DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help a teacher in need, moving us closer to a nation where students in every community have the tools and experiences they need for a great education.

Since 2000, more than 5 million people and partners have contributed $1 billion to support 2 million teacher requests for classroom resources and experiences. Projects range from art supplies to build the set for a school musical, to books and puzzles that affirm students’ identities, to bird seed for an at-home science project. We proudly serve all US public schools, public charter schools, and Head Start centers, and we combat systemic inequity by driving a majority of donations to schools that have been historically underfunded due to economic and racial inequity.

DonorsChoose has been recognized as a best place to work by GOOD Magazine and the Nonprofit Times, while Fast Company named DonorsChoose one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World—the first time a charity has made this list. Our dedicated team works from across the United States bring classroom dreams to life.

Team Overview

The Strategy & Innovation team is responsible for guiding organizational strategy and exploring, defining, incubating and launching new business ideas to expand our organization’s impact on educational equity. In the year ahead, this team will pilot an expansion of our services to Puerto Rico, and explore a few other key initiatives from our three-year vision for DonorsChoose, including discovery around an offering that brings supplies to students through their school or district community.

About the Role

In this role, you will manage short- and long-term projects and initiatives, including our upcoming pilot in Puerto Rico. As our first Program Manager on the team, you will also establish program management best practices, including the creation of repeatable and scalable processes as we expand our portfolio of programs and project manage key strategy projects for the organization.

The ideal candidate is entrepreneurial, comfortable navigating ambiguous situations, able to easily zoom in on the details and zoom out to see the bigger picture. This role requires project and program management experience, communication skills, stakeholder management, and the ability to manage complex logistics. It also requires cultural competency and user focus as you make decisions based on the needs of our stakeholders.

In more detail, you will:

• Own the delivery of strategic initiatives from conceptualization to launch, including our pilot expansion to Puerto Rico
• Roll up your sleeves to directly manage and execute the day-to-day tasks, workflows, and metrics related to our pilot in Puerto Rico
• Leverage deep project management experience to develop detailed plans with key milestones and goals, identify and mitigate risks, solve for dependencies, remove impediments, and ensure timely and smooth project launches
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners including Product, Operations, Business Development, and Legal to move initiatives forward
• Liaise with partners on the ground in Puerto Rico and beyond
• Drive decisions when difficult tradeoffs must be made; serve as role model for navigating problems with analytical approach
• Establish a communications strategy to drive alignment and keep key cross-functional partners and senior leaders informed on the progress of initiatives
• Dive deep into data to analyze performance to provide meaningful commentary, and strategic insights on program performance
• Keep abreast of company and product priorities, using strategic insights to influence decision-making at the individual and program area level
• Proactively identify opportunities and provide recommendations to improve operational efficiencies and implement scalable solutions
• Travel to Puerto Rico and other locations in the continental US as needed (<30% travel)

About You

The ideal candidate is entrepreneurial, comfortable navigating ambiguous situations, and is ready to roll up their sleeves. This role requires strong project and/or program management experience, expert communication and stakeholder management skills, and the ability to manage complex logistics.

You may be perfect for this role if you:

• Are passionate about equitable access to quality education
• Are willing and able to engage in conversations about race, representation, and equity; you are comfortable leading discussions, offering your perspective, and listening to learn
• Have experience building, scaling, and executing programs that drive strategic priorities from ideation to implementation, primarily through strong program management principles and hands-on management
• Have experience developing strong executive, peer, and stakeholder relationships, maintaining effective communication channels, and influencing without authority
• Effectively leverage strong problem solving and analytical skills to facilitate decision making, unblock progress, and mitigate risks
• Relish owning the thorniest and most complex initiatives and have a track record of bringing them to completion on time
• Have a bias towards action and are able to manage multiple, competing priorities
• Are excited to zoom in and out: to think strategically and also dig into the details and execute
• See opportunity in ambiguity and are comfortable operating independently
• Are flexible and can effectively adjust plans based on new information without losing a beat and while keeping morale high
• Have, at minimum, Professional Working Proficiency in Spanish
• Have the following experience or qualifications (but not required):
  
  • Experience working with product, engineering, UX, and data teams to build digital products
  • Experience bringing existing products to new markets
  • Expertise in K-12 education

Compensation and Benefits

Our compensation philosophy ensures that we are both externally competitive with tech-forward nonprofits of a similar size and internally fair in our pay practices. The following ranges represent the target offer range given the scope and experience expectations for this role.

• The hiring salary range for this role is $84,000-$95,000
• We have a hiring salary range of $93,000-$105,000 for specific higher cost of labor locations, which include New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, and Washington, D.C.

Once employees are hired, everyone at DonorsChoose is eligible to receive annual performance-based raises as they grow in their role. We are open to a variety of experiences, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced or more senior than this job description as posted. If you don’t check every box listed here, or you know you’d bring additional experience to the table, we hope you’ll submit your application.

In addition, we offer full-time staff 25 paid vacation days per year and 11 paid holidays, a rich employer-paid individual and family health plan, a matching 401(k) plan (up to 5% of base salary), annual professional development stipend, and casual and flexible work environment. To learn more about what it is like to work for DonorsChoose, visit our careers page.

Hybrid Workplace and Other Details

In this role, you’ll have the option to work a flexible hybrid schedule in our NYC office, or to work fully remotely from CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, ME, MA, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, TX, VA, WA, WI.

Candidates who are not in the NYC area should expect to travel to our NYC office on an as-needed basis, about 4-6 times per year. The Program Manager, New Markets can also expect to travel to Puerto Rico and other locations in the continental United States, as needed. All work-related travel expenses will be covered by the organization.

DonorsChoose participates in E-Verify. We will provide the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee’s Form I-9 to confirm work authorization.

To Apply

Please submit your resume and answer the application questions online. Since we’re trying to get to know you through our hiring process, we ask that you please refrain from using AI writing tools to craft your response to our application questions. A cover letter is optional and may be addressed to Barbara Cvenic, Vice President, Strategy & Innovation

A Final Note

The DonorsChoose team works toward a nation where students in every community have the resources needed for an excellent education. To do this we hire and support a diverse team of the best and the brightest talent available.

We are an organization increasingly representative of the varied races and ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations, religious and political beliefs, and abilities that comprise our nation. DonorsChoose focuses on attracting, retaining, and advancing diverse talent because it makes us more effective, high-performing, creative, and resilient.

If you are passionate about our mission, highly skilled in your field, and looking for a place where you can bring all of yourself to work, we want you.