Vice President for Program and Impact
The Skoll Foundation Vice President for Program and Impact (P&I) is responsible for leading the Foundation’s strategic program development, execution, and evaluation. The Vice President for P&I will be challenged to advance the Foundation’s five success indicators and their relative weight in decision making and resource allocation:
- Enabling “breakthrough” SASEs (Skoll Awardees for Social Entrepreneurship): The Foundation applies its resources and talents to enable SASEs to achieve breakthrough, large-scale solutions to the world’s most pressing problem.
- All SASEs strengthened: From the beginning of the selection process, the Foundation identifies SASEs based on their potential to achieve breakthrough impact on one of more of the issues identified in the framework. Once an SASE is part of the portfolio, the staff delivers “invest, connect and celebrate” services designed to strengthen their ability to achieve large-scale results.
- An enabling ecosystem for successful social entrepreneurship: As a third priority, the Foundation invests in the larger ecosystem that benefits social entrepreneurs within and beyond the SASE portfolio, believing that a healthy ecosystem enables more effective social entrepreneurship, and thus more successful societal problem-solving.
- Nurturing a healthy Skoll Foundation organization: The Foundation continually strives to enhance a team-oriented work environment that allows Skoll employees to develop and utilize their full range of professional talents.
- A compelling and authentic Skoll Foundation brand that exemplifies who we are, what we stand for, and the way we behave.
The critical aspect of the work of the Vice President for P&I is to drive mission-aligned program investments that achieve maximum results. Skoll’s program strategy is led and advanced by the Vice President for P&I, who works closely with all members of the senior management team. Collaboration, execution and evaluation are all critical elements of success for the Vice President for P&I. The Vice President for P&I reports to the President and CEO and is based in Palo Alto, California.
The broad goals for the Vice President for P&I include:
- Evolve the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship program to maximize the impact of the grants relative to the Foundation’s mission, and to optimize the human resource talents of the organization.
- Agree upon and provide “baseline” services to all SASEs and determine customized “add-on services” to provide to SASEs who demonstrate the greatest capacity for achieving large-scale change.
- Establish process and tools for impact assessment of investments and services, and ensure this information informs decision-making.
- Align vital resources—time, talent, and funding—to maximize impact, consistent with Jeff Skoll’s vision, the Foundation’s mission and Success Framework (5 indicators).
- Evaluate and evolve P&I processes, practices, and structure to ensure team members’ individual and collective talents are effectively and efficiently deployed in the service of the Foundation’s mission; reinforce, model and celebrate the Foundation’s core values.
- Participate fully in the Foundation’s management as a member of its executive team: contribute, challenge, and debate ideas and opportunities openly and honestly. Ultimately ensure decisions—and the reasoning behind them—are effectively communicated to staff and implemented.
- Build and nurture strategic partnerships with the portfolio's leading social entrepreneurs and with the field to advance the Foundation’s mission and contribute to its effectiveness.
The new Vice President for P &I will be challenged to meet the following responsibilities:
- Recruit, coach, develop and evaluate performance and contributions of P&I team members.
- Create and manage the P&I department annual and 5-year budgets, including grant making and payout.
- Serve as a member of the senior leadership team in developing, aligning, and updating the Foundation’s annual and long-term strategic and business plans.
- Partner with the CEO, the Board, and colleagues in focusing the Foundation on the privilege of working to achieve its founder’s vision for a more peaceful, prosperous and sustainable global community.
The Vice President for P & I should ideally possess the following Professional Qualifications and Personal Attributes:
Professional Qualifications:
- Significant experience in managing, guiding, and developing professional staff with an emphasis on establishing clear and measureable objectives, empowering and coaching staff members, teambuilding, and accountability.
- Demonstrated leadership and business acumen, a proven record of continually enhancing organizational effectiveness, engaging and fully utilizing Board input, and skill in dealing with the budgeting process and management of staff and financial resources;
- Combination of both business and nonprofit/philanthropic experience.
- Substantial international work experience, preferably with social entrepreneurs or other local organizations in developing countries.
- Advanced degree (M.A., M.S., M.B.A., or Ph.D) required.
Personal Attributes:
Thrives in an organization which includes the strategic engagement of the donor.
- Ability to persuade, inspire and motivate others, and an ability to be flexible and adaptive in consultative process with senior management and Board.
- An ability to inspire trust, a proven ability to lead and facilitate with strong interpersonal skills and an ability to move from ideas to action.
- An ability to communicate effectively and professionally with a diverse range of people from different environments, sectors, and society.
- An ability to stay grounded, trustworthy, an ability to give credit and recognition to others and a personal style of acting with humility and grace – in sum a superb professional with personal presence.
- Intellectually curious with sound judgment and a sense of the potential impact the Foundation can make in its areas of interest.
- Ability to be proactive, flexible and well-organized, with appropriate attention to detail and follow-through.
Compensation
Compensation for the Vice President for Program and Impact includes a competitive base salary and an excellent package of employee and health benefits.
Interested candidates should send their resume to:
Daniel Sherman
President
Explore Company
Email: resumes@explorecompany.com
