Program Officer, Restorative Economies Fund

Kataly Foundation, a family foundation based in the San Francisco Bay Area, is committed to supporting restorative economics, environmental justice, mindfulness and healing justice, and racial justice. Founded in 2018 with the intention of spending out a $445 million endowment over a ten-year time horizon, this growing organization intends to support movements around these issues and serve as a progressive leader in philanthropy.

Kataly’s mission is to support and provide resources to communities and social movements that are exploring new solutions to persistent, systemic problems. Kataly does this while embracing its role and responsibility in changing systems that led to wealth extraction from these communities in the first place. We move resources to support the economic, political, and cultural power of Black and Indigenous communities and all communities of color. By transforming its own relationship to capital, the planet, and each other, the Kataly Foundation will redistribute and redefine wealth in a way that leads to transformation, abundance, and regeneration.

One important distinction of the Kataly Foundation is that its approach is meant to be inclusive of the communities it seeks to fund. Pursuing a “practitioner-funder” philosophy, the Foundation actively engages leaders in the fields it supports to help make grantmaking decisions. Kataly aims to center solutions where the problems are. In addition, the Foundation is committed to solidarity philanthropy practices: general operating support, creative use of capital, and a commitment to capacity building and network weaving.

Kataly’s Program Areas include:

Restorative Economies Fund: The Restorative Economies Fund (REF) invests resources into community-owned and governed projects led by people of color that create shared prosperity, self-determination, and build collective power. REF is an integrated capital fund, which means the Fund combines grants with non-extractive investments (loans, loan guarantees, lines of credit, etc.) and non-financial support including technical assistance or strategic advice.

Environmental Justice Resourcing Collective: The Environmental Justice Resourcing Collective (EJRC) is a group of nine women of color movement leaders who are resourcing work that builds power in communities of color, and grows movements for racial, social, economic, and environmental justice. The Collective funds work led by and for the communities most impacted by environmental racism, climate change, and unjust systems.

Mindfulness and Healing Justice: The Mindfulness and Healing Justice (MHJ) program supports community-based mindfulness programs, teacher training, leadership development, and healing justice practices for Black and Indigenous communities, and all people of color. MHJ centers mindfulness and healing in the service of racial justice, power-building, and collective liberation.

We’re working toward a world in which Black and brown people have the resources, power, and agency to execute their own visions for justice, well-being, and shared prosperity within their communities.
We believe our fates are intertwined and ensuring self-determination for communities of color is in service of our collective liberation.

Learn more about Kataly Foundation at www.katalyfoundation.org.

The Opportunity

The Program Officer (PO) of the Restorative Economies Fund (REF) is a key programmatic leader and thoughtful and engaged contributor to the Kataly team, focused on the Foundation’s mission to promote social justice and racial equity in communities most impacted by injustice. In summary, alongside the REF Team members the PO is responsible for intentional grantee relationship management. The PO will partner with the current Program Officer in serving as co-leads and points of contact for the REF grant program. The PO will facilitate all aspects of the REF grantmaking program in coordination with the REF team, specifically the peer Program Officer. The incoming and current Program Officers will work together to develop and refine procedures, methods, and workflow, assessing potential partners, engaging in issues exploration, participating in community events, and fostering community and grantee relations. The PO supports Kataly’s capacity-building efforts in partnership with the Capacity Building team and contributes to communication strategies under the direction of the CEO, Managing Director of Programs (MDP), and Director of Communications.

The PO deeply understands and is committed to Kataly’s values and mission. The PO has strong knowledge of the Foundation’s internal processes and is the grantee’s point of contact for communicating Kataly’s grantmaking cycles, processes, and how Kataly’s position as a spend-out foundation impacts our grantmaking. Reporting to the Managing Director (MDP) of Programs, the PO has relevant lived and movement-building experience within the just transition and solidarity economy movements in the United States and an understanding of philanthropic practices.

The Foundation is constantly searching for innovative, progressive, and improved operating methods to adapt to the evolving needs of our staff, grantees, and community partners. Every employee must adapt quickly to pivots and be open and flexible about taking on and learning new and different duties, some of which may not traditionally be part of the job you otherwise perform.