Policy Officer, Pursuing Public Funds

Position: Policy Officer – Pursuing Public Funds, Thornburg Foundation

Reports to: Executive Director

Based: Thornburg Foundation Office, 2300 Ridgetop Road, Santa Fe, NM

Status: Full-Time, Exempt

JOB DESCRIPTION

The Thornburg Foundation is seeking applications from qualified candidates to establish and lead a Pursuing Public Funds Initiative at the Foundation.

The initiative will focus on strengthening the capacity of non-profit grantees in the Water, Land and Agriculture, K-12 Education and Homelessness initiatives, as well as the greater nonprofit sector in New Mexico as a whole. Overall, the PPF initiative aims to ensure foundation grantees have sufficient capacity to achieve their mission at a meaningful scale and to support non-profit advocacy to improve the public funding environment. The PPF initiative seeks to help non-profits protect their federal funding, secure state and local funding, secure stop-gap funding, and work with other foundations to align funding to keep non-profits viable and working towards their mission. The initiative will work with non-profit intermediaries to help secure diverse funding streams (state, federal and private grants) to encourage partnership between non-profits and government; and to support non-profits to navigate complex application processes. Experience work with state agencies such as NM Department of Finance or Legislative Finance Committee is beneficial.

Ideal Candidate Profile: Policy Officer – Pursuing Public Funds

The ideal candidate is a mission-driven professional with a deep understanding of the policy landscape relevant to our foundation’s focus areas. They are intellectually curious, team-oriented, flexible, strategically minded, and committed to advancing systems change in those areas of focus.

The PPF Policy Officer will then be chiefly responsible for developing and managing a multi-year grantmaking portfolio consistent with the strategic plan.

Candidates must demonstrate:

• Commitment to, experience in, and enthusiasm for advancing policy to help non-profits leverage governmental funding; required

• Experience with bipartisan advocacy work, building coalitions, and engaging diverse stakeholders and tribal communities; required

• Strong written and oral communication skills, as well as organizational and interpersonal skills; required

• Must operate with an entrepreneurial mindset, be self-directed, while also able to work cooperatively with a small team; required

• 5+ years of executive, legislative, campaign, or related political or advocacy experience from within government, the non-profit sector, philanthropy, or other related industry; required

• Undergraduate degree in public policy, social sciences, business, or related field; required. Master’s or Juris Doctor degree; preferred

• Experience in grant making including developing relationships and communicating with grantees to ensure grants are developed, submitted, monitored and reviewed on a timely basis; required

• Knowledge and experience working with large governmental grants; strongly preferred

• Understanding of the New Mexico political landscape; strongly preferred

• Experience building issue-advocacy strategies to advance long-term policy objectives; preferred

• Experience with relevant software a plus (Foundant, Miradi, BoardEffect, Office 365)

Essential Duties:

• Develop and lead a comprehensive strategy designed to advance approaches to help non-profits successfully garner, manage and implement government-funded projects.

• Work closely with fellow Foundation policy officers to enable and monitor the progress on their strategy and share learnings with fellow team members.

• Work closely with prospective and current grantees to develop new grant applications, support grant implementation, and ensure grant reporting.

• Develop and deliver quarterly presentations to the Foundation Board of Directors on the progress of the initiative and grant recommendations.

• Coordinate and collaborate with partners and stakeholders to advance a strong research and policy agenda based on program strategy.

• Work in a bi-partisan way to build coalitions and engage diverse stakeholders in any strategy, such as national and local business organizations, community and elected officials, tribal entities, legal experts, nonprofit organizations, foundations and community-based organizations.

• Ongoing engagement and consultation with national, regional and state funders and funding collaboratives around the Pursuing Public Funds strategy.

• Provide necessary reporting and updates on program and strategy progress for a variety of internal and external communications.

• Work with the highest integrity and in full compliance with applicable rules, regulations, and standards.

• Occasional travel in-state as well as national travel required.

• Willingness to learn and ability to be flexible with changing priorities and responsibilities; preferred

• Applicant must pass a background check.

Compensation & Benefits: Competitive salary; health care benefits; Paid Time Off; Sick Leave; Professional Development funding, and 401(k) plan with generous employer contribution.

Location: This position is based out of the Thornburg Foundation office in Santa Fe, NM. The position allows for hybrid work. Staff schedule 3 days per week in the office. The Foundation does not offer remote work options.

To Apply:

Email applications to leslie@thornburgfoundation.org and include “PPF Policy Officer” in the subject line. Visit: thornburgfoundation.org/job-openings/

No phone calls. Please submit a cover letter that specifically addresses how your expertise and background match the job description requirements, your resume, and contact information for three references (two must be former or current employers) prior to August 4, 2025. We plan for first-round interviews for this position to be conducted between August 11, 2025, and August 22, 2025. The target start date for the position is September 22, 2025.

All qualified applications receive consideration for employment without regard to race, creed, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, disability, age, or veteran status.

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• Seniority level Mid-Senior level

• Employment type Full-time

• Job function Other

• Industries Philanthropic Fundraising Services