The Skoll Foundation was established in 1999 by eBay’s first president, Jeff Skoll, who serves as our founder and chairman. The foundation’s innovative approach to philanthropy is based on the belief that small investments can spur significant social change. Sally Osberg joined the foundation as its first president and CEO in 2001 and leads the organization’s team, drawing upon more than 20 years of social sector leadership experience.

Today, the foundation is dedicated to realizing a vision for a more peaceful and prosperous world. We advance systemic change to benefit communities around the world by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs. The foundation is focused on social entrepreneurs working six key issue areas - tolerance and human rights, health, environmental sustainability, economic and social equity, institutional responsibility, and peace and security - and whose models are at an inflection point where our support can accelerate significant impact. The core values of the Skoll Foundation workplace include respect, responsibility, leverage, innovation and tough-minded optimism.

Position Summary
The Program and Impact (P&I) team seeks a Program Officer who brings a combination of intellectual curiosity, a passion for social change, a focus on tangible results and a desire to work within a team culture that practices continuous learning and improvement.

The Program Officer will report to one of the senior program staff working on the Skoll Foundation’s “invest” programs (grants and loans directly to social entrepreneurs’ organizations and to other initiatives providing critical services to maximize the social entrepreneurs’ scale of impact).

Program Officers are expected to accept a high degree of individual responsibility for anticipating and meeting deadlines, analyzing and managing opportunities and risk, producing high-quality documents and graphic materials, maintaining records and welcoming feedback with the aim of continuous improvement and contribution to team performance.

Primary Responsibilities

• Manage a portfolio of grantmaking relationships, including screening and conducting due diligence on grant and loan applications, managing relationships with grantees, developing grant outcomes and milestones, and monitoring grant progress and impact.
• Review letters of inquiry and grant proposals. Draft and edit grant proposal summaries and recommendations for management and board review.
• Participate in the development and implementation of best practices in relationship management across the foundation, with a goal of strategically and seamlessly linking grantees to other foundation services, resources and staff.
• Serve as primary and secondary point person on a variety of foundation grantmaking programs and initiatives (e.g., the annual Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurs, Ecosystem Investments and Partnerships, Connect & Celebrate projects, Special Opportunities grants and impact assessment efforts).
• Participate, and at times lead, multidisciplinary teams addressing current and emerging foundation priorities.
• Interface with grant seekers, responding promptly and respectfully to a variety of inquiries.
• Participate in the development of processes to measure, learn from and improve impact.
• Help develop services, in addition to grants, that will provide value to grantees, improving their capabilities, scale and impact.
• Participate as a member of the P&I team in developing the department’s strategic plans.
• Prepare key funding documents related to assigned grants and dockets.
• Monitor assigned grants and take actions as necessary to ensure compliance.
• Undertake special projects, as assigned.
• Maintain collegial working relationships with colleagues and constituents

Qualifications and Abilities:

The ideal candidate for Program Officer will possess the following characteristics:

• Knowledge of the practices and contributions of social entrepreneurs and key sources of support in the ecosystem of social entrepreneurship.
• Experience and desire to work within a team environment with an emphasis on learning and continuous improvement.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and work cooperatively to satisfy needs of internal and external constituents.
• Experience with evaluating and/or building the operational and financial capacity of organizations to undertake major initiatives.
• Strong interpersonal skills, sound judgment and discretion.
• Strong communication skills, particularly written.
• Demonstrated ability to work sensitively with diverse people and communities.
• High standards, integrity and a sense of humor.
• Expertise in MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint) and general database systems.
• Competency in language(s), in addition to English, is desirable.
• Ability to travel domestically and internationally.
• In addition to the qualifications above, experience in any one or more of the following issue areas where the foundation focuses its grantmaking is of particular interest:
  • Environmental Sustainability (particularly climate change or water scarcity)
  • Health (particularly global pandemic prevention)
  • Peace and Security (particularly nuclear proliferation or Middle East conflict)
  • Economic and Social Equity
  • Tolerance and Human Rights
  • Institutional Responsibility
• Experience in the disciplines of program evaluation or organizational development are also of interest.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in any relevant discipline, or equivalent experience, is required.
• Minimum of five years of progressively responsible positions in the for-profit and philanthropic/nonprofit sectors.
• Combination of both business and philanthropic/nonprofit experience preferred.
• International work experience is desirable, preferably with social entrepreneurs or other local organizations in developing countries. Bachelor’s degree in any relevant discipline is required.

Compensation
A competitive compensation package will be commensurate with background.

Applicants
Please send a cover letter and resume to: jobs@skollfoundation.org. Please specify “Program Officer” in the message subject line. The foundation will contact qualified applicants. In your cover letter please tell us how your specific experiences and accomplishments address our needs and mission.

All over the world, there are people with great business ideas. But in the poorest regions, more often than not those people don’t have the resources they need to realise them. You can change that.

Be challenged
It will be down to you to help people in developing countries to refine their business proposals so they have the best possible chance of securing the investment they need to deliver on them. And then you’ll pitch their idea to the right kind of investors. We’ll expect you to work closely with our regional and country teams to make sure their local initiatives are well supported and to develop a new funding model based on your EDP experience. In short, this is a complex project management role that offers you the scope to get all sorts of different businesses off the ground.

Be involved
With experience of working in or with small to medium businesses, you’ll know just what it takes for a business to take off. Just as importantly, we’ll be looking for a strong cultural awareness – you’ll need to get to grips with lots of different local markets. You should be a strategic and analytical thinker with the ability to bring people at all levels round to your way of thinking. Outstanding communication and project management skills are essential and you’ll be passionate about giving people in poverty the opportunity to fight their own way out of it.

Be Oxfam
A simple, inescapable truth underlines everything we do at Oxfam. There’s enough wealth in this world to go around. It’s not unfortunate that people live in poverty. It’s unjustifiable. It’s not their problem. It’s ours too. And with the right support, we can beat poverty and injustice. More than 8,000 people already commit their time and talents to our campaigning, humanitarian and long-term development projects. Now we’re looking for yours.

To find out more about this role and to apply, visit www.oxfam.org.uk/jobs and quote ref: C&P381.
c.£36k |  Closing date: 4 August. Interview date: 7 August.