Program Associate, Powerbuilding

Who we are

Transit Center is a private foundation that works to secure a more just and sustainable future with abundant public transportation options. Transit Center’s philanthropic work began in 2013, and in 2024, it completed a strategic planning process to position itself as a catalyst in growing and expanding the movement of advocates to change how America moves. To achieve our mission, and as we prepare to spend our endowment by 2036, we need to build a movement working to transform how transportation is currently funded, and how resources are spent.

Our focus areas include:

• Power building:
  Strengthen local organizing, mobilize key constituencies, and build a base for transit advocacy by broadening the stakeholders for transit.
• Mobilizing philanthropy:
  To increase the philanthropic funding dedicated to transit.
• Narrative change:
  To shift the narrative so that many more people see transit as an essential service deserving of more funding.

As the Power building Associate, you will support the Director of Power building (DoP) and other Transit Center team members in strengthening the transit movement by meeting regularly with grantees and other field partners to discuss campaign strategies, work plans, partnerships, and organizational sustainability. You will also identify and build deep relationships with organizations and leaders that can help bring key constituencies—especially real estate and related business sectors—constructively into the fold.

The focus is on supporting advocates to build durable alignment and influence with these stakeholders, so they can help move the land use policies and practices needed for transit to thrive.

You will support the Power building strategy area grantees using your campaign experience and issue knowledge of matters pertaining to transit, land use, and housing. You will act as a connector and capacity builder, working closely with community-based advocates and helping build bridges with powerful constituencies to expand the reach and impact of transit-oriented campaigns.

You will bring strong organizing experience to help understand grantees’ campaign needs and assess their capacity to achieve their campaign goals. By supporting organization-wide efforts to foster collaboration among grassroots groups, policy influencers, and stakeholders from powerful business constituencies, you will help the Power building strategy area identify and support strong, diverse, and enduring coalitions that champion transit as an essential public service.

You are an organizer with three to six years of experience working in coalitions and supporting policy campaigns, preferably with a deep understanding of issues related to the intersection of transit and land use policies. You are passionate about social change, rooted in values of equity and justice, and committed to building an inclusive transit movement to create a better society.

You thrive in working closely with grassroots groups and other stakeholders, helping foster cohesive working relationships in the pursuit of joint campaign goals. You have solid experience with qualitative data analysis and some quantitative analysis, and can compellingly present campaign analyses and impact to diverse audiences.

You excel at working closely and collaboratively with a small internal team, and you exhibit a collegial work style and sense of humor. You are a team player who demonstrates maturity and good judgment in handling complex situations, including complex coalition dynamics.

• Map the relationships of organizations working on transit and mobility with powerful constituencies such as labor and business, and help identify and create opportunities to expand the transit movement's relationships with these constituencies.
• Provide strategic and policy support to grantees by acting as a thought partner and by fostering connections between grantees and policy organizations and networks. The associate may also support grantees with developing plans for engaging and building relationships with groups that represent important constituencies in the community, such as organized…