Vice President Programs

Proteus Fund organizes donor collaboratives, provides fiscal sponsorship, and makes grants to organizations that advance social justice. Our work lifts up opportunities, gaps, and challenges facing social justice fields and organizations— and organizes donors to impactfully support their frontline work.

Proteus Fund connects philanthropy to the front lines of social justice. We strive to advance the interconnected goals of racial, gender, queer, and disability justice and an inclusive, fully representative democracy. To do our work effectively and with significant impact, Proteus Fund creates dynamic relationships between progressive philanthropists, movement leaders, and other allies that go far beyond transactional grantmaking. Our trusted position among funders and field actors enables us to support a broad array of strategies to achieve social justice victories.

Our donor collaboratives are best-in-class models for bridging responsive philanthropy and cutting-edge social justice movements for deeper impact, aligning resources to address critical needs, and shaping strategy alongside our partners. Through our fiscal sponsorship program, Proteus Fund partners with initiatives which play a powerful role in the larger ecosystem for social change, providing them with tailored and comprehensive organizational support.

Proteus Fund operates and pursues its work based on a set of values synergistic with our vision and mission:

• Diversity, equity, and inclusion;
• Integrity and professionalism;
• Transparency and accountability; and
• Respect and humility.

To date, Proteus Fund, and its affiliated 501c4 organization, the Proteus Action League , have distributed more than $300 million in grants, and provided other essential tools to support activists, advocates, networks, coalitions, and issue-specific campaigns at the local, state, and national level. Proteus Fund is a national organization with offices in New York, NY and metro Boston, MA, as well as remote staff across the country.

The Vice President for Programs (VPP) will have significant responsibility for advancing Proteus Fund’s powerful vision of a world rooted in rights, justice, dignity and democracy. The VPP will oversee Proteus’ donor collaborative portfolio, and will manage Proteus’ four donor collaborative directors. In a highly coordinated fashion, the VPP leads Proteus’ cross-donor collaborative programming and grantmaking as well as cultivating and developing new donor collaboratives on issues and movements essential to the future of representative, inclusive democracy and marginalized communities in the United States.

To advance the work of the donor collaboratives’ portfolio as well as Proteus Fund’s overall vision, mission and values, the VPP is expected to develop and maintain a creative and dynamic thought leadership role in social justice philanthropy. The VPP also plays a central role supporting deep coordination between Proteus donor collaborative teams and Proteus’ Strategic Partnerships, Finance, Grants Management, People & Culture, Donor Services, and other operational teams with a deeply “one Proteus” mindset.

They are also expected to serve as a critical member of the senior management team.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Work with the President, donor collaborative directors, and other colleagues to ensure that Proteus Fund’s vision, mission and values are manifest in our work, our narrative, and our collaborative model of relationships with grantees, donors, and Proteus colleagues
• Ensure Proteus Fund maintains respected and effective strategic positioning and profile in the social justice field in a way that reflects our vision, mission, and values
• Craft and support a donor collaborative culture that connects Proteus Fund’s vision, mission, and values and is highly coordinated with our ongoing operations

• Ensure Proteus’ donor collaborative portfolio remains both cutting-edge and high impact
• Develop and maintain a high-level understanding of donor collaborative work. social justice dynamics in the United States, and…