Teach for America – Massachusetts seeks a Manager, Grants & Finance to be an integral part of our ambitious fundraising efforts. Through crisp project-management, persuasive and thorough written communications, and an exceptional focus on both details and the bigger picture, you will leverage your skills to help us reach our financial goals – by driving significant revenue through grant writing, and strong stewardship of our resources through strong financial practices and reporting.
In addition to compelling funders to support our work through excellent grant writing, the Manager, Grants & Finance will also manage our regional team’s finances in partnership with the Senior Managing Director, Development & Finance. Through this work, you will ensure that our team is practicing strong stewardship of our resources through a deep understanding of our budget, expenses, and financial processes. You will also examine existing practices to identify efficiencies and streamline expense reporting and management across the regional team.
The role requires strength in two key areas: Influencing others through effective communications, and excellence in execution. You will influence funders by creatively and compellingly articulating our case for support in a way that inspires and leads to meaningful investments in our work. You will also manage up and laterally to ensure fidelity to our finance processes and goals. You are highly organized, rigorously tracking and maintaining accurate donor information; and managing yourself and others to deadlines effectively. You are comfortable with budgets and can generate high-quality, intuitive reports with 100% accuracy.
Grant Writing, Tracking, and Administration (60%)
- Prepare and submit high-quality grant proposals, letters of inquiry, and reports to foundation and corporate sources
- Systematically manage all major grant deadlines and milestones, proactively engaging other team members as needed to provide excellent and timely donor stewardship
- Ensure compliance with all financial and programmatic reporting requirements expressed by foundation/corporate donors
- Build programmatic budgets, produce accurate and timely financial reports, and ensure proper expense tracking against grant funds
- Assist with other fundraising projects as requested including creation of an annual report, annual requests for individual supporters, and collateral creation
Finance (30%)
- Track team-wide expenses in partnership with operations staff on each functional team
- Develop intuitive and timely financial reports for team budget managers
- Ensure team-wide compliance with organizational financial requirements through strong systems and practices
- Partner with our national Planning & Analysis team to ensure accurate monthly expense forecasts
Regional Team Responsibilities (10%)
- Support, attend, and/or participate in regional team activities, including regular staff meetings and retreats, and regional pre-service (one week in June)
- Participate in team-wide initiatives and campaigns, such as interviewing and matriculating corps member prospects and outreach to our local alumn
- Minimum of two years’ experience with grant writing, technical writing, or fundraising communications
- Experience with expense management and tracking
- Exemplary written communication skills; ability to write clear, structured, articulate, and persuasive proposals
- Highly organized with exceptional detail orientation and demonstrated ability to manage a high volume of work with consistent excellence
- Demonstrated ability to manage towards and consistently meet deadlines
- Uncommon level of personal responsibility with exceptional goal orientation and a proven track record of success
- Critical thinker who displays strong judgment in prioritizing problems to solve and opportunities to pursue
- Motivated by achieving results through others and able to manage towards outcomes
- Facility with MS Excel and Google Spreadsheets
- Experience with Salesforce or fundraising/CRM database systems preferred.
- Experience with Clarity or similar financial management software a plus
Work Demands
- Occasional day travel within the Massachusetts region, including Western Mass. and the South Coast
- Minimal overnight travel required – less than 1-2 times per year
- Occasional work required on nights and weekends