About Decolonizing Wealth Project 

Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP) envisions a world where racial equity has become a societal norm, and new systems and ways of ensuring everyone can live their best lives, thrive in their cultures, and bring about healing from generations of colonial trauma. Our mission is to bring forth truth, reconciliation, and the healing of our global family from the ails of colonization through education, radical reparative giving, and storytelling.

Decolonizing Wealth Project was founded by Edgar Villanueva, author of Decolonizing Wealth (2018, 2021), a book that presented novel and innovative concepts for philanthropy and finance to advance  racial justice by making commitments to truth and repair. This work was met with a devoted audience and launched a movement that continues to drive reform in philanthropy and beyond. DWP’s work emerged as the ongoing practice of the strategies outlined in the book and the organization was founded in 2019 to put those concepts into action. Since that point, DWP’s programs have centered on the following key areas: 

• Education and Advocacy 
• Philanthropic Giving and Practice
• Racial Healing 
• Narrative and Culture Change

Education and Advocacy efforts focus on providing tools and resources to fuel a movement in philanthropy and beyond towards investment and social changes that advance racial justice. This takes place through education, donor advising, workshops, and presentations for foundations, donors, and finance professionals. 

Philanthropic Giving and Practice focuses on redistributing wealth and building an Indigenous and Black-led philanthropic infrastructure, Liberated Capital, through which we model reparative philanthropy practices. Liberated Capital is increasing investment in communities of color that have historically been marginalized through our decolonized reparations-based fund and donor community. Since 2019, the Fund has distributed over $10 million for grants, direct cash payments, and impact investing, entirely geared for Black, Indigenous, and other POC-led organizations. 

Racial Healing creates and facilitates decolonized resources, tools, and spaces that promote personal and organizational transformation and advance diversity, equity, and inclusion. Our Healing Summits and organizational coaching have provided education and training for over 250 grantmakers and community leaders in the past year. 

Narrative and Culture Change harnesses the power of our storytelling traditions to bring visibility and change to issues impacting BIPOC communities through digital projects, media engagement, and strategic partnerships. These contributions include major media publications, speaking roles in national and international conferences, and hosting mission-driven activation events with celebrities and influencers, in the U.S. and internationally. DWP creates content and supports BIPOC creatives.

This work is all accomplished with a team of ten full-time staff, three deeply engaged advisors, and consulting support. The fully remote team is located around the country, with access to an office space in Manhattan, for NYC-based or visiting staff. Several retreats each year and in-person programmatic work deepen community and team-building. We celebrate our shared commitment to the organization’s mission, bringing creativity and support to each other, and a universal willingness to “roll up our sleeves.” As a start-up, our team orientation is to move quickly, while simultaneously working to scale systems and capacity for long-term growth. DWP is fiscally sponsored by Allied Media Projects. 

About the Opportunity

As we continue our rapid growth, DWP seeks to recruit an experienced and values-driven philanthropy professional to serve as a key member of the organizational leadership. The Vice President will play an external role with regular and substantial contributions in the sector, serving as an ambassador, interacting with current and potential donors, while also overseeing the work of the Programs Team. 

This position reports to and partners closely with Edgar Villanueva, Founder and Principal. The Chief of Staff and Vice President of Development will serve as close colleagues to the Vice President of Programs, as partners on the DWP leadership team. Six direct reports will work with the Vice President of Programs, including the Director of Reparations, Director of Global Programs, Director of Food and Land Justice, Director of California Programs (to be hired), Manager of Healing Programs, and Program Associate. Depending on location, the Vice President of Programs will be expected to have an in-office presence 2-3 days per week (based on proximity to other colleagues). 

Areas of Leadership

The following areas will serve as the key functions of the Vice President of Programs role, with the related core competencies for each area listed below. 

Alignment with DWP’s Mission and Values: Serve as a public-facing executive leader in a rapidly growing start-up organization. Apply equity-centered principles to serve as a thought and work partner with DWP’s Founder/Principal and other organizational leaders. Bring a willingness to execute needed tasks at any level, while maintaining an overarching perspective of the mission and work. 

Key Requirements: Understanding of and deep personal commitment and connection to the work of racial equity, including a broad perspective on reparations and the impact of capital flow into historically marginalized communities. Comfort working in a fast-paced environment with the ability to self-direct. Capacity to contribute to a high-performing team with a partnership-oriented approach. Ability to engage productively and authentically across socioeconomic, racial, gender, and political lines.  

Program Leadership: Oversee all workstreams and staff, applying an experienced perspective to leading grantmaking, education and advocacy, racial healing, and narrative change programs (with narrative change work in partnership with Director of Communications), building on the core DWP mission. Collaborate closely with strategic advisors and advisory committees for input on various programmatic activities. Develop and implement a cross-cutting strategy to link all program work to the organization’s vision and mission. Partner with staff and advisors to deliver high-impact and compelling programming that expands DWP’s audience and supporters. Create and implement systems to ensure programmatic effectiveness, including use of data collection, monitoring, and evaluation. 

Key Requirements: Senior-level experience in social justice philanthropy with previous roles including oversight of grantmaking and/or donor organizing, ideally with experience in both U.S. and international grantmaking contexts. Ability to create and assess grantmaking systems. Strengths in facilitation among diverse audiences, specifically in conversations and interactions related to race and power. Past experience implementing monitoring and evaluation practices within grantmaking. 

External Engagement: Articulate the vision and strategy for Programs and share these with prospective and current partners through engaging communications. Serve as a delegate for the Founder/Principal with media, partners, and donors in key spaces, including closed donor or corporate events, conferences, mainstream or philanthropic media, or celebrity/influencer-driven activation events. 

Key Requirements: Track record of building and maintaining partnerships with donors and programmatic partners. Experience and comfort with engaging diverse and mainstream audiences around topics related to race and power through public speaking, writing, and one-on-one interactions. Facility with public speaking. 

People Management: Manage, develop, and support Program Team staff and partner with key consultants in a remote environment. Build connections across the Program Team and organization to strengthen the work and the organizational culture. Lead with an equity-centered approach that reflects the organization’s values and centers the humanity of each team member. 

Key Requirements: Experience managing staff with varying levels of career experience, with a focus on building and applying complex work plans and strategies within a donor or client-driven environment. Commitment to applying an equity lens to management. Ability to partner closely with peer leaders in the development and implementation of organizational practices and systems.
 

Travel

Domestic and international travel will be required for this position, with expectations of at least 30% of time spent traveling, depending on where the Vice President of Programs is located. 

Salary and Paid Time-Off

The pay range for the Vice President of Programs position is $160,000-$180,000. DWP offers more than four weeks of annual leave, inclusive of a minimum of two weeks year-end office closure, ten days of personal leave, and public holidays. 

Decolonizing Wealth Project is committed to a diverse and multicultural workplace.

This is a Remote Role with a preference for New York, Los Angeles, or Atlanta.