Policy Director

Job Description

The Eleanor Crook Foundation (ECF) seeks a Policy Director to guide the foundation’s policy and advocacy efforts and investments. This is a new leadership position at the Foundation. The Policy Director will manage the day-to-day efforts of ECF’s policy and advocacy team, and will develop and execute a multi-year policy strategy and implementation plan that will guide the efforts of ECF staff, consultants, and advocacy grantees. With the support of ECF’s Global Policy and Advocacy Program Officer, and working closely with ECF’s Senior Advocacy Advisor and Executive Director, the Director of Policy will provide high-level thought leadership, lead the development of creative new outreach and communications strategies, build coalitions and engage new advocacy partners, develop new grants, represent the Foundation at major events, and ensure the high performance of ECF’s growing portfolio of advocacy investments.

A senior global health policy and advocacy expert who is persistent, “sick of business as usual,” highly creative and diplomatic, would benefit from flexible work policies, and wants to have a lasting impact on US global nutrition, health, and food security programming will thrive. The position is based in Washington, DC.

Director of Policy Responsibilities

• Oversee the day-to-day efforts of ECF’s policy and advocacy team.
• Develop and execute a multi-year policy and advocacy strategy and implementation plan that will guide the efforts of ECF staff, consultants, and advocacy grantees.

• Bring the U.S. global nutrition policy and advocacy community to the next level by providing high-level thought leadership, encouraging and contributing to bold, outside-the-box thinking, and identifying and funding new effectives strategies and tactics.

• Help lead the coalition of ECF-funded nutrition advocacy organizations in developing ambitious policy goals and creative approaches for improving U.S. global nutrition programming.
• Working with an ECF-funded communications firm, help lead the development of a bold communications strategy and updated communications assets for US global nutrition advocacy efforts.
• Establish and maintain strong working relationships with potential partners, policy makers, and policy influencers in coordination with the Executive Director, Senior Advocacy Advisor, and grantees.

• Design new grants, engage new advocacy partners, and build and convene new advocacy coalitions.
• Represent the Foundation at major U.S. and international advocacy events.
• Identify opportunities to improve the quality of ECF-funded projects and portfolios.

• Regularly attend coalition meetings and relevant advocacy events to further inform the Foundation’s understanding of sector developments as well as grantee progress, concerns, and opportunities to drive impact.
• Build collaborative relationships with grantees and partners to successfully communicate about challenges and risks.
• Anticipate potential sectoral advocacy and policy challenges and work jointly with grantees to identify solutions.
• Collaborate with existing and potential co-funders on program design, funding mechanisms, fund disbursement, M&E, and grantee performance and compliance.
• Seek synergies and opportunities for interface between ECF’s advocacy initiatives and ECF’s nutrition research team.
• Ensure the high performance of ECF’s growing portfolio of advocacy investments.

Required Qualifications, Skills & Attributes:

• 10-15 years’ experience in global nutrition, health, and food security policy
• Intimate knowledge of USAID and other U.S. global nutrition programming (HQ and mission/field level)
• Strong understanding of U.S. legislative process on foreign assistance issues
• Strong understanding of advocacy best practices and the key players and influencers in global nutrition/health
• Highly creative
• Intellectually curious
• Sick of business as usual
• Persistent
• Self-motivated
• Excellent writer
• Highly collaborative
• Diplomatic
• Strong critical thinking skills
• Strong communications skills
• Comfortable public speaker
• Effective manager
• Positive and Compassionate

Salary commensurate with experience. ECF offers health, life, vision, and dental insurance, and flexible work policies. Please submit your resume and cover letter to hiring@eleanorcrookfoundation.org by March 15^th, 2019.

ECF is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or any other characteristic protected by law.

About the Organization

The Eleanor Crook Foundation is a growing U.S. philanthropy committed to research and advocacy to end global malnutrition. Every year malnutrition continues to kill 3.1 million children under five years of age, and permanently limits the mental and physical development of 1 in 4 children on earth. Malnutrition remains the single largest cause of child mortality, resulting in one third of all deaths of children under five in developing countries. The Eleanor Crook Foundation believes that in order to end poverty, hunger, and preventable child deaths by 2030, greater investments in global nutrition must become a top development priority.

The Eleanor Crook Foundation only makes investments that fill critical gaps and have the potential to be catalytic, scalable, and sustainable. ECF is poised to invest a minimum of $20m over the next 5 years in advocacy focused predominantly on increasing support for and effectiveness of U.S. global nutrition programming. ECF believes that with the right focus and investments, there is potential to multiply the impact of U.S. foreign assistance on maternal and child nutrition in high burden countries. ECF is an active investor and we pride ourselves on being accountable and informed. We invest in programs that have tremendous potential and we stress our responsibility as funders to actively engage with our grantees. We ask tough questions, and go beyond our grants to play a key role as convener, problem-solver, resource, thought-partner, and advocate. We believe that if our value ends at the money we give, we are not doing our job.