Ballinger | Leafblad is proud to present the following information on behalf of our client, the Bush Foundation, in its search for an Education Portfolio Director.
The Bush Foundation is a private foundation based in St. Paul, Minnesota focused on investing in great ideas and the people who power them. Established in 1953 by 3M executive Archibald Bush and his wife, Edyth, the Foundation works in communities across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and the 23 Native nations that share the same geography. Learn more about their work at BushFoundation.org.
WHAT THE FOUNDATION DOES
The Foundation uses its resources – financial and otherwise – to inspire and support creative problem solving, within and across sectors, to make our region better for everyone. The Foundation does this in two primary ways:
- by supporting people and organizations working on the issues that are most important to their communities. The primary programs in this area include:
- Communications and Convenings, where the Foundation shares stories of the people and organizations they invest in, and creates and supports events that inspire, equip and connect people across the regions served.
- Community Innovation grants and the Bush Prize, where the Foundation supports organizations who are trying or demonstrating innovative approaches to solving community problems.
- Leadership Programs, connecting leaders with people and ideas through the Bush Fellowship Program and Change Network.
- by advancing specific strategic issues that are a priority to the Foundation through our strategic initiatives. Their current strategic initiatives include:
- Education – The guiding goal for our Education initiative is to make our region the national leader in providing individualized education that meets the needs and ambitions of all students.
- Nation Building and Government Redesign – The goal of our Native Nation Building and Government Redesign initiative is to support Native self-determination and help governments solve problems by better understanding and designing for the people they serve.
- Community Creativity – The guiding goal of our Community Creativity initiative is to make art a central element of problem solving on more issues, across more sectors and in more communities throughout the region.
- Social Business Ventures – The guiding goal of our Social Business Ventures initiative is to make our region the best place in the country to launch and grow social purpose businesses.
In 2013, the Bush Foundation adopted five operating values that guide the way we work. They are:
Spread Optimism. We encourage individuals and organizations to think bigger and think differently about what is possible. We are positive and supportive in our internal and external interactions.
Work Beyond Ourselves. We actively seek opportunities to work in true collaboration with others to have more impact. We are willing to both lead and follow. We candidly share what we learn with others.
Everybody Matters. We are a champion for both excellence and equity inside and out of the Foundation. We have fair, open and inclusive processes. We work to raise overall quality of life while also closing opportunity and achievement gaps.
Steward Well. We demonstrate appreciation for the Foundation’s history and thoughtfully build on its legacy. We hold ourselves to high standards of integrity and accountability and conduct ourselves in a way that we hope would make our founders proud.
More Good Every Year. We are a true learning organization and work to be smarter and more effective every year. We never lose sight of the reason we exist: to do the most possible good with the resources left to the community by Archibald G. Bush.
EQUITY STATEMENT
Equity is central to the Bush Foundation’s purpose: to inspire and support creative problem solving, within and across sectors, to make the region better for everyone.
TO INSPIRE AND SUPPORT CREATIVE PROBLEM SOLVING Diversity of thought is a critical ingredient in creativity and innovation. Communities are smarter and stronger when they draw from a wide variety of experience, perspective and wisdom.
TO MAKE OUR REGION BETTER FOR EVERYONE
The Bush Foundation is about place — a region of three states and 23 Native nations. This region’s future will be defined by how well every person in it does — at home, in school, at work and in the community. This region’s future, therefore, depends on institutions and systems that work well for all people. Too many do not.
This is not just about whether organizations are intentionally excluding or disadvantaging people. Racism, for example, is not only hateful acts. Racism, can also be embedded in policies and practices that are well-intended and meant to work for all, but just don’t. Organizational failings, big and small, combine to systemically exclude and disadvantage people. These barriers limit individual opportunity and limit our collective regional potential.
Every person in our region can impact institutions and systems. Institutions and systems are created and perpetuated by people. To change institutions and systems is to change the minds and the actions of people. There is a role for all of us to play.
At the Bush Foundation, we believe that bridging cultural differences and adapting organizations to work well for everyone are essential skills for leaders to be relevant and effective — whatever their purpose and whatever their politics. These are skills one has to learn and practice.
- It is learning about and understanding your own history and context and why you think and act the way you do. It is learning about and understanding other people’s history and context and why they think and act the way they do. And it is empathetically adapting to work effectively across differences.
- It is the ability to examine policies and practices to see who may be excluded or disadvantaged by them, regardless of the intent. And it is the ability to work with those affected by policies and practices to design and redesign them to work well for everyone.
Within the Bush Foundation, we are working on these skills to bring an equity lens to all we do.
Without a doubt, definitions of and conversations about equity and inclusion have changed since Archibald Bush’s generation. Our stated commitment to uplifting the whole region has not. We have struggled at times to live up to our aspirations; at times our actions have contributed to social, economic and racial disparities. Those shortcomings are real opportunities for us to think and act differently about how we advance equity in our region.
As a charitable foundation, we have a particular obligation to live up to high standards of diversity, equity and inclusion. We have a power in the issues we raise, the questions we ask, and the people and organizations we fund. For us to be effective in addressing issues in communities throughout the region, we must be sensitive to and savvy about differences such as culture, race, income, gender identity, geography, physical ability, religious belief, or any other difference that is meaningful in understanding an issue and how it might be addressed. We see equity as part and parcel of excellence. And we are committed to becoming excellent.
As we work toward being more equitable, we plan to publicly share our successes and setbacks in hopes we can be useful to others. We do so with humility and recognition that we are — and will always be — a work in progress.
OVERVIEW OF POSITION
The Education Portfolio Director is a member of the Strategy and Learning team — the home for the Bush Foundation strategic initiatives. Each of these initiatives (currently Education, Nation Building and Government Redesign, Community Creativity and Social Business Ventures) advances a particular goal to make the region better for everyone. These portfolios are at varying degrees of development; when fully implemented, each will include 1) investments in major partnerships with innovative organizations that are achieving results 2) ecosystem grants where the Foundation provides operating support to organizations that create the environment where change can flourish, and 3) support for movement building activities, communications and evaluation to advance the goals.
Job Purpose
The Education Portfolio Director develops and executes strategies to advance the Foundation’s guiding education goal of making our region the national leader in providing individualized education that meets the needs and ambitions of all students.
PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Lead strategy development and execution of the Foundation’s Education strategy including shaping the approach, criteria and process for selecting and managing both existing and new investments.
- Cultivate and manage relationships with existing grantees and partners.
- Oversee the selection and management of Education ecosystem grants and collaborate in the cross-Foundation ecosystem grants process.
- Work with the Strategy & Learning team to set portfolio management strategy and processes across focus areas. Share functional responsibilities such as grants selection and evaluation with other Strategic Initiative Portfolio Directors.
- Develop and implement evaluation and learning strategies for the Foundation’s Education investments.
- Supervise strategy and learning staff who support the work of multiple strategic initiatives.
- Represent the Foundation in external leadership roles to advance the Education goal and other strategic initiatives.
- Serve on the Foundation’s Management Team to ensure cross-team alignment on strategic direction and operations. Participate in recruiting and selection of grantees and Fellows on other teams as needed.
- Actively demonstrate core organizational values in performing all duties.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- At least seven years of experience in relevant public, nonprofit or related private sector fields with significant experience leading or managing initiatives related to education.
- Deep knowledge of Education issues and ecosystem in the Upper Midwest. We expect that the successful candidate will have experience leading, developing or implementing individualized learning strategies.
- Strong network of relevant relationships within the Bush Foundation funding region.
- Exceptional strategic and analytical skills with demonstrated success developing new strategies.
- Effective and adaptable communication and interpersonal skills. Demonstrated success working with teams and within highly inclusive and participatory decision-making processes.
- Demonstrated ability to effectively interact, communicate and collaborate with people from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. Deep interest in diversity, equity and inclusion issues.
- Supervisory experience is required with demonstrated ability to motivate and inspire people to meet their goals.
- Able to work independently, interpreting and applying strategic guidelines with minimal direction and incomplete information. Comfortable in fluid and dynamic work settings.
ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT
The Education Portfolio Director reports to Strategy & Learning Vice President Allison Barmann, serves on the Foundation’s Management Team and supervises one or more Strategy & Learning team members. Some travel and schedule adjustments will be necessary in this position.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For more information about this position, please join Strategy & Learning Vice President Allison Barmann and Talent Development Director Stephanie Andrews for an informational webinar on Friday, May 18 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. central time.
Click this link https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6956893034035717890 to register for the webinar. If you wish to remain anonymous as an attendee during the webinar, please register as Archibald Bush. A recording of the webinar will be available at www.bushfoundation.org/about-us/careers a few days after the webinar airs live.
For additional information and/or to apply for the position please email a cover letter, current resume and compensation requirements to Lars Leafblad via lars-at-ballingerleafblad.com. Review of candidates will begin immediately. The Bush Foundation is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer
US immigration policy touches countless communities in Minnesota and across the country, but the historic roots, present-day political battles and long-term human impact are still invisible to many of us. To effectively create change, we all need important context on this complex and far-reaching issue.
Deportation exacerbates existing oppression and historical injustices.
Many immigrants and refugees to the United States, including members of Release MN8, sought refuge in the US because of instability and war in their homelands. It is no secret that the conditions they escaped are connected to US military and political involvement abroad. Such is the recent situation with Central American unaccompanied minor migrants leaving Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. That thousands of young people from this region now seek asylum at the US border, only to be turned away, highlights the dangerous contradictions inherent in US foreign and immigration policies, particularly given the history of US interventions that destabilized these nations, specifically connected to the drug war.
This tragic irony is also present in the case of Cambodian refugees who fled war and genocide in Cambodia over 30 years ago. The Khmer Rouge regime oversaw the “killing fields” period of Cambodian history (1975-1979). Prior to the Khmer Rouge’s takeover, Cambodia (and neighboring Laos) experienced massive US bombings raids across its countryside in the early 1970’s. US military forces sought to disrupt Vietnamese communist supply lines, disregarding the neutrality of both Cambodia and Laos during the Vietnam War. These bombing raids both devastated Cambodia’s agricultural infrastructure and contributed significantly to political instability that eventually gave rise to the Khmer Rouge.
Ched Nin and other Southeast Asian refugees are essentially all children of the US-Vietnam conflict. Most Cambodian American deportees were young when they arrived in the US. Some were babies. As Eric Tang observed in his book, Unsettled: Cambodian Refugees in the NYC Hyperghetto, there has never been an adequate resettlement policy for Cambodian refugees. And with inhumane immigration and deportation policies, the US continues to fail this community. Something is critically wrong with a system that deports individuals who arrived here as refugee infants and toddlers.
Immigration is a federal policy but local decisions matter
For lawful permanent residents (LPRs—i.e., green card holders) with removal orders, as was each of the MN8, their convictions for state crimes lead to deportation. The types of offenses that can trigger a removal order are part of a very broad category called “aggravated felonies.” An offense is deemed an aggravated felony when it earns a criminal sentence of at least one year. As legal scholar Bill Ong Hing noted in his book, Deporting Our Souls, the aggravated felonies category has been broadening ever since the term became part of immigration laws in 1988. It includes things ranging from rape, treason and murder, to relatively minor offenses such as criminal damage to property or selling small amounts of marijuana.
The interaction of state and local authorities—like police, district attorneys, and judges—with immigration policy matter for LPRs. Local and state decisions, including enforcement and prosecution, carry significant implications for immigrants and refugees who are not US citizens. Jenny Srey and the ReleaseMN8 coalition are preparing to introduce legislation in the Minnesota Legislature that would allow individuals to challenge their state convictions if they were not notified of the deportation consequence of the conviction or plea bargain (see US Padilla v Kentucky). And the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee have put forth a 13 point sanctuary city platform for Minneapolis that includes funding legal representation for immigrants detained by ICE, and promotes active ordinances to deter local cooperation with ICE.
The consequences of separating families are severe.
Deportation doesn’t just affect those caught up in the criminal justice web of current immigration policy. It causes severe harm to those left behind, including young children. Ched Nin and his wife, Jenny, were raising five children and leading ordinary lives when Ched was detained in 2016. The impact of his deportation would have been catastrophic for his entire household: his wife, three daughters, two stepsons and his parents. Ched is a respected carpenter and the loss of his union salary and health coverage would have been devastating for the family.
Beyond the financial challenges, it is difficult to fully assess the ongoing impact of such an absence on a family, though one can imagine that cycles of poverty, reliance on social services, and contact with the criminal justice system are intimately connected to the disruption and disintegration of family systems.
Not all family members with removal orders are able to share the type of progress narrative that Ched is able to convey—a story of mistakes made, and of redemption. In fact, many individuals caught up in this immigration-criminal justice web are being directly transferred into immigration detention after serving prison sentences. Many are subsequently deported without ever seeing their families, even though they had children, spouses, parents and siblings desperately awaiting their return.
It is important to acknowledge that these individuals, all of them, also deserve to be with their families. It cannot be overstated that deportation creates more problems for families and communities. These families, now more than ever, need their loved ones home.
Vichet Chhuon is Associate Professor of Culture and Teaching and Asian American Studies at the University of Minnesota. His work centers on the teaching and learning needs of immigrant and marginalized students, and the relationships between educational institutions, families and social context.
The Minnesota Humanities Center (MHC)’s grant programs provide opportunities to partner with organizations offering robust humanities programming in communities across Minnesota.
MHC is announcing the launch of a competitive grant opportunity through the Minnesota State Legacy Amendment Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund (ACHF). Aligning with its Veterans’ Voices program, MHC is seeking humanities-based projects that celebrate the rich diversity of voices, identities, stories, and experiences of Minnesota’s Veterans across the state.
MHC is also announcing the launch of a competitive grant opportunity through the Minnesota State Legacy Amendment Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund (ACHF). Aligning with its foundational offerings around absent narratives, MHC is seeking humanities-based projects that celebrate the rich diversity of voices, identities, stories, and experiences of Minnesotans.
The McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation, seeks to improve the quality of life for present and future generations. Program interests include regional economic and community development, Minnesota’s arts and artists, education equity, youth development, Midwest climate and energy, Mississippi River water quality, neuroscience research, international crop research, and rural livelihoods. Founded in 1953 and independently endowed by William and Maude McKnight, the Foundation has assets of approximately $2.4 billion and grants about $90 million a year. For more information, visit www.mcknight.org.
Designated as a Great Place to Work® for its high-trust, high-performance workplace culture, 100% of McKnight employees say they’re proud to work here. Employees love our mission and the chance to take on meaningful, creative work alongside caring, talented colleagues in a beautiful location with great benefits. In addition, McKnight has been recognized as one of the nation’s best workplaces for women and one of the nation’s best small workplaces.
Position Purpose
The international program assistant will provide program and administrative support for the Collaborative Crop Research Program (CCRP) including expenditure responsibility grants requiring detailed review and strict adherence to internal controls. Responsibilities include managing grantee information and reports, assisting with organization of local and international meetings and conferences, and overseeing grant nomination and application processes. The international program assistant (PA) is a key administrative contact person for grantees and consultants of the CCRP.
Key Areas of Responsibilities
- Provide administrative support to the CCRP.
- Coordinate grant-making schedule among foundation staff and consultants.
- Process grant proposals, payment letters, agreements, and other grant documents.
- Review concept notes, proposals, grant reviews, and reports for correct and complete documentation.
- Troubleshoot IGAM/GIFTS processes for grantees, consultants, and staff.
- Primary administrative contact person for grantees and consultants.
- Correspond with grantees about grant terms, reporting requirements, and other administrative information in a timely manner.
- Review concept notes and grant requests for completeness.
- Inform consultants, program officer, and program director of any discrepancies found in reports.
- Coordinate, with consultants, the planning and execution of virtual and in-person program meetings and calls throughout the year.
- Track program grant payout to meet deadlines.
- Work with consultants and communications department to update information on McKnight, CCRP.org, and CCRP space websites.
- Program-specific administrative support as assigned.
- Contribute to improving administrative grantmaking and program processes.
- Maintain up-to-date CCRP Program Assistant manual.
- Provide on-going support on efforts to improve CCRP operations and administrative processes.
- Respond to unsolicited grant requests and inquiries.
- Provide administrative support to international programs.
- Coordinate creation and production of materials for Board of Trustees’ meetings.
- Schedule, prepare agenda for, participate in, and take notes at team meetings.
- Support program director with expense reports and credit card bill reconciliations.
- Assist with travel arrangements and registration for conferences and meetings.
- Support program-related meetings and gatherings.
- Maintain shared user accounts for program collaboration and communications, such as SurveyMonkey and Zoom.
- Provide administrative support and participate in broader Foundation activities.
- Assist with team-related meetings and Foundation-wide events, as needed.
- Attend and actively participate in staff meetings, work groups, staff development activities, PA meetings.
- Provide support for receptionist and other program areas, as needed.
- Collaborate with the communications team to ensure that all program information, online and print materials is up-to-date, accurate, and effectively presented for various audiences.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Ability to adapt to ongoing emerging priorities in short-term and long-term workload.
- Ability to learn, use, and support others in using new software and tools.
- Ability to work cross-culturally.
- Ability to prepare clearly written summaries and analysis.
- Ability to communicate effectively interpersonally and in groups.
- Ability to handle heavy workload and meet deadlines.
- Ability to work with high level of proficiency in Microsoft Office software including Word, Excel, Access, and Outlook.
- Ability to manage highly detailed work with speed and accuracy.
- Patience and a high comfort level with emergence and ambiguity.
- Proficiency in Spanish or French is desirable.
Required Education and Experience
Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of 2 years related full time professional work experience in a foundation, nonprofit, or government field, or a combination of equivalent experience and training. International work experience in a developing country is preferred.
Working Conditions and Physical Effort
- Work is normally performed in an office work environment with little physical effort required.
- Regular operation of normal office machines (computer, copier, and fax) is required.
- There are occasional evenings and weekends required.
- Some travel outside of the McKnight Foundation office is required.
Hiring Range is $24.00-$25.00/Hour
