Job Description

THE ORGANIZATION

The Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF) is a leading nonprofit venture philanthropy fund that identifies the nation’s best public charter schools, funds their expansion, and helps to increase their impact. The portfolio includes 150 charter school networks that operate over 1,000 schools and serve more than 500,000 students in 31 states. We are committed to expanding the impact of schools that are closing achievement and opportunity gaps. Our investment strategy is like that of a nonprofit venture capital firm for public charter schools. The diverse “portfolio” of schools and leaders that we support include single-site charter schools as well as established networks that operate schools in several states. Ultimately, we believe the portfolio networks can serve more than one million students nationwide and in doing so, show how public schools can help students achieve excellent outcomes at scale.

This is an exciting time to join the Charter School Growth Fund. We are launching our next philanthropic fund in 2021, 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

Team:  The College Access & Alumni Success Practice sits within CSGF’s Impact Team, a dedicated team that provides solutions, insights, and connections to help our portfolio members grow with quality. The Impact Team also manages a $35M fund (which will likely grow in Fund IV) to help our schools build capacity and innovate new systems, models, and strategies that will inspire the K-12 sector as a whole.

We launched our College Access & Alumni Success Practice in 2019 with three priorities:

1. Build the community of postsecondary leaders in the CSGF portfolio, spread counseling best practices, and invest in scaleable tools to improve college match and give students the best chance at earning a degree
2. Invest early and scale new models that make Bachelor’s attainment faster and cheaper
3. Support smarter partnerships that get students to and through existing institutions and scale career-focused models with through-lines to great first jobs

In the first 18 months, we have invested $5.0M in a range of ideas, including scaling best-in-class college match tools, launching a summer internship program and career development “bootcamp” for 400+ young alumni nationwide in response to the impact of COVID-19, and nurturing the emerging “hybrid college” sector. College Access & Alumni Success is a key area of focus for CSGF in the next five years and we anticipate significant opportunities to support our portfolio as they prepare their students for college and career.

Role: Now, we’re looking for a high-capacity entrepreneur who is passionate about setting up students for postsecondary success and who will lead our strategy to support charter leaders as they improve and reimagine college counseling. You will work in close collaboration with the College Access & Alumni Success Practice Leader and will have the opportunity to play a key role in determining the practice’s Fund IV direction.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Connect

• Build trusting relationships with college access and alumni success leaders in the CSGF portfolio and the broader sector in order to highlight best practices and identify common challenges
• Support communities of practice and plan convenings and other events where leaders share and learn from one another in powerful ways

Invest

• Proactively build the pipeline of diverse entrepreneurs thinking of new solutions to help students achieve their postsecondary goals
• Identify and invest in ideas that will transform the sector’s approach to college access and alumni success by scaling what works and by piloting  innovations on the frontier

Share

• Spotlight and share best-in-class practices and innovations that make public charter schools and districts better at supporting their students to and through college (see Stories and Lessons from Our Schools)
• Leverage portfolio-wide data in order to produce benchmarking projects that help the sector understand important and emerging trends
• Deliver expertise and coaching to help portfolio members accelerate quickly through common challenges

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Deep commitment to CSGF’s mission and passion for K-12 education and postsecondary success
• Our ideal candidate has 10+ years of professional experience and at least 4 years of  experience in a high-performing charter school/network or district, with expertise across college counseling and/or alumni support
• Strong desire to work or existing experience working in entrepreneurial environments where there is opportunity to set a vision or drive results in creative ways
• Strong strategic thinking, analytical, and creative problem-solving skills
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, particularly the ability to build strong relationships with diverse groups of internal and external stakeholders
• Ability to work seamlessly between high-level strategy and detail-oriented work

WORKING AT CSGF

We are focused on hiring and developing great people and believe that building diverse perspectives across our team make us more effective in expanding our impact. (This is reflected in Our Commitment to Diversity Statement.) 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 depends on that 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 best 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 that you are a team player.

COMPENSATION

Compensation is commensurate with experience and education. The target salary range for this role is $150,000+ 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 seeks candidates who can start as soon as possible, with flexibility for the right candidate.

How to Apply

Submit your resume and cover letter on our website.

Bureaus: Chicago. Job Categories: Full-Time. Job Types: School Network Staff. Salaries: 100,000 and above.