Who We Are
Trust for Public Land (TPL) is the leader of a movement to connect everyone in America to the outdoors. A national nonprofit, TPL partners with communities to create high-quality parks and protect public lands—especially in communities that need them most—to improve public health, create social cohesion, strengthen historic and cultural connection to place, and increase climate resilience. Since 1972, TPL has protected more than 4 million acres of public land, created more than 5,500 parks, trails, schoolyards, and iconic outdoor places, generated over $112 billion in public funding for parks and public lands, and connected nearly 10 million people to the outdoors. To learn more, visit tpl.org. 

Trust for Public Land’s Center for Community Impact advances the organization’s national leadership in creating equitable, healthy, resilient, and connected communities through parks, public lands, trails, and Community Schoolyards. The Center brings together strategy, research, technical assistance, policy, and field-based learning to help communities address barriers to outdoors access, quality, funding, stewardship, and long-term systems change. The Center works across teams and geographies to develop evidence-based tools, support local implementation, translate learning into scalable models, and advance policies and practices that expand access to the outdoors for all.

A significant portion of this role will be supporting the Forested Community Schoolyard program (FCSY) partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, with a current agreement that runs through February 4th, 2030. As a national leader in the schoolyard movement, TPL has worked with schools and communities to transform nearly 400 Community Schoolyards projects in places where they are needed most.  Community Schoolyards projects include nature-based solutions such as rain gardens, street tree planting, habitat gardens and increased natural shade. As communities across the country adjust to changing climate conditions, our work to protect students and communities from extreme heat and flooding has never been more important. In 2024, Trust for Public Land entered into an agreement with the US Forest Service to advance Forested Community Schoolyards. This program supports the creation of Forested Community Schoolyards by cities, schools and Tribal nations and organizations through grant administration, technical assistance and program support.

Position Summary:
Trust for Public Land (TPL) seeks a Program Coordinator to support the administration and learning strategy for regranting or innovation funds designed to help community partners, Tribal partners, local governments, and other collaborators test, advance, or scale promising approaches. Responsibilities include coordinating application and review processes, tracking funded projects, supporting grantee communications, documenting outcomes and lessons learned, and helping translate funded innovations into broader organizational learning and practice. In addition to extensive external engagement, this role will need to work closely with CCI staff, program staff, and a core team of dedicated cross-organization staff – from Legal, to Finance, to Field Programs. Of particular focus, this role will support the Forested Community Schoolyard program (FCSY) partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and 37 subrecipients, including 22 Tribal and Indigenous subrecipients.

The successful candidate must be diligent, detail-oriented, highly-responsive and proactive, and have excellent communication skills. The role will be responsible for coordinating, supporting implementation, tracking financial progress, and supporting evaluation of the impact of the Forested Community Schoolyards Program and all grants made through this program.  The Program Coordinator will support successful implementation and completion of all grantee projects, resulting in Community Schoolyard tree planting, outdoor amenities like natural playscapes and outdoor classrooms, workforce development, heat island reduction and successful tree stewardship programs in communities that need this work the most.

Essential Functions:

55%: FCSY grant administration and grant agreement tracking

• Support administration, reimbursement processing, and compliance tracking for 37 FCSY grantee partners.
• Serve as a primary point of contact between grantees, TPL accounting, and TPL legal teams.
• Review reimbursement requests for accuracy, allowability, documentation, and compliance; enter approved requests into TPL’s accounting platform; and maintain real-time grant tracking systems, budgets, files, amendments, and spend-down reports.
• Support grantee documentation, budget modifications, federal compliance requirements, and close-out processes.

25%: FCSY program coordination and impact 

• Support the Senior Manager with overall FCSY program coordination.
• Provide detailed administration and program operations activity, including to track grantee activities and organize files and resources.
• Collect and document stories and strategic outcomes, and develop program and impact materials for internal and external audiences, including U.S. Forest Service, TPL teams, and other stakeholders.
• Help strengthen the FCSY Community of Practice by sharing resources across grantees and TPL colleagues.
• Attend weekly internal FCSY team meetings and bimonthly USFS FCSY meetings. At direction of Senior Manager, also attend key subgrantee meetings and begin to develop independent relationships with a subsection of subgrantees.  
• Support required federal progress and financial reporting, including to assist grantees with reporting requirements.

20%: Other supportive duties as assigned by Senior Manager and/or Senior Director to support CSY and CCI 

• Support additional Center for Community Impact regrant, innovation or pilot fund priorities, special projects, and administrative needs as assigned. This may include helping build and maintain core infrastructure for regranting and innovation funds, including application materials, review processes, grantee onboarding resources, agreement and payment tracking systems, reporting templates, file management systems, and internal coordination tools.
• Support the documentation of funded projects, lessons learned, implementation challenges, outcomes, and promising practices to inform future rounds of funding and broader CCI learning.
• Assist with tracking budgets, timelines, deliverables, partner communications, compliance needs, and close-out processes to ensure regrant and innovation fund activities are well-organized, transparent, and aligned with program goals.

Experience Education and Skills:

• A passion for Trust for Public Land’s mission and for social and environmental justice is essential
• Experience with Microsoft Excel and tracking contracts by expense type and reconciling invoice detail
• Minimum of 2 years of project management, grant management, and/or nonprofit management are desirable
• Experience implementing meaningful community engagement practices in low-resource communities
• Ability to effectively build and maintain relationships with a wide range of stakeholders in the public, nonprofit and private sectors across geographies
• Works independently and as part of a team

• Strong written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills; demonstrates sensitivity and tact in interpersonal relationships
• Well-organized and detail-oriented
• Excellent time management and project management skills 
• Proficiency overseeing multiple projects at once
• Strong attention to detail with the ability to follow through on deliverables, meet deadlines, and facilitate the efforts of the full team to do the same
• This position will require travel throughout the country. This position is expected to spend time visiting grantees and building relationships with project partners in person. At least one month's worth of travel is anticipated annually.

Special Knowledge and Skills:

• Experience with grant writing and managing, including federal grants
• Experience tracking detailed contracts and grants in Microsoft Excel
• Proficient in collaborative computer applications, such as Microsoft Suite, Outlook, and Teams

• Fundraising and marketing skills are a plus

As a full-time, limited term non-exempt employee (through February 2030), you will be eligible for Trust for Public Land’s benefits program which includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, sick leave, and a 403(b) retirement plan, currently with an up to 7% company match. We offer competitive salaries commensurate with experience. The anticipated hiring range for this position is $65,000-$75,000 per year. This role is grant funded through February 2030 and may be extended if business needs allow.

The Trust for Public Land is committed to cultivating a diverse staff that is representative of the communities we serve.  Applications from individuals having diverse backgrounds and life experiences are strongly encouraged.  We are open to the possibility that a great candidate for this job may not precisely meet all of the above criteria; if you believe you’re the right person for this job and can persuasively make that case, we encourage you to apply.



 

www.tpl.org/careers