About GiveDirectly
GiveDirectly (GD) provides cash grants directly to people living in extreme poverty. GD has raised over $800M since launching in 2011, delivered cash to more than 1.2 million recipients, and launched offices in 11 countries. We’re continuing expansion across the Global South. Over the past decade, GD has also supported large-scale, experimental research, expanding the evidence that cash has a positive short and long-term impact on recipients. As a result, GD has been celebrated as one of the most innovative non-profit companies by Fast Company, while the growing cash transfer movement (and GD’s leading role within it) has been featured in the New York Times Magazine, This American Life, Foreign Affairs, and The Economist.
Across our global offices, our culture is candid, analytical, non-hierarchical, and agile. We work alongside 750+ individuals who come from 21 different countries and speak 69 different languages. Team members at GiveDirectly attest that diversity, equity, and inclusion are not just buzzwords, but a fundamental part of our culture and values. We actively seek to recruit individuals from the communities we serve, and use DEI as a lens in our hiring practices, programs, and initiatives. Our goal is to maintain a workplace where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work, and feel valued and respected for who they are. We continue to grapple with balancing inclusivity of all cultures and experiences while maintaining cohesion in our values. While there is much that we are still learning, we take care of one another, have fun, as well as provide flexible working hours wherever possible.
We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, or any other status protected by law.
Compensation: $68,400
Location: Remote in Georgia, USA; Preference for metro-Atlanta
Please note that this role requires some travel within Georgia to support in-person activities related to community scoping, community engagement, and program launch. Exact amounts of travel will vary, though we estimate approximately a few days per month in 2023, in addition to occasional travel to New York or elsewhere in the US for team events.
Role Overview
The U.S. Program Associate will support implementation for large-scale cash initiatives in the U.S. As a critical member of GiveDirectly’s U.S. programs team, you will support operations, internal coordination, and team processes. You will often be the project point person for community engagement and customer service. You will be expected to support Managers and Senior Managers across multiple projects, and as a result, you must be excited to work in a fast-paced environment and be comfortable managing multiple workstreams at one time. Through this, you will have the opportunity to learn and develop new skills on a fast-growing team.
Associates should be able to:
- Support multiple projects and workstreams simultaneously (multi-task), especially by driving process (e.g. metric tracking, survey design)
- Over time, own whole components of projects, including but not limited to customer service and/or delivering payments
- Proactively identify areas for efficiency in projects and team management (e.g. streamlining customer service management)
- Support community engagement and coordination, including acting as a liaison for partner organizations and community members as appropriate
Responsibilities
This position will primarily support In Her Hands, a guaranteed income initiative delivering no-strings-attached cash to low-income women across multiple sites in Georgia. This role is also expected to work closely with our Atlanta-based partner organization, the Georgia Resilience and Opportunity (GRO) Fund.
Community Engagement
- Cultivate and maintain relationships with implementing partners, key community members, and local service organizations
- Build knowledge of communities we are actively or potentially working in, and identify existing local resources or services relevant for recipients
- Support the organizing and execution of community-based meetings and events as needed
- Attend, and occasionally facilitate, community-based meetings and synthesize information to share with the team
Customer Service and Recipient Experience
- Lead customer service, including directly supporting recipients via an email-based help desk and through phone support
- Meet periodically with recipients in person to build trust and to identify problems or areas for program or process improvements
- Serve as a trusted resource for recipients, responding to their communications in a timely and professional manner
- Respond to and resolve one-off recipient issues through communication, data entry, and/or escalation of more serious matters to the appropriate individuals
Direct Program Support
- Support a range of operational and project management duties to ensure GiveDirectly’s U.S. projects are executed with excellence and in line with our values, particularly “recipients first”
- Lead select operational processes, including directly supporting recipients via the customer service help desk and conducting recipient follow-up surveys
- Work closely with other members of the U.S. team to identify process challenges and propose solutions (e.g. increasing operational efficiency, improving recipient experience)
- Become an expert in GiveDirectly’s tech systems (e.g. Salesforce) to support project execution and excellence
- Track and report operational and efficiency metrics
- May be responsible for managing field teams, including benefits counselors and/or enrollment officers
Other
- Support whole-team knowledge management and process documentation, refreshing protocol and process docs regularly
- Where feasible given project management responsibilities, Associates may also be asked to support content coordination and story collection for program communications. This could include:
- Collaborating with internal stakeholders to determine content collection priorities and needs
- Owning information gathering and storytelling about our programs
- Coordinating video taking, and editing of recipient stories (directly or via vendors/freelancers)
- Writing and editing articles and recipient stories, as well as conducting interviews as necessary
- Collaborating with recipients to tell their own stories by connecting them to tech and training
Qualifications
- 2+ years of work or volunteer experience in a role that required project management and people management/coordination
- Exceptional communication, organizational, and time-management skills
- Strong customer service instincts, including skilled problem solving, patience, and high emotional intelligence
- Ability to manage day-to-day operations and propose & implement process improvements
- Demonstrated ability to work in a highly independent and self-directed manner, while effectively communicating upwardly about gaps and risks
- Enthusiasm for fast-paced environments, which may lack a pre-defined playbook for success and involve significant “learning by doing”
- Strong alignment with GD values and active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity.
- We welcome and strongly encourage applications from candidates who have personal or professional experience in the low-income and/or historically marginalized communities that we serve.
Why work at GiveDirectly?
At GiveDirectly, we work to ensure that you have everything you need to excel in your role and on your team, including:
- A positive and supportive team with opportunities for advancement
- A demonstrated commitment to helping all staff develop and grow
- A competitive salary
- A robust health benefits plan (exact details will vary by country)
- Unlimited PTO (that we encourage staff to take!)
- Desk allowance and flexible work location
**GD is committed to observing all local, national and international laws that protect children, vulnerable adults, and basic human rights of all. GD is committed to a policy of “zero tolerance for sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEAH)” and expects anyone who works for GD to uphold the protection and safeguarding of our recipients as a priority.**
Read more about our ongoing diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts here and about our decision to move our central support teams to remote first here.
About the hiring process
Format: The hiring process follows the same general outline for all open roles:
First interview (30 mins)
Take home skills assignment (~2 hours)
Second interview (1 hour)*
Third interview (1 hour)*
Final interview (1 hour)
Reference checks (30 mins each)
*For some roles, second & third interviews are combined into a panel interview. If there are adjustments or variations on this process, those changes will be communicated during the first interview.
Venue: We conduct interviews over Google Meet with camera on (unless communicated otherwise).
Accessibility: Closed captioning is available during all Google Meet interviews, and interviewers will also post interview questions in the chat box throughout the call. If you need assistance accessing either of these features, please let your interviewer know at the start of your interview!
We’re committed to running an inclusive and accessible application process for all of our open roles. If there are questions or concerns you have about the accessibility of our hiring process, we warmly invite you to reach out to careers@givedirectly.org.
**GD is committed to observing all local, national and international laws that protect children, vulnerable adults, and basic human rights of all. GD is committed to a policy of “zero tolerance for sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEAH)” and expects anyone who works for GD to uphold the protection and safeguarding of our recipients as a priority.**
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