BACKGROUND

The Organization

The Hewlett Foundation invests in creative thinkers and problem solvers with different perspectives, all working to build an inclusive society where everyone has a meaningful opportunity to thrive. A nonpartisan philanthropy, the Hewlett Foundation has made grants in the U.S. and globally for nearly six decades based on an approach that emphasizes long-term support, collaboration, and trust. Learn more at www.hewlett.org.

The Performing Arts Program

The Performing Arts program makes grants to support meaningful artistic experiences for communities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Hewlett is the largest arts funder in the region, distributing over $25 million annually and supporting the arts across ten Bay Area counties. The program strives to create a Bay Area where all communities honor and support both their own and each other’s artistic and cultural vibrancy. In pursuit of this vision, the program has three strategic priorities:

• To ensure Bay Area communities have opportunities to discover, develop, and experience meaningful artistic and cultural practices.
• To ensure Bay Area artists and culture-bearers shape and benefit from the services, policies, and practices that most impact their creative agency and economic well-being.
• To enable equitable access to high-quality arts education opportunities for Bay Area youth.

The Position

The Performing Arts Program fulfills its strategies by working with roughly 160 grantee organizations that support meaningful artistic experiences for a wide range of communities, artists, and youth throughout the Bay Area.

The Performing Arts Program Officer will be committed to the Hewlett Foundation's mission and art’s essential role in helping individuals and communities thrive. They will manage one third of the program’s overall grantmaking portfolio and serve as the lead for the Performing Arts Program’s Artists strategy. Specifically, the Program Officer will hold over half of the program’s grants that advance its Artists strategy, as well as a cross-section of grants that advance the program’s Communities and Youth strategies (each of which is led by other Performing Arts Program Officers).

The Program Officer reports to the Director of the Performing Arts Program and works collaboratively with the Performing Arts team as well as relevant foundation staff in fulfilling their role throughout the course of their eight-year term. They are responsible for maintaining collaborative relationships within the Foundation and the broader arts community. The Program Officer will actively engage with both the regional arts ecosystem and national trends to support program planning and strategy implementation. It is essential that the Program Officer expertly navigate building and maintaining relationships with artists from a broad range of artistic disciplines and performance styles.

ROLE OVERVIEW

Grantmaking and Knowledge-Building (50%)

• Manage a diverse portfolio of approximately 70 grantees; assess grantee progress; analyze fiscal health, policies, and plans; and review financial and programmatic reports.
• Actively learn from and provide feedback to artists, staff, and board leaders of organizations representing a wide range of backgrounds and identities, aesthetics, and organizational structures and approaches.
• Invite, review, and respond to inquiries and proposals. Offer professional advice and field expertise to applicants, researchers, and others in the field.
• Develop written analyses of grants and write memos examining issues affecting the arts and culture sector and the program’s strategies; draft requests for proposals (RFPs), budgets, and work plans for projects; author articles for external publication; and provide input to improve others’ work products.
• Manage evaluation of grants and participate in assessments of program strategies. Develop guidelines for measuring the success of grants and program strategies.
• Ensure that sound financial controls are in place for each grant and that funds are spent wisely in accordance with grant agreements.

Strategy and Leadership (25%)

• Collaborate with the program director and program team to refine the program’s strategic goals; plan and implement research projects, evaluations, grant initiatives, communications, convenings, grantmaking practices, and other field supports.
• Maintain effective relationships with current and prospective grantees and cultivate relationships with funders and partners in the field.
• Represent the foundation’s mission and goals.
• Adeptly manage projects that deepen understanding of the arts and culture field, the program’s work, and advance the foundation’s goals.
• Design and organize foundation-sponsored meetings with grantees and field experts.
• Solicit proposals, manage consultants, and ensure projects are fulfilled in accordance with contract agreements.

Foundation Support (25%)

• Actively participate in internal meetings, committees, and social events that strengthen the foundation’s culture; design and implement opportunities such as lectures or social events that connect the program’s activities with foundation peers.
• Contribute to advancing the foundation’s culture, values, and plans, including foundation wide and program-specific diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice efforts.
• Participate fully as a member of the Performing Arts Program, collaborating with other team members and supporting team-wide activities.
• Represent the foundation at appropriate external meetings, conferences, and site visits.

Term: The Program Officer, Performing Arts serves an eight-year term

Performing Arts Grant Portfolio: Currently, the Performing Arts program has over 190 active grant partnerships, totaling nearly $73 million.

Program Director: Robert van Leer, term ends in 2034

THE IDEAL CANDIDATE

Competencies

The ideal candidate for the Program Officer position possesses the following competencies:

• Communicates Effectively: Developing and delivering multimode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences.
• Collaborates: Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.
• Strategic Mindset: Seeing ahead to future possibilities and translating them into breakthrough strategies.
• Decision Quality: Making good and timely decisions that keep the organization moving forward.
• Values Differences: Recognizing the value that different perspectives and cultures bring to an organization.
• Interpersonal Savvy: Relating openly and comfortably with diverse groups of people.

Experience

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent work experience) and a minimum of seven years of related work experience in a mission-driven sector with a strong connection to artistic and cultural expression; a relevant master’s degree a plus.
• Personal artistic practice or background preferred.
• Experience with equity work.
• Previous experience in grantmaking preferred.
• Knowledge of the San Francisco Bay Area arts sector strongly preferred.

Skills

• Excellent interpersonal skills and the demonstrated intercultural competency are essential.
• Highly relationship-oriented; highly skilled at listening, managing power dynamics, giving and receiving feedback, and exercising transparency.
• Exceptional analytical skills and judgement, with excellent written and verbal communications skills.
• Alignment with the priorities and values of the Hewlett Foundation and a desire to both represent them and move them forward.

WHO WE ARE

Guiding Principles

Hewlett Foundation uses its resources in ways that remain true to the philanthropic ethos and values of its founders. This includes evolving the Foundation’s approaches to changing contexts while maintaining core principles that have guided its work for nearly 60 years. To help ensure its actions are consistent with its aspirations, the Hewlett Foundation has articulated a set of guiding principles.

The Foundation:

• Seeks to bring about meaningful and socially beneficial change in the fields in which Hewlett works.
• Pursues change by tackling defined problems in a pragmatic, nonpartisan manner.
• Focuses on outcomes to maximize the effectiveness of its support.
• Is committed to openness, transparency, and learning.
• Is committed to working, both internally and externally, in a collaborative fashion based on mutual respect. Grantees, peer funders, and other colleagues in their work are partners in problem-solving.
• Seeks to promote the values and practice of diversity, equity, and inclusion in their workforce, culture, and grantmaking.
• Approaches its role in philanthropy and its responsibilities to society with humility and respect for others.
• Is dependent on a lean staff, which is given considerable autonomy; a commitment to simple, flexible procedures; and a cooperative working relationship between the Board, staff, and President.

Location

Residency in the Bay Area is a requirement for the position. All Hewlett employees spend a minimum of 2-3 days/week (or 50%) in the office when not traveling. As the primary relationship manager with a portfolio of diverse foundation grantees, this position requires frequent local travel (20%), including attendance at performing arts events during evening and weekend hours. Occasional travel to national conferences is also required (5%).

Equal Opportunity Employer

This position description is based upon material provided by the Hewlett Foundation, an equal opportunity employer. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation embraces the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion both internally in our hiring process and organizational culture and externally in our grantmaking and related practices. We are an equal opportunity employer and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, cultures, and experiences.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

The Hewlett Foundation is committed to providing compensation that is competitive within the philanthropic sector. A generous total compensation package that emphasizes both base salary and comprehensive benefits is offered for this role. The salary range for this position is $205,000-$240,000, dependent on the individual’s skills, experience, abilities, and qualifications and our practice of maintaining salary equity within the Foundation.

TIMELINE AND HOW TO APPLY

If you are interested in this position, please apply here: DRG Talent - Program Officer, Performing Arts. All applicants will receive an email confirming receipt of their application.

We encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply even if you do not meet all of the qualifications outlined above. If you are selected to move forward for an initial screening call, we expect you to hear from us by the end of May.