The posting
About Prevail and Philanthropy Team Goals
Prevail is a new foundation dedicated to pursuing bold goals. We set a social change goal and approach; coordinate a group of philanthropists who have a similar vision; and then make grants with high levels of in-field support. Rather than choosing a general issue area (e.g. education), each pooled fund chooses a simple, targeted goal. For example, our first fund aims to improve foundational education for over 27.5 million Grade 1-3 children, across 11 national governments in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Prevail provides patient capital to implementing organizations – primarily in the form of grants that grow over time as our partner organizations scale. In addition to funding, Prevail also offers on-the-ground support that helps orgs to scale, such as strategic planning, systems, recruitment, and talent development services.
Our roots are in the field. Our Co-Founding Board members have a track record of scaling social enterprises that together employ more than 15,000 staff and manage annual budgets exceeding $500M.
In our first 3 years, we have:
- Raised and disbursed $55M in funding to date, to support 27 partners across Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, growing very quickly (we will deploy another $60M in the next 12 months).
- Helped partners to strengthen foundational learning outcomes for over 4 million children.
- Hired 35 mission-driven team members.
- Executed dozens of in-field projects to help support key functions for our implementing partners.
- Are on the verge of launching two new Funds, one in public health and one in livelihoods.
The role
Prevail raises capital in partnership with a small number of visionary philanthropists. For example, our first education fund is supported by only six givers at any given time, and this project is on track to raise and deploy $1.2B over 13 years. Andrew leads donor relationships and the Philanthropy team directly, while also playing a programmatic role in Prevail’s field execution.
The philanthropy team currently has six members, and will continue to grow - by 2030, we hope to be able to support ~3 new Prevail project launches per year, plus provide support to other people’s social change projects. To do that, we will hire several types of roles:
- Additional Philanthropy Advisors like Andrew, to act as thought partners with philanthropists, helping them think through potential opportunities in Big Goal social change.
- Grow our group of writers/ reporters, who will assist with research, concept notes, proposals, reports - and will also help to expand the mission of Big Goal philanthropy more broadly.
- Communications professional(s) for more public-facing thought pieces and photo/ video assets.
The Head of Philanthropy Team will serve as thought partner to colleagues, career mentor to direct reports, and play a direct advisory role on high-priority projects. They will act as a team “force multiplier.”
As Prevail raises new funds and Andrew’s work scales, we expect that the scope of the role will expand over time. The initial scope will broadly look like this:
- *Team coordination. Coordinate all team activities, to keep lines of communication clear and efficient throughout the team. Note that some senior Philanthropy Advisors on the team may be more senior than the team captain. A good team leader will know when to lead from the front of the room, or from behind-the-scenes.
- *“Leadership with a capital L.” Motivate the team. Multiply energy and human connection among colleagues, with a constant focus on our mission. Own the team’s performance: be responsible for owning a culture of feedback, and own the individual goal-setting and performance review process.
- *Career steward. Help team members to build skills. Create a supportive feedback culture, valuing empathy, candor, and continual growth.
- *Direct reports. You will eventually have at least 4-5 direct reports, plus likely skip-reports.
- *Strategy and planning. Own the strategy-setting process (in close collaboration with Andrew), translate into goals and OKRs, and communicate frequently within the team.
- Team design and resourcing. Structure the team for scale: own budget, headcount, roles and profiles we need to hit our strategic goals.
- New hiring. Spend considerable time doing informational interviews, drafting interview exercises, managing hiring processes with our recruitment team with Andrew, and finding new candidates.
- Advise/ work on high-priority projects. Serve as a thought partner on high-priority projects - or sometimes, if a project falls “between the cracks,” stepping in to do the work.
- Communication hub. Be the “go to” resource for any team member, and from Philanthropy team outwards to the rest of Prevail (and externally).
About you
You are deeply organized, communicate to the listener’s perspective, and love multiplying the efforts of the people around you. You don’t have to be a “front of the room” leader - leadership can take many forms, and we equally value authentic, person-to-person communication. You must be passionate about team management.
- Work experience. 10+ years of relevant experience, with multiple years in a management and/ or leadership role (defined broadly). You are interested in big-bet philanthropy and/or global development.
- Senior judgment and follow-through. You deeply listen to and internalize the priorities of other stakeholders, and combine sharp judgment with consistently high quality delivery to speak to their priorities.
- Organized, systematic, and logical. You are extremely organized and can hold multiple high-stakes streams of work.
- Great communicator. You love writing and speaking to the listener’s perspective. You are structured and succinct. You know the importance of over-communicating and passionately enjoy making sure that all information is shared with all team members.
- Care. You genuinely care about the people you work with, and want to help everyone to achieve their best self at work.
- Passionate. You are passionate about our social mission, and aren’t afraid to share that with others.
- Humility. You bring humor, patience, and a humble approach to service. You are ready to grow by acting on frequent feedback from your colleagues.
What we offer
- Fully remote position, Flexible location with ideal being between US east coast to GMT +1.
- Full time, permanent contract.
- Growth opportunities. We deeply care about investing in our team’s professional development. You’ll receive strong manager support, targeted feedback, performance support, clear pay progression, upwards or lateral mobility.
- Competitive salary based on experience, skills and location. We share salary bands with candidates during the initial conversation; final offers are based on interview performance.
- Meaningful benefits. Health insurance and wellness benefits, home workspace or co-working stipend, plus a generous learning and development budget.
- Flexible leave policy. Including 25 days PTO, plus public holidays.
Location: This position is fully remote, with an ideal location of US Eastern Time. Periodic travel expected for donor meetings, board meetings, and partner site visits.
Start date: As soon as possible – applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.
Hiring process: Our hiring process is thorough - we believe it’s in everyone’s mutual interest to get to know each other properly, before hiring. Successful candidates will pass through these phases over 1-2 months:
- Informational call (30 mins)
- 1st Written exercise (~4-5hrs)
- Interview with Andrew (1hr)
- 2nd Written exercise (~7hrs)
- Panel interview (1.5hrs) + in-person meeting with Andrew
- 1:1 conversations with others in the team
Through the process, we’ll share feedback on the assessments, and invite candidates to incorporate it. This mirrors how we work day to day: collaboratively, with openness to feedback and iteration.
Ready to join us? If you’re excited to help us scale, apply using the link below. We review every application and aim to invite successful candidates for an informational call within 3 weeks.
For more information, feel free to check out the job FAQ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zKyZDCr7ibrcYLd_pu4oRuM67X3mnXi1MeKZZ6rSUU8/edit?tab=t.0. We encourage you to read this in advance of the initial conversation! You can find a bit more information about Prevail Fund and what to expect from our recruitment process here https://www.canva.com/design/DAGetQfrr9U/JDu6A0CR7Y_-xZ9CvYAnww/view?utm_content=DAGetQfrr9U&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h57b65ef349#1.
*Note: If you currently work for one of Prevail’s partner organizations, we’d love to consider you for this role as long as you speak with them first, to note your intention to explore new opportunities. Thank you!
