The Finance, Planning and Analysis team is seeking an energetic, collaborative Finance Associate to provide business and financial analysis support to Program Strategy Teams. Key responsibilities include partnering with the US Program teams (specifically the Pacific Northwest team) in grantee financial assessments and grant investment structuring, including complex transactions. The Pacific Northwest team’s goal is to create opportunities for all children in Washington State to thrive in stable families, great schools, and strong communities. Other key responsibilities include supporting the Program CFO and Finance Managers in annual budget and financial planning, resource allocation and ad hoc projects.
Critical skills for success include solution-orientation and a proactive approach to responsibilities. Experience using financial/data analysis and modeling skills in an advisory role are necessary in building strong relationships with key partners, including the US Programs Leadership Team.
The Finance Associate must be effective at influencing with exceptional partnership and communication skills. Most importantly, s/he must be passionate about the Foundation’s mission, particularly in addressing the educational inequities that exist today.
Investment Analysis (55%)
- Perform new grant and annual progress report budget reviews, conduct financial diligence, review grant proposal summaries, evaluate budget forecasts, and assess the financial health of organizations to ensure potential funding meets the Foundation's requirements, strategic goals, and programmatic missions
- Provide analytical support on complex analysis with a financial component and for complex financial transactions
- Support the analysis of the financial health of organizations through market research, financial statement reviews and discussions with key finance members of these organizations
Cross-Foundational / Project based (20%)
- Participate in PST-related and cross-foundation projects to develop financial analyses and best practices in support of effective investment-making
- Respond to internal and external portfolio data requests and analysis
Strategy and Financial/Budget Planning (15%)
- Support annual budgeting and financial planning
- Work with the program team(s) to produce detailed, dynamic 4-year investment budgets, including risk assessment and scenario modeling
- Partner with the Strategy, Planning, & Management (SPM) team to optimize/allocate resources across portfolios of investments
Forecasting Management (10%)
- Provide forecast support and portfolio allocation management
- Monitor actuals and forecasts to budget, with risk assessment and produce variance analysis
- Build tools and reports to plan and monitor workflow, and monitor forecast and payout performance
This role is responsible for high quality interactions and clear and consistent communications with grantees and partners in the field.
- Broad knowledge of finance (corporate, global markets, and/or real estate/facilities)
- Experience working in the US education system (K – 16, school district, charter management organization) preferred, but not required
- Financial and strategic planning; analytical, numerical and financial modeling skills
- Strong relationship building skills
- Business plan development and evaluation
- Basic project management skills
- Ability to translate data into user friendly tools/resources
- Intellectual curiosity
- Synthesizing skills / Ability to absorb and quickly distill significant amounts of information
- Ability to influence without formal authority
- Negotiation skills
- Solution and action orientation
- Advanced Excel (pivot tables, VB Scripts, SQL)
- Ability to read and analyze financial statements
- Ability to manage multiple projects and activities