Head of Community Impact

About The John R. Oishei Foundation

The John R. Oishei Foundation (“the Foundation”) is a private, place-based (working in the Buffalo-Niagara region of New York State) foundation that was established in 1941 and has approximately $315 million in investments and a budget of approximately $15 million per year. The Foundation currently has 9 staff positions and anticipates growing to 16 in the next year.

The Foundation has been a leader in supporting some of the most notable and consequential projects in the Buffalo Niagara region such as developments on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus that include the University at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and The John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital, for which the Foundation made a $10 million commitment. The Foundation, in partnership with the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo and an unprecedented coalition of business, civic, and public sector leaders, also served as a key partner in an effort to bring Say Yes to Education to Buffalo, in support of the education continuum beyond grade 12, which has been a recognized gamechanger in Buffalo.

Strategic Plan & New Direction

In 2023, the Foundation set a new direction and shifted its focus to address the root causes of racial inequity to advance financial prosperity for all, starting with Black communities on Buffalo’s East side. This directional shift was informed by a robust strategic planning process, which focused on research and data on the state of the Buffalo-Niagara region. This process highlighted significant racial inequalities and demonstrated that while the region has enjoyed a revitalization in the last decade, highly segregated communities, particularly on the East Side of Buffalo, have seen only modest or no improvements in decades. 

This new strategic direction shifts focus from traditional direct service support toward systems change that creates equitable opportunities for financial stability and prosperity—it goes deeper than alleviating the symptoms of disparity and inequity, committing to the challenge of addressing root causes. 

Over the past year, the Foundation has begun the process of adapting policies, aligning services, and building and sharing resources to align with the new strategy. This process of adaptation will be done with a recognition that the Foundation has much yet to learn to best support a historic and culturally rich East Side where talented, wise, resilient, and creative residents and organizations are already deep into this work. 

As the Foundation reevaluates and reconsiders how they work, they will use tools such as advocacy, networking, convening, capacity building, and investment tools, as well as grantmaking, designed to address root causes and dismantle racist systems leading to financial prosperity for all. More specifically, they have:

• Moved from five broad areas (education, healthcare, neighborhood stabilization, self-sufficiency, and arts & culture) to focus specifically on building shared financial prosperity for a racially just region;
• Narrowed their geographic focus from all of Western New York to initially focusing on and partnering with Black communities on Buffalo’s East Side; and
• Shifted from supporting direct service (symptoms) to addressing root causes and systemic barriers, because lasting change starts at the root of the problem. 

The Foundation will center organizations and members of East Side communities, joining forces and co-creating solutions to build a foundation for racial equity—and a

foundation for a better Buffalo—together. Additionally, the Foundation believes that these efforts will benefit the entire region by supporting the untapped potential of a vibrant community and fostering financial prosperity— ultimately driving economic growth that will strengthen all of Western New York.

The Foundation’s new strategic plan will guide their work in the years to come. Review the complete Strategic Plan HERE. The Foundation’s Mission, Vision and Values, defined through the strategic planning process, are reflected below.

• Mission: We work with communities to change systems and build financial prosperity for a racially just, vibrant Buffalo-Niagara region.
• Vision: A thriving, prosperous community for all, where diversity is our strength.
• Values:
  1. Act against racism: We are actively countering racism and the systemic barriers faced by Black and other residents of color in our region.
  2. Build on strengths: We center colleagues’ and communities’ agency, strengths, resources, and opportunities.
  3. Be trustworthy: We build and sustain trust through transparency, accountability, and humility.
  4. Work together: We listen to collaborate and build partnerships—across sectors and across differences.
  5. Make a difference: We achieve positive impacts by investing in our own and the region’s capacity to learn, improve, and change.

The Foundation’s 2023 Annual Report – linked HERE – outlines the work done over the last year.

Organizational Redesign & The Opportunity

As part of the transition to implement the new strategic direction, the Foundation has undergone a significant organizational redesign process to ensure the right leaders are in the right places to take the Foundation into its next chapter of impact. Specifically, the new organization structure will align the team around five core functions:

• Community Impact
• Policy & Advocacy
• People & Culture
• Finance, Operations, Impact Investment & Research
• Strategic Communications 

To support this vision and moment of tremendous opportunity and transformational evolution, the Foundation is seeking a collaborative, humble, and deeply committed leader to serve as the Head of Community Impact. 

Reporting to the Oishei Foundation President, Christina Orsi, the Head of Community Impact will lead the Community Impact (“CI”) function, which serves as the “front line” and critical link between Oishei and the communities it supports by building authentic relationships with nonprofits and partners in the Buffalo-Niagara region, ensuring that community voice is centered in all of the Foundation’s work.

More specifically, the CI team will:

• Lead efforts to incorporate community perspectives into initiatives that center racial equity to advance financial prosperity, especially on the East Side. CI collaborates across the Foundation to ensure these perspectives shape all its work.
• Employ tools like grantmaking, capacity building, community leadership/power building and impact investing to support initiatives tackling root causes of racial inequity and revitalize community assets.
• Build partnerships with community organizations and stakeholders, enhancing their capacity to address these challenges.
• Perform research, establish metrics, and conduct evaluations in partnership with the Research, Evaluation & Learning function, to assess impact on racial equity outcomes.
• Partner with the Foundation’s Impact Investment team to support investments in East Side assets to implement equitable economic development that centers legacy residents.

The work of the CI team positions the Foundation to be a learning organization that values community feedback and continuously improves its approach to understanding and addressing racial equity to advance financial prosperity. The Head of Community Impact will lead a team of 4 or more and a budget of about $9 Million/year.

Responsibilities of the Head of Community Impact include:

Community Engagement: Define the strategy for how Oishei will show up in the community in any given situation so that it centers the community and racial equity in every engagement opportunity. (45%)

• Strategy & Planning: Develop a community engagement strategy, utilizing best practices for outreach to communities, that centers on community needs and racial equity. Translate organizational strategies into clear community engagement (CE) goals.
• Community Relations: Build intentional relationships with community members to address East Side needs and opportunities.
• Community Impact Learning: Establish learning objectives and indicators to measure the impact of programs; train staff in collaborative methods and community engagement practices and create feedback loops for continuous improvement and communication of insights. 

Strategic Initiative Design & Management: Identify the issues the Foundation will focus on, the role it will play, and the specific combination of tools and approaches it will use to target particular strategic pillars and goals to achieve the Foundation’s mission. (45%)

• Issue Identification and Analysis: Using data and community input, help determine strategic focus areas for the Foundation’s greatest impact.
• Program Design: Collaborate with community partners to co-design integrated solutions that leverage all the Foundation’s “tools” to advance racially just financial prosperity. Create operational plans, ensuring stakeholder feedback before implementation. “Tools” include:
  • Grantmaking: View grantmaking as a tool within a broader community-building strategy. Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure grants address identified community needs. Continually refine grantmaking practices based on feedback and impact. 
  • Capacity Building: Refine the capacity-building strategy to support capacity development of organizations and individuals aligned with the Foundation's mission and that support community power building. 
  • Mission-Aligned Impact: In partnership with Impact investment team, identify program-related investments (PRIs) and mission-related investments (MRIs) to support strategic initiatives. Define financial structures for impact investments, collaborating with stakeholders to leverage resources. 
  • Narrative Change: collaborate with the Communication Lead to support development of narrative change campaigns that center community voice to drive engagement and support of strategic initiatives.
  • Policy and Advocacy: partner with the Policy and Advocacy Lead to support development of a policy agenda in alignment with advancing strategic initiatives.
• Program Management: Oversee implementation and evaluation of initiatives; monitor budgets and ensure resource alignment with strategic goals.

Partnerships: Identify and build partnerships, and a partnership strategy, i.e., organizations that can and should be brought in to support and resource the strategic initiatives and extensions of the initiatives. Partnerships may include community organizations, public sector organizations, educational institutions, and other foundations and funders. (10%)

Candidate Profile

While it is understood that no candidate will offer every desired skill, quality, and characteristic, the following offers a detailed, aspirational view of the ideal candidate profile: 

A Community-Centered Leader, Authentic Relationship Builder, and Collaborator

This leader will:

• Bring a deep commitment to centering community voice in all initiatives, ensuring the Foundation’s work integrates community history and voices into decision-making, not just as beneficiaries, but as active partners.
• Serve as a natural galvanizer, able to thoughtfully engage diverse groups – both internally and externally – to create shared strategies.
• Build authentic relationships, rooted in trust and respect, meeting people where they are, and guiding them to new opportunities.
• Have a natural ability to serve as a ‘bridge-builder,’ instinctively drawing people in to advance the mission.
• Be an exceptional relationship builder and persuasive communicator and listener, with the ability to foster an atmosphere of collaboration, partnership, and trust.
• Be confident and comfortable presenting and interacting in a variety of settings, from boardrooms to community listening sessions.
• Ideally bring experience with leading community development efforts, with experience leveraging a range of funding tools.

An Inspiring, Resilient, and Adaptable Leader

This leader will:

• Bring experience building and leading highly effective diverse teams. 
• Be an inspiring, empathetic, approachable, and inclusive leader with an infectious optimism and an abundance mindset, with an adept ability to lead through periods of change.
• Embraces the “messiness” of systems change, showing adaptability and perseverance in the face of evolving needs and obstacles.
• Bring high energy and drive for change, balancing a visionary mindset with practical, on-the-ground execution.
• Have the capacity to navigate difficult situations with a focus on solutions, not blame.
• Be resilient in the face of challenges, with an ability to handle criticism, paired with the humility to shed light on team efforts and collective success.

A Humble Innovator and Pragmatic Visionary

This leader will:

• Be energized by ambiguity and ‘thinking big and outside the box’ to develop effective strategies for tackling complex issues.
• Be a creative thinker, effectively and constructively leading the Foundation to consider new and innovative approaches to engaging new constituents and partners.
• Have the ability to put big ideas into action, while defining and implementing measurable goals and execution plans.
• Be adept at translating data and insights into compelling narratives that resonate with diverse audiences, from community members to legislators.
• Have an entrepreneurial spirit with a focus on long-term community impact and sustainability, not just short-term success or accolades.
• Bring creativity to problem-solving, leveraging the Foundation’s resources and capacities to build integrated, impactful solutions.

A Commitment to Buffalo and Racial Equity

This leader will:

• Fundamentally believe in the Foundation’s mission and vision, with a demonstrated commitment to racial equity.
• Promote and protect the Oishei Foundation brand and reputation. 
• Ideally bring a community perspective and knowledge of the nonprofit ecosystem, informed by both lived experience and professional engagement. If lacking direct experience in the greater Buffalo area, the candidate’s ability to embrace and be embraced by the region, particularly Buffalo’s East Side communities, must be unequivocal.
• Be energized by the opportunity to play a key role in advancing the Foundation in a way that reflects its values and produces wide-sweeping results.
• Be an individual of unquestioned integrity, ethics, and values — someone who can be trusted without reservation.

Location: The successful candidate must be based in or willing to relocate to Buffalo, New York, and will be expected to be in the Foundation’s office 2 days per week, depending on specific responsibilities, and flexible to work on nights and weekends in community to best achieve role outcomes. Flex office time is offered to support this schedule.

Compensation & Benefits: Salary for the role is anticipated to range from $160,000-200,000, commensurate with experience. 

A comprehensive benefits package includes 401(k) (7% match), and health, dental, and vision insurance (100% individual coverage by employer). The Foundation provides a very generous benefits package to ensure the whole wellness of the team. 

Note: The actual title of the role may evolve as the organizational evolution progresses. The Head of People & Culture will lead the process of evaluating and determining titles for the organization to ensure alignment with the Foundation’s vision and values.

Interview Process

Our goal is to lead a thorough search process, during which both candidates and the client cangain a robust understanding of each other. To that end, candidates can expect the following steps in the interview process:

• Candidates express interest: Candidates can express interest by completing a ‘Talent Profile’ on the Koya site.
• Initial Screening: Koya Partners will review all expressions of interest. For those who look to be a potential fit with the role, the process will include:
  • Introductory phone call with Koya Partners to learn more about you and your background and a deeper discussion about the Foundation and the role.
  • Zoom interview with Koya to confirm interest and alignment. Following this meeting, specific candidate materials may be requested.
• First Round Interviews: Selected candidates will participate in virtual interviews (45–60 minutes) via Zoom with members of the Search Committee. It is anticipated that 5–6 candidates will advance to this phase.
• Second Round Interviews: Finalists—typically three—will engage in more in-depth interviews, which may be conducted either virtually or in person. These interviews will focus on role-specific scenarios and deeper discussions about their approach to leadership and collaboration.
• Final Selection: The Search Committee, with input from Koya Partners, will conduct reference checks and deliberate to provide recommendations on candidate selection to the hiring manager, Christina Orsi, President, Oishei Foundation.
  • Background and other checks will follow before offers are extended.