Strategy Lead, Building Social Trust (Program Officer)

Job Description

Job Description:\n\nEinhorn Collaborative is seeking a Strategy Lead (similar to the “Program Officer” role at peer foundations) to drive our Building Social Trust portfolio. The Strategy Lead will be responsible for advancing a long-term Theory of Change by partnering with leading nonprofit organizations, social change leaders, and peer funders to strengthen social trust, promote pluralism, and build healthy civic infrastructure in communities across the U.S. The Building strategy also seeks to address forces that worsen polarization, undermine social trust, and disrupt human connection and our ability to build healthy and trusting relationships with one another, including rising hate, antisemitism, violence, and the harmful effects of technology and AI. Einhorn Collaborative is partnering with Chaloner to support our search for the Strategy Lead position. Please apply using the application form. This is a rare opportunity for an experienced strategic generalist to take on a high-impact role with real latitude. The person in this role will not just steward an existing portfolio; they will partner with leading field experts to determine what the Building strategy will look like a decade from now and identify creative, clever opportunities for strategic philanthropic investment to drive impact. About Einhorn Collaborative Einhorn Collaborative is a foundation dedicated to advancing the science and practice of social connection and social cohesion to address America’s growing crisis of distrust and division. We work with a wide range of cultural influencers, researchers, community leaders, and funders to help Americans build stronger relationships, embrace our differences, and rediscover our shared humanity — so we can solve our most urgent challenges together. To advance this mission, Einhorn Collaborative’s strategy focuses on four interconnected, mutually reinforcing areas: Bonding: Fostering emotional connection between babies and their parents and caregivers.Bridging: Developing bridging leaders who have the skills and mindsets to collaborate across differences.Building: Building communities that strengthen social trust while mitigating the risks to it.Belonging: Inspiring a culture of belonging through narrative change and storytelling. As a foundation, our approach is grounded in collaboration and collective impact. We are committed to working with a broad coalition of partners and peers — across ideological, racial, religious, socioeconomic, and geographic differences — to listen, learn, and take on shared challenges and opportunities together to drive durable systems-level change. More information about the foundation can be found here: About Einhorn Collaborative’s Building Strategy No matter who we are, how we live, or what we believe, we all share an instinctual need for connection and belonging. Yet, more and more Americans are living in isolation, loneliness, and fear, eroding our faith and trust in our institutions and each other. Einhorn Collaborative’s Building strategy focuses on cultivating social trust at the community level to create a more pluralistic society: one where Americans can find common ground, engage across lines of difference, and collaborate to solve shared challenges. The Building portfolio’s current areas of focus include: Community-level efforts and civic infrastructure that build social trust, social connection, and social cohesionFunder collaboratives and field-building initiatives, including New Pluralists, Trust for Civic Life, and Foundation for Social ConnectionProsocial technology, most notably AI, to mitigate the potential harms to social connection, social trust, and social cohesion Combating the rise in hate, antisemitism, dehumanization, and other conditions that allow polarization and violence to take root, with an emphasis on upstream prevention work The Building portfolio is managed as a concentrated set of approximately 5-10 active partnerships at a time. While the grantmaking strategy emphasizes multi-year commitments in funder and field collaborative efforts, the portfolio also includes project-based investments that advance the strategy or establish a foundation for future collaboration and growth. Beyond grantmaking, Einhorn Collaborative also invests meaningfully in field-building and grantee partner support, such as fostering collaboration among our network partners, providing strategic communications capacity to shift public understanding, and strengthening field infrastructure to drive toward collective impact. The new Strategy Lead will have the opportunity to shape this portfolio over time through their own lens and expertise. About the Role Reporting to the Executive Director, the Strategy Lead will steward and evolve Einhorn Collaborative’s Building portfolio and serve as a key connector, convener, and thought partner within the field. This is a senior strategic leadership role for a phenomenal generalist and creative thinker who is intellectually curious and relational. This individual is deeply committed to the work of stewarding philanthropic investments and effectively building trusting and collaborative partnerships with social change actors to strengthen social trust and pluralism at a neighborhood level and across the United States. The foundation’s mission and collaborative ethos should reflect the Strategy Lead’s personal values and approach to working with others. The Strategy Lead is a strong writer and communicator. They can clearly articulate a compelling rationale for philanthropic funding opportunities; present and persuade toward a clear theory of action; clarify and track key goals and milestones; and represent Einhorn Collaborative effectively externally and with Trustees. They will support partners with more than just grantmaking, offering strategic counsel, connections, and perspective. The Strategy Lead is willing to take thoughtful risks. They are drawn to big strategic challenges precisely because they know they don’t have all the answers. They can identify high-leverage opportunities, build the case for them, and execute with both boldness and care. They have the courage of their convictions and the rigor to back it up. Above all, this person will think in decades, not grant cycles. They will come to this role with a clear view of what systemic change requires, a genuine curiosity about what this portfolio could look like a decade from now, and a nimbleness to adapt to shifting contexts and new opportunities as they emerge. In their first year, the Strategy Lead will assume leadership of the existing Building portfolio, foster strong relationships across relevant ecosystems, and connect with the existing team and culture. In subsequent years, the Strategy Lead will take learnings from that foundation to set the long-term direction for the Building work in close partnership with the Executive Director and other Einhorn Collaborative team members. Given that Einhorn Collaborative is a small and deeply intentional team, we have established a culture centered on advising and supporting each other. In addition to leading the Building work, the Strategy Lead will collaborate with the full team and assume leadership and support roles in internal and cross-portfolio initiatives. Role Responsibilities Manage and Evolve the Building Strategy Assume leadership of the Building strategy theory of action and portfolio.Think in short- and long-term horizons and balance day-to-day partnership management with a long view of systems change.Bring a strategic learning orientation to grantee partnerships, working collaboratively and creatively to support the success of active philanthropic investments and efforts.Develop funding recommendations for strategic partnerships that will most effectively advance the Building strategy.Develop high-trust and collaborative relationships with a wide range of peers, partners, researchers, and prospects to better inform the strategy, due diligence, grantee performance, field building, and partnerships. Identify, Manage, and Support Grantee Partnerships Source, evaluate, recommend, and manage multi-year philanthropic partnerships to advance concrete efforts within the Building portfolio.Develop well-reasoned and well-written funding recommendations and present them persuasively, grounded in a clear theory of action, reliable data, and deep due diligence.Establish and nurture co-funding partnerships with peer philanthropic organizations to aggregate capital toward collaborative projects.Create and execute impact measurement strategies to track progress at the project and strategy level while minimizing any unnecessary reporting burden on grantee partners.Support grantee partners in ways that help them realize their impact goals by offering coaching, connecting them to resources and people, and rooting for their success. Build connections among grantee partners, when mutually advantageous, in meaningful and efficient ways. Field-Building and Thought Leadership In partnership with Einhorn Collaborative’s Executive Director, Communications Lead, and the broader team: Raise the profile of Einhorn Collaborative, the Building strategy, and the work of grantee partners through traditional media, social media, and speaking engagements.Represent Einhorn Collaborative and effectively communicate its core mission and the Building strategy to a wide range of stakeholders, including peer funders, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners. Identify and participate in opportunities to connect with others in philanthropy and the broader field to advance the Building strategy’s efforts and goals.Engage Trustees effectively, bringing clarity, rationale, and conviction to presentations on strategy and portfolio direction. Cross-Portfolio Support Participate in organization-wide internal projects to advance Einhorn Collaborative’s mission, philanthropic strategy, and measurement and evaluation.Review peer funding recommendations from other strategies to support cross-portfolio emergent learning, due diligence, as well as coherence in rationale and case-making.Contribute positively to team culture-building efforts and opportunistic special projects. Who You Are You’re a builder of deep, trusting relationships. You are people-driven. You listen deeply, engage with open-hearted curiosity, and bring warmth and rigor to every relationship. Partners and colleagues describe you as someone they can rely on: someone who shows up with both ideas and care. You have no interest in being transactional. You have high emotional intelligence and low ego. You are energized by collaboration with people across lines of difference. You see the work itself as the reward. You can hold difficult conversations, sit with ambiguity, and make high-stakes judgment calls without losing your footing or your warmth. You love bringing people together to make big things happen. You are exceptional at building vision, recruiting others to join, co-developing strategy, connecting the dots, and rolling out on-time execution. You thrive in a small, tight-knit team where no project or task is too big or too small, and every detail matters. You’re always learning. You are motivated to tackle new challenges, actively seek feedback, and contribute to the team’s continuous learning and improvement by modeling it in your own approach. You bring an assets-based approach to your work with grantee partners and colleagues alike. You have great tact and smart judgment. You are a highly trusted custodian of sensitive information. You use impeccable tact, professionalism, and sharp judgment to know what should be shared and with whom, maintaining relational trust and confidentiality. What You’ve Done Required Experience Bachelor’s degree.Significant work experience in philanthropy, strategy, policy, management consulting, or a related field, including demonstrated organizational or cross-organizational leadership.Time spent working in one or more social impact contexts relevant to the Building portfolio, such as:Social cohesion, social trust, or civic infrastructureCombatting hate, antisemitism, or political violence Community resilience, belonging, or pluralismResearch, policy, or field-building in related areasDemonstrated experience in a role that required sophisticated strategic and tactical planning and execution across an organization or a field.Demonstrated experience developing and stewarding external relationships and leveraging those relationships to work in concert toward shared goals.Demonstrated experience gathering, analyzing, synthesizing, and effectively communicating key insights in writing and in person from multiple sources to inform short- and long-term strategy.Demonstrated ability to build meaningful and authentic relationships through deep listening, intellectual humility, genuine curiosity, and an openness and willingness to change your mind. Preferred Qualifications Grantmaking experience, including evaluating, recommending, and stewarding partnerships; or fundraising experience, including identifying, qualifying, cultivating, securing, and stewarding funding opportunities.Experience facilitating and/or participating in collaborative or collective impact efforts.Familiarity with advocacy, policy, and systems change best practices.Experience working across ideological, political, or cultural differences in service of shared goals.Fundraising and/or governance experience, sitting on the side of a philanthropic fund-seeking organization (personal experience here welcomed). Einhorn Collaborative Values We’re driven by our mission: We’re a small and dedicated team who believe that addressing America’s crisis of connection is not only critically urgent, but possible. We believe the prevailing narratives of distrust and division are not only flawed, but reversible if we are willing to sit down, listen, learn, and share different perspectives.We put relationships first: We put human connection at the center of everything we do. We treat others with open-hearted curiosity, compassion, and dignity. We are relational, not transactional, because trust is at the heart of true partnership and collaboration.We believe we are better together: We actively seek opportunities to work among diverse groups of people to complement individual skillsets, knowledge, and expertise — both lived and academic. Working together, we find common ground and generate better ideas that can achieve more lasting outcomes.We practice what we preach: We bring a spirit of mutuality to our relationships with funding peers and nonprofit partners. We provide perspective, a vast network, and resources, while our grantee partners determine key actions, metrics, and the support they need to achieve outcomes we both care deeply about.We focus on a few key levers: We prioritize a few key levers that address critical aspects of tod