The American Journalism Project (AJP) is seeking a Vice President, Growth Investments to join our Growth Investments team to steward our relationships with the nonprofit news organizations in which AJP is investing growth capital while building their capacity and ability to grow their revenue and impact. This is a newly created role as our portfolio and team are expanding!

You will steward AJP’s return on our investments, leading one-to-one venture support with our grantees, and contributing to AJP’s efforts to partner with our grantees to build a movement for local news in their markets.

This is a unique opportunity to join a growing, national movement to rebuild local news in communities across the country in a way that allows these organizations to better serve the public, while being sustainable and independent.

Who we are

We’re a small but entrepreneurial team working to re-shape the future of local news in our country. We’re passionate about journalism, civic engagement, and how local news plays a unique role in shaping our democracy. We help build and grow sustainable local news organizations all over the country — through financial investment, venture support, and movement building — that are governed by, sustained by, and look like the public they serve. Learn about our portfolio.

AJP has raised over $240 million for the cause so far, and aims to catalyze enough investment in nonprofit local news to create thriving, equitable, public service-oriented newsrooms that increase civic engagement and make communities work better for their residents.

Compensation & benefits

Our total compensation package is competitive in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, and we are committed to supporting our team with what they need to show up every day ready to bolster the local press our democracy deserves.

We benchmark our salaries against similar organizations, and use a scale that considers job complexity and magnitude of responsibility to determine role levels and corresponding base salaries, as well as regular cost-of-living adjustments. The salary range for this position is $174,384 – $191,823. Read about our benefits here.

The position

The VP, Growth Investments is a critical role at AJP that leads our work in ensuring their portfolio of organizations are on track to meet ambitious growth targets and deliver more impact for their communities. This role is a coach, an orchestrator, a steward, and a movement builder. You will be charged with working with a selection of grantees; providing excellent coaching, support, and leadership development to executive leaders in your portfolio of grantees; and ensuring we are building community, insights and resources from across our grantee portfolio to inform the broader field. You will also work directly with grantees on building the philanthropic movement for local news in their markets and will be accountable for ensuring that grantees meet their revenue goals while achieving their vision for impact.

This role sits at the intersection of philanthropy, entrepreneurship, and journalism. You’ll collaborate with leaders who are transforming how local communities stay informed and connected, ensuring AJP’s investments yield strong, lasting outcomes. Your work will directly influence the future of local news — helping communities in America access trusted, independent journalism.

Specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

1. Leading regular, ongoing and strategic conversations with executives at our portfolio organizations about maximizing their organizational assets and overcoming challenges to growth, including staffing, organizational structure and culture, fundraising, earned revenue, audience, board leadership, and local movement building.
2. Serving as the primary co-conspirator for growth plans by collaborating on strategic plans to grow revenue by millions of dollars for news organizations in your portfolio.
3. Designing strong support plans that leverage the AJP staff of specialists and experts (including yourself), consultants, peer organizations, and others to provide best in class support for grantees in one to one or group settings, virtually or in person.
4. Collaborating with other members of the Growth Investments team to build community across content areas and design learning and venture resource experiences alongside our Portfolio Learning and Specialized Support teams to advance grantees’ knowledge and skills.
5. Actively networking in the local journalism ecosystem, building external relationships and a pipeline of current and future grantees, and pursuing strategic opportunities for new growth investments.
6. Stewarding the leadership of new grantee organizations into our portfolio in a way that meets all technical requirements, builds a trusting relationship, and sets clear expectations for both the grantee and AJP.
7. Collecting and amplifying examples, stories and learning from your grantee portfolio that will benefit the larger grantee portfolio.
8. Developing resources either by yourself or collaboratively with other experts.

Who you are

We know not all strong candidates will have all the skills we list. That’s OK. Research shows that women and people of color are less likely to apply for a position if they don’t meet every skill listed. At AJP, we are committed to creating a better, more diverse, and more inclusive news ecosystem, and that starts with doing the work ourselves. So if your past experience doesn’t align perfectly, but you know this is the role for you – please tell us!

1. Proven ability to coach and develop senior leaders, supporting them to grow revenue, lead change, and strengthen their teams.
2. Experience diagnosing opportunities and challenges to organizational growth and creating actionable plans to maximize potential.
3. Demonstrated success increasing revenue in one or more of the following: sales, marketing, partnerships, and/or fundraising — and the ability to help others do the same.
4. Experience building and maintaining external relationships that result in sustained revenue growth.
5. Experience working in or with nonprofit news organizations, with a track record of finding and delivering sustained financial resources for those organizations.
6. An understanding and fluency in fundraising and donor relationships from both sides of the donor/recipient relationship is strongly preferable.
7. A depth of understanding of growth planning, execution, organizational development, and/or continuous improvement techniques.
8. Leadership experience in the context of either a news organization or a nonprofit organization is required; experience as an Executive Director, Chief Revenue Officer, or senior leader is strongly preferred.
9. The ability to influence and build trust at all levels of an organization.
10. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to synthesize large amounts of information and clearly communicate key insights, with a strong grasp of business concepts and numbers; must be a persuasive communicator.
11. An understanding of the value of trust-building and community representation in workplaces, newsrooms, and coverage; willingness to learn and coach others through operationalizing fair and people-centered practices.
12. Meticulous attention to detail and accuracy in documentation.

This role might be a fit if you are…

1. Energized by coaching and advising senior leaders, drawing on your own leadership experience to accelerate their growth and confidence.
2. Excited to apply your hands-on experience growing revenue to help news organizations reach ambitious, sustainable scale.
3. A strategic thinker and innovative problem-solver who enjoys finding solutions even when there’s no clear playbook.
4. Intellectually curious and adaptive, with a proven ability to driv...