Associate Director at CRI Foundation
CRI Foundation, Inc. (CRI) is a private family foundation with the mission of improving the lives of the world’s ultra poor. The foundation is based in Boston, Massachusetts, and is staffed with professionals across the United States and abroad. CRI Foundation’s mission is achieved through two discrete programs:
CRI Health: Our primary grant-making program. CRI Health provides grants to organizations and entities dedicated to improving health outcomes in Africa.
CRI Research: Academic research funded through The Weiss Fund, as well as investments in regional research infrastructure in Africa.
Through CRI Health, we seek to support exceptional organizations and bring rigorous analysis to our NGO partners. As a strategic partner to our grantees, we set high expectations for performance, critical thinking, learning from experience, and responding to evidence.
Our funding approach consists of more than just up-front due diligence and check writing. We create deep partnerships with our grantees, providing extensive non-monetary support to complement our financial contributions. We believe we can leverage our investments in NGOs by serving as connection-makers, strategy consultants, communications editors, analysts, committee members, and otherwise.
Our ideal NGO partner is early stage, nimble, responsive to data, and driven. Their model should be cost-effective, and sensible.
We’ve taken to describing the outputs of our partners as exhibiting “outsized impact.” And we believe in the power of creating a web of synergistic relationships.
We are looking to add a Boston, Massachusetts-based Associate Director to our CRI Health Program who will work side-by-side with our current team. CRI has a relatively flat structure, and the new Associate Director should be comfortable working in a collaborative environment.
Position description
This position entails working directly with grantees, and helping the foundation allocate funds. For this position we are looking for someone who is comfortable with data, numbers, and with analytics skills to add capacity to our team. We currently have a mix of skillsets, and we need additional resources dedicated to topics relating to monitoring and evaluation, developing research plans, assessing research
design, assessing research findings, etc. However, this job is not limited to these topics, and includes all aspects of due diligence, grant management, relationship management, and creative problem-solving.
CRI intentionally keeps the internal bureaucracy to a minimum. As an Associate Director, you will have the opportunity to design processes that work for you. Moreover, you’ll get to experience philanthropy that moves quickly. When compelling opportunities arise, it’s possible that you could usher along a grant that’s decided in weeks or even days.
As an Associate Director at CRI you will be working with sharp, deeply knowledgeable colleagues, who are experts in their respective areas of interest. While we don’t expect a new Associate Director to be an expert in all topics in Global Health, we do expect that they pro-actively educate themselves as needed. We move quickly, and for the right person it’s a lot of fun.
The Associate Director responsibilities may include all or some of the following:
- Contribute to the philanthropic strategy of CRI through literature reviews, evidence synthesis, and original analysis
- Identify funding opportunities
- Assess funding opportunities
- Work with grantee organizations to maximize the probability of their success
- Establish and foster effective partnerships with peer funders and other stakeholders
- Mentor junior staff
- Travel both domestically and internationally as necessary.
Desired Skills and Experience:
- Strong written and oral communication skills
- Advanced problem-solving, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving skills
- Proven self-direction
- Excellent quantitative and analytical skills; ability to collect and analyze data to inform strategic thinking, planning, and recommendations
- Deep first-hand knowledge of African countries including living in Africa
- An aptitude for relationship building
- 8+ years of relevant work experience
- Experience working with a non-profit organization in Global Health
Required Qualifications (while some of these are qualitative in nature, they are all requirements):
- Passion for improving the lives of the poor in developing countries
- A drive for results, rigor, and evidence in decision-making
- Strong analytic skills, and a facility for working with data
- Humility and integrity
- A positive attitude, and a natural inclination to be helpful
- Master’s degree or PhD in a related field
- Deep basis of knowledge in topics in global health
- Must live in or be willing to relocate to the Boston area
- Must be legally authorized to work in the United States
Benefits:
- 30 days PTO (inclusive of vacation days, sick days, and holidays), plus possible additional days off between December 25 and January 1
- Health, dental, and vision insurance
- SEP IRA retirement contribution
- Lunch provided on in-office days
How to Apply:
1. Send your CV to admin@crifoundation.org. Please use this email address both to apply and for this position, and to ask any questions you have about the position. Please do not contact us through other avenues.
2. Explain in 100 words or fewer why you are qualified for this position.
3. Explain in 150 words or fewer why you want to work for CRI, and why you want this position.
4. Please be prepared to provide 3 references who can speak to your work performance.
For more information about CRI please visit us at our website: www.crifoundation.org