Higher Achievement, a nationally acclaimed nonprofit organization partnering with middle school scholars as they pursue their ambitions, is seeking a Manager of Grants! An ideal candidate is a dynamic project manager with attention to detail and deadlines; can work extremely consistently and collaboratively with internal staff cross departmentally and externally with grant funders and partners, and other external stakeholders; and an excellent communicator building connections with others and delivering strong and effective written materials for grant efforts and beyond.

Summary: Reporting to the Director of Grants, the Manager of Grants oversees grant portfolio operations ensuring grant and revenue compliance. Under the direction of the Director of Grants, this role will support grants for Center Support and Affiliates. This position will collaborate with Finance, Affiliate Leaders and Center staff, Operations and will support Development departments DEI efforts.

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

• Grant Portfolio Management: Manage a portfolio of grants, including prospecting, submitting grant requests, and completing grant reports for grants sizes $5K and up.
  • Cultivate, steward, and sustain relationships with the organizations current grant (foundations, government, corporate) funders.
    • Tailor language and create new language for grant proposals.
    • Complete and submit grant proposals and all required reporting by or before deadlines.
    • Attend meetings with funders and facilitate tours of Center and site visits.
    • Proactively manage all deadlines and ensure key dates and interactions are tracked using Raisers Edge NXT database.
    • Maintain paperwork for and ensure compliance with all governmental grant requirements, including federal and local government grants.
    • Manage partnerships, including ensuring compliance with all administrative and other grant requirements plus supporting where required.
• Prospecting: Conduct prospect research on new grant opportunities working in collaboration with the Development team and Executive Directors
• Goals: Achieve annual goals that are outlined annually by the Development Department.
• Collaborate Cross-Departmentally: Work across other departments such as Program, Finance, and Operations to effectively push forward grants work and ensure grants align with program needs and execute mission goals.
  • Finance: i.e. budget requests for reports and proposals
  • Operations: i.e. hiring reports for grant requests
  • Program: Center- and affiliate-specific program updates for grant reports and requests

Education, Experience, Skills & Abilities:

• Bachelors Degree
• Overall professional working experience in
  • Project management
  • Writing Experience
  • Strong Communications & Relationship Building Experience
• Ability to build strong, long-term relationships with donors and prospects; strong listening skills, and ability to converse with donors and prospects in a thoughtful, engaged manner
• Ability to compellingly convey Higher Achievement's mission, impact, and needs across the community in an authentic way that honors our scholars and their families
• Ability to build strong working relationships with other departments within the organization, including an understanding of how to proactively manage projects and deadlines
• Strong skills in planning, organizing, attention to detail, and oral and written communication, including strong presentation skills
• Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills with a solutions-oriented approach to addressing challenges
• Exceptional oral and written communication skills, including strong editing skills and a high attention to detail
• Extremely organized with the ability to manage individual and supervisory responsibilities in a fast-paced environment
• Knowledge of current issues influencing public education and the youth development field.
• Commitment to the mission and work of Higher Achievement

Physical Requirements and Work Environment: Work is regularly performed in an office environment. Employee may spend long periods sitting, standing, and walking. Required to transfer from one part of the worksite to another and climb stairs. Regularly lift, carry, and position objects weighing up to 20 pounds. Regular use of a computer and keyboard, telephone, and face-to-face communication in small and large group settings with adults; employee must communicate clearly and professionally in these situations. Visual, auditory, and physical ability to respond quickly to critical incidents involving students and act in an emergency. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Compensation and Benefits:The starting salary for this regular, full-time, exempt position is $72,000 for the position. Higher Achievement offers competitive benefits, including:

• 100% Higher Achievement paid insurance for the employee (medical, dental, life, and long and short-term disability insurance, virtual health & wellness support through CALM and CareFirst), eligible from the date of hire; dependents can be enrolled on medical and dental and Higher Achievement pays 50%.
• Vision insurance and supplemental insurance (critical illness and accident) available, eligible from the date of hire; paid for 100% by the employee for the individual and all dependents
• Six weeks (240 hours) of paid annual leave per fiscal year that can be used for vacation, sick, or personal days, accruing at the rate of 9.23 hours per bi-weekly pay period.
• Fiscal Year 2024-25 Winter (1 Week) & Summer Break (1 Week) & 1 PM Closures on Fridays!
• Five Year Recess: One month off (160 hours). Five years of continuous full-time employment required.
• Parental Leave: Two work weeks (80 hours). Must be used for the birth of an employees own child or the placement of a child with the employee in connection with adoption or foster care.
• 403(b) retirement plan: Employees are eligible to participate from the date of hire. At the end of the employee's second year of full-time employment, Higher Achievement makes a one-time match up to $3,000 of the employee's contributions. After that, Higher Achievement offers an ongoing annual contribution of 5% of the employee's salary. Employees can participate voluntarily at any time.

Location/Office: Higher Achievement is a hybrid work environment organization. All staff can work within a hybrid arrangement with in-person time focused on mission-critical activities and relationship building rather than an expected amount of time in the office.

Travel: This position will require the occasional travel between Baltimore, DC, and Richmond (primarily single day travel).

About Higher Achievement

Higher Achievement believes that talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. Were passionate about providing opportunities to close the achievement gap for motivated students. Were committed to students during the critical transition to middle school by providing year-round, multi-year support for students in the 5th 8th grades. As students prepare to graduate from our program in the 8th grade, we support their transition to successfully advance to high school programs that keep students on track for continuous education. Were proud to share that 95% of Higher Achievement scholars graduate from high school.

Founded in 1975 in Washington, DC, as a grassroots effort to create learning opportunities for children, Higher Achievement has impacted the lives of more than 10,000 young people and currently operates Achievement Centers in Washington, DC, Alexandria, VA, Baltimore, MD, and Richmond, VA. Higher Achievements award-winning model of rigorous academic mentoring, individualization of services, and comprehensive academic support is guided by leading research for effective out-of-school time programs. More information about Higher Achievement may be found at: http://www.higherachievement.org.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Higher Achievement made a concrete commitment to racial equity, diversity and inclusion following the murder of George Floyd: Higher Achievement aims to be an anti-racist and inclusive organization where we aggressively work to improve equity and inclusion in all aspects of our organizational culture and operations, as they are pivotal to the success of our mission. These efforts are outlined in our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Plan which is renewed yearly. The DEI Plan's Strategic Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are 1) to foster an inclusive and identity-affirming culture that reflects our Core Values; 2) demonstrate a prioritization of learning and develop inclusive training and tools that support, inspire, and engage staff; and 3) bring a DEI focus to policies and procedures from Center tours to staff recruitment and promotion, and beyond. We truly believe that to be an organization that intentionally and sustainably centers DEI, all staff members and partners must embed DEI into their daily work.

Higher Achievement Core Values:

• Scholar-Centricity: The organizations work is focused on empowering the scholars we serve. We make every decision with them in mind. We foster authentic relationships with scholars and their families, where we create opportunities with them, not for them.
• Striving for Excellence: We set high expectations for ourselves and our scholars. This begins by recognizing the talents that people bring to the organization and utilizing them. We continually learn and improve through the use of a range of qualitative and quantitative data sources and thoughtful reflection in order to help our scholars, staff, and organization achieve their goals.
• Power of Community: We collaborate with our communities to develop and cultivate mutually beneficial and authentic relationships. We embrace learning, celebrate the uniqueness of each community, infuse joy within each of the communities we serve.
• Voice and Inclusion: We recognize the power of voice in an inclusive environment. We create spaces where everyone feels respected, valued, and has a sense of belonging. We acknowledge the power that is held in the voices of all of our stakeholders: staff, board, supporters, volunteers, partners, scholars and their families and elevate those that have been marginalized. We invite all voices into the conversation, authentically incorporate them into the decision-making process, and foster spaces for mutual listening and learning within our communities.
• Racial Equity: We address and acknowledge the systems of oppression that impact our scholars and families, and we work to provide them with tools to advocate for themselves to combat racial inequities. As an organization, we constantly confront our own biases and work to eliminate practices, policies, and messages that perpetuate inequalities. With an ongoing commitment to closing the opportunity gap, we seek justice and commit to taking action at the individual, interpersonal, organizational, and systemic levels.

To Apply: Interested applicants are encouraged to apply immediately with resume and cover letter via our Job Board by going to http://www.higherachievement.org/careers. Please focus your cover letter to address your overall professional working experience required for this role: 1) project management, 2) writing experience and 3) strong communications & relationship building experience. We request that all applicants do use AI to create your cover letter- original content only. Priority deadline is January 3rd, 2025, 12 midnight. Please, no phone calls, emails or recruiters.

The duties listed above are intended only as illustrations of the various types of work that may be performed. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment to the position.

Higher Achievement is a proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing an workplace where opportunities are available to all team members and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, physical and mental disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, military and veteran status, and any other characteristic protected by applicable law. We are committed to building a team that represents diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. The more inclusive we are, the better we will be.