Managing Director

The Skoll Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation that seeks to build a sustainable world of peace and prosperity for all by investing in, connecting, and championing social entrepreneurs and other social innovators.  Together, we advance bold and equitable solutions to the world’s most pressing problems. The Skoll Foundation fosters a mission and values-based approach to the work we do focused on the vision of doing good.
 
The Skoll Foundation is hiring a Managing Director based in Washington, DC. The Managing Director has a hybrid work schedule, Tuesday through Thursday onsite in the DC office.

Position Description
The Managing Director reports to the Vice President, Portfolio & Investments and works in close collaboration with peers across Skoll staff to advance knowledge and evidence of scaling impact.

The Portfolio and Investments team is responsible for leading Skoll’s investment work in our strategic priority issue areas, as well as for the annual Skoll Awards for Social Innovation and the ongoing investments in social entrepreneurs and other innovators made directly and through funding partners. The goal of the team is to accelerate the progress of social innovators to achieve large-scale and lasting systems change. To achieve this, it identifies where Skoll investments can help drive transformational social change, and facilitates the engagement of Skoll’s network, staff, and resources to that end. Managing Directors are people managers and collaborative advisors to grantees and multiple external partners. 

Skoll Managing Directors play a principal role in the selection of new grantmaking opportunities each year and develop a healthy, long-term pipeline of potential investments. With a focus on increasing impact, each Managing Director leads a team that manages a broad portfolio of organizations and partners on an ongoing basis, connecting them to other networks, understanding the breadth and depth of their work, and their progress towards large-scale systems change. 

Looking beyond the initial grant, Managing Directors identify creative opportunities to help advance the work of organizations in their portfolio. They recommend timely, strategic investments by analyzing issues and impact data from Skoll’s broader portfolio. They develop relationships with other funding partners to leverage broader social change using innovative social investment models.
 

Ideal Candidate

The Managing Director must be resourceful and hands-on, able to work in a lean, results-oriented environment. Must be an effective team player, an intentional manager and relationship builder with individuals from a variety of backgrounds and cultures. The Managing Director will lead with a listening-ear and an ability to empower team members. An understanding of what drives social innovators and systems change will support success in this role. Passion for the mission and vision for the Skoll Foundation is required. 

The Managing Director will be able to develop a powerful sense of shared purpose in others and motivate them to engage opportunities and challenges to support social innovators in their work for transformational social change. A thoughtful leader, the Managing Director, will bring a collaborative spirit to their leadership and treat others with respect. A demonstrated record of converting strategy into effective execution, offering creative, practical ideas to implement the team and organization’s strategic direction. Brings a deep appreciation for complex business challenges and an excitement to be part of a team that is focused on identifying creative and strategic investments in alignment with Skoll’s mission and vision. To this end, the Managing Director will be a catalyst for change and growth, inspiring others to think entrepreneurially and inject new ideas while leading a robust team. They will bring strategic agility and a genuine comfort with the dynamic nature of donor-led philanthropy, adapting fluidly as priorities evolve without losing operational rigor.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

Strategic leadership

• Lead initial scoping and ongoing refinement of priority area strategies for the Foundation. Lead a cross-functional team to inform Skoll’s approach, conducting desk research, attending conferences, and holding meetings with partners, peer funders, and other experts to test and shape ongoing strategy development.


• Present findings and recommendations on strategic approach to the VP, Portfolio and Investment, Executive Leadership Team, and other stakeholders.


• Convert strategic direction into effective implementation and execution across the team and Foundation.

Recommend Opportunities for Investment 


• Collaborate with internal and external partners to identify organizations well-aligned with Skoll’s investment strategy. 



• Conduct due diligence on the Skoll Award for Social Innovation, and other investment opportunities, including interviewing issue experts, working with regional leaders, and conducting site visits to understand the organization’s work through the eyes of their beneficiaries and with the lens of large-scale, sustained change.


• Define the highest impact investment tools to use, from grants and direct investment to program-related investments, structured debt, and other investment vehicles. Act as an investment mentor to others on the team. 
   

Partner with portfolio 

• Manage relationships with Skoll portfolio partners, co-creating a shared set of goals and plan for facilitating the partnership between Awardees and the Foundation. 


• Assess how the Foundation’s time, talents, and resources can be used to advance portfolio partners’ progress towards transformational social change. 


• Beyond the initial investment, work with grantees to scale their work by introducing and actively working with other funders.

Share Knowledge Internally and Externally 


• Coordinate with teams within Skoll to bring awareness to critical global issues and the work of social innovators. 



• Understands change management sufficiently to lead a complex program and help build culture and skills across the team.


• Assist with annual operating budget and forecast processes, procedures, and reporting. 
   

Drive Measurement and Metrics 


• Actively helps to shape the learning agenda, feedback loop and monitoring and evaluation agenda for individual grants and portfolio wide.


• Develops milestones and ongoing metrics to ensure Skoll investments are accurately positioned, measured, and communicated across sectors (corporate, government, and philanthropy). 



• Identify patterns within the portfolio and use those patterns to define opportunities to assist individual organizations. 


• Document and advance learning among the Investment and Portfolio teams of trends, challenges, and highest impact opportunities for investment. 


• Develop and implement best practices to understand and further the impact from the portfolio, and regularly communicate results internally and externally. 
 
   

Develop and Grow Key External Partnerships

• Lead Foundation relationships independently with a range of world class investment partners, including bilateral and multilateral agencies, private foundations, and other large funder collaboratives.


• Represent the work of the Foundation in high profile convenings, forums and other gatherings.


• Engage and support the work of our partners at the Skoll World Forum and other Skoll-sponsored events.

Serve as Practice Leaders

• Act as a key exemplar of the disciplines that underly our work across the entire investment practice—scoping, sourcing, selecting and funding, managing and partnering, and learning from grants and program-related investments—and our growth as organization, including our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.


• Teach and engage others in the Foundation across those disciplines and develop internal curriculum for raising the level of practice and understanding from the team as a whole.


• Lead in such a way as to embody the organization values. Every interaction embodies Skoll values, raises our bar in quality of communication, and magnifies the influence of the Skoll brand. 

Required Experience and Education

• A Bachelor’s Degree, or equivalent education and experience.


• A minimum of fifteen (15) years of demonstrated success in a nonprofit, for-profit, government, or philanthropy, working on growth, business development or related issues. 


• Experience working with social entrepreneurs in both the for-profit or nonprofit space is highly valued. 


• Proven ability to evaluate an investment opportunity, business case development or other due diligence related work.


• Knowledge of a wide variety of investment tools, including grants and program-related or mission-related investments, as well as debt and equity as applied in an impact context.


• Able to successfully navigate in a fast-paced, outcomes-driven and entrepreneurial environment. 


• Knowledge and understanding of the resources needed and success factor important for entrepreneurs to succeed and build healthy organizations. 


• Excellent verbal and written communication skills are imperative.


• Agile learner and rapid adapter to software tools including but not limited to Salesforce, Asana, and Microsoft 365, Excel, and PowerPoint. 


• Must be available for domestic and international travel.


• Able to work on-site Tuesday through Thursday in the District of Columbia.

Preferred Experience and Education

• An advanced degree


• Foreign language proficiency and/or time living and working in an LMIC or outside of one’s community of origin 

Compensation and Benefits

The estimated base compensation salary range for this position is $181,642 – $290,628, commensurate with experience. Placement within the range is determined by such factors as qualifications, experience and location. The Skoll Foundation offers a comprehensive benefits package, including but not limited to:

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage


• Flexible Time Off (FTO)


• 10% employer 403(b) retirement contribution with no vesting period


• 11 paid holidays 


• Annual health and wellness reimbursement


• 2:1 employee gift matching program


• Anniversary grants to the nonprofit of your choice at career milestones

The Skoll Foundation is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds.

 If you require a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please contact us at talentandculture@skoll.org.