Director, Early Childhood
Valhalla Foundation

Director, Early Childhood

ABOUT VALHALLA FOUNDATION

Founded in 2003 by Scott Cook and Signe Ostby, Valhalla Foundation aims to drive measurable and meaningful improvement in the lives of children and families as well as the health of our planet.  Scott and Signe, the Trustees of Valhalla, are proud signatories of The Giving Pledge and are passionate about “giving while living.” 

We currently invest in five program areas – early childhood development, K-12 and data science education, climate innovation, and medical research and talent – focusing on finding ideas grounded in robust impact evidence and rooted in understanding the needs of the communities we seek to serve.  We support leaders and organizations in flexible ways that acknowledge the complexity of the context in which they operate.  Across our program areas, we prioritize working collaboratively with other funders to invest in approaches that expand available resources and improve the impact of philanthropy. We invest in research, direct product and service models, policy advocacy, and field capacity building to ensure that the highest impact solutions to complex societal challenges deliver positive outcomes to millions of people and the planet.  At Valhalla, we are building a team culture that challenges and supports people from a wide array of backgrounds to do the most exciting, highest-impact work of their lives.  Learn more at www.valhalla.org.

ABOUT THE EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Valhalla’s Early Childhood Development portfolio supports organizations that ensure young children, and particularly children from low-income families, are on a path to kindergarten readiness.  We prioritize positive relationships between young children and the caring and capable adults in their lives – parents, teachers, and caregivers – as these critical relationships drive child outcomes at every stage of development.  We get excited by solutions that are proven or demonstrate the promise to impact children’s physical, social-emotional, and academic outcomes and have the potential to scale to serve hundreds of thousands of children and families.  We also invest in organizations that build the early childhood ecosystem and remove barriers to impact and scale.  Visit the Early Childhood Development portfolio page for details. 

ABOUT THE ROLE

As Director of our Early Childhood Healthcare portfolio, you will make and manage philanthropic investments that leverage healthcare systems, and the pediatric channel in particular, to strengthen parent-child relationships and improve children’s physical, social-emotional, and academic outcomes, with a focus on children and families who are situated farthest from opportunity.  Our investees are growing evidence-based solutions in healthcare and pediatrics, conducting research to demonstrate the impact of new models, and building the capacity of the field to deliver effective interventions.  Your analysis and recommendations will inform key investments that nurture parents’ competence and confidence around their child’s social and emotional development, connect families to support and resources, and help care teams build trusting relationships with parents.  Reporting to the Managing Director of Early Childhood Development, you will be accountable for the progress of your investments toward portfolio-level goals, while also supporting other Early Childhood grantees as needed.

What you will do:

You will spend much of your time developing productive relationships with leaders of the organizations we invest in, through monitoring and coaching to amplify their impact and by providing opportunities for ongoing support customized to each organization’s needs.  You will regularly engage with health system leaders, providers, and families to understand how these systems can better serve under-resourced communities. You will also collaborate with other funders and field leaders to identify investment opportunities that create the conditions to drive impact at scale in the healthcare system. You will undertake deep investment diligence and provide well-argued, written investment recommendations that clearly highlight how potential investees will meet their organizational goals. In the context of monitoring investees and evaluating their performance, you will also share and leverage learnings to shape evolving investment strategies.  You will apply and hone your skills in a collaborative, learning-centered environment, engaging often with your peers and other members of the Valhalla team, including the President and Trustees.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

The Director’s key functional responsibilities are: 

• Leading the execution of the Early Childhood Healthcare portfolio strategy: The Director will apply strategic decision-making, risk assessment, and performance monitoring skills to manage the implementation and oversight of a structured investment plan to achieve portfolio goals. This will require developing highly collaborative and productive relationships with the leaders of portfolio organizations and Valhalla colleagues that signal a commitment to and accountability for achieving the stated goals.
• Coaching of high-potential early childhood portfolio organizations, with a primary focus on organizations that leverage the healthcare and pediatric systems to improve outcomes for children: The Director will work closely with a subset of portfolio organizations to supercharge their impact and scale. This involves identifying where organizations are performing well versus where they may be facing challenges and risks, and serving as a coach and mentor to the leaders of these organizations.  The Director will marshal capacity-building resources and facilitate customized support of these organizations to improve their performance, as appropriate.
• Leading diligence on new investment opportunities and developing reinvestment recommendations in the Early Childhood Healthcare portfolio and other portfolios as needed: The Director will lead diligence on new investment opportunities with a particular focus on growing our portfolio of organizations supporting a thriving healthcare system for young children and their families. In addition, as grants mature or new rounds of funding are raised for organizations, the Director will conduct due diligence and present a well-argued point of view in writing on whether to reinvest, the appropriate grant amount and structure, and the key risks associated with an investment recommendation.
• Synthesizing and sharing learning from portfolio organizations and across individual portfolios: The Director will glean and distill data, insights, and learning from portfolio organizations and initiatives, then effectively and efficiently share insights and learnings with the Valhalla team, the Trustees, other portfolio organizations, and other funders. Further, the Director will synthesize key trends and insights from the sectors in which the Trustees are investing to inform Valhalla’s philanthropic strategy and sourcing of new opportunities.
• Collaborating with and influencing others in the field: The Director will build relationships with other leaders and funders in the early childhood field, collaborate, learn from, and influence collective actions. This involves staying apprised of key sector trends, participating in relevant networks by attending conferences, staying closely connected to key leaders/funders, sharing ideas with the field in various forums, and organizing convenings/gatherings.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

You are known for being both a learner and a doer who takes ownership for results, driven by your intellectual curiosity and ability to identify the root causes of complex problems and evaluate potential solutions, undergirded by your passion to drive meaningful improvement in the lives of children, youth and the adults that care for and teach them. You have held a variety of strategic roles involving designing and leading initiatives and making critical decisions that drive outcomes. A blend of experience in the social and private sectors is ideal, but not required. Additionally, your track record showcases that you bring the following skills, background, and competencies that are critical for success in this role: 

• Assessing situations from multiple perspectives, seeing patterns, identifying key insights about potential solutions, and charting a viable path to overcoming barriers to impact; 
• Thinking critically about what it takes to achieve outcomes at scale, and taking a creative approach to problem solving;
• Developing, articulating, and standing behind a clear point of view, based on soliciting a wide array of perspectives, with the confidence to sometimes play the contrarian;
• A capacity to reflect critical thinking and analysis in your written arguments and recommendations, and
• Building authentic and collaborative relationships with those you seek to serve, driven by a belief that developing solutions that address complex education challenges requires deeply understanding the needs of children and families in under-resourced communities.

You thrive in collaborative environments where constructive debate is encouraged. You get excited about synthesizing and sharing ideas and data with your colleagues in a clear, accessible format that provides the foundation for confident, sound decision-making. You love helping colleagues and partners identify practical solutions to hurdles they face, and you have a track record of influencing the trajectory of others in ways that maximize their impact.

COMPENSATION
Valhalla conducted a comprehensive compensation study to develop transparent salary bands and promotion criteria for each role. The salary range for this position is $198,000 – $297,000 based on experience and performance. Valhalla also offers generous benefits. 

ABOUT VALHALLA AND FOX HOLLOW VENTURES
Valhalla’s operations are supported by Fox Hollow Ventures, Scott and Signe’s family office. Valhalla staff are employees of Fox Hollow Ventures. The Director will work from Valhalla’s Woodside, CA office two days/week with the option to work remotely for the remainder of the week when in-person collaboration is not required. 

INCLUSION STATEMENT
Valhalla is an equal opportunity employer committed to hiring and developing a team that brings diverse voices, ideas, and approaches to the complex societal challenges we are tackling.  We strive to be an organization that reflects the perspectives of our partners and the communities we seek to serve, and we encourage all interested candidates to apply.  All applicants and those who join us as employees will enjoy equality of opportunity and fair treatment without regard to race, age, religion, pregnancy, sex, sexual orientation, disability, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, veteran status, marital status, and prior protected activity.

APPLY
We have engaged Promise54 to support the hiring process.

Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.  For best consideration, apply before November 15, 2024. Follow these instructions to submit your resume and responses to the prompts indicated:

• Visit the Opportunities section on Promise54’s website and click the APPLY NOW tab within the Valhalla Foundation, Early Childhood, position description.
• Create your video response to the prompts, and link it in the document you create to respond to the writing prompts.
• Below the prompts, you’ll be able to upload your resume.

If you have questions about the application process, please contact leslie@promise54.org. If you encounter any technical difficulties, please contact admin@promise54.org.

Download Job Description