The Heinz Endowments seeks a deeply curious, collaborative, and strategic Learning & Evaluation Officer (LEO) who will serve as a connector and advocate in developing and applying tailored monitoring and evaluation methods, gathering impactful data, analyzing findings, and uplifting insights and shared learnings that support and enhance the Endowment’s evolving culture of learning and impact. Further, the LEO will provide critical leadership and perspective across programs by helping to cultivate iterative thinking, connect learning with goal setting and action, facilitate future visioning, and promote cross-team collaboration.
The Heinz Endowments (THE) strives to improve the quality of life for all in the Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania region, addressing many of the shared challenges that exist with communities nationally and globally. As a place-based philanthropy with assets over $2.1 billion and annual distributions of ~$70 million in grantmaking across three program areas, Creativity, Learning, and Sustainability, the Endowments bring the best people, ideas, and resources in the region together to build sustainable communities where everyone prospers and belongs. Since its establishment in 2007 with the consolidation of two Heinz family foundations, the Howard Heinz Endowment and the Vira I. Heinz Endowment, THE is a reflection of the values shared by generations of the Heinz family, their devotion to civic causes, and their willingness to embrace and invest in transformative ideas. With this legacy in mind, THE is devoted to advancing a vision of a region that achieves and models the full transition to a post-industrial era as a vibrant center of creativity, learning, and social, economic, and environmental sustainability.
In January of 2023, the Endowments’ board appointed President Chris DeCardy who is guiding THE in positioning itself to bring about transformative change by influencing key social systems—government, markets, and social norms. In support of these efforts, THE is refining its programmatic pillars, reflecting on its role in the region and how best to position its grantmaking for durable and measurable impact, and strengthening its grantmaking processes and operational capacity to enable a more data-informed and iterative approach to strategic lifecycles. With support from senior leadership and the board, the Endowments envisions a values-aligned organizational approach to philanthropy that is “All Together for Impact,” working in concert to develop focused strategies, structures, and feedback loops that shed light on THE’s impact and inform transformative, contemporary grantmaking solutions, which may serve as exemplars globally.
THE is committed to the success of its grantees and, to fulfill its mission, optimize pathways to impact, and affect positive change. The Endowments makes progress toward its vision through the synergy between grantee organizations and program staff. Grantee partners are critical change agents that bring local insights and a nuanced understanding of how specific interventions might be tailored to the context. They deliver interventions aimed at targeted opportunities. Program staff utilize their relationships, expertise, and THE’s resources and brand to complement the work of grantee partners.
To support these goals and vision, the LEO will join a growing Learning, Evaluation, & Research (LER) team that partners with program staff in cycles of strategy development, progress and impact measurement, and facilitated learning. The LEO will also be charged with helping to facilitate strategy-specific learning loops.
Application Instructions
The Heinz Endowments has partnered with Talent Citizen to assist in this recruitment. Please contact President Tracy D. Welsh, Senior Associate Eva Kotilinek, and Associate José Cisneros to share your resume and cover letter via email at: THE-LEO@talentcitizen.com.
If you meet many but not all the criteria and feel you may be a good fit for the role, The Heinz Endowments encourages you to apply. The Heinz Endowments is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, national origin, ethnic origin, citizenship status, disability, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law in its employment policies. In addition, The Heinz Endowments will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities.
