Career Center

The Program Officer assists in developing, managing, and evaluating a portfolio of grants and initiatives. The focus of the Program Officer’s work is to seek out investment opportunities that align with Episcopal Health Foundation’s (EHF) goals, outcomes, and strategies. 
While EHF’s Program Officers manage a portfolio of diverse grantees working across all EHF’s goals, outcomes, and strategies, each Program Officer serves as the primary lead on particular areas of work. This position will take the lead in our work under Goal 3: Build the Foundation for a Healthy Life by Investing in Early Childhood Brain Development. The ideal Program Officer should be knowledgeable of and have direct experience working within the health system and within systems that impact early childhood brain development including those providing supports for families in the perinatal period (during pregnancy and post-partum) and advancing relational health including nurturing dyadic interaction between caregiver and child. This position does not focus on work within the childcare, early education, or child welfare sectors but pertains to those programs and policies that build knowledge of and create opportunities to implement strategies for optimal, equitable brain development in the early years of life. 
The Program Officer will generate insights and develop actionable recommendations that inform our investment decisions and movement toward our goals. In addition, they will guide organizations through the entire grant application process, from concept development through presentation of proposals and evaluation results. The Program Officer is expected to develop and maintain a variety of relationships in the community, and a knowledge base of current trends, activities and changes within the community at-large in support of our goals, outcomes, and strategies. 
This job is based in Houston, Texas and offers a hybrid work environment in which all staff work in the office Monday through Thursday and have the option to work from home on Fridays, if schedules permit. 

Primary Responsibilities of all EHF Program Officers: 
•    Carry an assigned portfolio of priority grants
•    Seek out and/or develop investment opportunities for grantmaking
•    Respond to inquiries from organizations regarding the Foundation’s grantmaking guidelines
•    Consult with organizations regarding specific grant proposals to ensure that the proposal meets Foundation guidelines and/or initiative requirements, and is a well-formulated request
•    Assist grant seekers and grant recipient organizations, as appropriate, to direct them to other resources for organizational development, funding, program ideas, etc. 
•    Provide management support to EHF’s new projects/initiatives
Proposal Review
•    Use data and research to inform grant decisions; generate proposal ideas
•    Review all assigned letters of inquiry and full proposals to ensure that required information has been provided. Where needed and appropriate, conduct additional research into the relevant field of interest and/or nonprofit organization
•    As appropriate, conduct site visits and due diligence for each assigned proposal
•    Prepare proposal analysis including written summaries and recommendations for review and action by the Board’s Program Committee 
Monitoring and Evaluation
•    Maintain data and provide information as needed to support the Research and Evaluation Division’s development of reports to aggregate evaluation results and communicate the Foundation’s impact in the community
•    Ensure that grant files are complete, accurate and current; maintain statistical information regarding grantmaking activity
•    Monitor implementation of each grant by requesting and reviewing written evaluations and by conducting site visits to a representative number of grant recipients
Community Leadership
•    Develop and maintain contact with a broad cross section of organizations in the community aligned with EHF’s mission and goals
•    Support leadership initiatives developed/coordinated by the Research and Evaluation Division and the President’s Office
•    Keep abreast of emerging issues both locally and nationally
•    Other duties as assigned by the Vice President for Grants

Qualifications and Skills:
•    Bachelor’s degree required; master’s degree strongly preferred
•    Preference for demonstrated experience within the early childhood sector with emphasis on approaches that work within the healthcare system, the community context, and in service of income constrained populations
•    A minimum of five years of post-college experience, some portion in the nonprofit or governmental sector required, ideally within the health/healthcare sector. Grantmaking experience strongly preferred; desire to work in and with nonprofit health sector is essential
•    Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills; proven ability to be flexible in a team-oriented approach with diverse groups of people
•    Strong written and oral communication skills
•    Strong analytic and problem-solving skills
•    Excellent planning, organizational, multi-tasking, and time management skills
•    Computer literate and experience working with databases strongly preferred

All employees are expected to meet EHF’s requirements regarding foundation citizenship. These include taking responsibility for actions and outcomes, being a good stewardship of resources, being transparent, being a team player, producing high quality work and maintaining a high level of productivity. All employees are expected to have sound knowledge of Microsoft Office suite and are expected to comply with EHF policies, procedures, and values.