The Stuart Foundation Chief of Staff

Functional Area: Business Operations

Organization: The Stuart Foundation

Location: San Francisco, CA

Metro Region: San Francisco

Overview:

The Stuart Foundation is dedicated to the protection, education and development of children and youth.  We work toward ensuring that all children grow up in caring families, learn in vibrant and effective schools, and have opportunities to become productive members of their communities. We focus our investments on projects, programs and organizations making an impact in the States of California and Washington.
We partner with selected organizations that:

• Develop and disseminate innovative programs and practices
• Contribute to effective public policy to improve conditions for children and youth
• Support and develop the potential of young people

In turn, the Stuart Foundation dedicates time, money, expertise and advocacy to each partnership.  Many of our partnerships are long-term, and some have spanned over a decade of successful collaboration.

The Foundation has an asset base of $450 million, a staff of 23, and makes charitable expenditures of approximately $23 million per year for the benefit of children and youth.  To find out more about the organization, visithttp://www.stuartfoundation.org.

Position:

The Stuart Foundation is seeking a dynamic and results oriented Chief of Staff to provide high level support to the President as the foundation goes about achieving its mission.  The Chief of Staff is responsible for facilitating executive decision-making, organizational planning and internal communication.  Serving as a trusted advisor and resource, the Chief of Staff will be an important link in the communication between the President and both internal staff and external constituents and will help direct attention and resources to priority matters to ensure effective leverage of the President. Reporting directly to the President, the Chief of Staff will work cross-functionally and serves as a key oversight resource, ensuring that critical projects are completed in a timely and efficient manner and the ultimate results are communicated out to the appropriate stakeholders.  The Chief of Staff also serves as the President’s representative to various committees and program meetings. This is a unique opportunity to work across all initiatives of the Stuart Foundation and to contribute to increasing the foundation’s impact in the field of education. 

Responsibilities:

Executive Decision-Making

• Provide information for and facilitate internal decision processes; conduct research as needed to support decision-making.
• Manage planning and prepare agendas for all staff meetings, including executive staff meetings, and draft documents and communications on issues being considered.
• Develop and maintain information management systems to ensure archiving and retrieval of information related to executive level meetings.

Organization Planning, Effectiveness and Communications

• Facilitate organizational planning, including annual executive staff and staff retreats and ongoing planning activities.  Manage communications and documentation for organizational planning.
• Manage processes for development and monitoring of program and department work plans and Foundation projects; facilitates communication among all staff on progress of tasks and projects. 
• Working closely with the President, provide leadership across the foundation for continually improving organizational effectiveness and building staff capacity.
• Coordinate with COO on the development of an overall annual meeting calendar of foundation-wide meetings and scheduling requirements, including program and department deadlines.
• Ensure timely flow of information and communication of management decisions across foundation. Advisory Councils and External Collaborations and Meetings
• Works with the President, advisors and staff to plan agendas, content and logistics for foundation advisory council meetings.
• Contribute to President’s outreach activities through external meetings, and collaboration with other foundations and partners.
• Draft correspondence, memos and other communications from the President for both internal and external audiences, working with Director of Communications on external documents.

Board Communications and Meetings

• Manage the preparation of the President’s documents and the executive session documents for board dockets; draft reports and memos for docket and other communications with board members, as needed. 
• Contributes to the development of agendas and content for board meetings, retreat and committee meetings; prepare agendas and materials as needed.
• Facilitate the flow of information from the President and executive staff to board members and ensures that board members are informed of the foundation’s activities in a timely way.

Human Resources/Internal Teamwork

• Develop, in conjunction with President and staff, an annual performance evaluation process; administers the process; provides training to staff in supervision and performance evaluation practices as needed
• Serve as a resource for organizational and professional development needs of staff and organization.
• Assists staff in resolving any workplace problems, including inter-personal conflicts, obtaining services of outside consulting if necessary.
• Work with President and senior staff to ensure staffing capacity is aligned with foundation goals and strategy.  Identifies staffing needs and recommends solutions to staff capacity needs.

Qualifications:

• 8+ years of senior level experience, preferably with a focus on organizational effectiveness.
• Excellent management skills including the ability to inspire, motivate, influence, and hold staff accountable to significant standards.
• Strong project management skills with a demonstrated ability to monitor and oversee multiple project plans simultaneously.
• Highly developed leadership skills with an ability to connect with and inspire people from diverse backgrounds; experience working directly with a board of directors a plus.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills and an ability to serve as a resource for colleagues and external partners alike.
• Excellent organizational skills and time management skills.
• Bachelor’s degree required; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• Commitment to the Stuart Foundation’s mission of protecting, educating and developing youth.

To Apply:

Please upload a resume and thoughtful cover letter, outlining how your skills and experience meet the qualifications of the position and stating how you heard about this opportunity, both in Word format, to David Barlow athttp://jobs.cgcareers.org/application.aspx?id=1970 . Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.  Please do not contact the foundation directly.

Compensation is competitive based on background and experience and includes excellent benefits. The Stuart Foundation is an equal opportunity employer.