Job  Board

The Organization:  Mortenson Family Foundation builds partnerships to strengthen community-driven approaches that advance equity, opportunity, and sustainable systems. Over the last two decades, the Foundation has consistently grown in charitable assets and now provides over $6 million in grants annually. The greatest areas of interest for the family's giving include:

• Increasing the standard of living for youth and families living in poverty in developing countries.
• Enabling all Minnesotans to have equitable and sustainable access to healthy land and water; and
• Assisting children and families living in poverty to attain equitable access to academic, social development, and mental health/wellness opportunities and systems that are inclusive and center their human dignity and humanity thereby providing the potential for an educated, informed, and liberated student, parent, and community in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Foundation believes that how the work gets done is as important as what work gets done. The Foundation expresses its values of community, service, family, integrity, responsibility, and humility by:

• Growing strong relationships
• Striving for lasting change
• Understanding root causes
• Challenging systemic injustice and inequality
• Learning and reflecting
• Creating and innovating

Strengthening how the work gets done while centering community, the Foundation made specific racial equity commitments in 2020, including increasing percentage of grants to organizations that are led by and for community, increasing percentage of grants that change systems, and centering community voice in grantmaking processes. All commitments can be found at https://www.mortensonfamily.org/advancing-equity/ The Foundation has a small, participatory, and mutually supportive team, a committed board that supports the staff and the work, dedicated committee members, and a culture of learning. To learn more about the Foundation, please visit www.mortensonfamily.org Position summary: The Community Relationship Officer is a full-time position that establishes and sustains relationships within the community and the Foundation to ensure that community, organizational partners, and Foundation goals of our Strengthening Developing Communities grant area are met. The goals, beliefs, and outcomes that the Foundation is currently seeking to meet can be found here: https://mortensonfamily.org/areas-of-interest/strengthening-developing-communities/ In the short term, the position will be responsible for:

• Continuing to develop and refine a community engagement process that will help the Grant Committee center community voice in its grantmaking guidelines.
• Facilitating a process to help the Grant Committee determine how best to bring community voice into grant decision making and eventually developing and facilitating processes for expanded/collective decision making.

Ongoing responsibilities of the position include:

• Establish and sustain relationships within the International field and broader community, potentially including travel to International communities once or twice per year.
• Managing grant making processes: written and verbal communications, sourcing, application development and implementation, prospective partner information sessions, decision-making tools, board presentations, monitoring and reporting on partnership outcomes.
• Facilitating work of Grant Committee to understand what support (grants, investments, knowledge, introductions, etc.) are most beneficial to reaching the goals of community, evaluate the opportunities for support, and recommend grants, investments, and other Foundation assets to be used to reach goals.
• Responding to grant inquiries and actively seeking potential partnership opportunities.
• Exploring opportunities and developing systems and approaches for identifying and supporting organizations that are led by communities they serve.
• Coordinating and facilitating networking, learning, and exchange among grant partners to increase their 1) internal capacity and 2) knowledge of one another.
• Developing networks and relationships with other foundations to learn about other grantmaking approaches in the regions Mortenson provides support, identify new opportunities for grantmaking, and identify other funding support for Mortenson’s existing grant partners.
• Sharing lessons Mortenson Family Foundation has learned (about participatory grantmaking, funding and supporting community-led work, etc.) with the philanthropic community through webinars, in-person presentations, written articles, etc.
• Handling administrative functions with detailed accuracy, including preparing and proofreading correspondence, board summaries, reports, and other documents; utilize database for record keeping.

Additionally, the position participates in organization-wide learning, cross-program partnership, and organizational projects. The position reports to and works collaboratively with the Executive Director and works closely with the Foundation team and Grants Committee. Desired Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Cultural competency and prior experience with diverse stakeholder groups
• At least five years of experience using facilitation skills with diverse stakeholder groups
• Demonstrated success working collaboratively and independently in flexible and adaptable work environments and within highly inclusive, collaborative, and participatory decision‐making processes
• Demonstrated track record building and sustaining positive relationships and/or collaboration with community organizations
• Deep understanding of complexity of increasing the standard of living for youth and families living in poverty in developing countries, including understanding of individual agency, systems and policies, and market forces
• Hands-on experience in relevant public, nonprofit or related private sector roles supporting and building thriving communities through sustainable solutions
• Passion for making positive, lasting change in community
• Knowledge of current trends and effective, emerging, innovative and proven practices in community building
• At least five years of experience leading or managing programs or projects related to International community building
• Strong and effective interpersonal and written communication skills
• Strong qualitative and quantitative analytical skills, including financial analysis skills
• Proficiency in Spanish and/or French preferred

Salary range for the full-time position is $90,000 - $105,000, based on experience. Mortenson Family Foundation offers a comprehensive benefits plan including medical, dental, vision insurance; retirement plan with 4% employer contribution; paid time off; sabbatical opportunity; and professional development opportunities. The Foundation is operating in a hybrid work model, honoring both work that can be done remotely and the requirement of in-person board, committee, network, and team meetings. We strive to create a knowledgeable, responsive, respectful, and caring team comprised of individuals who know our community through lived and learned experiences.  We are intentional about our recruiting activities and hiring plan that fulfill our mission of advancing equity. To Apply: Qualified and interested candidates should send cover letter and resume to foundationposition@gmail.com Candidates submitting information by February 17, 2023 will receive priority consideration.