The Environmental Portfolio at The Pew Charitable Trusts
For more than 25 years, Pew Charitable Trusts has been a major force in engaging the public and policy makers about the causes, consequences, and solutions to some of the world’s most pressing environmental challenges. Our environment work spans all seven continents with more than 250 professionals working at the local, national, and international levels to reduce the scope and severity of global environmental problems, such as the erosion of large natural marine and terrestrial ecosystems that contain a great part of the world’s remaining biodiversity.
Pew has worked in the United States and Canada since 1990 to protect vast stretches of wild lands and has expanded its land conservation efforts to Australia’s Outback, the Pantanal, and Chilean Patagonia. Safeguarding these places offers an opportunity to conserve wildlife habitat and landscapes for current and future generations. Our work relies on the sciences of conservation, biology, and economics to advocate for practical and durable solutions to the loss of biodiversity.
In the sea, reforms to how our oceans are managed are essential to address overfishing, pollution, and habitat loss. Pew began its oceans program in the United States, focusing on ending overfishing and protecting fragile marine habitat. Starting in 2005, Pew’s ocean conservation program expanded around the world and played a significant role in reforming marine fisheries management in the European Union and on the high seas and creating marine reserves around the world. Our work is grounded in the best available science and pursues domestic and international conservation measures that are long-term and provide permanent, durable protections for marine ecosystems.
Enduring Earth: The Global Project Finance for Permanence Initiative
The need for durable, landscape and oceanic level conservation mechanisms to help stem the dramatic decline of global biodiversity and build resilience to climate change has fostered the development of new mechanisms to identify, conserve, finance, and manage critical ecosystems. One of the most promising is the Project Finance for Permanence (PFP). The PFP model protects ecosystems at a large scale; enhances performance of existing protected and conserved areas by ensuring that conservation management is properly resourced and durable; and works in partnership with Indigenous peoples and local communities. Because the PFP model requires comprehensive planning and design that involves a wide range of stakeholders, PFPs also address the frequent piecemeal approach to conservation whereby areas of land receive varying levels of protection without consideration for ecological connectivity, wildlife corridors, or community development needs, as well as long term financing.
Enduring Earth is an unprecedented partnership between Pew, the World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and ZOMALAB (the family office of Ben and Lucy Ana Walton) that was built around the PFPs. PFPs have the potential to catalyze tremendous investments from private, government, and multilateral funds to permanently conserve some of the world’s most spectacular and ecologically important marine and terrestrial ecosystems. Enduring Earth aims to complete 20 PFPs by 2030. PFPs utilize conservation trust funds (CTF) for efficient financial management, implementation, and governance. The Officer will provide support to deal teams to determine and establish the most suitable structure for PFPs.
Position Overview
The Officer will work with PFP deal teams, and Pew and Enduring Earth staff, to support the development of fund structures and associated legal agreements for PFPs. Reporting to the Senior Manager, Enduring Earth and working closely with the Pew legal team, the Officer will support multi-stakeholder processes to: recommend the most suitable mechanisms for fund management; determine the overall objectives and potential legal structure of CTFs; support development of legal founding documents and operational documents (in both common law and civil law countries); support the development of the appropriate governance structures for CTFs; support start-up operations of CTFs; and support the monitoring and evaluation of CTF activities.
The Officer will provide guidance to PFP deal teams in the planning phase on CTFs and will support capacity building for local deal teams and partners. The Officer will work to enhance coordination and collaboration of Enduring Earth on CTF best practices by compiling and disseminating best practices across the organization and across PFPs. This may include creating training sessions, templates, case studies and guidelines.
The Officer will support Pew-led PFP deals, in addition to other Enduring Earth partner-led PFPs. This will require the Officer to become familiar with partner organization structures, policies, norms, and practices.
The position is located in Washington, DC, and is eligible for up to 60% telework.
Responsibilities
- Foster a work environment that is diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible and in line with Pew and the project’s related goals.
- Support development of key PFP structural deal terms and coordinate negotiation with internal and external stakeholders, including host governments.
- Coordinate processes to design proposed governance structures for PFPs, including for constituting boards and committees.
- Lead development of operations manuals for PFPs.
- Coordinate necessary analysis to determine the most efficient and effective way to administer, manage, and invest PFP funds for specific deals.
- Lead drafting and review process for term sheets, proposed closing and disbursement conditions and fund flow mechanisms, in collaboration with PFP staff and legal counsel.
- Assist legal counsel in drafting and negotiating key legal agreements with other relevant stakeholders related to the PFPs.
- Facilitate review process with support from finance and legal counsel to determine whether PFP terms and agreements comply with local laws and relevant jurisdictional requirements.
- Coordinate and collaborate closely with other key departments at Pew such as Legal Affairs, Finance and External Relations to keep them informed of the deal progress and solicit their inputs in the deal development.
- Participate in negotiations for complex and sensitive PFP agreements.
- Coordinate closely with Enduring Earth partners on lessons learned and best practices.
Requirements
- A passion for and commitment to conservation and community development.
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required, a graduate degree is preferred in law, management, or finance.
- Eight years of applicable experience.
- A demonstrated experience with understanding of structure, governance and management of conservation trust funds.
- Strong project management skills.
- Good understanding of and comfort with complex legal documents for international financial transactions.
- Experience drafting legal documents and facilitating agreements between various parties.
- Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
- High degree of flexibility, and ability to work against deadlines, and under dynamic circumstances.
- Able to lead group discussions and drive it to reach an agreement.
- Willingness to travel internationally.
- International work experience.
Travel
This position requires occasional domestic and international travel.
Total Rewards
We offer a competitive salary and benefit program, including: comprehensive, affordable health care through medical, dental, and vision coverage; financial security with life and disability insurance; opportunities to save using health savings and flexible spending accounts; retirement benefits to help prepare for the future; and work/life benefits to maintain a good balance.
The Pew Charitable Trusts is an equal opportunity employer, committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace. Pew considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to age, sex, ethnicity, religion, disability, marital status, sexual orientation or gender identity, military/veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.
