Multicultural Fellowship: Place (Hybrid)

Job Description

Title: Multicultural Fellow for the Place Pathway

Location: San Francisco, CA

Department: (Community Impact)

Type: Full-time, Limited-Term

Min. Experience: Intermediate

Year 1: Non-Exempt-Focus on learning as a cohort and for the role.

Year 2: Exempt: Regularly exercises discretion and independent judgment. Majority of the Fellow’s time is spent on tasks that require independent judgment and advanced knowledge, with limited routine tasks.

Organizational Result: All people living in the San Francisco Bay Area are economically secure, rooted in vibrant communities and engaged in civic life.

We Value: Anti-racism, Boldness, Equity, Rooted in Community

Position Summary

The mission of the Multicultural Fellowship Program is to equip emerging leaders with the experience, knowledge, and network to create an equitable Bay Area. For over 30 years, the Multicultural Fellowship has been a career accelerator to more than 100 alumni who are motivated and creative agents of change.

Successful candidates are early-career professionals who are new to philanthropy and of diverse cultural backgrounds who show promise and passion to create significant social change in the Bay Area. The Fellowship offers an unparalleled opportunity to work within the San Francisco Foundation and explore the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors in the Bay Area through a racial equity and economic inclusion framework. Each Fellow will embark on this journey with three other Fellows, Foundation staff, and an alumni community of support.

Boundaries: The Fellowship consists of four Fellows. Each Fellow works specifically within one of the Foundation’s teams: the People Pathway, Power Pathway, Place Pathway or Strategic Learning and Evaluation. Fellows can expect an individually nuanced, on-the-job learning experience while also being part of a cohort learning community.  

Authority: Multicultural Fellows work within their one program team to increase team capacity, provide a fresh perspective, and contribute to the efficacy of the team’s work towards advancing racial and economic equity in the five Bay Area counties that the Foundation serves.   

Role of the Place Pathway Fellow

The Place Pathway focuses on supporting vibrant neighborhoods that retain their cultural and ethnic character across the Bay Area. The aim of the Place Pathway is to ensure that the region’s neighborhoods are places where all residents can live, work, thrive, create, and belong.  

The Place Pathway’s strategic priorities are:  

• Powerful Neighborhoods
• Building Advocacy Efforts and Deepening Movement Building for Housing Justice
• Community and Creative Placemaking and Place-keeping
• Strengthening housing preservation and community ownership through innovative models
• Supporting collaborations between artists and resident to socially and physically transform their neighborhoods through diverse forms of artistic expression
• Equity-Focused Preservation and Production 
• Support developers who are rooted in communities of color to build affordable housing and to strengthen their organizational capacity

A successful Fellowship candidate for the Place pathway has an understanding of the vibrant Bay Area fabric that weaves together advocacy, policy, and community development.  

Tasks

With the direction and guidance of their supervisor, the Place Fellow will do the following:  

• SFF and Place Pathway Development

  • Depending on bandwidth and interest, the Fellow can take on roles to further develop the Place Pathway or SFF. This may include playing leadership roles in internal working groups, leading workshops, and team building. 
• Programmatic Strategy Leadership: 
  • Keep teams abreast of emerging and aligned efforts in the specific priority areas to provide shared learning and help inform strategy development.
  • With community partnership, plan and host stakeholder convenings, including grantee mixers, funders briefings, coalition meetings, and/or other strategic events to build trust and transparency between the Place Pathway and current or prospective grantees.
  • Support projects that leverage SFF’s leadership related to Place Pathway issue areas.
  • Conduct research and data analysis, produce blogs and grantee stories, and generate written briefs.
  • Partner with Strategic Learning and Evaluation team to develop evaluation metrics, methodology and tools.
  • Complete a capstone project that leverages the fellowship experience to address a strategic challenge faced by SFF or its grantee partners.
• Grantmaking
  • Meet with prospective applicants and grantees; build authentic relationships with grantee and non-grantee organizations; practice trust-based philanthropy.
  • Provide technical assistance to grantees and consultants.  
  • Evaluate grant proposals, conduct due diligence, participate in site visits, review research, and present grant recommendations to the program team. 
  • Make grants, conduct progress report meetings, and provide trouble shooting or navigation for grantees.

Competencies & Qualifications

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in one or more of the Foundation’s programmatic areas of focus or a related discipline is preferred 
• Additional work experience, educational degrees and certificates will be considered 

Experience

• Minimum of two years and maximum of four years of relevant experience. Relevant experience can include progressively responsible work experience in the public or non-profit sectors, as well as lived and volunteer experience 
• Demonstrated experience in project management, strategy development, and implementation 
• Experience in applying a racial or economic equity frame in work environments is required 
• Proven record of successfully working independently and collaboratively in teams is required 
• Understanding of Bay Area nonprofit and philanthropic communities is preferred 

Skills and Competencies:

• Demonstrated commitment to social justice and equity
• Displays active listening, oral and written communication skills
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously,
• Desire for continued growth and development,
• Learns quickly in new environments
• Ability to engage with diverse staff and external stakeholders
• Ability to provide and receive constructive feedback
• Ability to commit to a two-year Fellowship program

Technical abilities and skills

• Intermediate to advanced computer/software skills, including Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, & Teams) and Zoom.
• Ability to learn, navigate and manage online platforms, including Fluxx, Qliksense, Smartsheet, Salesforce, Blackbaud, and Power Plan

We are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align exactly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Compensation: The San Francisco Foundation offers a very competitive total compensation package including base compensation in alignment with our organizational budget size and rich medical and fringe benefits offerings.

In their first year, Fellows will focus on learning and development and be paid hourly as non-exempt staff. In year two, the role takes on independent work and responsibilities and is moved to an exempt level role. The FY26 compensation budget for SFF has not been approved at this time. For reference, year one of a Fellow’s tenure in FY25 would pay, $44.27 per hour or $86,320 annually.

Fellows will also benefit from a robust professional development package for the duration of their Fellowship.  

You may read more about our compensation philosophy and benefits on the Career page.

Remote Work Policy: The Foundation has adopted a long-term hybrid in-person and remote work policy. Dedicated to its employee health and safety, The Foundation will continue to make decisions in accordance with San Francisco County and California mandates. Employees must reside or plan to relocate to California if hired.

Requesting Accommodations: The Foundation is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, The Foundation will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact hr@sff.org.

PROGRAM DATES: July 1, 2025 - June 30, 2027 

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 11:59 pm PST on March 7, 2025

TO APPLY: Applicants must submit a resume and cover letter for their primary program choice via our Careers Webpage. Your cover letter should communicate your commitment to equity, your approach to leadership, your interest in working with the primary program team, and dedication to personal and professional development through specific and demonstrable examples.  

At the discretion of the program team, applicants may be considered for other program areas. 

Applicants selected to continue to the next steps of the process will be contacted in late March or early April. For information on the MCF Program, please email fellowship@sff.org. For information on the recruitment process, please email hr@sff.org.

The San Francisco Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and encourages people of diverse backgrounds to apply.

Deadline for Applications: March 07, 2025, 11:59 pm PST

“While we try our best to keep our information updated, the closing date of the actual job source may be changed by the recruiter without prior notice. With this, please make sure to check the official job link when submitting your application. Thank you.”