The Senior Associate is an integral member of the Strategic Planning and Implementation team and will support Pan-Foundation partnerships, new and incubating initiatives, and projects to improve operational effectiveness. The Senior Associate is responsible for providing grants management support for a portfolio of initiatives as well as providing project and financial management for a select number of Pan-Foundation partnerships. S/he will be responsible for coordinating with team leaders and ensuring that timelines, milestones and policies are met by Foundation staff regarding partner funded activities. Additionally, the Senior Associate will help drive strategic and tactical analysis spanning financial, operational and performance management issues across UNF campaigns, alliances and initiatives. S/he will support strategic initiatives, operational process improvement, new business evaluation and organization wide strategy.
The Senior Associate, Strategic Planning and Implementation reports to the Managing Director, Strategic Planning and Implementation and works closely with internal clients across the Foundation, including team leaders, and liaises with other teams, such as Contract, Budgets, Finance, and People & Culture, on an ongoing basis.
- Manage select pan-UNF partnerships through the entire partnership lifecycle, including proposal development, award, implementation and close-out, providing financial and programmatic management support, liaising with partners and internal stakeholders.
- Support a portfolio of initiatives by providing grants management support and facilitating start-up activities for incubating initiatives.
- Investigate, negotiate, and help resolve any issues that arise with respect to activities funded by key partners, including finalizing contribution agreements, ensuring internal adherence to donor-specific rules and regulations, and requesting renewals or extensions.
- Liaise between campaign/initiative teams, relationship managers, Strategic Planning, Business Services, and senior leadership, ensuring a flow of communication.
- Provide budget support and guidance for partner-funded activities in conjunction with UNF’s Budget and Finance teams.
- Create and maintain project management tools that teams across the Foundation can utilize for responsible project management.
- Maintain a working knowledge of the UNF agreement process (for both contracts and grants) and utilize the proper templates accordingly.
- Draft and review agreements and maintaining an understanding of all agreement terms and applicable flow-downs, consulting with UNF’s finance/contracts team as needed.
- Attend training sessions provided by UNF’s contracts team to maintain and keep up to date with UNF’s current policies and procedures.
- Maintain a strong knowledge of UNF’s Salesforce database to be able to process and track agreements, extract information and prepare reports.
- Support teams to ensure high quality, timely work products are submitted for donor funded activities; and resolving any issues that arise with respect to activities funded by key partners.
- Conduct mapping exercises, stakeholder meetings and internal analysis to develop informed recommendations to senior leadership to increase efficiency in UNF’s business operations and processes.
- Implement ad hoc, internal consulting projects beneficial to the Foundation with other Strategic Planning and Implementation team members.
- Support the organizational decision-making process through conducting and/or supporting quantitative and qualitative analysis and research to provide leadership with the necessary information to make timely and well-informed decisions.
- Minimum of 3-5 years’ experience with grants, proposals and reports, preferably in a non-profit setting.
- Demonstrated familiarity with budgets, budget processes, and grant and financial management.
- Exceptional operations and project management skills with minimal supervision.
- Demonstrated proposal writing and reporting experience.
- Proven ability to manage multiple competing priorities
- Exceptional attention to detail.
- Proven ability to work across departments to accomplish mission.
- Ability to work with senior staff to prepare analysis and information to inform decision-making
- Proven ability to facilitate staff at all levels to meet external deadlines.
- Ability to develop, maintain, and enjoy effective working relationships with people from a wide variety of organizations and with a wide variety of functional expertise.
- Communications skills (listening, speaking, and writing).
- Continuous learning skills and the ability to synthesize information.
- Demonstrated discretion with sensitive organizational information and strategic planning.
- Flexibility and a team player.
- Self-starter.
- Ability to work under pressure and handle stress.
- Ability to meet regular attendance/tardiness policy.
Additionally, all benefit eligible employees have 12 paid holidays, 20 vacation days, 10 sick days, 3 personal days, and 8 weeks of family care leave.