Battle Creek, MI

Program Officer – Fellowship Alumni, W.K. Kellogg Foundation

The Organization

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), a leading philanthropic force helping communities create the conditions children need to thrive, is seeking nominations and applications for Program Officer, working with alumni of their fellowship programs.  WKKF’s work focuses on improving conditions for vulnerable children, concentrating on three key factors of success and their intersections: education and learning; food, health and well-being; and family economic security. Across these three areas, WKKF has committed to approaches that undergird racial equity and healing, community and civic engagement, and leadership capacity building.  Key to the leadership capacity building approach, fellowships have been one of the foundation’s most effective tools for realizing the belief that community-grounded leadership is a critical tool for both individual development and broad societal change.  In 2014, the foundation launched a new Community Leadership Fellowship program, targeting individuals who can be transformative change agents in their communities so that vulnerable children and their families can achieve optimal health and well-being, academic achievement, and financial security.

As a member of the foundation’s Racial Equity, Community Engagement, and Leadership Programs team, and serving as a peer to the program officers on the grantmaking teams, the new program officer will co-design and support programming for alumni of WKKF fellowship programs that realizes a vision where fellowship alumni are engaged with the work of the foundation and connected to each other in meaningful ways. The program officer will assume responsibility for fellowship alumni engagement and programming; cultivating a rich network of former fellows in the foundation’s priority places of Michigan, Mississippi, New Orleans, and New Mexico, and worldwide. Together with this distinguished group, the program officer will engage in thought partnership with foundation leaders to envision, articulate, and operationalize a community leadership and talent network that nurtures ongoing individual growth opportunities for fellows, builds continued connections to human capital in communities, and helps to  inform leadership development programming throughout the foundation.

The ideal candidate will be a seasoned connector and network builder. S/he/they must be firmly committed to the foundation’s mission and will have an understanding of the broad social and economic forces affecting communities and families, demonstrated knowledge of best practices in leadership development and network building strategy, and success facilitating authentic, productive dialogue within diverse communities and settings. The successful candidate will have experience directing meaningful engagement with alumni groups or fellowship networks, ideally in a community-based context, and will have strong understanding of trends and networks within the leadership development field, both domestically and internationally. S/he/they will bring a significant set of skills in strategic communication, translating concept into action, and building meaningful relationships with persons from diverse cultural, social, economic, and ethnic backgrounds.  S/he/they will be an outstanding writer and communicator and will possess a strong team orientation, a high tolerance for ambiguity, the ability to adapt quickly to change, and the maturity and humility to learn from a variety of stakeholders and partners.

Position Overview

Work at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation is both a great privilege and a tremendous responsibility. The new program officer will join an extraordinary team of individuals who are passionate about leadership and communities at a time of reimagining the way the foundation can leverage all its assets toward greater impact and ends achievement.  The program officer will direct and create alumni engagement and programming offerings that recognize the importance of human capital development in the achievement of systems change in education, health, and economic security across the foundation’s priority locations and in support of racial equity, healing, and transformation in our country.

Specifically, the new program officer will:

  • Guide ongoing fellowship alumni engagement efforts and alumni professional development. Through strengthening linkages with the alumni community and various leadership networks, the program officer will build a program of robust alumni engagement and ongoing professional development and learning opportunities for fellows and emerging leaders engaged in the work of community change.
  • Support capacity building and the connectivity of community leadership nationally and internationally.  The program officer will leverage the foundation’s ongoing alumni engagement efforts and follow-on guidance and learning opportunities to ensure the cadre of entrepreneurial and innovative WKKF fellows will continue to serve as catalysts for systems change in communities and provide continued support for each other. The program officer will work closely with other relevant foundation staff and partners to support the development of social change leaders, build collaboration within and for the benefit of fellowship projects, and guide ongoing implementation of fellows’ social change efforts in their communities, nationally and internationally.
  • Manage and promote the fellowship alumni community. The program officer will be a community builder with a clear view of how to inspire and maintain a deeply engaged alumni community, utilizing multiple communication channels to engage with alumni and amplify their voices. The program officer will develop feedback mechanisms to understand alumni and community leadership needs to inform and improve program offerings. The program officer will collaborate with internal, place-based and systems change teams to share and source alumni stories and ideas.
  • Promote opportunities for the alumni network to inform and engage WKKF programmatic and talent strategy in support of the foundation’s mission. The program officer will work to ensure that alumni community talents and expertise are brought into close partnership and collaboration with the foundation, working together to achieve community and programmatic goals in the priority areas.
  • Serve as a resource to other leaders in the foundation. As the program officer nurtures the growth of the alumni network, s/he/they will also be a thought partner to grantmaking colleagues within the foundation on best practices and innovations in community leadership development. This includes providing insight to departments across the foundation into the impetus and goals of local community movements, how to strengthen networks, the benefits of strategic communication, and how to keep national leaders aware of and embedded in community-level social change.

How To Apply

For a full position description, please visithttps://nonprofitprofessionals.com/additional-searches/wkkf-pocln

More information about the W.K. Kellogg Foundation may be found at www.wkkf.org.

This search is being conducted with the assistance of Callie Carroll and Vanita Bhargava of the national search firm NPAG. Due to the pace of this search, candidates are strongly encouraged to apply as soon as possible. Applications including a cover letter describing your interest and qualifications, your resume (in Word format), and where you learned of the position should be sent to: WKKF-POCLN@nonprofitprofessionals.com. In order to expedite the internal sorting and reviewing process, please type your name (Last, First) as the only contents in the subject line of your e-mail.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and proudly values diversity. Candidates of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

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