Director of Movement Partnerships

The Director of Movement Partnerships will lead Communities for Just Schools Fund’s (CJSF) grantmaking strategy development and implementation and take primary responsibility for building and nurturing healthy partnerships with education justice movement organizers — our community partners and others. The Director of Movement Partnerships will manage CJSF’s grantmaking and facilitate network-building efforts with and for our community partners and other movement actors.

The Director of Movement Partnerships will work in coordination with other staff to recommend and take action to resource capacity-building efforts for partners, ensure partners’ needs and perspectives are considered and uplifted in network partner spaces, convene learning exchanges responsive to partners’ interests and needs, and build narrative power.

The Director of Movement Partnerships will steward CJSF’s relationships with, resourcing of, and collaboration with our community partners (grantee partners):

• Lead visioning, development, implementation, and refinement of CJSF's grantmaking systems, processes, and practices across all partner cohorts — general support, place-based, connectivity, corollary, and rapid response.
• Identify potential new partners and recommend grantmaking priorities in line with CJSF’s grantmaking and fundraising goals.
• Conduct and manage due diligence, ensuring that grant-making procedures comply with all federal, state, and local laws and regulations while thoughtfully maintaining CJSF’s commitment to streamlined grant application and reporting processes for partners.
• Work with CJSF staff to implement and continuously refine grant-making strategies and connections to technical assistance and capacity-building support.
• Prepare and present written summaries, analysis documents, articles, and presentations to track and communicate CJSF’s grantmaking efforts to internal and external audiences.

• Develop strong, trust-based working relationships with partners to ensure CJSF's actions and investments are supportive of their priorities, demands, and needs.
• Maintain contact lists and curate connections among existing and potential partners — including through coordinating and convening regular partner calls and conversations, and collaborate with other team members to ensure partners’ connections to and with CJSF’s broader network — including donor members and network partners.
• Identify programmatic and operational support needs in the field and contribute to the design, coordination, and roll-out of technical assistance and capacity-building efforts in support of CJSF’s partners.
• Assist with educating donor members, network partners, and others about CJSF’s partners, organizing, and the education justice movement’s priorities and demands.

• Pursue creative opportunities with staff and other colleagues to further CJSF’s mission and serve the best interests of grantee partners through a variety of methods other than grant-making, including convening, technical assistance, serving on committees and task forces, public speaking, podcasts, blog posts, and op-eds.
• Help shape and implement narrative and programmatic strategies aligned with the expertise and needs of CJSF’s partners and the education justice movement — including collaborating with other team members, partners, and network partners to ensure CJSF actively advances federal strategies aligned with our partners’ needs and demands.
• Keep current on issues of importance to the Fund and the grantees by literature review, contact with social and professional communities, and participating in and attending relevant conferences,…