Director, Innovation and Growth, Puerto Rico

DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help a teacher in need, moving us closer to a nation where students in every community have the tools and experiences they need for a great education.

Since 2000, more than 5 million people and partners have contributed $1 billion to support 2 million teacher requests for classroom resources and experiences. Projects range from art supplies to build the set for a school musical, to books and puzzles that affirm students’ identities, to bird seed for an at-home science project. We proudly serve all US public schools, public charter schools, and Head Start centers, and we combat systemic inequity by driving a majority of donations to schools that have been historically underfunded due to economic and racial inequity.

DonorsChoose has been recognized as a best place to work by GOOD Magazine and the Nonprofit Times, while Fast Company named DonorsChoose one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World—the first time a charity has made this list. Our dedicated team works from across the United States bring classroom dreams to life.

About the Strategy & Innovation Team

This role sits on the Strategy & Innovation team. The Strategy & Innovation team spearheads new initiatives to grow our organization’s impact on educational equity and brings our leadership team together to guide our organizational vision and priorities. In the year ahead, this team will oversee the continued launch of ColorPop Books (colorpopbooks.com), our identity-affirming bookshop for parents of color, work to extend our services to students in Puerto Rico, and actively explore high level strategy questions alongside a few other key investments for the organization.

About the Role

This role will sit under the EVP, Strategy & Innovation, leading our extension of services to Puerto Rico – ensuring DonorsChoose can get resources and funding to students and teachers in the Puerto Rican public education system in the years to come. We’re deeply aware of the different context of schools in Puerto Rico as compared to the 50 United States where we currently operate, from the level of remaining infrastructure damage since Hurricane Maria to the percentage of students and family members living below the poverty line. We are committed to building an offering that will meet the greatest needs of Puerto Rican students and schools uniquely.

To lead us in this work, we’re looking for a team member with Spanish fluency and deep cultural competency in Puerto Rico. Someone who is passionate about helping thousands of public school students on the island receive needed resources and who brings deep expertise in geographic expansion, running pilots to determine the right product to support a community at scale, and who has the ability to connect with a variety of stakeholders both internally and on the ground. The strategist who takes on this role will be able to see our extension of support to Puerto Rico as a learning opportunity for the future of both future geographic expansion and the types of services we should but don’t currently offer within the 50 United States.

In your first 6 months in the role, you will:

Conduct & synthesize research 

• Build a deep understanding of the Puerto Rican education system and the resource and funding needs of teachers, students, and school administrators
• Work with our research and Equity & Impact teams to understand how the public education needs in Puerto Rico look similar and different from the needs in the 50 United States and how DonorsChoose might have the greatest impact through funding and resources

Shape our plans to offer services in Puerto Rico

• Hire and manage one direct report to support this work
• Work across the organization to determine a few possible models for pilots in Puerto Rico that our team could pitch to funders and run to give us the insights and learnings we need to determine the most impactful, community-driven, long term model for Impact
• Spend time with teammates on our Product and Engineering, Fulfillment, Operations and Marketing teams to understand our current teacher request creation and resource fulfillment model to get items into classrooms. You’ll use this information to determine how you’ll work across teams during the pilot phase
• Begin to project manage and resource these pilots from branding to localization to ensuring smooth fulfillment and operations; build a budget and plan for continued work the following school year

Build relationships 

• Develop the relationships needed to understand the Puerto Rico public education system, to begin to work with teachers in the community, and to ensure we’re ready to do business in a new language and location
• Work with our Business Development and Major Gifts team to raise funds to support this investment
• Find the folks we can work with on our first set of pilots and build deep relationships with those constituents
• Liaise directly with teachers and school leaders on the ground

This position is right for you if:

• You’re an expert in Puerto Rico and, ideally, the Puerto Rican education system. You understand how funding is structured, the historical context and unique challenges and opportunities
• You’ve successfully launched new things without fear; you have the ability to apply critical and and structured thinking to emerging areas
• You’re a strong project manager who prioritizes building relationships and listening to team members at all levels of the organization
• You’re a seasoned leader who builds trust quickly 
• You have people management experience or heavy cross-team management and mentorship skills with a desire to manage a team
• You’re comfortable getting into the weeds of fulfillment and operations of a new offering 
• You’ve worked on technical solutions to real world problems and have experience partnering with Product & Engineering teams through the product life cycle 
• You’re committed to our mission to support public school teachers and students, and are energized by sharing that passion with others. You are eager to drive racial equity in education and have comfort speaking about race personally and/or professionally
• You have a minimum of 7+ years of experience in product, consulting, operations, or a related field.

Compensation and Benefits

Our compensation philosophy ensures that we are both externally competitive with tech-forward nonprofits of a similar size and internally fair in our pay practices. The following ranges represent the target offer range given the scope and experience expectations for this role.

• The hiring salary range for this role is $106,000-$120,000
• We have a hiring salary range of $118,000-$132,000 for specific higher cost of labor locations, which include New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, and Washington, D.C.

Once employees are hired, everyone at DonorsChoose is eligible to receive annual performance-based raises as they grow in their role. We are open to a variety of experiences, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced or more senior than this job description as posted. If you don’t check every box listed here, or you know you’d bring additional experience to the table, we hope you’ll submit your application.

In addition, we offer full-time staff 25 paid vacation days per year and 11 paid holidays, a rich employer-paid individual and family health plan, a matching 401(k) plan (up to 5% of base salary), annual professional development stipend, and casual and flexible work environment. To learn more about what it is like to work for DonorsChoose, visit our careers page.

Hybrid Workplace and Other Details

In this role, you’ll have the option to work a flexible hybrid schedule in our NYC office, or to work fully remotely from CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, ME, MA, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OR, PA, RI, TX, VA, WA, WI.

Candidates who are not in the NYC area should expect to travel to our NYC office on an as-needed basis, about 4-6 times per year. All work-related travel expenses will be covered by the organization and proper safety precautions will be taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

DonorsChoose is a fully vaccinated workplace and all new employees, regardless of their work location, will be asked to share proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 within two weeks of their hire date or request an exemption from this policy due to a disability or sincerely held religious belief or practice. This policy does not apply to employees in states with state restrictions on vaccine mandates.

DonorsChoose participates in E-Verify. We will provide the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) and, if necessary, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with information from each new employee’s Form I-9 to confirm work authorization.

To Apply

Please submit your resume and answer the application questions online. Since we’re trying to get to know you through our hiring process, we ask that you please refrain from using AI writing tools to craft your response to our application questions. A cover letter is optional and may be addressed to Abby Feuer, EVP Marketing & Growth.

A Final Note

The DonorsChoose team works toward a nation where students in every community have the resources needed for an excellent education. To do this we hire and support a diverse team of the best and the brightest talent available.

We are an organization increasingly representative of the varied races and ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations, religious and political beliefs, and abilities that comprise our nation. DonorsChoose focuses on attracting, retaining, and advancing diverse talent because it makes us more effective, high-performing, creative, and resilient.  

If you are passionate about our mission, highly skilled in your field, and looking for a place where you can bring all of yourself to work, we want you.