The Area Foundation is seeking a transformational leader who believes in the power of philanthropy to transform communities and is compelled by the mission and core values of the Area Foundation. The successful candidate will be knowledgeable about broad community issues and needs to effectively guide the Area Foundation’s grant and programmatic investments as well as honor donor intent in all aspects of our work. The ideal candidate will be culturally fluent, dedicated to racial equity and energized by the opportunity to represent the Area Foundation and Community Impact Team’s work both internally and externally to a variety of audiences. They will be an effective leader of people, committed to developing staff and helping them flourish in their roles, and work collaboratively with colleagues across the Area Foundation. This person will be a systems thinker and a complex problem solver, who embraces community-informed methods and systems change.

Reporting to the CEO, the CIO will provide executive leadership and strategic direction to shape and implement the Area Foundation’s grantmaking programs, community impact activities and strategic initiatives. The CIO is responsible for the development and management of all aspects of the Area Foundation’s discretionary grants, strategic initiatives, and capacity building initiatives to support nonprofit agencies.

Key Responsibilities:

Organizational Leadership

• Serve as a key advisor to the CEO, ensuring that the Area Foundation’s approach to grantmaking and community engagement prioritizes strong community relationships.
• Actively participate on the ET, providing leadership for development of organizational goals and strategies.
• Work alongside community leaders, major donors/funders, government officials, board members and staff; ensure highly productive relationships and partnerships for the benefit of the organization and the community.
• Collaborate across the organization to design approaches and systems that capture knowledge and align solutions, leveraging impact for constituents.
• Provide leadership to organizational process optimization efforts and technology enhancements for improved relationship management, impact, and reporting.
• Actively participate in staff events and in staff education.
• Staff the Community Engagement and Impact Committee of the Board.
• Prepare reports for board and committee meetings and other groups as requested and necessary.
• Work with CEI Team to recruit and support informed, diverse Community Advisory Committees and equip them with the training and tools to make excellent funding recommendations and decisions.
• Develop and manage annual budget for multiple programs described above.
• Work in partnership with other organizational leaders to strengthen storytelling, grantee partnerships, and other opportunities to connect donors to outcomes.
• Collaborate on fundraising efforts.
• Other projects and duties as assigned.

Grantmaking & Community Impact

• Develop and drive community-informed strategies to achieve desired impact, assuring effective utilization of resources and approaches; participates at the forefront of shaping dialogue about community needs.
• Ensure that Area Foundation goals are being met through programmatic efforts, including grants, convening, capacity building, research, and evaluation.
• Ensure that grants are distributed with integrity and intentionality to benefit the San Antonio area in highly impactful ways which achieve our donors’ philanthropic goals.
• Ensure CEI Team provides information, technical assistance and clarification of Area Foundation funding priorities to grant seekers to facilitate transparent application and grantmaking processes.
• Develop and sustain relationships within the community and advocates to address community issues and seek shared solutions to leverage resources; envision and implement a full array of program activities that go beyond traditional grantmaking to reflect the Area Foundation’s commitment to community engagement and racial/social justice.
• Ensure the Area Foundation is maintaining information on area nonprofit activities, priority community needs and ongoing funding partnerships.
• Develop and execute annual CEI Team work plan.
• Partner and collaborate with other departments to ensure coordination of CEI priorities and strategies.
• Oversee long-term programmatic initiatives in strategic areas and ensure that metrics and outcomes are appropriately measured to inform stakeholders of progress and provide feedback.
• Oversee and drive the strategic planning processes to define new initiatives, and work with staff or ad-hoc committee(s) to define scope of work and approach including convening, nurturing of collaborative relationships in the community critical to the issue area, formation and support of steering committees and work groups, and development of indicators and measures to track and evaluate progress.
• Oversee development of evaluation strategies, metrics, and systems to ensure funding outcomes are achieved; understand technology needs and software interconnectivity required to track relevant trends, pursue and exchange information about programmatic trends and results, and measure communication activities to elevate the Area Foundation’s impact.
• Lead public policy activities and initiatives that support and/or align with Area Foundation strategies, grantmaking and community initiatives.

Team Leadership

• Bring energy to inspire the team, and lead with an exceptional ability to listen intently, think clearly and respond effectively, empathetically, and judiciously to a variety of challenges.
• Manage and provide oversight of CEI Team to ensure successful execution of strategies and processes.
• Cultivate a positive team environment that is collaborative, inclusive and solution-oriented; encourage a culture of high performance and continuous improvement, where everyone feels valued and essential to the teams’ success.
• Ensure alignment of department goals with individual goals.
• Provide a highly collaborative and transparent approach to learning and development.
• Provide 1:1 coaching and proactive expectation management to ensure timely and successful completion of development and position goals.
• Attract, retain and motivate staff.
• Conduct regular individual and team performance assessments.

Leadership Competencies

The Chief Impact Officer at the San Antonio Area Foundation is expected to demonstrate the following leadership competencies:

Builds Talent

• Develops and maintains diverse high-performing teams and coaches other leaders to develop their own leadership capabilities. Ensures all leaders and team members challenge and support each other while respecting others’ unique roles and contributions.

Champions Innovation

• Constructively challenges the prevailing wisdom or accepted ways of doing things. Pushes the organization to identify new approaches and uncover unconventional ideas that drive value using data and insights. Supports well-reasoned risks and new ideas.

Cultural Competence

• Models inclusion and champions equity by effectively engaging people of diverse cultures and backgrounds. Invests in building organizational capacity for inclusion and equity by maintaining an environment that recognizes and mitigates bias.

Fosters Collaboration

• Creates an environment that supports collaboration by facilitating communication and coordination across all parts of the organization. Builds an intentional, inclusive and cohesive culture that aligns functional agendas and unites the team.

Sound Decision-Making

• Possesses strong intellectual curiosity and the ability to analytically, conceptually and critically evaluate information to determine relative strengths and weaknesses of ideas and proposals. Willing to make decisions in the face of ambiguity, and models accountability.

Skills, Experiences, Qualifications

In addition to demonstration of the Leadership Competencies on the previous page, key skills and experiences desired include:

• Compelled by the mission and values of the Area Foundation, honors the organization’s history and potential for future impact, and will demonstrate authentic commitment to aligning mission with position responsibilities, and a passion for social change.
• Experience on an executive team, working with a board of directors, serving on and/or staffing committees, and working with volunteers and committees to get work done.
• Demonstrated success strategically designing, implementing, and executing operational processes and plans; track record of reimagining and/or redesigning programs and/or grant making with a community-centered perspective.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively and proactively interact, communicate, and collaborate on multidisciplinary teams and with people from cultural backgrounds other than your own; an informed perspective around diversity, a commitment to equity and demonstrated cultural competence is key.
• Strong financial acumen, proven ability to make data-informed decisions, and competence championing, sponsoring, learning and using existing and new technologies
• Demonstrated excellent communication, facilitation, and conflict resolution skills; experience creating environments for transparent communication and courageous conversations, and equipping team members with skills to address and resolve problems and conflicts effectively.
• Strong presentation skills; presents ideas effectively both verbally and in writing.
• Self-starter with effective management, organizational and time management skills.
• Strong emotional intelligence; adaptable and resilient with exceptional relationship building skills.

· Successful professional experience and demonstrated commitment to effectively working with the types of community groups or organizations served by the Area Foundation.

· Demonstrated team leadership and supervisory skills, and success supporting and developing colleagues to succeed individually and as a team.