SAMVID PHILANTHROPIES
Samvid Philanthropies was started with the belief that society must accelerate the pace at which we expand opportunity, especially for those facing significant barriers. We aim to fulfill our mission of building stronger, more inclusive economies through initiatives primarily focused on education, entrepreneurship, and healthcare.
Samvid Philanthropies is a philanthropic family foundation. Its founders believe that obtaining access to high-quality education unlocked for them the opportunity to immigrate to America. Up arriving, they conceived an idea for a business, bootstrapped it, and grew it over four decades. Our focus on education and entrepreneurship stems from these deeply personal experiences; our interest in healthcare is rooted in a strong belief that building increased awareness around wellness, and improving the accessibility and quality of care, can drive better outcomes for all, particularly the most marginalized, in our country.
As the world around us changes, so, too does the work in which we engage. Where possible we use technology to improve the efficiency and scalability of our work, as well as the work of our fantastic partners.
SAMVID SCHOLARS: GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
Samvid Ventures launched Samvid Scholars to empower mission-driven graduate students to drive transformative change for society through leadership development, community, and financial support. Our programming is designed to deepen each Scholar’s understanding of who they are, what matters to them, and their unique path to impact – and, ultimately, to develop the knowledge and skills required to drive and lead change.
Once Scholars have completed the two-year program, they remain in our community as Alumni. We envision our alumni network to be an engine of the cross-disciplinary collaboration, insight, and support required to address the greatest challenges facing society.
PROGRAM MANAGER ROLE The Program Manager will lead the delivery of the Samvid Scholars program, ensuring a best-in-class experience for all applicants, Scholars, alumni, and partners. This is a high-impact, mid-level role ideal for someone with a strong foundation in program or project management and ownership of initiatives within a mission-driven team.
Reporting to the Program Director, the Program Manager will be the driving force behind program execution—ensuring an exceptional experience for our applicants, Scholars, alumni, and partners. This is an influential role within a small, ambitious team where you will grow professionally and build on your leadership skillset.
In this role, you will manage and continuously improve core program elements including operations, applicant selection, events and conferences, communications, marketing and data analysis. Specifically, the Program Manager will be responsible for driving:
Program management and operations: Oversee all program management and operations for Samvid Scholars to deliver an impactful program to Scholars and alumni and achieve program outcomes, including in-person and virtual programming.
· Manage annual program calendar including leading the communications plan for Scholars and alumni and coordinating virtual sessions and events for Scholars and alumni.
· Launch effective community-building initiatives including events and virtual engagement platforms.
· Implement technology and/or tools to improve program operations and Scholar and partner CRM.
Selection management: Manage annual scholarship application and selection process from end to end to select an exceptional cohort and deliver a seamless experience for all stakeholders including applicants, partners, reviewers, external selection committee, and Samvid Ventures Board.
· Lead selection process, including building timeline for each review phase, operating application management system, overseeing review committees, reading applications, and organizing finalist review.
· Conduct data analyses to manage the selection model and move applications through each review phase to select final cohort. Synthesize data in reports to leadership and the Samvid Board to inform decision making.
· Facilitate annual selection post-mortem to recommend revisions to selection model and strategy for next cycle.
Conference planning and event management: Lead logistics planning for major events, including our flagship summer conference for all current Scholars, ~3 university on-campus visits and alumni engagement.
· Deliver on event objectives through excellent execution, introduction of new ideas, and a commitment to continuous improvement.
· Supervise current and new delivery partners (event planner, facilitators) and collaborate to deliver high quality events on time and on budget.
· Elevate participant experience through strong customer service, branding/swag, and community building activities.
Communications: Develop and lead communications plans for all Samvid Scholars stakeholders including Scholars, alumni, university partners, peer programs, delivery partners, and volunteers/past volunteers.
· Establish a comprehensive communications strategy for the Samvid Scholars program to enhance and professionalize its brand.
· Design impactful copy and branding for marketing campaign for selection.
· Write monthly communications for Scholars to share program updates and highlight Scholar achievements. Manage quarterly alumni newsletter and bi-annual “Friends of Samvid Scholars” newsletter.
Marketing and university partner management: Design and lead strategic marketing campaign, including partnership management, to recruit highest quality candidates for Samvid Scholars and continue to build Samvid Scholars brand.
· Develop annual marketing strategy, including setting recruitment goals and innovating new strategies to expand partnerships and increase competitive applicant pool.
· Create engaging and relevant marketing collateral, including updates to website.
· Manage existing and new partnerships with universities, fellowships, and peer programs, including facilitating meetings, to encourage collaboration and strengthen Samvid Scholars brand.
Data analysis and management: Develop evaluation and learning plan to measure program impact, track Scholar and alumni engagement, and guide continuous improvement.
· Design event surveys and annual assessments aligned with program scorecard for all Scholars and alumni.
· Build systems and processes to collect, analyze and store all program data.
· Create reports to communicate program outcomes to leadership and Samvid Board and inform continuous improvement efforts.
QUALIFICATIONS
You are a great fit for this role if:
· You are an expert in at least two of the areas above, bringing demonstrated experience and confidence to independently drive impact in those areas
· You are excited by the opportunity to take something strong and make it even better—bringing ideas, systems, and processes to life
· You enjoy the balance between working directly with people (our amazing Scholars and partners) and problem-solving “behind the scenes” to lead strong operations—and have examples of this on your resume
You are not a fit for this role if:
· You are early career and have limited experience leading projects independently
· You have lack experience in both customer service and project management
· You prefer to be either working with students directly or being exclusively “behind the scenes”
Additional qualifications · Minimum of 5-7 years of work experience
· Strong program management and project management skills; Excels at and is passionate about leading multiple projects at once to deliver on program outcomes
· Experience improving operations through use of tools and systems
· Exceptional oral and written communication skills, including ability to craft strategic communications for variety of stakeholders and comfort managing relationships with external partners
· Passion for delivering high-quality experiences for others (customer service)
· Experience building and leading communities online and/or in person
· Experience using data to drive outcomes and inform decision making for senior leaders
· Strong attention to detail and highly organized
· Owns outcomes for their scope of work and manages progress independently
· Demonstrated interest in supporting graduate students (students 20-30 years of age)
· Facilitation and/or event management experience preferred
· Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s degree preferred
Compensation: The salary range for this position is $95,000-$105,000- and will depend on prior work experience and our assessment of your demonstrated fit for the role.
This role is located in NYC and is hybrid. The team works three days in office (Mon, Tues, Thurs) and two days remote (Wed, Fri).
TO APPLY Please email your resume and share your salary requirement in your cover note to: pam@samvid.ventures If you have questions before submitting your application, feel free to be in touch.
