Position Overview:

The National Park Foundation (NPF) is entering an exciting phase in increasing impact, amplifying the stellar work of the National Park Service (NPS) and working toward a “collective” campaign that vastly increases the ability of NPF to support an extraordinary visitor experience for all people who visit any of the 420+ National Park sites. Our youth programs have reached well over one million children and young adults over the past few years and we are looking to engage another million in high-quality experiences that help foster feelings of stewardship and connection in hopes of developing a generation of park champions.

The work of NPF programs is split into two primary categories, Connect and Protect.  The primary role of Manager, Youth Programs, is to meaningfully advance core projects that support the strategic theme of “Connecting Audiences” under the Connect pillars of NPF’s strategic plan. This work entails education, recreation, and visitor engagement programs that directly support the NPS and its partners. The programs Open OutDoors for Kids, Junior Ranger Angler and Field Science fall within the Youth Engagement and Education pillar and the Outdoor Exploration pillar which both work to connect youth, students, and families to meaningful, high-quality, safe and memorable experiences at parks across the country.

The Manager will be responsible for planning, guiding, administering and assessing a subset of NPF’s grant programs and projects focused on youth education and engagement in national parks. This involves managing and completing the operational aspects of the grant-making processes to deliver high-quality programs that connect youth to parks, ensuring high standards for grant management, extensive communication with parks and partners, and removing obstacles to program success.

Duties include:

• Implement and oversee an assigned portfolio of NPF grant programs including Open OutDoors for Kids, Junior Ranger Angler, and Field Science (formerly Citizen Science 2.0). Provide grant support, project management, and technical assistance to effectively deliver grant funds to NPS sites and a range of partners
• Manage the reconciliation of all grant budgets, agreements and payments in this portfolio, working closely with the Director, Grants and Administration and VP, Connecting Audiences. Serve as key point of contact for NPF grantees demonstrating superior customer service exhibited through timely, solution-oriented responses
• Manage diverse components of national programs by tracking the budget, timeline, deliverables, reporting, communications, and donor stewardship. Work closely with Grant Management and Finance teams to provide support that increases efficiency, equity and transparency of grant management and payment processes
• Budgeting tasks also include tracking both corporate and individual gifts, maintaining budgets for both granting and other relevant purposes and deliverables such as evaluation, site visit expenses, grantee travel, and resources and materials, and, ensuring that gifts intended for specific parks and projects are tracked and reported on
• Build and maintain strong communication and relationships with NPS and partner organizations to ensure timely response and awareness around high priority needs and internal processes.
• Support grant cohorts with capacity building opportunities and professional development to ensure implementation is happening at the highest level and responding to current trends and best practices
• Coordinate closely with all philanthropy teams to ensure donor stewardship is a hallmark of program management
• Understand youth education trends and best practices among leading organizations (i.e. nonprofit & corporate partners, other federal, state, or local municipalities) that drive equitable youth engagement in parks and other environmental, cultural and historic sites. Ensure that the programs NPF supports are accessible to all youth, including students at Title I schools, and that programs foster feelings of inclusivity, representation and respect
• Collaborate with Connecting Audiences team and external evaluation vendor(s) to ensure appropriate qualitative and quantitative metrics are captured
• Help ensure NPF and partners have current information on projects in the Connecting Audiences space to facilitate storytelling and help demonstrate success of investments through regular grants updates
• Develop communication materials including proposals, budgets, reports, blogs and infographics which demonstrate impact of youth programs, aid the expansion of philanthropy and reflect NPF mission
• Serve on cross-departmental teams to assist with strategic planning, donor proposal development, communications, fund disbursements, and stewardship

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

Basic Qualifications

• Minimum 3 years (5 years for Senior Manager) of experience in program or grant management positions; park, historic or cultural resource programs for youth preferred
• Expertise in budgeting, managing complex spreadsheets and understanding of non-profit project management
• Experience in grants management processes, demonstrated experience managing approximately 50-100 grants per year preferred
• Youth program planning and management, management of statewide or national programs strongly preferred
• Undergraduate degree in related field required; master’s degree or equivalent experience preferred
• Experience with grant databases, proficiency in Fluxx preferred
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Excel
• Collaborative working style, responsive, considerate, flexible, and personable
• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Exceptional organizational skills and attention to detail
• Experience in working with diverse stakeholder, partners, and vendors; demonstrated ability to engage diverse youth organizations preferred
• Some travel may be required

Preferred Experiences

• Experience working in partnership with a federal agency, park, museum, historic/cultural site, or youth education organization
• Understanding of philanthropic gift lifecycle from proposal development to final reporting and donor stewardship
• Ability to analyze and review grant requests for completeness, viability, inclusivity, and effectiveness
• Evaluation & monitoring experience; knowledge and experience in developing and demonstrating effectiveness of program outcomes

***For consideration, please include a resume plus cover letter.    Review of applications will be based on submission date. The deadline for application submission is November 11, 2022. NPF is currently registered to allow remote work in the following states:
CA, CO, DC, FL, IL, MA, MD, MN, NC, NH, NM, NJ, NY, SC, TN, TX, VA, WA, WI***