Associate Program Officer

About the role

• Job Title: Associate Program Officer
• Reports To: Director of Grants and Impact Investment
• Location: St. Louis, MO office; currently 3+2 hybrid schedule
• Position Type: Full-time, Exempt

Travel Required

Local travel for occasional site visits across St. Louis City and North St. Louis County

Salary range

$60,000-$85,000. Generous employer-paid premiums for health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance. Additional benefits available include professional development assistance, tuition assistance, student loan repayment assistance, paid holidays, paid time off, paid parental leave, and a retirement plan with employer contribution.

Position Summary

The Associate Program Officer will be an important member of JSMF's three-person Grants and Impact Investment team, alongside the Director of Grants and Impact Investment and the Program Officer. The team is part of the Foundation's Strategy and Programs unit and works closely with colleagues across the organization.

Serving in a support function to the team, and to the wider Foundation team when needed, the Associate Program Officer will be a key contributor to the Foundation's annual grantmaking and impact investment processes. The role supports sourcing, proposal review, onboarding and portfolio management, including accountability for an assigned portion of the grant portfolio and the related funded partner relationships.

This role is ideal for someone relatively new to philanthropy, offering hands-on learning in grantmaking and impact investing and the opportunity to join funded partner site visits.

The Associate Program Officer reports directly to the Director of Grants and Impact Investments.

Key Responsibilities

Portfolio management support

• Support the team's semiannual check-ins with funded partners and lead check-ins for an assigned portion of the portfolio, including scheduling, agendas, co-created partner support plans and follow-up.
• Keep the portfolio performance dashboard current, flag trends, and help the team prepare for quarterly portfolio status meetings.
• Keep partner profiles current across JSMF's systems, such as HubSpot, Monday.com and SmartSimple.

Funded partner relationship support

• Serve as a responsive day-to-day contact for funded partners, support the team's relationship management, and lead relationships for an assigned portion of the portfolio.
• Organize onboarding orientations for new funded partners, including scheduling, preparing documents, taking notes and managing follow-ups.

Grantmaking and impact investment process

• Support the team from sourcing through award with proposal reviews, grant summaries, system updates and follow-ups, ensuring a positive applicant experience and a smooth internal process.
• Help prepare materials for quarterly JSMF Board of Directors meetings.
• Liaise with the wider JSMF team on process documentation and improvements.

Partner events and learning

• Help plan and run JSMF-hosted initiatives such as funded partner networking events and learning cohorts.

Education and experience

• Bachelor's degree required.
• Two years of relevant grantmaking or impact investment experience preferred, but not required.

Skills and tools

• Clear writing for funded partner communications and internal reports.
• Comfort with Excel spreadsheets and reading basic financial reports.
• Familiarity with, or eagerness to learn, tools such as HubSpot, SmartSimple, Monday.com and Claude.

Competencies

• Strong attention to detail.
• Alignment with JSMF's mission.
• A collaborative, creative and proactive approach to problem-solving.
• Exceptional interpersonal, communication and relationship-building skills, with empathy and a service mindset.
• Strong project management, time management and prioritization skills.
• Cultural competency and the ability to work with a wide variety of stakeholders.
• A team player willing to pitch in across JSMF.