School Network Staff Director of Grants
Job Description
Location: Remote
Status: Full-time; Exempt
What We Do
In the United States, too few students have access to effective, high-performing public schools. At City Fund (CF – a 501c3) and City Fund Action (501c4), we work to increase educational opportunities for students and families by partnering with city and state leaders to create innovative public school systems. We believe that public schools do best when educators have the power to make decisions that meet the diverse needs of their students, families are provided the information and access to choose the best schools for their children, and schools are held accountable for helping all students succeed.
City Fund provides financial support and expertise to local leaders seeking to improve educational opportunities in their cities. We support 18 cities across the country and hope to eventually reach most American cities. We focus on supporting:
- High quality, innovative schools with nonprofit governing structures and diverse leadership
- City leaders, including civic leaders and nonprofits that are working to build innovative public education systems
- Advocacy organizations that build the political power of families to shape education in ways that work for them
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
We believe that the work in cities will only succeed if it is led by leaders who reflect the students and families they serve. We are investing in diverse leaders to increase the number of Black and LatinX leaders who hold roles as superintendents, non-profit executives, and other city-level positions.
What You’ll Do
As Director of Grants, you will play an essential role in overseeing one of City Fund’s core functions: assessing, administering and managing over $100M in grants to our partners each year. This position is responsible for ensuring that the grants process at City Fund is efficient, seamless and values-aligned from start to finish, including overseeing grants execution and maintenance, coaching and supporting the team to engage in the process with excellence, and leading efforts to optimize our systems and structures for the grant process. In the near term, you will work with the team to conduct a redesign of the grants process, including updating structures and workflows within our grants management system, Fluxx. Key ongoing areas of responsibility for this position will include:
Grants Processing & Maintenance
- Oversee the full life cycle of all City Fund grants, including grant requests, review and approval, grant agreements, midterm reporting, payments, maintenance, and closing, as well as agreements and payments for our vendors and consultants
- Manage grant-related administrative tasks and requests with strong judgment, organization, detail orientation and prioritization skills
- Work with City Fund’s and City Fund Action’s Legal Counsel to ensure legal and tax compliance across all aspects of the grant process, including political compliance filings and lobbying disclosure reporting.
- Maintain an exceptional customer service orientation that anticipates and centers the needs of internal and external stakeholders
Process & System Optimization
- Work with City Fund colleagues to update grants processes to better streamline, simplify, increase efficiency and reflect the team’s values
- Create templates, guides, workflows and other materials as needed to support clarity and ease of use for the team
- Orient toward ‘process with a purpose’, designing processes that achieve necessary cohesion and uniformity while enabling individual discretion and flexibility for the team
- Become the resident expert in our grants management system, Fluxx, and optimize its functionality to best suit City Fund’s needs
Data & Reporting
- Manage data storage practices for our grants, including upholding high standards of confidentiality and security, ensuring consistency, and optimizing data entry and storage to enable reporting
- Design reporting infrastructure, templates, and dashboards to capture key data to inform grant process oversight and decision-making, from identifying upcoming or past due submissions to assessing the breakdown of grant dollars (by organization type, geography, etc.)
- Work with City Fund Legal counsel on regular political and lobbying compliance and reporting
- Maintain a focus on ethics and equity values in the design, execution and use of data
Stakeholder Relationships, Coaching & Management
- Build and maintain trusted relationships across a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders, including grantee organizations of various types, vendors and consultants, operations and finance team colleagues, and City Fund partners
- Lead coaching and training efforts that empower staff across the organization to execute on the grant process with due diligence, values alignment and ease
- Coordinate and align differing styles and perspectives among the team to achieve broader grant process goals, including managing up with skill and efficacy
- Oversee the hiring, onboarding and development of a Grants Manager to support day to day administration, coordination and data management
What We’re Looking For
To be successful in this role, you will need:
- A belief in educational equity, innovative school models and the power of parents to choose schools that work best for their children
- Senior level experience and a track record of success in an operational role, including experience effectively overseeing a high volume of time-sensitive operational tasks, managing laterally across a variety of internal and external stakeholder groups, facilitating change management efforts to optimize process, and leveraging reporting/analytics to enable data-driven decisions
- Familiarity with grant funding and grants management software; experience with Fluxx a plus
- An aptitude for both strategy and execution, bringing thoughtful leadership and oversight, sound judgment, as well as timely and high quality work output day to day
- Exceptional communication, trust building, and influence across a wide array of stakeholders, including experience effectively managing direct reports and managing up to achieve goals
- A demonstrated commitment to community-driven change, advancing racial equity, and centering the perspectives of those most impacted in decision-making, including experience working directly with people from diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds
- A self-starting, entrepreneurial, adaptable and actionable orientation, with experience in a startup-like environment
What We Offer
The salary range for this position is $175,000-$200,000, commensurate with experience. City Fund provides a comprehensive benefits package.
