Portfolio Manager

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 Portfolio Manager based in Washington, DC. The Portfolio Manager has a hybrid work schedule, Tuesday through Thursday onsite in the DC office.

Position Summary 

Portfolio Manager play a key role in the Portfolio & Investments Team, working closely with Program Officers to scope, source, select, and track the progress of Skoll investments. Portfolio Managers help shape strategic grantmaking priorities and are close collaborators with Skoll Awardees and grantee partners. Portfolio Manager also manages key programs within the Portfolio & Investments team, requiring collaboration both with the immediate team and across the Foundation.

Position Description

The Skoll Foundation seeks a seasoned, strategic professional who leads with tough-minded optimism and a global view to serve as Portfolio Manager, Portfolio & Investments. Reporting to the Managing Director, Portfolio & Investments, they will work in close collaboration with peers across Skoll staff and the executive team. 

The Portfolio & Investments team is responsible for leading Skoll’s investment work in strategic priority issue areas, as well as the annual Skoll Awards for Social Innovation. 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. 

In collaboration with the Managing Director who oversees a strategic priority workstream, Portfolio Managers play a vital role in shaping workstream strategy and directly managing grantees including identifying and recommending new opportunities each year and maintaining partnerships with active portfolio organizations. Portfolio Managers are significant individual contributors and collaborative advisors who comprehend the breadth and depth of partners’ work and progress towards large-scale systems change and support their impact by deploying Skoll’s full suite of assets.

Ideal Candidate

The Skoll Foundation seeks a team player who is curious about the dynamics of organizational growth, scale, and impact and possesses the ability to synthesize and communicate findings clearly in written, verbal, and visual formats. Candidates should have a balance of analytical rigor and compassion for the human condition to undertake the Foundation’s mission. Demonstrated experience in the evaluation of business models, financials, and data as well as strong investigative skills and careful attention to detail are necessary in this role. Experience sourcing grant partners, assessing the impact of their work, and an overall orientation to learning that improves the team’s practices is essential to the Portfolio Manager role.

Successful candidates will have a pragmatic, flexible work style, with the willingness to jump from research to project management, from leading a meeting to presenting key findings. The ideal candidate is a nimble generalist with the intellectual capacity and motivation to quickly grasp Skoll’s interconnected focus areas. 

The Portfolio Manager must be resourceful and hands-on, and driven to work in a lean, results-oriented environment with a high level of integrity, humility, and discretion. The ideal candidate brings strategic agility and a genuine comfort with the dynamic nature of donor-led philanthropy, adapting fluidly as priorities evolve without losing operational rigor. A collaborative nature, sound judgment, and a good sense of humor are also important characteristics to have.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

Strategy Refinement

• Under the direction of a Managing Director, Portfolio Managers scope and/or refine issue area strategies. To inform Skoll’s approach, they will conduct desk research, attend conferences, and hold meetings with partners, peer funders, and other experts.


• Present findings and recommendations on strategic approach to the Managing Director, Chief Program Officer and other stakeholders. 

Recommend Opportunities for Investment 

• Independently source and manage a pipeline of organizations well-aligned with the investment strategy and develop opportunities for investment.


• Conduct rigorous due diligence for the Skoll Award for Social Innovation, and other investment opportunities, including interviewing issue experts, partners and/or funders of the organization; conducting financial and governance reviews; and/or conducting site visits to understand the organization’s work through the eyes of those they serve and with the lens of social innovation and systemic change. 


• Define the highest impact investment tools to use, from grants to program-related investments (e.g., structured debt, equity, and other investment vehicles).

Partner with Portfolio Organizations

• Within a strategic priority workstream, lead relationships with Skoll Awardees/grantees and partners; co-creating a shared set of goals and plan for facilitating the partnership between Awardees/grantees and the Foundation.


• Assess how the Foundation’s time, talents, and resources can be used to advance their progress. Through partnership, understand, analyze, and share how organizations are achieving impact and develop strategies to scale and share that impact. 


• Cultivate relationships across the priority ecosystem and make connections between grantees and potential partners and funders. 

Share Knowledge Internally and Externally 

• Coordinate with internal teams to bring awareness to critical global issues and the work of the social innovators in your portfolio. 


• Serve as a credible, global spokesperson for social innovation and the Skoll Foundation’s strategy and mission. 


• In partnership with the appropriate teams, showcase portfolio impact via strategic partnerships, media, research, communications, and events.

Drive Measurement and Metrics 

• Work with portfolio partners to develop milestones and ongoing metrics to measure and communicate impact.


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


• Develop and implement best practices to understand and further the impact from the strategic priority and Skoll Award portfolios and regularly communicate results internally and externally.

Required Education and Experience 

• A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and experience.


• A minimum of eight (8) years of demonstrated success in developing, accelerating, measuring, and influencing growth of innovative organizations or a proven ability to develop new and equivalent skills.


• Demonstrated experience researching, collecting, and analyzing information across multiple sectors and industries


• Demonstrated ability to develop learning frameworks and implement to evaluate strategic programmatic areas. 


• Proven ability to evaluate an investment opportunity or business case, 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.


• Proven ability to build effective partnerships and networks internally and externally.


• Time living and working in other countries or outside of one’s community of origin.


• 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.

Compensation & Benefits

The estimated base compensation salary range for this position is $108,571 - $152,145, 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 plus a monthly wellness day


• 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.