partners and teams.

Responsibilities

• Steering Committee: recruit, hire, train and onboard Steering Committee members.
• Grantmaking: oversee strategy design, grantee process, interviews, selection and notification.
• Ensure alignment across actors, address systemic barriers and drive new interventions.
• Develop milestones to assess capacity building and learning outcomes.

Skills

Grantmaking leadership

Strategic planning

Stakeholder engagement

People management

Fund development

Job description

Program Director, Children’s Rights Innovation Fund (TF)

Posted on January 20, 2020

OVERVIEW:

Tides and Wellspring Philanthropic Fund’s Global Children’s Right (GCR) Program have launched the Children’s Rights Innovation Fund (CRIF) (a working title) to deepen and scale learning and innovation across the field of children’s rights. The CRIF will address systemic problems and structural challenges impacting the children’s rights field to date and incentivize actors to strategically shift how they design and lead their work.

CRIF Values:

The following values serve as core guiding principles to the fund’s work, and for the larger community engaged in this effort:

• Child and girl centered
• Rights-framed
• Inclusive
• Locally generated
• Gender equity and justice
• Evidence-based

CRIF Goals:

The primary goal of CRIF is to reinvigorate the children’s rights field through piloted innovation, nimble and responsive grantmaking, and robust program learning in collaboration with field partners.

Through the launch of an innovation grantmaking fund, we will:

• Fuel learning and experimentation
• Develop a robust community of diverse actors that reinvigorates the field
• Build a collaborative framework that aligns activities across the field and strengthens collective capacity of grantees

POSITION SUMMARY

The Program Director (Director) is a full-time role reporting to the Fund Steering Committee and Tides Director of Special Initiatives. The Director will lead the CRIF vision, steering committee development, and execution of grantmaking and fund development strategies. In close collaboration with the Tides Special Initiatives and Wellspring GCR teams, the Director will launch and execute CRIF’s grantmaking, innovation, and fund development priorities outlined below.

We are seeking a unique philanthropic leader passionate about advancing innovation and progress in global development and rights ecosystems. The ideal candidate will be an experienced grantmaker, charismatic leader, and deeply committed to bringing research to life through innovation. The candidate will be experienced in managing philanthropic and/or grantee partnerships and excels in building collaborative partnerships across diverse stakeholders.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Steering Committee

• Recruit, hire, train and onboard Steering Committee members
• Maintain clear communication with the Steering Committee on evaluation of CRIF grantees, strategies, and grantmaking activities; consults with the Steering Committee when appropriate; and provides learning opportunities for Steering Committee members

Grantmaking

• Oversee grantmaking strategy design, grantee application process including interviewing, selection, and notification of selected partners
• Ensure grantmaking activities align across actors, address systemic barriers, and result in the development of new, vigorous interventions
• Develop milestones to assess capacity building needs and organize activities to develop grantee learning, collaboration, and innovation outcomes
• Create opportunities to receive grantee reflection and feedback on the fund’s strategy and activities and in assessing grantee learning and collaboration