BACKGROUND

The Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF) is a leading nonprofit venture philanthropy fund dedicated to identifying the nation’s best public charter schools, investing in  their expansion, and helping to increase their impact. Our “portfolio” includes 140 charter school networks that operate 1,100+ schools and serve more than 500,000 students. We are committed to expanding the impact of schools that are closing achievement and opportunity gaps. CSGF operates with the same strategies, discipline, and focus as a venture capital firm by awarding multi-year grants and loans to talented education entrepreneurs building networks of high-quality charter schools that enroll traditionally underserved students. Ultimately, we think our portfolio can grow to serve ~1,000,000 students within a decade.

This is an exciting time to join the Charter School Growth Fund. We are launching our next philanthropic fund in 2022, building on our 15-year track record of success. CSGF’s new five-year “Fund IV” will be larger in size and scope than previous funds, with a goal to continue to fuel charter sector growth, accelerate innovation, and strengthen long-term outcomes for students, particularly students of color and those from low-income backgrounds. Our new fund will continue to prioritize investments in leaders of color as our current portfolio is led by more than 50% leaders of color and more than 50% female leaders. We believe it is vital for the networks we support to be proximate to the lived experiences of the students and communities they serve.

THE OPPORTUNITY

To achieve the ambitious goals of our upcoming Fund (Fund IV), the CSGF team has revised its team structure. The majority of our investment efforts are now under the leadership of our President in a newly-organized Portfolio Team. The Partners within this team invest in early-stage or scaling high-performing charter schools. In addition, the team includes several leaders focused on growing the impact of our portfolio through sharing lessons learned, investing in new innovations, and building communities. The Chief of Staff to the President will be a leader who cares deeply about building strong team systems and culture; taking nascent ideas to successful execution; driving the team to meet its goals through strong progress monitoring tools; and serving as a trusted advisor to the President. In short, this person will be the President’s right hand to set the team up for success.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Vision, strategic plan, and progress monitoring

• Partner with the team to create the Fund IV vision, goals, and strategic plan and accompanying tools through which the team can monitor annual progress
• Set up systems and dashboards to regularly reflect upon goals as a team such that each individual of the team has a sense of where to prioritize time and efforts

Annual workstreams

• Lead efforts to plan portfolio team meetings and gatherings such that time is well spent and objectives are achieved
• Manage investment dashboard to track CSGF commitments, investment pipelines, and support investments
• Develop and manage mechanism to view portfolio-wide investment success rate, risk profile, and identify areas to prioritize key supports
• Lead annual review process that evaluates current progress of investments and leads to investment disbursement decisions
• In collaboration with other teams, create systems to ensure data on our portfolio is up to date and accessible to other teams
• Take initiative and leadership on new ideas/opportunities generated from the President and/or Portfolio Partners and integrate into core work

Communications

• Manage internal communications and knowledge management within the team to ensure individuals have the information they need
• Spearhead communications from the Portfolio team to the staff and external community to update groups on what’s happening

Team Support and People Management

• Develop and manage an Executive Assistant to ensure the President’s time is being spent on high-impact items
• Partner in the creation of an analyst fellowship program and manage analyst on teams to both support workflow of partners and to set them up for their next careers
• Serve as a trusted advisor to the President

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 12+ years of professional experience, with a preference for leadership experience in educational organizations, some consulting and/or financial background
• Expertise in project management, communications, and inclusive change management
• Exceptional interpersonal communication skills, particularly in investment building and conflict management
• Systems thinker with strong organizational systems
• Reflective practitioner with a clear equity mindset
• Mission- and values-driven leader

WORKING AT CSGF

We are focused on hiring and developing great people, giving them freedom and autonomy, and maintaining high expectations to help them grow personally and professionally. In return, our team delivers high-quality work that increases our ability to find, fund, and deepen the impact of the highest performing public charter schools in the country. Our core values are:

• Results. We work relentlessly to create efficient, measurable, and sustainable results. We strive for excellence and pursue our mission tenaciously. Ideally, you thrive working in a self-directed manner in a fluid environment where flexibility and tenacity are required.
• Entrepreneurship. We embrace calculated risks and new approaches. We have an entrepreneurial spirit that welcomes innovation, diversity of ideas, and risk. We rely on you to question conventional wisdom and think independently.
• Integrity. We are truthful, fair, and trustworthy in all aspects of our work. We hold ourselves and our partners to the highest ethical standards. We trust you will too.
• Respect. We appreciate the challenges faced by education entrepreneurs and recognize the limits of our own knowledge. We understand that our ultimate success is dependent upon the achievements of our partners. Your humility will be key to building trusted and authentic relationships.
• Teamwork. We value each of our team members as individuals but believe that we achieve the greatest results by working together. We willingly sacrifice individual interests and recognition for greater collective impact. We hope having fun at work is important to you and you enjoy being a team player.

COMPENSATION

Compensation is commensurate with experience and education. The target salary range for this role is $140,000-$170,000 annually. CSGF offers a very competitive package of benefits, including: health, life, disability and dental insurance coverage; vacation/holidays and parental leave, and participation in CSGF’s 403(b) plan. Candidates must have permanent authorization to work in the US.

START DATE

CSGF is seeking candidates who can start as soon as possible; Flexible for the ideal candidate.