Job Announcement
Position: Grants Manager
Full-time, Exempt
San Francisco Office
Position Summary:
The Grants Manager creates and conducts a comprehensive grant-writing program in partnership with the Executive Director (ED), Director of Development and Communications, Project Managers, other staff, and Board Development Committee by developing foundation/corporation fundraising strategies for each project, identifying new funding opportunities, evaluating the viability of new and repeat grant opportunities, writing a high volume of LOIs, proposals and reports, and serving as steward of current and future foundation relationships.
Responsibilities:
Strategy: For each Sustainable Conservation project, understand one- to three-year fundraising goals, and develop a foundation/corporation fundraising strategy for each project.
- Work closely with Sustainable Conservation's Director of Development and Communications and ED to identify funding priorities and strategize approach on a quarterly basis for each program area.
- As part of this process, attend quarterly financial meetings and, with Sustainable Conservation's Director of Development and Communications and ED's input, determine the amount to be raised for each project.
- Collectively reconcile and manage Sustainable Conservation's short- and long-term project funding needs with foundation funding preferences.
- Develop and manage a database that tracks submission deadlines for all foundation and corporate grants.
- Work with Director of Development and Communications and ED to grow Sustainable Conservation's base of foundation support in Southern California.
Research: Conduct research on potential new foundation/corporation grantmakers.
- Identify funding opportunities from new as well as established foundations for specific program areas, matching need and opportunity.
- Archive information on grantmakers that have low potential or could possibly be used for future projects to reduce potential for duplication in research efforts.
- Work with Sustainable Conservation's Director of Development and Communications and ED to prioritize communications, in order to make effective use of ED and Board of Directors' extended networks (particularly to build relationships with foundations that do not accept unsolicited proposals).
Proposals: Work with Sustainable Conservation's Development team and program staff to create, update, and submit a high volume of quality foundation and corporate letters of intent and grant proposals for a wide variety of environmental projects.
- Write high-quality letters of intent and grant proposals, working collaboratively with Project Managers.
- Work with finance staff to coordinate the development of detailed proposal budgets.
- Oversee up-to-date foundation files for all proposals.
Reporting: Meet regularly with Sustainable Conservation's Director of Development and Communications to review reporting requirements and to strategize any shared reporting responsibilities.
- Report all awarded grants to the Controller.
- Partner with program and policy staff to ensure that deliverables for core funders are on radar at all times; create and maintain deliverable tables for staff.
- Partner with program staff and take the lead in writing report narratives and obtaining new copy.
- Review of reporting requirements (including narrative and financial), prior to sending to the Executive Director and Director of Development and Communications for final sign-off.
- Oversee up-to-date foundation files for all reports.
Stewardship: Working closely with the ED and the Director of Development and Communications, build strong relationships with existing and potential foundation and corporation program officers. Conduct great stewardship for core foundation funders through regular e-mail updates, press, field trips, in-office meetings, and timely submittal of all grant agreement requirements and new proposals.
- As appropriate, work with program officers to determine each current funder's preference for information dissemination.
- Identify target number of "touches" based on foundation preference.
- Provide updates in requested form (telephone call, email, letter) when project milestones are reached.
- Take the lead on developing new relationships as appropriate.
Fundraising: Support the Director of Development and Communications in all aspects of the organization's development efforts. Carry out a variety of tasks to support the fundraising program, such as developing the annual fundraising plan, attending all Board Development Committee meetings, assisting with events, editing fund appeal copy and providing input on major donor efforts.
Core Competencies and Required Skills:
- Excellent writing skills, including being consistently clear and concise
- Ability to frame project goals and deliverables for a wide variety of audiences
- Ability to convey complex, factual information in a positive and educational manner
- Exceptional analytical skills with ability to strategically extract and evaluate data
- Ability to build rapport and maintain relationships
- Strong organizational skills and ability to prioritize
- Ability to solve problems and propose solutions
- Ability to work independently as well as part of a team
Educational Requirements and Experience:
- Bachelor's degree with at least 5 years grant writing experience
- Extensive experience using the Internet as a research tool; Familiarity with Metasoft Foundation Search a plus
- Professional or academic environmental background is preferred; Familiarity and ease in writing about environmental topics, including climate change, agriculture, and natural resource management, is important
To Apply: Please send resume, cover letter, and brief writing sample in Word or PDF format to Jobs@suscon.org. No phone calls please.
Please include "Grants Manager" in Subject line.
Sustainable Conservation is an equal opportunity employer.