Program Associate Jobs

Overview

Position Title: Program Associate

Reports To: Senior Program Officer, Democracy

Status: Full time, Exempt

Location: Hybrid; this role must have the ability to travel to our San Francisco office at least 3X a week, and travel mostly in/around San Francisco and Oakland to build relationships with partners and grantees. The role is based in the San Francisco Bay Area; this is not a remote position.

Target Starting Salary (San Francisco Bay Area): $95,000 - $105,000

What We’re Looking For

Crankstart is currently hiring for a Program Associate to support our philanthropic and community engagement efforts across various issue areas: Economic Mobility, Education, Democracy, Housing Security, Environment, and Medical Science & Innovation.

The Program Associate will oversee a set of grant portfolios. This will include building and growing meaningful relationships with grantees to further their work and impact. You will collaborate with other programmatic staff to maintain strategic and organizational alignment across issue areas, and support projects focused on ensuring our grantmaking processes are running smoothly for everyone involved. You will also provide grantmaking capacity and operational expertise that ensures the voices, inputs and lived experiences of our grantee partners, community leaders and grantee beneficiaries (e.g. students, clients, residents, etc.) are at the center of our decisions and practices. You will also serve an important role in measuring progress and generating learnings from our work.

We are looking for an individual who is excited to work across various issue areas. Over time, we intend this role to have a primary home aligned to 1-2 issue areas. At any given point, you’ll be working on several projects, often with different stakeholders. You’re someone who is constantly on the lookout for how to improve the systems and processes around you.

What You’ll Do

At a high level, you’ll serve as the primary support for program officers. You’ll be responsible for a combination of grants management as well as administrative, project and program-related duties as listed below. These activities are both internal and external facing.

Grantmaking and Relationship Management (40%)

● Research issues, programs and organizations aligned with our core strategies and priorities in Economic Mobility, Education, Democracy, Housing Security, Environment, and Medical Science & Innovation

● Coordinate and participate in conversations with prospective and current grantees to learn more about their work, and invite their input and feedback to guide and improve our work

● Write, present and defend funding recommendations

● Monitor accuracy of information in the foundation’s grants database

● Review docket materials to ensure the accuracy of these materials and final grant amounts

● Communicate funding decisions to organizations with authenticity and diplomacy

● Plan and coordinate grantee site visits to see grantees “in action”

● Support with special grants projects related to funding priorities (e.g. convenings, research, etc.)

Team Operations (30%)

● Recommend and pilot process improvements to team tools and systems

● Maintain the accuracy of Crankstart’s grants database and Google drive

● Pull reports, data and research to inform key decisions

● Ensure grantee contact information is up to date and that the team maintains an accurate CRM

● Provide administrative and operational support across key program projects

● Coordinate closely with other Program Associates to manage program-wide responsibilities

● Execute on mid- and long-term special projects, owning entire subprojects or substreams, aimed at accelerating our progress on organizational goals (e.g. field research on a new issue area, a pilot program to test a new model of delivering philanthropic support, etc.)

Strategy Development, Measurement and Learning (30%)

● Support the design and implementation of program strategies

● Collect and analyze outcomes data to measure and evaluate the impact of our work

● Plan and coordinate check-ins with grantees and other key partners (e.g. peer funders, local elected officials, etc.) to understand their needs and identify patterns across portfolios

● Research needs, insights, and trends across various issue areas to support issue and cross-issue work

● Support internal projects related to measurement, learning and evaluation through the phases of planning, design, implementation, analysis, reporting and workflow tracking

● Contribute to the design and development of visual report components and presentation materials to tell stories, identify trends and report progress

About You

● You are hungry to make a difference and recognize that big and small tasks alike add value

● You are passionate about supporting and uplifting the work of nonprofit and community leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area

● You thrive in a dynamic, startup environment—you can shift gears quickly to adapt to changing priorities, and you enjoy doing a little bit of everything

● You are excellent in using informal influence and non-positional leadership to accomplish work

● You have a strong ability to build trust and engage people

● You draw correct inferences from information at both macro and micro levels

● You effectively communicate stories and information visually, when speaking and in your writing

● You have 4+ years of professional experience

● You have experience working on complex, long-term projects that involve a diverse range of stakeholders and types of people, both internal and external to an organization

About Us

Crankstart envisions a vibrant, thriving Bay Area, where our region’s prosperity is shared, strengthened, and realized by all who live here. We are a family foundation, based in San Francisco, working with others to address social issues and their underlying causes. Our main interests are education; a thriving democracy; economic mobility; housing security; the environment; and the basic sciences. In 2021, we made over $250m in grants, with about 60% going to nonprofits in the San Francisco Bay Area. Crankstart is very much a startup and consists of 11 core team members of diverse backgrounds. We value: authenticity, collaboration, learning, commitment, and hope.

How to Apply

To apply for this position, please complete the following form by August 14, 2023:

Job Application //Program Associate, CrankstartJob Application //Program Associate, Crankstart

This form will ask you for basic contact information, your resume, and two short answer responses (in lieu of a cover letter).

If our recruiting team finds that your work experience and skills align with the necessary proficiencies of this position, we will reach out to schedule an interview. Further details about our hiring process are available here: Hiring Process

Crankstart is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. In keeping with our commitment, Crankstart will take steps to provide people with disabilities and sincerely held religious beliefs with reasonable accommodations in accordance with applicable law. Accordingly, if a reasonable accommodation is required to fully participate in the job application or interview process, to perform the essential functions of the position, and/or to receive all other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact [email protected].

Crankstart is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, mental or physical disability, veteran status, age, or any other legally protected status. Crankstart also prohibits harassment of applicants or employees on any of these protected categories. We continue to prioritize the health and safety of our employees and partners. Consistent with that commitment and in light of the substantial and growing body of evidence that vaccinations remain the most effective protection against the spread of COVID-19, we require that members of our workforce be fully vaccinated by the first day of work.