Community Impact Program Director, Joy, Restoration, and Resilience/Individual Power

Candidate Profile:

The Community Impact Program Director, Joy, Restoration, and Resilience/Individual Power (CIPD, JRR/IP) is a trusted relationship-builder, systems-change practitioner, and equity-driven strategist who brings both conceptual rigor and applied experience to advancing community-rooted transformation. This leader understands that sustainable impact requires shifting policies, practices, power dynamics, narratives, and resource flows—not simply funding programs.

As both an internal and external strategic partner, the CIPD, JRR/IP operationalizes the Foundation's strategic framework by designing and executing systems-level strategies across the Individual Power and Joy, Restoration, and Resiliencefocus areas, with particular attention to Buffalo's East Side. They translate systems thinking into practical, relationship-centered action grounded in community voice and lived experience.

The CIPD, JRR/IP serves as a connector, listener, and advocate—aligning institutional strategy with grassroots leadership to advance trust-based philanthropy, shared power, and long-term collective impact.

At the heart of the Foundation's work is our strategic framework centered on community power building. Comprised of seven interconnected focus areas, this framework helps shape how we partner, invest, and align our work with communities and our values.

As both an internal and external strategic partner, the CIPD, JRR/IP drives operationalizing our strategic framework by leading investments in the "Individual" and "Joy, Restoration, and Resilience" focus areas. This includes working closely with organizations and entities on Buffalo's East Side to identify and support opportunities aligned with our strategic framework and community-driven. This role is instrumental in institutionalizing Trust-Based Philanthropy principles across the CI function, ensuring equitable grantmaking practices, fostering shared power, and cultivating long-term partnerships that center the voices of those most proximate to the systemic challenges. This role involves coordinating with diverse stakeholders, monitoring focus area impact, evaluating outcomes, and ensuring compliance with relevant internal policies.

The CIPD, JRR/IP serves as a connector, listener, and advocate for equitable impact, helping to ensure our work is grounded in community voice, systems change, addressing root causes, building prosperity, and driven by a vision of collective transformation.

Essential Functions/Responsibilities of the Position:

Strategy & Portfolio Management

• Serve as an Oishei Foundation "brand" ambassador - proactively communicate the Foundation's strategy & plans.
• Lead, execute, and manage the Individual and Joy, Restoration and Resilience portfolios focused on elevating and supporting organizations and entities providing spaces that uplift the abundance and strength of individuals and resources in the community.
• Lead the co-design and execution of the foundation's role in supporting community organizing and collective power movements.
• Meet with partner organizations on a fluid and relational basis, depending on their capacity and interest, to understand their work and learn.
• Prioritize initiatives rooted in the East Side of Buffalo
• Manage and evaluate internal progress while supporting community partner impact. This includes identifying opportunities for community partners to receive organizational infrastructure support.
• Guide program execution from vision through implementation, managing plans, budgets, timelines, and learning agendas aligned to long-term systems-change goals.
• Internally support and partner in identifying research and analysis to inform program design and strategy.
• Prepare reports, presentations, and documentation for internal and external stakeholders.
• Represent and embody the Foundation's strategy and values as a trusted ambassador across community, philanthropic, and civic spaces.

Community Engagement & Relationship Building

• Build authentic, long-term relationships with grassroots leaders, nonprofits, and residents.
• Strengthen individual and organizational power by supporting leaders and organizations to build organizational, narrative, and relational capacity.
• Facilitate listening sessions/community convenings, site visits, and collaborative gatherings to elevate community voice, support unity, and learn through community presence.
• Act as a bridge between institutional resources and community aspirations.
• Support leaders and organizations in building personal and organizational capabilities to become more powerful in accordance with their own strategies and goals.
• Champion partner organizations and organize opportunities for people with influence across sectors to help build greater resources and impactful systems change.
• Represent the organization at meetings, conferences, and public events.

Advance Trust-Based Philanthropy to Shift Systems

• Develop and demonstrate a deep understanding of the TBP framework.
• Champion practices that reduce barriers to funding, including streamlined applications, multi-year support, and doing the homework.
• Promote transparency, mutual accountability, and shared learning.
• Steward unrestricted general operating investments and seek to provide flexible support tailored to community needs.
• Collaborate with partners, grantees, and other stakeholders to ensure successful program delivery.
• Identify opportunities for program improvement and innovation.
• Balance accountability with trust, using learning and shared responsibility—rather than compliance alone—to guide improvement.
• Continuously evolve philanthropic practice by aligning policies, processes, and culture with equity and systems-change goals.

Cross-Sector Collaboration & Learning

• Work across internal teams and external partners to align strategies and share insights. This includes data collection and evaluation, grants management, and budgeting.
• Stay informed on local policy, economic trends, and community innovations.
• Contribute to narrative change, storytelling, and community-informed learning that amplifies impact.
• Ensure compliance with organizational policies and funding requirements.
• Navigate ambiguity with curiosity and adaptability, adjusting approaches as systems evolve.
• Other duties as assigned.

Position Qualifications:

EXPERIENCE (Years & Certifications):

• 7 + years of experience in philanthropy, community engagement, nonprofit leadership, social justice, or related fields.
• Lived experience and/or deep knowledge of communities served, particularly Buffalo's East Side.
• Proven ability to manage multiple portfolios with strategic clarity and operational excellence.
• Experience in senior roles with power-building organizations focusing on systems change, leadership development, narrative change, and/or fundraising.
• Preference to candidates from multidisciplinary backgrounds outside of philanthropy, including but not limited to grassroots leadership, community organizing, arts and culture, policy, etc.
• Experience having played a role (internal or external) that was critical to an organization's growth and/or increasing its impact and power.
• Experience building and executing programs to organize social justice causes and economic mobility.
• Experience executing community convenings with various stakeholders to inform strategies, build stronger relationships, and build community resources.
• Familiarity with trust-based philanthropy and power-based strategies
• Clear track record of delivering results.
• Strong project management skills, demonstrated through previous projects managing multiple internal and external stakeholders (e.g. working across organizations)

SKILLS/Competences:

• Mastery of building meaningful relationships in philanthropy, social movements, and the broader sector.
• Solid research and analytical skills, and the ability to cull and synthesize information from large bodies of knowledge and complex concepts, and draft summaries, analyses, and recommendations.
• Strong commitment to addressing racial inequities and demonstrating anti-racism practices throughout the work.
• Systems thinker with a passion for equity and innovation.
• Comfortable navigating complexity and adapting to evolving priorities.
• Strong interpersonal skills, cultural humility, and a collaborative spirit.
• Ability to apply a broad knowledge of the concepts, practice, principles, and procedures of community investing.
• Ability to effectively coordinate the work of team members.
• Ability to work collaboratively, contribute productively to collective decisions, and execute in alignment with them.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Familiarity with monitoring and evaluation frameworks

Location and Office Expectations

The successful candidate must be based in or willing to relocate to Buffalo, New York, and will be expected to be in the Foundation's office at least 3 days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday). The candidate may need to be in the office or community more than 3 days a week, depending on their specific tasks and responsibilities.

Compensation & Benefits

Salary for this role is anticipated to range from $87,000 - $116,000 commensurate with experience. A comprehensive benefits package includes 401k (7% match), as well as health, dental, and vision insurance (100% family coverage by employer).

EEO Statement

The John R. Oishei Foundation (JROF) is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers all candidates for employment regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, citizenship, pregnancy, military status, marital status, sexual orientation, or any other characteristics protected by law.

To Apply

Please submit cover letter and resume by Friday, January 30, 2026 to by listing the title of position, The Community Impact Program Director, Joy, Restoration, and Resilience/Individual Power (CIPD, JRR/IP) within the subject line. Please include in your cover letter your interest in the position and what the East Side of Buffalo means to you.

Pay: $87, $116,000.00 per year

Experience:

• philanthropy, community engagement, nonprofit leadership: 7 years (Required)

Ability to Relocate:

• Buffalo, NY: Relocate before starting work (Required)

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Buffalo, NY