Vice President, Program Investments

Key Responsibilities

The new VP, Program Investments will be joining Prysm Initiative during its start-up period.  The following represent the priorities and objectives for this new role as it contributes to building the organization’s overall strategy and operations.

Strategy & Leadership

• In close collaboration with the CEO and leadership team, develop the strategy and operating plan to infuse the world’s leading expertise into Prysm Initiative’s efforts to support philanthropists, helping guide them towards the greatest impact in the global reproductive health sector at each stage of their journey.
• Build and lead a small, high-performing team charged with sourcing and managing the global expertise that is essential for Prysm Initiative to be credible with its target donor audience, and to be confident it is directing philanthropic capital to high-impact solutions.
• More broadly across the organization, play a contributing role in helping to build a dynamic, fast-growing start-up entity, enabling it to continue to scale and advance its unique mission.

Source and Diligence Solutions

• Lead, manage, and contribute to the effort to source and diligence solutions from across philanthropic and civil society sectors, helping to match the needs of new philanthropists with trusted opportunities.
• Operate as an objective and expert broker with the global reproductive health field, which requires not being wedded to a single theory of change or agenda.  Provide support in helping philanthropists understand different points-of-view around various solutions, and help guide them to viable pathways to impact through the paces of a rigorous diligence framework.
• In close partnership with the CEO and Communications team, help design and craft accessible materials for philanthropists, including developing frameworks to quickly educate them on investment options, elevating the questions that matter most for impact, and supporting efforts to move philanthropists from learning to action.
• In partnership with the CEO and Communications team, co-create “on-demand” knowledge products with involvement from networks of experts and other stakeholders to support investments in global reproductive health philanthropy and eventual scaling.
• Lead and manage efforts to better define opportunities for intersectoral engagement from philanthropists who support other causes, such as climate, gender, and poverty.  Build and elevate cases for why global reproductive health is vital to every cause and curate portfolios of solutions with compelling co-benefits.
• Build and manage team-wide learning sessions on content and manage processes to cascade new learnings from the field to the team.

Engagement With Global Networks/Advisors

• Continually grow, evolve, and maintain trust-based partnerships and networks to the global reproductive health sector, including ensuring advisors rotate periodically and Prysm Initiative evolves as it learns.  Identify and address gaps in networks, finding new partnerships and coalitions across geographies and sectors that meet Prysm Initiative’s needs for diverse validation and expertise as well as to advance its efforts to curate big ideas with the field.  Promote and lead transparent engagements rooted in reciprocal information and knowledge sharing.
• Actively partner with and represent Prysm Initiative externally in complex networks and convenings, primarily to identify emerging opportunities and developments in the sector, as well as to help the field and Prysm Initiative align on messaging and learnings.

Ideal Candidate Profile

Prysm Initiative seeks a senior strategist in the global reproductive health sector who has the ability to help define and lead this new practice area with vision, creativity, and commitment.  Candidates must have broad global content expertise, demonstrated experience working across sectors and geographies, an international network, and a deep understanding of the solutions and vital role philanthropy plays in tackling issues in the field.  Intellectual dynamism and an objective approach to the full breadth of global reproductive health solutions will be essential in order to work effectively across a wide spectrum of networks, partnerships, and funder groups.

The ideal candidate is a self-starter with a strong entrepreneurial orientation, who will thrive in a new, fast-paced venture and will be energized by building something new and innovative.  The VP will be skilled at building trust-based partnerships and able to connect to leading experts from across the global reproductive health community, including cultivating and convening networks.  Excellent analytical skills are required, with the ability to pinpoint key questions, distill frameworks, weigh competing points-of-view, and synthesize actionable findings – all with rigor and speed.  Outstanding writing, editing, and verbal communication skills are a must, with an emphasis on clear, compelling presentation for audiences new to the global reproductive health sector.

A leadership style that is driven by active inquiry and learning is necessary, alongside an intellect that evolves and thrives by creatively synthesizing ideas and input from multiple sources, and an ability to recognize excellence.  Candidates must be comfortable considering multiple points of view and encouraging constructive, balanced discussions to drive innovation and progress with philanthropic solutions.  In particular, a posture that invites candor and a temperament that deploys a sensitive touch in teasing out points of disagreement is essential to this position’s success.

The VP will have a proven track record designing, building, leading, and coaching high performing and highly collaborative teams.  Candidates must have a passion for and belief in the importance of creating a team and work environment in which people from diverse cultural, social, and ethnic backgrounds can contribute and thrive.  The culture of Prysm Initiative also requires a balanced sense of confidence and humility, along with unimpeachable ethics, judgment, and the discretion required when working with and supporting high profile philanthropists.  Additionally, candidates must have a demonstrated history of effectively engaging and managing external talent, such as consultants and retained experts, in order to create the leveraged capabilities Prysm Initiative needs to do this work at scale.

A minimum of fifteen years of broad strategy and content expertise in the global reproductive health sector is required, ideally working across sectors and geographies, including in the global south, and a grounding in how organizations deliver solutions in different regions worldwide.  Candidates must be able to demonstrate experience and knowledge in defining and/or sourcing high-impact solutions in the sector.  Finally, experience designing processes and system requirements that enable efficient knowledge management and streamlined workflows both within and across teams is highly desirable – with an eye toward the agility start-ups require.