Chorus Network Officer Position, Buffalo
As the Chorus Foundation enters the final two years of its spend down, Foundation staff will be shifting more of their attention to influencing philanthropy towards supporting a just transition. At the same time, Foundation staff realize that each of the communities where Chorus is invested could benefit from additional time commitment–to strengthen connections with local philanthropy and with national philanthropy interested in Buffalo and to coordinate the Foundation’s local grant making, among other tasks.
The Foundation is hiring four Network Officers, one each based in Alaska, Buffalo, Eastern Kentucky, and Richmond, California. These Network Officer positions will be half time positions, with the expectation that the position will require approximately 20 hours per week. There are three major areas of responsibilities:
1. To serve as a representative of the Foundation in the philanthropic community engaged in the region.
Philanthropy in and focused on each of the four communities tends to have a regular set of meetings that it would be helpful to attend in order to cultivate and nurture Chorus’ relationships with philanthropic organizations interested in Buffalo. These may be local funders, but may also include national funders active in the region. The Network Officer will serve as a representative of Chorus in meetings with local funders based in Western NY, including meetings with the Western NY Grantmakers Association; as a bridge between philanthropy and Chorus staff and a bridge between philanthropy and on-the-ground just transition work in Buffalo. Part of the role of the Network Officer is to engage with philanthropy to support just transition work and move towards a just transition perspective.
In addition, there is interest among local grantees in establishing a funding strategy to support just transition work in Buffalo. The Network Officer in Buffalo will work with local grantees to organize at least one funder briefing per year as part of this strategy.
2. To serve as a set of eyes and ears of the Foundation on the ground in each of the communities.
While, in some ways, the anchor grantees in each community fill this role, their primary responsibility is not to the Foundation. In Buffalo, these anchor grantees are People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH Buffalo) and Open Buffalo. The Network Officer would have a specific responsibility to the Foundation to report on the local activities of Chorus grantees and to attend meetings in the community on behalf of the Foundation to help continue to build our understanding of the local landscape and to help reinforce the Foundation’s ongoing presence in the community.
Conversely, the Network Officer will also serve as a point of contact to help ensure that communities are up to speed on what is happening with the Chorus Foundation.
This role is not envisioned to replace or supplant current Foundation staff’s relationships in each community, but to support and augment.
The Network Officer will assist Chorus grantees in conducting an annual strategic opportunity scan that seeks to synthesize grantees’ reporting to the Foundation and combine it with additional research about the local social, political, economic, and cultural context. This information will be included in a report that grantees can use to calibrate strategic planning and can serve as a funder engagement tool for both grantees and the Foundation.
3. To serve as a coordinator for Foundation work in the community.
The Network Officer will coordinate the local activities of the Foundation. Examples include setting up meetings for Foundation staff, coordinating site visits by philanthropic organizations on behalf of the Foundation, coordinating participation of representatives of the Foundation’s grantees in the Foundation’s regular convenings, and staffing the Foundation’s local grant making, which is directed by the Foundation’s local grantees.
Network Officers across the four communities will serve as a cohort in regular communications with each other to share innovations and learning across the four communities. Network Officers will also have access to national philanthropic convenings. In addition, Network Officers may become more directly engaged in the Foundation’s own work to organize within philanthropy, especially as these activities continue to evolve.
Qualities sought for in a Network Officer:
Familiarity, relationships, and trust with the Foundation’s local grantees, the local just transition landscape and, ideally, national just transition work
Familiarity with local and national funding community
Excellent communications skills (both oral and written)
Ability to work with multiple stakeholders, especially bridging relationships and language between funders, the field and the local community.
Ability to travel in the region and outside the region, as needed
Job Description
Develop and implement a strategy for engaging local and national funder community with local just transition work with input from multiple stakeholders, including assessing and developing a local fund to support just transition
Develop materials and key messages aimed at funders to increase engagement in and support of local just transition landscape
Facilitate Chorus Foundation’s ongoing engagement with local community, particularly relationships with local funders and national funders interested in the region; represent Foundation within local funding community
Facilitate ongoing communications and engagement between Chorus Foundation and local grantees
As appropriate, develop and steward Chorus Foundation’s local grant making
Conduct/engage in annual strategic planning meeting(s) with Crossroads Coalition members
Compensation
Compensation for the Network Officer position would be $50,000 annually, paid in equal payments on a monthly basis. In addition, a small stipend would be provided with the intention that the contractor may use this to offset any personal benefit expenses they may incur over the year.
Location
ON-SITE
Buffalo, NY, USA
How to Apply
Please submit a cover letter, resume and list of references to: crossroadscoalitionjob@gmail.com