About the John R. Oishei Foundation
The John R. Oishei Foundation is a private, place-based foundation working in the Buffalo-Niagara region of New York State. Established in 1941, the Foundation manages approximately $360 million in assets and operates with an annual budget of around $15 million. With a current team of 11 and plans to grow to 15–17 staff over the next two years, the Foundation is evolving steadily and with purpose, shifting from a traditional grantmaking approach toward a focused strategy that addresses root causes and centers community voice to advance financial prosperity for a racially just Buffalo Niagara region. Beginning on Buffalo’s East Side, this work reflects a belief that lasting change is shaped through relationships, proximity, and partnership, and that philanthropy has a role to play not just in funding solutions, but in supporting the conditions that allow them to emerge and grow.
Over the past two years, the Foundation has been actively transitioning from strategy to practice. This has included investing more than $15 million in transition funding to support longtime partners, redesigning internal structures and governance, and beginning to operationalize the strategy through a strategic framework centered on community power-building. This approach reflects a fundamental shift in how the Foundation shows up, moving beyond traditional grantmaking toward deeper relationships, shared influence, and investments that support the leadership, assets, and priorities already present in the community. As this next phase takes shape, the Foundation is building the internal and external conditions needed to advance its work alongside partners, with a growing focus on initiatives that connect community voice, organizational strength, and long-term financial prosperity.
Mission, Vision, and Values
The Foundation’s work is driven by its mission, vision, and values:
Mission: We work with communities to change systems and build financial prosperity for a racially just, vibrant Buffalo-Niagara region.
Vision: A thriving, prosperous community for all, where diversity is our strength.
Values:
- Act against racism: We actively counter racism and systemic barriers faced by Black and other residents of color.
- Build on strengths: We center communities' and colleagues' agency, assets, and opportunities.
- Be trustworthy: We build trust through transparency, accountability, and humility.
- Work together: We listen, collaborate, and build partnerships across sectors and difference.
- Make a difference: We invest in our capacity to learn, improve, and create positive change.
The Opportunity
This is not a traditional communications or marketing role. For this newly created leadership position, the Foundation is seeking a leader who understands communications as a tool for influence, someone who can help shape narratives, support policy and systems change, and amplify community voice. Reporting directly to President, Christina Orsi, and serving as a member of the Leadership Team, the Vice President of Strategic Communications & Advocacy will shape and steward the Foundation’s public voice, advancing its mission, strengthening relationships, and supporting narratives that center racial equity and financial prosperity.
This defining moment for the Foundation is also a unique opportunity for a senior communications leader who is passionate about racial equity and is ready to help shape both narrative and practice. As the organization deepens its focus on community power-building, communications and advocacy are not siloed supporting functions, they are closely connected, mutually reinforcing and central to how the work moves forward. The Vice President of Strategic Communications & Advocacy will help lead how the work is understood, experienced, and advanced, building alignment across stakeholders, strengthening partnerships, and playing a key role in translating a bold strategy into shared understanding and action. The role calls for someone who is both a strategist and a doer, able to think at a high level while also rolling up their sleeves to move the work forward.
Strategic Communications is a core function, holding responsibility for how the Foundation’s strategy and community power-building framework are understood and carried forward across multiple audiences—including staff and Board, community partners, East Side organizations, leaders, and residents, and peer funders. This work includes developing shared language, building internal alignment, and translating complex ideas into clear, accessible communications that reflect the Foundation’s commitment to community power-building and partnership. Above all, it requires a commitment to hearing, supporting, and amplifying the voices of those most proximate to the challenges and opportunities that exist on Buffalo’s East Side.
Advocacy is an emerging area of focus that builds on the strategic communications foundation, connecting the work to broader systems, partnerships, and, over time, policies and resources. Grounded in community power-building, advocacy at Oishei will emphasize community-informed priorities, strengthen relationships and coalitions, and help to shape the conditions that support long-term change. This role offers the opportunity to help define and build this function in alignment with the Foundation’s values and strategy.
Working across all internal teams and organizational levels, the Strategic Communications and Advocacy functions ensure that the Foundation’s work is both clearly understood and meaningfully advanced.
In the first six months, the VP, Strategic Communications & Advocacy will have:
- Established a community power-building communications approach that staff, board, and key external partners understand and can articulate.
- Created systems and frameworks for internal messaging, brand consistency, and external storytelling.
- Begun building authentic relationships with key community stakeholders, media partners, and peer organizations.
- Developed a clearer picture of the Foundation's emerging role in policy and advocacy .
- Ensured that community voice is meaningfully reflected in the Foundation's communications decisions.
Key responsibilities include but are not limited to:
Strategic Communications Leadership
- Develop and execute a comprehensive strategic communications plan aligned with the Foundation's strategy and framework, in support of the mission, values, and goals.
- Steward a clear, cohesive public voice and brand across all platforms and channels.
- Maintain and evolve internal messaging frameworks that guide all public-facing content.
- Commission or conduct community-informed research to ensure language reflects the Foundation's values (e.g., "equity," "financial prosperity," "community power building").
- Create consistent feedback loops among the Foundation’s key audiences to ensure clarity.
Narrative Change & Community Power Building
- Lead the development of a community power building communications approach, creating shared understanding among staff, board, and external partners.
- Support community members, organizations, and leaders as they tell their own stories of joy and resilience and challenge harmful narratives.
- Directly engage and amplify leaders of color and community-rooted organizations.
- Help define the Foundation's role in policy and advocacy work—a new and emerging area the organization will shape over the next year.
Internal Communications & Capacity Building
- Lead internal communications strategy in partnership with the Vice President, People, Culture & Operations, supporting cultural transformation.
- Develop talking points, presentations, and tools to support staff and board communications.
- Build internal capacity through training in asset-based framing, media coaching, and narrative strategy.
- Mentor and coach team members and partners in communications practice.
Media Strategy & Brand Stewardship
- Build authentic relationships with local and national media aligned with the Foundation's mission, including nontraditional, independent, and community-driven media outlets.
- Lead proactive media outreach, storytelling partnerships, and issue response strategy.
- Ensure brand consistency and community-centered imagery across print, digital, and experiential touchpoints. Ensure Foundation storytelling is not extractive, exploitive, or insensitive to any audiences.
- Oversee the Foundation's website, social media, and digital platforms.
- Retain and manage consultants (designers, writers, photographers) as needed.
Partnerships, Field Leadership, & Board Engagement
- Serve as a visible ambassador for the Foundation in public forums, conferences, and collaborative spaces.
- Build relationships with communications and philanthropic partners to advance aligned messaging around racial equity and prosperity.
- Cultivate trust with the Board; support board members as external ambassadors of the Foundation.
- Support grantees and partners in strengthening their own communications and influence strategies.
- Share tools and research findings that strengthen the field's collective narrative work.
Organizational Strategy & Culture
- Collaborate with the Leadership Team on enterprise-wide efforts, including strategic planning, risk management, and community engagement.
- Manage the communications and policy budget and contribute to organization-wide planning.
- Model leadership grounded in feedback, learning, shared accountability, and a commitment to racial equity.
- Demonstrate communications’ impact as a change tool throughout the organization.
- In the near term, hire and manage at least one direct report to support implementation of communications strategy, along with external contractors/consultants.
- In the longer term, shape the Foundation’s approach to Policy & Advocacy work, and hire and lead a team to support related initiatives.
Candidate Profile
While it is understood that no candidate will offer every desired skill, quality, and characteristic, the following offers a detailed, aspirational view of the ideal candidate profile:
A Strategic and Community-Centered Storyteller, with a Change-Maker’s Mindset
This leader will:
- Be able to share and lead a communications strategy that advances the Foundation’s strategic priorities and drives narrative change.
- Bring experience synthesizing complex ideas into clear, compelling messaging for a variety of audiences.
- Have experience designing and leading campaign-based communications to influence public dialogue, policy agendas, and community understanding.
- Bring a track record of using communications as a tool to advance policy and advocacy goals.
- Navigate conversations about race and equity with care and clarity; guide messaging for sensitive issues in partnership with Foundation leadership.
- Produce strong written content and messaging frameworks that align internal messaging and external storytelling.
- Bring deep experience communicating around topics including racial justice, equity, and community power-building
- Center community voices and lived experiences in strategy and storytelling.
- Ensure that all storytellers have agency in how, when, why, and where they share their stories.
A Strategic Leader and Builder
This leader will:
- Be comfortable with ambiguity; able to thrive in a newly created role at an organization that is actively building and evolving its strategy, structure, and functions. This leader will hit the ground running even when not everything is defined, and will help shape the role as the Foundation grows.
- Be a “builder”; able to operate in a lean, startup-like environment in an established organization which also has a long institutional history within traditional philanthropy.
- Have comfort both rolling up their sleeves and also building the systems and team to enable scale.
- Balance strategic vision with day-to-day execution in an organization that is growing and evolving.
- Embrace the “messiness” of systems change, showing adaptability and perseverance in the face of evolving needs and obstacles.
- Respond to feedback with resilience and flexibility.
- Bring a growth mindset and flexibility in navigating ongoing organizational change.
A Trusted Partner and Coalition-Builder
This leader will:
- Have the natural ability to build trust-based relationships with staff, board members, community partners, media, policymakers, other funders, and additional key stakeholders and influencers.
- Be a collaborative leader, able to drive alignment across teams to ensure cohesive messaging.
- Collaborates with influencers and thought leaders to amplify impact.
- Foster internal trust through strong listening and communication.
- Represent the Foundation with approachability and authenticity.
- Embrace the opportunity to amplify community voice, and specifically the voices of East Side residents.
A Commitment to Buffalo and Racial Equity
This leader will:
- Bring deep experience communicating around topics including racial justice, equity, and community power-building.
- Operate with an abundance mindset – seeing the strengths and assets within the Buffalo and East Side community, rather than the problems.
- Fundamentally believe in the Foundation’s mission and vision, with a demonstrated commitment to racial equity.
- Bring a strong commitment to the greater Buffalo area. If lacking direct experience in the region, the candidate’s ability to embrace and be embraced by the community, particularly Buffalo’s East Side communities, is key.
- Be energized by the opportunity to play a key role in advancing the Foundation in a way that reflects its values and produces wide-sweeping results.
- Be an individual of unquestioned integrity, ethics, and values — someone who can be trusted without reservation.
Location
The successful candidate must be based in or willing to relocate to Buffalo, New York, and will be expected to be in the Foundation’s office 3 days per week, depending on specific responsibilities, and flexible on night and weekends in community to best achieve role outcomes. Flex office time is offered to support this schedule.
Compensation and Benefits
Salary for the role is anticipated to range from $150,000 - $200,000 commensurate with experience.
A comprehensive benefits package includes 401(k) (7% match), and health, dental, and vision insurance (100% coverage by employer). The Foundation provides a very generous benefits package to ensure the whole wellness of the team.
Contact
DSG | Koya has been exclusively retained for this engagement, which is being led by Cheryl Stevens and Claire Hunt. Express interest in this role by filling out our Talent Profile or emailing the search team directly at [email protected]. All inquiries are strictly confidential.
DSG | Koya is committed to providing reasonable accommodation to individuals living with disabilities. If you are a qualified individual living with a disability and need assistance expressing interest online, please email [email protected]. If you are selected for an interview, you will receive additional information regarding how to request an accommodation for the interview process.
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The John R Oishei Foundation (JROF) is an Equal Opportunity Employer and considers all candidates for employment regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, citizenship, pregnancy, military status, marital status, sexual orientation, or any other characteristics protected by law.
Interview Process
Our goal is to lead a thorough search process, during which both candidates and the client can gain a robust understanding of each other. To that end, candidates can expect the following steps in the interview process:
- Candidates Express Interest: Candidates can express interest by completing a ‘Talent Profile’ on the Koya site.
- Initial Screening: DSG|Koya will review all expressions of interest. For those who look to be a potential fit with the role, the process will include:
- Introductory phone call with DSG|Koya to learn more about you and your background and a deeper discussion about the Foundation and the role.
- Zoom interview with DSG|Koya to confirm interest and alignment. Following this meeting, specific candidate materials may be requested.
- First Round Interviews: Selected candidates will participate in virtual interviews (45–60 minutes) via Zoom with members of the Search Committee. It is anticipated that 5–6 candidates will advance to this phase.
- Second Round Interviews: Finalists—typically three—will engage in more in-depth interviews, which may be conducted either virtually or in person. These interviews will focus on role-specific scenarios and deeper discussions about their approach to leadership and collaboration. This phase may also include engaging with a broader group of stakeholders such as Foundation team members, Board members, etc.
- Final Selection: Referencing, assessments, background and other checks will follow before offers are extended.