Valhalla is seeking a Senior Director to join its small, close-knit, and growing team, and to be an integral part of this evolving and innovative organization. Senior Directors are leaders and contributors to grant-making at the Foundation. They develop specific grant recommendations; support and coach portfolio organizations to accelerate their impact; monitor impact and progress; and shape evolving investment strategies based on learnings.
The role will focus on early childhood development, medical research and talent, and data literacy.
About Valhalla:
Valhalla Foundation (“Valhalla”) is the private foundation of Scott Cook (co-founder of Intuit) and Signe Ostby. Valhalla invests in and supports innovative organizations aligned with its mission to drive measurable and meaningful improvement in outcomes that matter.
In that spirit, four key issue areas comprise Valhalla’s main portfolio: early childhood development, K12 education, medical research and talent, and environmental innovation. Of these, Valhalla’s primary area of focus is early childhood development, where the Foundation focuses on improving Kindergarten readiness rates nationwide with a particular emphasis on low-income children and children of color. Additionally, Valhalla is an active participant in collaborative philanthropy efforts through The Audacious Project and is a General Partner in Blue Meridian Partners. Valhalla has also made sizable gifts to COVID relief and racial justice efforts in the past year.
Scott and Signe – sole Trustees of Valhalla – have already committed over $500 million, are proud signatories of The Giving Pledge, and are passionate about the idea of “giving while living.” Therefore, the Foundation’s lean grant-making team works with focused attention to investigate who is achieving “outcomes that matter,” invest millions of dollars in those leaders and their solutions, and accelerate the scale of those models.
True to its founders, Valhalla applies a data-driven and highly rigorous approach to grant-making and also provides ongoing non-monetary support to help portfolio organizations scale their impact. Examples of these services include connections to other funders, goal-setting and strategy assistance, strengthening hiring processes, strengthening board practices and recruitment, executive coaches to help leaders with specific challenges they’re facing, and candid feedback and moral support.
