Vice President Of Programs

About Global Greengrants Fund:

Global Greengrants Fund (GGF) is a public charity registered in Boulder, Colorado and London, UK, that supports grassroots activists and civil society organizations around the world working to address environmental and social justice in over 160 countries. GGF applies a participatory and decentralized model in making grants to grassroots groups through regional and thematic boards of advisors, global partner networks, and independent funds, to support grassroots environmental and social justice action. Global Greengrants Fund believes solutions to environmental harm and social injustice come from people whose lives are most impacted. Every day, our global network of people on the frontlines and donors comes together to support communities to protect their ways of life and our planet.

GGF works with grantmaking advisors from around the world, all of whom are experts and activists, connected with the grassroots movements, issues, and challenges in the regions where they work. GGF strives for its grantmaking to be a relationship rather than a unidirectional flow of resources. Relationships built on trust and shared learning are essential to the success of GGF’s grantmaking. GGF advisors help the organizations they fund with mentoring and connections to larger movements and other institutions. By bringing back ideas and knowledge from grantees, advisors also help their colleagues and broader movements to work out new solutions to the problems that confront them. As generated by advisors and advisory boards, GGF’s grantmaking strategies focus on Climate justice, Healthy communities and ecosystems, Local livelihoods, Right to land, water and resources, Gender and environmental justice, and the Right to defend the environment, and other thematic priorities. Last fiscal year we made more than 1400 grants.

In 2023, Global Greengrants Fund is amid a strategic journey in which we collectively center our values, including diversity, equity, and inclusion, and organizational care in our work, and to rediscover our identity and potential after 30 years of work. We have experienced tremendous growth over the past two years and we are thoughtfully, yet rapidly, growing our annual grantmaking, our philanthropic advocacy, and our global partnerships and collaborations to new levels. This includes creating a globally networked learning organization and transforming our organizational culture to be more collaborative and self-steering – we call this our transformational journey. The Vice President of Programs needs to understand the challenges and opportunities that come with these transformations and be able to remain flexible, steady, and adaptable while inspiring the team through change.

The role

Global Greengrants Fund is looking to hire an energetic and passionate individual who brings the political acumen needed to be the principal advisor to the organization on GGF’s program and grantmaking and be able to provide leadership to developing and implementing a program strategy and leading our programs team to meet our philanthropic goals. The Vice President of Programs is a full-time role providing leadership in developing and implementing the programmatic goals and strategies of GGF through being connected to environmental and social justice movements, and by identifying emerging opportunities and needs at strategic points for impact.

In taking up this role, the successful individual will be instrumental to:

• Provide both strategic and operational advice to the CEO and ED UK on GGF’s work in areas under oversight.
• Oversee strategy development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation for GGF’s program work, ensuring our grantmaking process is robust, responsive, and aligned with GGF’s values and strategy, and that our work generates solutions and addresses challenges and opportunities of our global network, with a particular focus on environmental and social justice movements.
• Support GGF staff in enhancing their capacities for planning, monitoring, and evaluation, self-organizing, and distributed leadership, and other general competencies critical for GGF’s strong functioning.
• Drive a robust, meaningful learning agenda that facilitates continuous improvement in GGF’s work and effectively contributes to environmental and social justice movement-support.
• Ensure strategic alignment, synergy, and cross-team integration among the programs team as well as across the development, communications, and other GGF teams as well as GGF’s global network of coordinators and advisors in their efforts to make impact.
• Actively participate in the leadership of the organization, including participating as an active member of the Oversight Team, providing valued and solution-oriented input on critical problems, working with others to address programmatic, human resource, financial, legislative issues as they arise to ensure that GGF is effective in achieving its desired outcomes as well as undertaking itself as a strong and values aligned organization.
• Provide leadership and expertise for the operationalization of GGF’s strategic plan to ensure achieving organizational outcomes specifically from a programmatic perspective; ensure that the programmatic work substantively and effectively advances strategic goals, is highly relevant and responsive to context of environmental and social justice movements globally, and is aligned with organizational priorities and values.

The Vice President of Programs will come into the role as part of a team of approximately 40 staff, in an organization which is financially stable, with a strong culture grounded in a commitment to learning and growing and mutual accountability. The Vice President of Programs is a member of the Oversight Team, and in the present accountability structures are line managed by the President and CEO and will work closely with the ED of GGF UK while building and working in more self-organized and collaborative ways.

The candidate profile

Successful applicants will have significant relevant experience in similar roles in non-profit environmental, development, social/environmental justice, feminist, gender, human rights, philanthropy, movement building and/or funding organization. They are someone who understands how social change takes place, the different strategies social and environmental justice movements use to achieve impact in the world (from grassroots activism to international advocacy) and can apply that understanding to develop and implement program strategies and plans for GGF’s program initiatives. They should have demonstrated experience in creating global program strategies for grassroots regranting organizations meeting the evolving needs of a growing and transforming progressive organization working towards addressing the needs of movements underpinned by a thorough understanding of how movements are supported by philanthropy. They demonstrate abilities to create a values-aligned environment of trust, equity, and accountability to our work and mission, and ensure involvement of the team in developing strategies and in the sharing of information. They should have excellent interpersonal understanding, relationship building, and skills to build strong alliances with diverse constituencies and manage complex politics, positioning, and relationships. They also thrive in a virtual environment, motivated to take on challenges and collaboratively find innovative and creative solutions.

Personal characteristics

The successful candidates will be rooted in feminist politics, while pushing the boundaries of philanthropic discourse and be comfortable holding and articulating a radical vision that seeks to go beyond conventional thinking. They will have experience and/or be knowledgeable about social movement building and have an acute ability to broker conversations and negotiations with people from across the world. They will be transparent and adaptive leaders with a commitment to lifelong learning and a drive to mentor, coach, and share leadership and who are able to intellectually drive the vision and ensure that there is space and opportunity for others to come along on the transformational journey while taking meaningful purpose-driven actions. They will have skills to give, receive, and work with feedback constructively, with the intellectual and emotional resilience necessary to take up critical responsibilities for an international global organization. They are self-reflective and passionate about multi-directional accountability. Relevant lived experiences related to GGF’s work and community would be a distinct advantage. Multiple language skills would be ideal, while English fluency is a must.

The right candidate will understand Global Greengrants Fund’s core values and be committed to theguiding principles and mission of Global Greengrants Fundand ensure they uphold them in the way they take up the responsibilities of the role.