Mission Statement

Listening first, LOR works with rural communities in the Mountain West to enhance livability and prosperity while preserving the character that makes each community unique.

About LOR

LOR is a private foundation. Our name shares our values: Livability, Opportunity, and Responsibility. LOR was founded on the simple premise that communities can find prosperity without sacrificing what they love about the place they call home. No two rural towns are the same nor are the projects we support. We listen to communities to better understand what they need and how we can help.

How We Work

At LOR, we help bring local solutions to life quickly by providing a startup boost. Our work is place-based and driven by a community’s vision for their future. With offices across the Mountain West, our local roots help us elevate the rural voice and improve quality of life across the region. Today, we are working within Taos County, New Mexico, and Lander, Wyoming, and we will begin working with a community in Colorado soon.

We always want to learn more about communities in our region and encourage people to get in touch with us and share their stories. To learn more about our community-driven approach to grantmaking, read our Solution Stories and follow us on Twitter (@LORfoundation), Instagram (@lorfoundation), and Facebook (@LORfoundation).

Program Officer Role

LOR program officers live and work locally in Mountain West communities, and the foundation is hiring a new position in Cortez, Colorado. The work is fast-paced, requiring agile thinking and local roots.

Program officers listen for opportunities to improve livability in their communities, define and scope potential projects, and deliver all kinds of resources—including funding—that support community-driven priorities.

The ideal candidate comes to LOR with deep community connections, an entrepreneurial mindset, and a passion for problem solving. This full time role requires a caring and curious disposition to understand community needs from different perspectives and strong communication skills to engage people from all backgrounds.

Primary Responsibilities

• Meet regularly with local residents, leaders, and elected officials to understand challenges, opportunities, priorities, and plans
• Connect grantees and other community leaders to resources that can elevate their work and projects, including funding sources, information, and technical services
• Actively engage in local and social media to highlight opportunities and solutions in the community; this is an external facing position and comfort working in a public space is paramount
• Follow relevant social, local, and regional media to identify significant developments and trends
• Prepare and manage grants; document work using photography, video, and descriptive writing
• Ensure compliance with grant terms and provide flexible support as challenges arise
• Support organization-wide efforts to better understand and measure impact
• Represent LOR professionally by attending conferences and speaking publicly about our community-driven work in Cortez

Qualifications of the Ideal Candidate

While no one candidate will have all of these qualifications, the ideal candidate will possess many of the following professional and personal abilities, attributes, and experiences:

• Education: College degree required
• Employment: Minimum of 10 years related work experience preferred (e.g., business/community development, project management) and a demonstrated track record of community engagement without presenting a potential conflict of interest for a grant-making organization
• Skills: Strong interpersonal skills, demonstrated reliability, and attention to detail; excellent written and oral communication; experience and comfort using various technical systems for lead generation/tracking, proposal development, internal communications, and task management, e.g., Wordpress, Salesforce, Google Docs and Sheets, Microsoft Word and Excel, Basecamp, and/or Slack
• Self-motivated and able to successfully complete work with minimal supervision
• Exhibits solid judgment, critical thinking, and a sense of teamwork and community

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