The Opportunity

The Open Society Foundations seek a dynamic executive to design and lead the Women’s Political Leadership Fund (WPLF), a new initiative supported by the Open Society Foundations. This new strategic fund will support progressive women to enter, succeed, and sustain their influence in formal political spaces. The fund will be specially designed to increase the political power of women fighting for democratic values and gender/racial justice, with a special focus on those coming from historically marginalized communities particularly in the Global South.

The Open Society Foundations work to build vibrant and inclusive democracies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people. We are active in more than 120 countries, making us the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights.

The Women’s Political Leadership Fund

• The Women’s Political Leadership Fund (WPLF) is a new independent fund designed to bring critical funding to advance women’s feminist and democratic political leadership, especially in the Global South. The Open Society Foundations has committed up to USD 25 million to launch the WPLF and to grow the Fund by matching those funds and attracting donors to join this important initiative. The WPLF will be hosted by OSF for the first year as the consultant works to establish the fund as an independent entity.
• The WPLF will focus on increasing the political power of women fighting for human rights, equality, democratic and feminist values within formal political spaces. It will have a special focus on women coming from historically marginalized communities. Given the rise of authoritarianism, populism, and anti-gender politics, the WPLF will prioritize investment in contexts of elected authoritarianism, as well as selected countries where real objective opportunities for strategic wins exist.

Mandate

The WPLF Director will design and lead this new strategic initiative that provides grants and other support to increase the political power of progressive women leaders. The primary role will be to design and spin off the fund. To achieve this, the WPLF Director will:

1. Provide inspiring, strategic leadership: The Director will lead development of vision, strategy and plans for the fund. The Director should be a visionary leader who excites and activates the organization, donors and other allies around clear vision, purpose and priorities. The Director will inspire fresh approaches to current and emerging challenges and develop clear strategic direction for the WPLF.
2. Grow relationships and resources: The Director will be a compelling representative and builder of relationships spanning women political leaders and allies, political parties, multilateral organizations, public and private donors, global and local partners, social movements and civil society organizations. The leader will be an excellent fundraiser, able to lead the Fund to new sources of support.
3. Build a fund that can run independently: The Director will help build the fund to become independent from the outset, helping set up the governance mechanisms, operating procedures and associated requirements to ensure the fund can be spun off in a sustainable manner. The Director will know how to scale and build an initiative from inception.
4. Visibility and reputation: The Director will be a political leader with public visibility. A credible, charismatic communicator who would serve as leading external voice, thought leader and representative of the WPLF. The Director will be highly skilled at communicating complex and even controversial issues in an accessible non-partisan manner to a wide range of audiences. The Director will be excellent at strategic messaging and will promote strong brand positioning and presence of the WPLF.
5. Be a great organizational leader: The Director will have significant executive experience and a track record of building and sustaining high-performing collaborative teams and organizations. The Director will recruit and develop talent, and will build a culture of shared values, aspirations, high standards and accountability.

Personal characteristics

The ideal candidate will come from an active electoral politics background in the Global South with regional or global experience and track record of standing up against authoritarianism, promoting human rights and a feminist agenda. The Director will be entrepreneurial, visionary and a thought leader in the intersectionality movement.

The Director will have:

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in political leadership positions
• Proven leadership ability, vision and strategic acumen
• Fundraising, communication, diplomatic and negotiation skills
• Experience working in an entrepreneurial or start-up environment
• Credibility, integrity and trustworthiness.
• An inclusive, supportive and participative management style that builds consensus and buy-in.
• Authentic commitment to human rights, democracy, racial and gender equality
• Ability to build consensus and make tough decisions as well as expertise dealing with crises, change and conflict
• Patience and ability to work under uncertainty
• Financial, technology, organizational and change-management skills
• Lived values that center equity, inclusion and respect

Deadline

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis till May 22, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. CEST.

Contract type

The Director will be hired on a one-year consultancy contract with a possibility of extension, and reporting to OSF’s Justice Director of Global Programs.

Compensation

A competitive package commensurate with experience will be offered.

Location

The Director will not be expected to be based in any specific location but frequent travel is expected.

Hiring support

Hiring for this role is supported by the Apolitical Foundation. Apolitical Foundation will be holding an information session for this position at the beginning of May; questions can be directed in advance to janani@apolitical.foundation.

Note: The Apolitical Foundation and the Open Society Foundations are equal opportunity employers. We will not discriminate and will take affirmative action measures to ensure against discrimination in employment, recruitment, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment against any employee or job applicant on the bases of race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, caste, disability, veteran’s status, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.