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 networks that operate 1,000+ schools and serve more than 500,000 students. 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 charter schools. The diverse “portfolio” of schools and leaders that we support and help to grow include single-site schools as well as established networks that operate in several states. Ultimately, we believe these 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 CSGF. We are building on our 15-year track record of success and launching our next philanthropic fund in 2022. Our 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. We will continue to prioritize investments in leaders of color in the new fund; in our current portfolio, more than 50% of networks are led by people of color and more than 50% are led by women. We believe it is vital for the leadership teams of the networks we support to understand and relate to the experiences of the students and communities they serve.

THE OPPORTUNITY

CSGF is seeking a Senior Grant Writer to be part of our Investor Relations team. Reporting to the Vice President, Investor Relations, the Senior Grant Writer will be responsible for developing grant proposals, reports, presentations, and memos to help CSGF achieve its ambitious fundraising goals in 2022 and beyond. The ideal candidate enjoys and brings new ideas and energy to CSGF’s written donor communications as well as our fundraising and reporting systems. The Senior Grant Writer will synthesize information from written and verbal sources to prepare data-driven, persuasive proposals and progress reports to principals, executives, and program officers who have a wide range of philanthropic priorities. The Senior Grant Writer role will be exciting and fulfilling for someone who:

• Enjoys telling an organization’s story to secure the funds needed to pursue ambitious goals and has experience writing “A+” quality proposals to individual donors and private foundations,
• Likes a combination of behind-the-scenes work (writing detailed narratives, analyzing data, preparing budgets, and creating PowerPoint slides), ideating with others, and engaging with donors,
• Thrives in roles through which they can manage and execute on a variety of high-stakes, time-sensitive, deliverable-focused projects.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop compelling funding proposals, reports, and donor correspondence: Prepare narrative proposals, pitch presentations, and custom reports that use data and storytelling to inform and engage donors,
• Serve as lead author of CSGF Annual Investor Report: Help develop the vision for and serve as the lead writer of CSGF’s formal update to donors and partners, including narrative, charts, tables, and images,
• Create engaging materials for donor meetings: Craft PowerPoint slides and memos about CSGF’s impact to discuss with donors and help write new content for the CSGF website and marketing materials, and
• Build and manage intuitive tables and progress trackers: Maintain detailed records of donor communications, grant agreements, payments, and budgets using Salesforce and Google tools.

SKILLS AND MINDSETS TO SUCCEED

The successful candidate must demonstrate:

• Exemplary writing, editing, and proofreading skills: Can synthesize complex information, make nearly anything sound interesting, outline, write, and edit complex deliverables that demonstrate CSGF’s core competencies and values,
• Detail orientation: High level of conscientiousness, integrity, and commitment to communicating clearly and objectively, can effectively proofread writing and data analysis, incorporate feedback from multiple stakeholders, navigate ambiguity, proactively problem-solve, and make complex projects actionable,
• Analytical thinking: Able to write narrative to accompany budgets, tables, and charts and analyze large data sets to calculate and explain complex performance metrics,
• Relationship-building acumen: Knows how to build relationships with donors and internal program teams to translate complex work into digestible and compelling experiences and content,
• Systems-orientation: Strong planning and organizing skills; able to build intuitive tools to facilitate collaboration; natural inclination to use and improve existing information management systems,
• A commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: A way of interacting with others that shows belief in the value of diverse perspectives and a desire to be part of an inclusive culture of feedback and ideas.

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE

• 5+ years of crafting and managing six and seven figure grants from private foundations on behalf of a high-performing charter school network or other highly effective education-focused non-profit or business,
• Ideally, 2+ years of professional experience communicating with business and/or financial professionals in narrative and PowerPoint formats, and
• Proficiency using all Microsoft Office programs, Google suite, and Salesforce or similar grant database.

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 $80,000-$100,000 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 AND LOCATION

CSGF encourages all qualified candidates to apply but prefers those who can start by November 2021. Candidates can be based anywhere in the United States but be able to travel to the Denver, CO area at least two times each year.

Charter School Growth Fund provides equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees.