Program Officer - Education; KF

The Kresge Foundation’s Education Program has an immediate opening for a Program Officer.

The Kresge Foundation is one of the top 20 private foundations in the United States and is metro Detroit's largest foundation. With a $3.6 billion endowment and a staff of nearly 100 employees, we work to expand opportunities in America's cities for people with low incomes. We do this through grantmaking and social investing nationally in arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services and community development in Detroit.

The foundation’s state-of-the-art headquarters maintains an array of energy-efficient, water-conserving and health-promoting systems. The foundation also operates an office in Detroit’s Midtown district.

Kresge’s Education Team supports both college access and success, through collaborative, practical, and flexible investments that emphasize investee relationships. The team has three main strategies:

• Urban Pathways to College , which focuses on postsecondary access for traditionally aged students from under-represented groups, and adults returning to postsecondary education.
• Capacity Building for Student Success , which supports institutions focused on low-income and under-represented students, such as community colleges, Minority Serving Institutions, public institutions and special mission institutions, to enhance student success through better advising, improved data analytics, enhanced business models, more clear transfer pathways, and stronger leadership, et al.
• Urban Higher Education Ecosystems , which seeks to strengthen an entire city or metropolitan area’s ability to increase cross-sectoral and systemic approaches to increasing college attainment for its community.

The team works across the nation, but has four focus states (California, Florida, Texas and Michigan) and oversees Kresge’s only international work in South Africa. The team also works in the Foundation’s focus cities of Detroit, Memphis and New Orleans.

This is an exciting time for postsecondary philanthropy. A large group of regional and national foundations have worked collaboratively with nonprofit and governmental partners to increase postsecondary access and success. Over the past several years, college enrollment and attainment rates have increased steadily and a number of successful innovations have emerged. At the same time, race-based and other equity gaps remain persistent and many promising reforms and innovations have yet to scale significantly.

The Program Officer for Education will assist in the design and implementation of a grantmaking program that seeks to increase postsecondary attainment in cities while eliminating gaps for low-income students and students of color, especially African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders, and other under-represented groups.

The team seeks Program Officer candidates with a strong experience and a demonstrated commitment to low-income people, social justice and the eradication of race-based and other equity gaps. Our grantmaking areas have included:

• Advising
• City-based efforts to improve local college access and success
• Community Colleges
• College Access programs
• Data analytics
• Developmental education
• Higher education technology
• Institutional advancement
• Minority Serving Institutions
• Non-academic barriers to student success
• Public higher education
• South African higher education policy
• Transfer and articulation
• U.S. federal, state and local higher education policy

The individual filling this position will report to the managing director and work in close partnership with other members of the Education Team, as well as with the foundation’s Program Operations and Information Management Team, Communications Team and Social Investment Practice, a team that uses loans, loan guarantees and deposits in support of Kresge program goals.

The position is based in metropolitan Detroit.

• With the Education Program managing director and team, contribute to grantmaking strategy development for the program. Contribute to the team’s program development.
• Participate in…