Program Officer vs Senior Program Officer?

RyanCampbell

I am curious how other foundations delineate the job responsibilities between Program Officers and Senior Program Officers? If you have any examples of job descriptions that would be helpful as well.

Thank you!

AlyseBraaten

@GregProbst @SarahLambert I think one of you may have some experience with this quesiton.

SarahLambert

In our organization it's more about tenure and experience (Associate>Officer>Director) than job duties; we're divided by function between Scholarships and Grants. As our new Scholarship Associate advances in her career, she'll have less supervision and more opportunities to expand the scholarship program, but functionally she'll still be in charge of the administration of the scholarship process even if she's promoted to an Officer. As we grow we'll have to tackle this, and I envision probably bringing on an Associate who supports both functions and reports to the VP who oversees the entire department, but at this point it's still just an academic question.

I'm interested to hear what everyone else has to say!

KatieDecker

Council on Foundations has some helpful guidance around the definition of Program Officer in their Glossary of Philanthropic Terms.

PROGRAM OFFICER:

Also referred to as a corporate affairs officer, program associate, public affairs officer, or community affairs officer, a program officer is a staff member of a foundation or corporate giving program who may do some or all of the following: recommend policy, review grant requests, manage the budget and process applications for the board of directors or contributions committee.

There is also a sample job description available for members on their site.

Best, Katie

GregProbst

I definitely agree with @SarahLambert on this:

In our organization it's more about tenure and experience (Associate>Officer>Director) than job duties

Not necessarily strictly related to duties but career progression.

RyanCampbell

Thank you all for your feedback! Much appreciated. Thank you @KatieDecker for the link to resources!