Vice President of Programs

 ABOUT THE FOUNDATION

The Foundation for Child Development (FCD) is a national philanthropic organization with a century-long commitment to the well-being of children. In 2025, FCD's Board of Directors approved a bold new strategic framework grounded in social justice that positions the Foundation as a connector and bridge-builder across research, policy, and social movements. FCD operates with intention and agility, funding coalitions, advocates, researchers, and community-rooted organizations working to advance social justice for young children marginalized by racism, xenophobia, and economic inequality. With approximately $130 million in assets, FCD uses grantmaking, thought leadership, organizing, convening, and strategic communications to support ambitious change.

In this urgent moment of attacks on children of immigrants and children of color, the Foundation is leveraging its 125-year history of championing the children most marginalized in society to meet the moment and engage other funders to do the same. This includes a Board decision to double FCD’s grantmaking budget to $7 million per year for the next three years, as well as ongoing leadership in the “1 in 4 Funder Coalition” on behalf of children of immigrants and the creation of a new initiative to organize research-movement partnerships. 

The new strategic framework reimagines FCD’s role as a social justice funder for young children and identifies three clear priorities:

• Bridging research with social movements to ensure researchers’ work is more often and more powerfully driven by communities’ self-determined priorities for child policy;
• Bridging organizing with state and federal policy toward child policy agendas that are more often and more powerfully driven by communities’ self-determined priorities; and
• Organizing philanthropy to support social justice for young children.

FCD’s vision of child policy goes beyond traditional areas like childcare, education, and infant and maternal health to include policies with deep impacts on children, such as immigration, public benefits, tax and budget, and healthcare.

THE OPPORTUNITY

At a time of urgency for the nation’s children and the organizations that advocate for them and their families, FCD’s new Vice President of Programs (VPP) will partner with the President to deepen an ambitious, emergent strategy at a small organization with national reach. While grantmaking is an important tool by which FCD advances its mission, FCD achieves outsized impact relative to its budget by leveraging other critical tools, including thought leadership, relationship- and field-building, convening, and communications.

This is a pivotal leadership role with broad internal and external authority and influence. The ideal candidate will be a senior leader deeply respected in a relevant field who will bring a complementary set of experiences, skills, and perspectives to the President. The President and the VPP will work together to divide up their roles in a way that fits their complementary expertise, with the VPP serving as a strategic partner and having their own areas of responsibility for grantmaking and external leadership. Among the key roles are: a strategic partner to the President; a valued participant and thought partner in external coalitions; a highly effective implementer who can translate a dynamic vision into disciplined, accountable execution that benefits young children and their families; and an external spokesperson in their areas of expertise. The VPP will be a strategic and trusted collaborator, a keen analyst of new ideas and opportunities, and a leader who can build systems, relationships, and workplans that move ideas to reality.

As the grantmaking lead for a small Foundation, the VPP will be hands-on in the grantmaking process, serving as a steward for grantees, shepherding them from concept to application to post-award support in addition to managing the work of a Program Officer and Program Consultants and guiding the broader Program Team (which includes the President). The VPP will be seen as a trusted thought partner by grantees and the Foundation’s partners, approaching our shared work with humility and a strong sense of ethics. An established leader in their own right, the VPP will bring rich, relevant networks and relationships that expand FCD’s work as a convener and voice in the field, and be active in values- and mission-aligned spaces that build bridges to social movements, organize funders, and contribute to FCD’s field-building priorities.

The Foundation is based in New York City, with a staff of seven currently working in New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, most of whom work in the Foundation's Upper Manhattan office two days per week. While the Foundation is open to the VPP role being fully remote, the successful candidate will be expected to make frequent trips to New York during their first year for onboarding and relationship building. 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Partnership with the President

• Serve as the President's primary thought partner and lead on strategy, grantmaking direction, and field positioning, bringing intellectual rigor, independent perspective, and capacity to effectively vet and pressure-test new ideas and move them to action and implementation.
• Hold and evolve FCD's strategic framework: leading program team deliberations, tracking accountability to strategy, identifying when new ideas fit or conflict with established priorities, and facilitating grounded dialogue about tradeoffs.
• Participate actively in leadership team meetings and board presentations on grantmaking and other program activities.

 Grantmaking Leadership and Portfolio Management

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for FCD grantmaking.
• Cultivate a defined portfolio of FCD’s grantmaking based on areas of expertise, leading decision-making up to final approval by the President.
• Design and steward grant programs, application and review processes, post-award grantee support, compliance, and board reporting.
• Partner with the COO in building and maintaining efficient grantmaking systems that allow FCD to move resources quickly and responsively, including grant workflows and advance/emergency payment mechanisms suited to crisis conditions.
• Lead the Foundation’s learning from the field on an ongoing basis, including engaging deeply and respectfully with grantees, prospective grantees, and field partners by supporting their success, strengthening their connections, and championing their work.

Coalition and Movement Partnership

• Represent the Foundation in a variety of coalition and movement settings, providing thought leadership, strategic counsel, and brokering relationships.
• Draw on a network of relationships and credibility in the field to strengthen the Foundation’s grantmaking and its broader strategies.
• Assess the broader field with candor, including how nonprofits and community organizations are experiencing philanthropy right now, and bring that perspective into FCD's strategy.

Internal Operations and Culture

• Build and maintain internal systems that translate vision into execution: workplans, learning agendas, decision-making frameworks, and processes for evaluating new ideas for funding.
• Foster a collaborative, high-trust team culture in which a small team can work nimbly while remaining accountable and intentional.
• Provide hands-on coaching, mentorship, and supervision to program colleagues.
• Collaborate with the COO and President on financial health, budgeting, and organizational culture and management.

External Representation

• Represent FCD externally in ways consistent with its values as a bridge-builder and movement-aligned funder at convenings, with peer funders, and in collaborative and pooled-fund spaces.
• Lead field-building work and funder organizing aligned with FCD's strategic priorities.

KEY QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, and EXPERIENCES

Movement and Advocacy Depth

The ideal candidate brings deep, authentic relationships and credibility in one or more movement spaces related to children, social justice, and related topics, whether in advocacy, organizing, policy, or base-building spaces, and has worked within or in close partnership with these actors. Familiarity with immigrant justice, racial justice, child and family advocacy, the care movement, education justice, or adjacent movements is especially valued.

A genuine understanding of how policy, organizing, and lived experience intersect is essential. The ideal candidate will demonstrate considerable experience operating effectively—including facilitating learning and sharing across boundaries—in one or more of the intersectional spaces where FCD adds unique value, which include bridging research with movements, linking organizing with state and federal advocacy, and connecting child & family funders with those focused on social justice. Experience working in and/or with advocacy coalitions is highly desired, and the ideal candidate will understand the underlying politics of coalition work, including the role that foundations can play to support social change in service of children. An existing understanding of and experience advancing advocacy and movement work while navigating restrictions on lobbying for 501(c)(3)s and private foundations is highly desired.

Strategic Thinking with a Systems Orientation

Demonstrated skill to hold the big picture and build practical scaffolding toward action underneath it. Comfort designing workplans, learning agendas, and decision-making processes that introduce structure without bureaucracy.

Relational Intelligence and Field Credibility

Strong candidates will have the relational skills to build trust across diverse stakeholders, including grantees, peer funders, movement leaders, researchers, and policymakers, and the political acuity to navigate complex coalition dynamics. They understand power, know their role as a funder, and bring genuine humility to that work.

Research Literacy

Broad fluency in research approaches, including qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as academic and policy-oriented work, is important. The VP does not need to be a researcher themselves, but must be able to engage credibly with research, understand its role in movement strategy, and help FCD fulfill its bridging function between research, policy, and community.

Grantmaking Strategy and Competence

The ideal candidate will have experience developing and adapting grantmaking strategies. They will understand how to deploy limited grantmaking dollars to meet strategic goals. They will know how to design grantmaking to support field learning and capacity-building, foster or deepen collaboration, and fill crucial gaps. They will have critical analytical skills to assess the likely affordances, limitations, and impact of prospective grantees’ work and to build a portfolio of grantees. They will be a clear communicator, able to build trusting relationships with grantees and partners, deliver clear and constructive feedback both orally and in writing, and cultivate funder-grantee relationships that skillfully navigate power differentials. Experience with collaboratives, pooled funds, or multi-funder initiatives is a plus.

The ideal candidate will know how to manage the grantmaking process. While direct experience managing or overseeing grantmaking is highly desired, it is not required. The successful candidate may demonstrate these competencies in other ways, such as through their existing relationships with philanthropy as a grantee or Board member, or previous non-profit leadership. In particular, if the candidate does not have prior grantmaking experience, the VP must demonstrate the ability to quickly learn the grantmaking process, including grant design, review processes, compliance, and efficient payment systems, particularly in fast-moving or crisis conditions. They will be familiar with nonprofit management, able to assess the financial and organizational health of prospective grantees and fiscal sponsors.

Equity-Centered Leadership

A demonstrated commitment to racial, immigrant, and economic justice, not as a theoretical frame but as a lived orientation that shows up in how this person works, builds teams, manages relationships, and makes decisions. Candidates with lived experience connected to the communities and issues FCD funds are strongly encouraged to apply.

COMPENSATION & BENEFITS

The Foundation is committed to providing compensation that is competitive within the philanthropic sector. FCD offers a generous total compensation package that emphasizes both base salary and comprehensive benefits. Benefits include a 15% retirement contribution after one year, health and dental insurance, and paid time off.

The salary range for this role is $220,000-$240,000.

TO APPLY

To learn more about Foundation for Child Development, please visit: www.fcd-us.org.

This search is led by Allison Kupfer Poteet and Alejandra Villa of NPAG. Candidates may submit an application via NPAG’s website, including a resume and cover letter that speaks to what draws you to FCD and the opportunity to guide the strategic framework and lead the grants function.

Foundation for Child Development is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a staff that reflects the full diversity of the communities it serves. Candidates from communities with lived experience of the issues FCD funds are strongly encouraged to apply.