Chief Program Officer

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Women Donors Network (WDN) and its 501(c)(4) affiliate, Women Donors Action (WDA), are seeking a strategic, relational, and mission-driven Chief Program Officer to lead and integrate learning, grantmaking and advocacy, our core member-facing functions into a cohesive system for building donor power. This full-time, remote role reports to the President & CEO, serves on the Executive Team, leads a team of leaders, and plays a critical role in strengthening and scaling the impact of a multiracial, multigenerational membership community of donor organizers.

About Us

Women Donors Network (WDN) is a national network of women (cis and trans), nonbinary, and gender-expansive individuals committed to protecting and advancing gender, racial, economic, and climate justice. As a growing multiracial and multigenerational community of donor organizers, we connect, grow, fund, and mobilize together in solidarity with movements to transform people, culture, and systems rooted in justice. Through Women Donors Action (WDA), our 501c4 affiliate organization, we work to transform policies, political infrastructure, and political possibilities by investing in advocacy and electoral strategies that center the leadership of historically excluded communities. Together, we envision a just and sustainable world where everyone can safely and freely determine their own futures.

This is an exciting time at WDN and WDA as we move into the third year of our bold strategic plan. We have a growing team passionate about social justice and motivated to scale our impact. Our values are rooted in a culture of courage, commitment, curiosity, accountability, hope, and joy. You can read more about our path forward here.

We are a geographically distributed, remote team of 27 from diverse intersectional identities, including cisgender, BIPOC, and nonbinary people. We have a shared staffing structure across WDN and WDA, with our team dedicating a portion of time to each entity. We believe that a diverse team is integral to our work and strongly encourage applications from people of color, people with disabilities, women, LGBTQIA+, and all other applicants from historically excluded identities in the United States.

About The Role

The Chief Program Officer leads and integrates WDN/A's member engagement and mobilization strategy and our learning, grantmaking, and advocacy functions to ensure WDN/A's membership model operates as a cohesive system for building donor power in alignment with movements for justice. This role is responsible for translating WDN/A's mission and strategic priorities into a high-impact strategy for member engagement by deepening philanthropic and political education, mobilizing resources to the field through strategic grantmaking, and activating members as effective donor organizers and advocates.

Building on a strong foundation, the Chief Program Officer will refine and strengthen our strategic membership model by clarifying pathways to engagement, deepening member activation, and ensuring consistent conversion from learning to resource mobilization, coordinated advocacy, and collective power-building. The Chief Program Officer will ensure that every program and initiative across our learning, grantmaking and advocacy functions strengthens our membership network's capacity to move money, influence, and collective action in service of gender, racial, economic, and climate justice.

As an executive leader who reports to the President & CEO and who is a member of WDN/A's Executive Team, the Chief Program Officer must have high emotional intelligence and a deep understanding of donor psychology, transformational giving, and how to design experiences that deepen our members' relationship to wealth, power, and responsibility. The Chief Program Officer will cultivate and steward trust-based partnerships with our members, grantees, and field leaders through positioning WDN/A as a connective force within the broader movement ecosystem.

Please note: This remote role requires regular travel across the United States for meetings, member visits, team retreats, and organizational events. Candidates must be able to work weekday hours across US time zones, be available to work a flexible schedule due to the emergent, rapid-response nature of our work, and have previously demonstrated success and comfort with remote work. We are open to individual candidates (no agencies) based in the United States with at least 15 years of nonprofit or philanthropy experience.

Role Responsibilities

As Women Donors Network and Women Donors Action continue to implement our strategic plan, the Chief Program Officer will manage a team of 3 functional leaders, while playing a critical role in:

ORGANIZATIONAL LEADERSHIP

  • Lead, coach, and develop WDN/A's Learning & Impact, Politics & Advocacy, and Strategic Grantmaking functions, ensuring strong leadership, clear priorities, and alignment with WDN/A's mission, strategy and goals
  • Partner closely with the CEO and Boards as a strategic thought partner and advisor
  • Drive organization-wide alignment across WDN's Community & Development, Communications, and Finance Teams to deliver a seamless member experience
  • Serve as an organization-wide leader in annual and multi-year planning, refining priorities, strengthening execution, and positioning WDN/A for long-term growth and influence
  • Build and lead a high-performing team culture rooted in clarity, accountability, cross-functional collaboration, and excellence

PROGRAM STRATEGY & IMPACT

  • Lead and integrate WDN/A's member engagement and mobilization strategy and WDN/A's cross functional, member facing functions (our learning, grantmaking, and advocacy teams) to ensure WDN/A's membership model operates as a cohesive system for building donor and movement power
  • Refine and scale WDN/A's membership model, clarifying pathways to engagement, deepening member activation, and ensuring consistent conversion from learning to resource mobilization, advocacy, and collective power-building
  • Translate WDN/A's strategic priorities into a clear, high-impact strategy that moves members from connection to political alignment, bold giving, advocacy, and influence
  • Refine WDN/A's programs and tools across key domains (including wealth, identity, power, and privilege) and issues to remain at the forefront of political, philanthropic, and movement trends for effective donor organizing and advocacy
  • Develop and implement a program data and insights strategy to strengthen WDN/A's programs and initiatives, using data to track, evaluate, and improve outcomes across teams

MEMBER LEARNING & ACTIVATION

  • Design and implement an integrated member journey with decision making frameworks across WDN/A's core pillars of community, learning/programs, grantmaking, and advocacy in alignment with WDN/A's strategic priorities
  • Partner with the Learning & Impact team to advance a best-in-class philanthropic and political learning strategy, ensuring that every engagement advances aligned giving, coordinated advocacy, and power-building
  • Partner with the Politics & Advocacy team to develop strategic plans for organizing that increase member participation in regional and network-wide actions and campaigns
  • Develop and scale the leadership capacity of WDN/A's membership network by clarifying and strengthening the balance between member-led and staff-led programs to deepen network engagement, organize peers, and lead activations.
  • Deepen relationships with members and field leaders to ensure WDN/A's programs remain rigorous, relevant, and responsive to movement needs
  • Partner with the Community & Development team to strategically steward member relationships, contributing to high-impact donor engagement, cultivation, and activation as part of WDN/A's membership experience

STRATEGIC GRANTMAKING

  • Partner closely with the Grantmaking and Impact team to support WDN/A's multi-entity (c3/c4) grantmaking vision and strategy, honoring the distinct roles, funding vehicles, and compliance requirements of each organization while maximizing impact across both entities
  • Align and integrate funding pathways between grantmaking, member engagement, and advocacy strategies to develop and sustain a cohesive system to building power
  • Develop and co-lead our membership change management strategy as WDN/A's grantmaking strategy and member roles evolve
  • Translate WDN/A's grantmaking strategy into meaningful member-facing pathways for engagement, learning, and activation, ensuring funding opportunities deepen participation and mobilize resources.
  • Partner with member-facing teams to strengthen WDN/A's ability to move capital strategically and at scale, aligning donor education, giving opportunities, and movement needs
  • Collaborate closely with the Grantmaking and Impact team on the evolution of incubated initiatives and funding vehicles as aligned, high-impact strategies for resource mobilization, innovation, and field leadership
  • Support relationship-building on WDN/A's behalf with aligned funders, collaboratives, and philanthropic partners to expand co-investment, coordination, and influence across the field

Requirements

As the Chief Program Officer at WDN/A, you must have (a/the):

  • 15+ years of experience with organizations of a comparable size, with at least 2+ years of proven experience operating as a senior executive leader. Previous work experience within multi-entity, membership-based or networked organizations is strongly preferred
  • Deep commitment to WDN/A's mission and values, with previous work experience in at least two of WDN's funding priorities. Deep experience at the intersection of philanthropy, movement building, and/or political advocacy, with a clear understanding of how power operates across these domains is strongly preferred
  • Demonstrated success leading, refining and scaling an established strategy and systems for greater impact, with a track record of mobilizing significant resources (e.g., philanthropic capital, political funding, or aligned investments) in service of mission-driven outcomes
  • Previous experience leading, integrating, and scaling complex, cross-functional strategies, transformations and/or organizational change into cohesive, high-performing organizational systems that deliver results
  • Exceptional communication and cross-functional leadership skills, with the ability to engage, align, and influence diverse stakeholders, including donors, staff, and partners, toward shared goals
  • Strong systems thinker and builder who has high emotional intelligence and values operational rigor, with the ability to translate vision into strategy, drive accountability, and deliver results in complex environments

CANDIDATE CHARACTERISTICS

The ideal candidate is:

  • Deeply aligned with WDN/A's mission and values, and energized by the opportunity to build and wield collective power in service of social justice
  • A charismatic leader with executive presence and sound judgment who is excited about serving as a trusted thought partner and advisor to the CEO and Boards of Directors
  • A highly relational leader who builds trust with and can motivate diverse stakeholders with varying levels of power and influence, while managing complexity, navigating ambiguity and driving for impact.
  • A strong people leader and people manager who provides clarity and drives accountability, growth, and high performance across teams

CANDIDACY PROCESS AND TIMELINE

To be considered for the Chief Program Officer role, please submit an application, resume, and cover letter through the WDN Careers Page no later than Monday, May 18, 2026.

To protect the integrity of our structured candidacy process, we kindly ask that all applicants do not call, email or message our office or any member of the WDN Team or Board of Directors about the Chief Program Officer role.

Benefits

The base salary for the Chief Program Officer role starts at $240K/year. This role is also eligible to receive WDN's Employee Benefits Package which is inclusive of:

  • Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance (paid by WDN at 100% for employees and 80% for dependents)
  • 401K Contribution (4% of your gross pay contributed by WDN and an additional 3% match of your gross pay)
  • 20 Vacation Days, 14 Sick Days and 14 Company Holidays
  • Partial Reimbursement of Your Internet and Phone Expenses for your home office
  • Financial Support for Learning and Professional Development Opportunities

WDN is an equal opportunity employer that values a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. WDN encourages applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, and veteran status. WDN does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, age, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, country of origin, citizenship, ancestry, genetic information, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, political affiliation, exercising one's right to family care and medical leave, medical condition, including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and related medical conditions, or any other category protected by local, state, or federal laws. WDN is not offering US visa sponsorship at this time.

Upon request, WDN offers accommodations for candidates with disabilities during the application, interview, and hiring process, such as additional time on hiring exercises, interview questions in advance, or closed captioning on Zoom.