VP of Grants, Strategy & Innovation

Position Overview

The Vice President of Grants, Strategy, & Innovation leads the development, funding, and launch of programs and initiatives that respond to community needs and advance Child & Family’s mission. The role brings together program development, partnerships, grants and contracts, systems thinking, and project leadership to move opportunities from idea to implementation and sustainable impact.

Working across the organization and with community partners and people with lived experience, the Vice President builds the partnerships, resources, and structure needed to turn good ideas into action.

The Vice President reports directly to the President & CEO and serves as a member of the executive leadership team. The role provides executive-level leadership across multiple functions and levels of the organization, working in a highly matrixed environment with Finance, Development, Program Operations & Quality, senior program leaders, and other teams. With no direct reports at this time, the Vice President leads through influence, collaboration, and project leadership—bringing cross-functional teams together around shared goals, establishing clear roles, decision points, timelines, and accountability, and moving complex work forward while respecting the expertise and authority of leaders within their areas of responsibility.

Why Child & Family?

Child & Family is a great—and genuinely fun—place to work. We are a talented, creative team that cares deeply about our mission, one another, and doing excellent work. We value collaboration, curiosity, new ideas, and people willing to ask, “Is there a better way?”

With a 160-year legacy of looking forward, we continue to evolve with our communities, build new partnerships, and find better ways to meet changing needs. We offer the opportunity to do meaningful, innovative work in a culture where people are trusted to bring their expertise, encouraged to keep learning, and supported in turning good ideas into action.

What You’ll Do

Identify Opportunities & Develop Solutions

• Partner with the President & CEO and executive leadership to identify opportunities that strengthen Child & Family’s impact, sustainability, and position within Rhode Island’s health and human services system.
• Assess community needs and voice, policy and system trends, evidence and best practices, funding opportunities, partnerships, and risks—and translate what you learn into actionable recommendations.
• Evaluate opportunities for mission alignment, community impact, financial sustainability, organizational capacity, feasibility, and risk.
• Identify opportunities to diversify and strengthen revenue through grants and contracts, third-party reimbursement, public funding, partnerships, and other sustainable funding models.
• Project manage the development of new programs, service models, partnerships, and systems initiatives from concept through design, funding, launch, and sustainability.

Build Partnerships & Secure Resources

• Build strong cross-sector partnerships with government, community organizations, funders, providers, and other stakeholders.
• Engage organizational leadership, direct-care staff, community partners, subject-matter experts, and people with lived experience in program and initiative development.
• Lead Child & Family’s grant portfolio and maintain a strong pipeline of private foundation and municipal, state, and federal opportunities.
• Serve as lead technical writer and project manager for complex grants, contracts, government RFPs, and major proposals.
• Develop strong, implementable proposals and program models incorporating evidence, staffing, partnerships, budgets, outcomes, evaluation, and sustainability.

Lead Implementation & Accountability

 

• Provide disciplined project leadership that moves complex initiatives from idea → design → funding → launch → measurable impact.
• Establish clear scopes, work plans, timelines, milestones, responsibilities, decision points, and accountability.
• Lead cross-functional teams, anticipate barriers and risks, and drive timely decisions and course correction.
• Oversee the full grant lifecycle, including opportunity identification, proposal development, implementation, performance, reporting, closeout, and sustainability.
• Ensure funded commitments transition successfully into operations and are monitored throughout implementation.

Use Evidence & Lead Collaboratively

• Ensure strategy and proposals incorporate evidence-informed approaches, meaningful outcomes, performance measures, and appropriate evaluation.
• Use data, community feedback, evaluation findings, and implementation experience to strengthen programs and inform future development.
• Model servant leadership that values the expertise of staff, partners, communities, and people with lived experience.
• Serve as both a senior advisor and hands-on leader—bringing curiosity, sound judgment, structure, accountability, humility, and a commitment to getting things done.

What You Bring

We are looking for an experienced leader who combines big-picture thinking with the ability to execute. You know how to recognize a promising opportunity, determine whether it makes sense, bring the right people together, secure the resources, and move it into action.

Successful candidates will bring:

• Demonstrated experience developing complex programs or initiatives from concept through funding and implementation.
• A strong track record securing significant competitive private and public funding, including complex grants, contracts, and government RFPs.
• Strong project-management skills and experience leading complex, cross-functional initiatives with multiple stakeholders, deadlines, budgets, risks, and deliverables.
• Systems thinking and the ability to understand the intersection of community need, policy, public systems, funding, partnerships, and service delivery.
• Strong financial acumen, including program budgets, funding models, reimbursement, and sustainability.
• Exceptional writing, communication, facilitation, and relationship-building skills.
• Fluency in evidence-informed practice, outcomes, performance measurement, and evaluation.
• Sound judgment, curiosity, initiative, accountability, and the ability to create structure in ambiguity.
• A collaborative, strength-based leadership style grounded in humility, respect, continuous learning, and recognition of the expertise of others.

Experience & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; master’s degree in public administration, public health, social work, business, nonprofit management, health and human services, or a related field preferred.
• Significant progressive leadership experience in program development, grants and contracts, project leadership, public systems, health and human services, nonprofit leadership, or a related field.
• Demonstrated success securing and implementing significant private, municipal, state, and/or federal funding.
• Experience working within or in partnership with government and community-based health and human service systems strongly preferred.
• Formal project-management training or certification, including PMP certification, preferred.
• Knowledge of Rhode Island’s health and human services landscape is highly desirable.