Program Director, Operations, Energy Action Fund
ABOUT ENERGY ACTION FUND
Energy Action Fund (EAF) is the funding and strategy hub for America’s state and local climate politics. Working alongside the U.S. Energy Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, EAF provides 501(c)(4) lobbying and accountability resources to deliver significant legislative victories, cultivate bipartisan policy leadership, and support successful political strategies to win a healthy, equitable, reliable, affordable, and clean energy future. Our funding also supports diverse coalitions, the design and execution of political strategies, and supports both paid and earned communications. Having tripled our budget in the past two years, we are currently a $30+ million organization, and growing quickly.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Program Director, Operations, manages EAF’s daily operations, annual planning, long-term planning, and the organizational budget. This includes the responsibility of aligning our work with our sister organization (EF), synthesizing and reviewing program strategy, managing operations-related consultants, reviewing and approving a limited set of EAF grant proposals, ensuring the accuracy and integrity of the EAF budget, serving as board liaison, and providing as a reliable point of contact for staff, donors, and EAF Board members. The Program Director, Operations, reports directly to the EAF Executive Director and supervises the Program Coordinator, Operations.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
The Program Director, Operations’, responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Budget Management. The Program Director, Operations, will manage the organizational budget, including allocations across EAF’s programs, tracking incoming revenue, and ensuring the organization’s overall fiscal health. This includes the ability to communicate the organization’s budget and fiscal health to staff and the EAF Board of Directors, as well as a transition to budget management in Salesforce.
- Strategy Development. The Program Director, Operations, tracks, synthesizes, and memorializes program strategy developed in partnership with regional teams and EAF consultants. The Program Director collaborates with the Executive Director and the Program Director, Campaigns, on strategic programmatic direction and implementation of program strategies, but leads on the processes that lead to those decisions. In short, the Program Director translates programmatic concepts into tangible systems and outcomes. The Program Director, Operations, tracks progress against our institutional and programmatic strategies via our Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) which are reported to the board each meeting.
- Fundraising and Reporting. The Program Director, Operations, is responsible for ensuring the completion of grant reports and grant deliverables, and the collection of content and inputs from EAF consultants and regional teams. This includes the development and content management of reporting tools, the management of EAF’s Donor Dashboard, and frequently fielding and responding to funder inquiries directly. The Program Director, Operations, will manage the organizational calendar to communicate and maintain clear deadlines with the Strategic Partnerships (SP) team, EAF’s SP embedded staff, and all other relevant colleagues to meet and communicate our deliverables.
- State Strategic Planning. The Program Director, Operations, manages EAF’s strategic planning and campaign design processes. This includes overseeing consulting resources and staff time to develop clear systems to track strategic priorities, campaign progress, and new opportunities that emerge throughout the year. This includes close coordination with the EF planning processes.
- Cross-team Collaboration. The Program Director, Operations, supports the Executive Director in managing the daily activities of the EAF staff and consulting team. This includes integration of EAF and EF processes, systems, and strategies to streamline this workload and champion best practices. The Program Director, Operations, develops and manages a centralized approach to meetings, strategy, and budget development that supports this integration. The Program Director, Operations, is the lead point of contact for EAF with all operations departments—Finance, Grants, IT, Human Resources—as well as with SP.
- Special Projects. EAF is a dynamic and evolving organization. The Program Director, Operations, will be the default lead for special projects, though support from consultants and colleagues is regularly available; this role will lead in effectively delegating these opportunities, as appropriate. This also includes management of the EAF Dashboard.
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). The Program Director, Operations, partners with the Executive Director and EF’s Programs and Equity team to advance EAF’s DEI work through program strategy, particularly in managing the integration of DEI into the campaign planning process, developing tracking and reporting of DEI metrics, and supporting our partners and grantees in navigating this work. This responsibility also includes tracking EAF’s progress toward our equity goals in our organizational OKRs.
- Legal: The Program Director, Operations, serves as EAF’s lead on legal questions, engaging external legal counsel, and organizing appropriate legal trainings for EAF staff. The person in this role is not required to be an attorney, but will bring confidence and experience in navigating 501(c)(4) rules.
- Board: Serve as Board Liaison to the EAF Board of Directors, working closely with the Executive Director to manage communications, updates, and required approvals. The Program Director, Operations, leads on docket preparation for board meetings.
- Meeting Planning. The Program Director, Operations, will plan regular in-person and remote meetings for the EAF Program team, EAF staff, and funder and/or grantee coordination meetings, as needed.
- Grants Management. The Program Director, Operations, reviews and approves EAF grants to ensure alignment with strategy and 501(c)(4) permissibility, and to maintain a high-level perspective of campaign trends, opportunities, and gaps. Given the urgency of many 501(c)(4) grants, prompt attention to the approval process is required.
QUALIFICATIONS
- A proven track record of successful program management, strategic planning, and budget management in the nonprofit advocacy space.
- Experience facilitating collaborative processes that involve various stakeholders and deadlines to a successful completion.
- Experience participating in DEI initiatives. A demonstrated commitment to contributing meaningfully to a workplace where equity and inclusion are core values in our internal and external EAF work.
- Experience with grantmaking and grants management, two essential elements of our role as a regrantor.
- Solutions-oriented, collaborative problem-solver who is committed to working in a diverse, dynamic, and complex environment with a combination of local, regional, and national staff and partners.
- Curious and inquisitive, with excellent relationship-building and convening skills bringing together people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
- Excellent communication skills; ability to present complex information in meaningful ways to a variety of audiences, including internal staff, funders, other stakeholders, and grantees.
- Familiarity with and interest in the political nature of 501(c)(4) activities and EAF’s mission to increase the political power of the climate community.
- Independent, self-starter who is able to lead significant parts of the work without supervision.
SUPERVISION
Reports to Executive Director, EAF; directly supervises one employee.
COMPENSATION
This is a full-time position. The target salary for this position is $218,500 for a candidate based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and $195,000 for candidates in other areas of the U.S. EF provides a comprehensive benefits package, including competitive salary, medical, dental, vision, disability, and retirement benefits and paid time off.
OTHER REQUIREMENTS
Ability to travel one to two times a year for three to four business days at a time.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to spend extended hours at the computer. This position requires moderate levels of domestic travel.
WORK ENVIRONMENT
EAF is a remote-first work environment. This position may be based in any of EAF’s offices or may work remotely from anywhere in the U.S.
The office environments include some shared workspace, some individual offices, and shared kitchen facilities, with moderate noise levels and a collegial atmosphere. On occasion, there are activities or events after work hours.
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