A Day in the Life of a Program Officer

by Joel Hoekstra

From the perspective of many nonprofits seeking funds from foundations, a program officer IS the foundation. In focus groups with nonprofit representatives conducted in April by the Minnesota Council on Foundations, participants said their relationship with a foundation's program officer almost completely defines their relationship with a foundation. At the same time, they noted that program officers appeared to be increasingly harried and unavailable.

To shed more light on the critical role a program officer plays in a foundation, and on why many program officers seem to be so busy, Giving Forum shadowed Jo-Anne Stately, senior program officer for The Saint Paul Foundation, for a day. Her varied, jam-packed schedule highlights just some of the myriad valuable ways in which program officers interact with communities and nonprofit agencies in their day-to-day work.

8:30 a.m. It's bright and early Monday morning — an hour when most workers are still fueling up with a latté‚ or gabbing with co-workers about weekend activities — but Jo-Anne Stately hasn't wasted a minute. She has already sifted through the accumulated e-mails and voice-mail messages, handled some minor paperwork, and set up a meeting with a new staff member for later in the week. The day's schedule is stuffed with appointments.

Are Mondays always this busy?

"Um...," Stately considers momentarily. "Yes."

Still, the 47-year-old seems unruffled and cool. (Perhaps because she skips that latté.) She's also organized, as evidenced by a rack of nearly 20 file folders, neatly arranged by color. Each packet contains information about a nonprofit organization that's applied for foundation funding and is scheduled to receive a site visit in the next few weeks. In addition to handling site visits for The Saint Paul Foundation, Stately and her co-workers conduct interviews for the Mardag Foundation and the F. R. Bigelow Foundation, two private foundations that contract with The Saint Paul Foundation to provide administrative services. "Red is for The Saint Paul, blue for F.R. Bigelow, green for Mardag," she explains.

But enough small talk; it's time to get to the first appointment of the day. Stately smoothes the wrinkles from her beige suit, runs a hand through her silver-white hair, and hands her visitor a map printed off the Internet. "How well do you know White Bear Lake?" she asks.

9:01 a.m. Corrine Schmidt smiles as she opens the door to Northeast Residence. "It's nice to put a name with a face," she says to Stately, with whom she's already had several conversations by phone.

Schmidt is the administrator for Northeast Residence, a respite-care program for people with severe developmental disabilities, housed in a multi-bedroom White Bear Lake rambler. The organization, which also runs several day care programs, is seeking funding from The Saint Paul Foundation, the F.R. Bigelow Foundation and other funders to build a second, wheelchair-accessible facility a few miles away. Like the original location, the 3,500-square-foot residence would serve families who have loved ones in need of round-the-clock care. The first-of-its-kind respite care-program provides safe, attentive, overnight care in a group setting for disabled individuals — as well as a much-needed rest for regular care providers.

"It gives people a break so they can get away for a couple of days," Schmidt explains. "I've seen it save families and marriages."

The building proposal fits the profile of projects that both The Saint Paul Foundation and the F.R. Bigelow Foundation consider, Stately explains to Schmidt, but The Saint Paul Foundation's board only considers capital requests once a year, in November. Stately also inquires about the other foundations to which Schmidt has applied for funding. Has Schmidt considered approaching corporate foundations? Has Northeast asked the families who use the program for contributions? Since the F.R. Bigelow Foundation will consider Schmidt's funding request in August, Stately asks her to send a capital campaign status report budget in late July.

When Schmidt confesses to not having put all the numbers together yet, Stately breaks the ice with a joke: "I think I'm one of the few program officers who likes to read financials."

After an hour of questions and conversation, Stately asks to see the site of the proposed facility. A short drive affords her a first-hand look at the wooded lot that Northeast hopes to buy. It also provides an unexpected glimpse of the clients Northeast serves: next door is one of the agency's day care facilities. At Schmidt's invitation, Stately drops in to meet a few residents. Two are coloring, while another is shredding paper for the local chapter of the Humane Society. The scraps will be used as bedding for animals.

10:42 a.m. Arriving early for an appointment on the West Side of Saint Paul, Stately gives a tour of the neighborhood. She points out local landmarks and budding hubs of community business.

At one time, the area population was predominantly Jewish, she notes, but it has since become known as the center of the Latino community and is attracting a growing Hmong population. Knowing the neighborhood, its history, and its needs is vital to a program officer's work, she says. "I try to have lunch or meetings in different areas every few months, so I can visit the neighborhoods we serve," she says.

11:00 a.m. Ana M. Perez de Perez and Kevin Perez haven't had a visit from Stately in a while, but they coo and fuss over the program officer like protective parents as she tours the new home of their fledgling enterprise: discapacitados abriendose caminos. Except for a part-time receptionist, the husband-and-wife Perez team is the only staff at this nonprofit serving the Latino community.

Originally established under Arc of Anoka and Ramsey counties, the Perezes' program for Spanish-speaking parents who have kids with disabilities has seen small but steady growth since it was begun. The Saint Paul Foundation initially provided funds for governance and planning issues, as well as program support. Now the Perezes are seeking additional dollars for program support from the foundation.

Since The Saint Paul Foundation is already familiar with the agency's work, Stately's visit is intended to provide her with an update on its programs. She's trying to get a sense of how the program is growing and how the new space is helping the agency integrate into the community.

Ana Perez says that an indoor picnic at the center attracted a bigger-than-expected crowd. Kevin Perez talks animatedly about his work as an interpreter. On a recent evening, the center hosted an English-speaking social worker who talked about government services available to the parents of kids with disabilities. "These families didn't even know this was available," he says. "Sure they [the social workers] have brochures, in Spanish even, but some of these parents don't know how to read."

Stately watches a short videotape of the meeting to get a sense of attendance and listens attentively as the Perezes talk about their successes and failures. As the meeting wraps up, she delicately directs the conversation to some particular subjects. What's the status of the management improvement plan? Ana reports that the board has signed off on the plan and that they've asked Arc to be the organization's fiscal agent. Stately suggests that the Perezes look into the Management Improvement Fund for help with nonprofit management training.

"They've got a lot of energy, but they're transitioning into an organization requiring more and more funding and with many more administrative issues to take care of," Stately says in the car on the way back to the office. "Take the training issue. What if they burn out? When it comes to these kinds of services, they're the only game in town."

12:44 p.m. Stately's lunch is brief, a plateful of roasted chicken and red beans and rice purchased at a downtown food court. She eats half before boxing up the remainder and heading up to her desk to take another pass through her e-mails, phone messages and mail.

1:23 p.m. Shaye Moris, executive director of the Second Harvest Northern Lakes Food Bank, is early. Her phone call, slated for half past the hour, comes through loud and clear over the speakerphone, even though Morris is on a cross-country trip, calling from a hotel just outside Mesa Verde, Colorado. Her organization has requested a grant from the Mardag Foundation to help finance the food bank's move from Hibbing to Duluth.

The impact of the move is a source of concern for Stately, but Moris assures her that the move will have little impact on employment in the Hibbing area and that service to clients in the region will not be affected. "It will open up the door for so many other possibilities, including fresh produce and other donations," the director notes.

In reviewing the proposal, Stately has noted that a quarter of the food bank's recipients are from Wisconsin.

"Are you seeking any Wisconsin funders?"

Moris admits that she hasn't yet investigated that possibility. Stately also suggests looking into philanthropic organizations that serve women and kids. "It's worth exploring," she says.

Finished with her list of questions, Stately turns things over to Moris: "Is there anything you'd like to ask me about the foundation?" she offers.

Moris pauses a moment, then asks: "How do we fit the guidelines of the Mardag Foundation, Jo-Anne?"

A smile flickers across Stately's face. It's a common and important question. "Yes, you certainly fall into the foundation's guidelines," she says, then adds that her role as a program officer is to assess the proposal and make a recommendation on funding. Final decisions on funding are left to the foundation board. "I don't see any red flags though," she says.

Once the call is completed, Stately elaborates: "Usually nonprofit directors say, 'Are you going to recommend funding?' She didn't go quite to that. But asking about red flags, that's OK."

2:30 p.m. The agenda for the weekly meeting of The Saint Paul Foundation's program staff is relatively straightforward on this particular Monday. Vice President of grants and programs, John Couchman, provides an update on outreach and communication activities related to The Saint Paul Foundation's recently adopted strategic plan for grantmaking, Connections: Commitment to Community, and the program staff discusses ideas for future activities.

The primary issue on the table is getting site visits and reports completed before the grantmaking meetings of all three boards — The Saint Paul Foundation, Mardag Foundation, and F.R. Bigelow Foundation — which will occur in mid-August.

The program staff — including Couchman, program officers Ruby Lee, Claire Chang, Carrie Jo Short, and Carol Olson, and program assistant Lori Bright, in addition to Stately — meets regularly to track the process of compiling information and discuss possible recommendations. Not all projects will be funded, of course, and often the program officers must make hard choices among themselves regarding their funding recommendations. Already, nearly ten weeks from the August meetings, the team has begun to assess each proposal, and to look at how the proposals being reviewed for each of the three foundations fit within their grantmaking budgets.

"We have to look at these proposals carefully," Couchman reminds the group. "There's obviously more worthwhile projects than there are dollars available to grant."

Stately takes the bait, needling her colleagues: "I'm not trimming," she declares with mock stubbornness. Of course, in the end, she'll have to compromise as much as her colleagues do — always with the greater good of the foundations and the communities they serve in mind.

4:40 p.m. Traffic is already starting to snarl on the streets below, but Stately insists on taking care of a few administrative matters before heading off to her last appointment of the day. She opens a handful of spreadsheets and tallies the time she's spent on work for the Mardag and F.R. Bigelow foundations.

Shortly after five, however, she's on the road, headed not for home but to Minneapolis. The Headwaters Fund, a small philanthropic organization known for its funding of grassroots organizations, is holding a meeting regarding participation in its annual Walk for Justice, which assists in raising money for addressing issues of social change in the community.

A longtime fan of Headwaters' work, Stately has been invited to speak to attendees about matching funds being provided by The Saint Paul and F.R. Bigelow foundations to qualifying groups in the East Metro area. She encourages other nonprofit agencies to look at foundations or corporate giving programs that might help boost their overall success in raising funds through such a matching program.

Applause rings through the room as the last of the speakers finishes up and the meeting participants stand up to talk or drift away. Stately makes the rounds, catching up with Headwaters staff and other participants.

7:00 p.m. Stately heads to her car for the ride home. It's been a long day — and it's only Monday — but Stately says it's well worth the effort. It's all part of her mission, she says, to further The Saint Paul Foundation's "critical course of community involvement, and how it operates internally and interacts externally with its diverse constituencies, stakeholders, and partners." In the end, it's about making communities and families stronger. "I want to see this happen," Stately says. "I'm in it for the long run."

Copyright 1999 Minnesota Council on Foundations
Reproduction in any form without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited.

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