Grants Officer – Cultural Heritage Preservation

The Opportunity

A major private philanthropic foundation with a longstanding commitment to strengthening Jewish life and creating meaningful impact in the United States and Israel is building a new grant making team and seeking an experienced Grants Officer focused on Cultural Heritage Preservation. This is a newly created position reporting to the Executive Vice President of Grants. The Grants Officer will bring archival, historical, museum, or digital preservation expertise to a major philanthropic institution and help identify, evaluate, and support opportunities to preserve and expand access to documents, archives, and artifacts of Jewish interest.

About the Foundation

For nearly three decades, this leading private philanthropic foundation has helped shape a vibrant Jewish future in the United States and Israel. Through strategic philanthropy and partnerships with high-potential organizations and leaders, the Foundation brings resources, expertise, and long-term commitment to initiatives that strengthen Jewish life, support communities, and address critical needs.

Its work spans education and culture, safety net initiatives, and Israel – from strengthening Jewish education and deepening connections between American Jews and Israel to supporting vulnerable populations and preserving Jewish memory and culture. Across these areas, the Foundation seeks to translate vision into action and philanthropy into scalable, lasting impact.

What You'll Do

• Remain current on developments, emerging practices, technologies, and trends in digitization and preservation of documents, archives, and artifacts of Jewish interest.
• Assess preservation methodologies, digitization strategies, access models, and long-term sustainability.
• Identify opportunities for philanthropic investment consistent with the Foundation's mission.
• Build relationships with libraries, museums, archives, Holocaust centers, and other cultural institutions.
• Review proposals and participate in due diligence processes.
• Assess the scholarly, archival, technical, and practical dimensions of proposed investment opportunities.
• Monitor grants and grantee compliance with grant agreements and reporting requirements
• Prepare reports and recommendations for the Board and/or Board committees.
• Work closely with the finance office, legal department, and colleagues across the grants team.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

What You'll Bring

• Master's degree in Library Science (MLS), Archival Studies, History, Museum Studies, or related field. At least five years of full-time professional experience.
• Ability to assess organizations, programs, and investment opportunities using sound field knowledge, analytical judgment, and an understanding of philanthropic strategy.
• Knowledge sufficient to understand the significance and value of historical materials.
• Technical knowledge sufficient to assess sustainable digital preservation opportunities.
• Familiarity with metadata standards, digital imaging, archival storage technologies, and content management systems.
• Experience with grant initiation, development, monitoring, analysis, and private foundation processes.
• Strong analytical, project management, and written communication skills.

Why Join the Team?

This is a rare opportunity to bring specialized expertise in archives, history, museums, or digital preservation into Jewish philanthropy. As a member of a new team of grant makers driving major impact on the national and global scales, the grants officer will help shape the Foundation's work in cultural heritage while contributing expertise to decisions about what materials are preserved and how future generations will access them. The foundation is an equal opportunity employer.