Manager of Grant Writing

Reports to: Managing Director of Development

About Chicago Scholars

At Chicago Scholars we strive to prepare our Scholars for the world and the world for our Scholars.  Our dual focus on Scholars and the world are both essential to our strategy.  The first part of our work supports college acceptance, matriculation, persistence, and career access for our Scholars.  The second part allows Scholars to go beyond surviving to thriving, from achieving to excelling, from attending and working to belonging and exceeding.  The first part of our work allows entry, the second truly opens up opportunity and redistributes power.  To achieve these goals we center diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and racial justice so that we can launch and lift our Scholars and enable them to lead and leverage their power wherever they are on their journeys.

Chicago Scholars is transforming the leadership landscape of our city by resolving the fundamental barriers to success for academically driven, first generation college students from under-resourced communities. Through college counseling, mentoring, and by providing a supportive community to our Scholars through each phase of our program: College Access (Launch), College Persistence (Lift) and College to Careers (Lead), we ensure that they realize their full potential as students and leaders.

78% of Chicago Scholars graduate college within 6 years. Per the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research, only 49% of their peers earn a degree within 6 years. Upon graduation, our Scholars move into leadership positions across Chicago, helping to drive the economic future of their communities and our thriving city.

READI Commitment 

At Chicago Scholars we strive to prepare our Scholars for the world and the world for our Scholars. Our dual focus on Scholars and the world are essential to our strategy. To achieve these goals, we center racial justice, equity, accessibility, diversity, and inclusion (READI) in all that we do. 

Chicago Scholars’ commitment to READI encompasses all of our stakeholders—from our staff to our board, from our volunteers to our partnering organizations, and most importantly our Scholars. This holistic approach is necessary for the sustained, long-term, positive impact that we seek for our Scholars, our neighborhoods, our city, and our world.

To learn more about Chicago Scholars commitment to READI, please visit chicagoscholars.org/readi.

At Chicago Scholars, we believe that education is social justice. That's why we're empowering Chicago's best and brightest first-generation college students and students from low-income communities with the mentors, resources, and opportunities to go to our nation's best colleges and universities, graduate on time, and become Chicago's next generation of leaders. Since 1996, we've impacted the lives of more than 5,000 young leaders in Chicago.

Our Values

These are a set of guiding principles that apply to all stakeholders within the Chicago Scholars ecosystem. We select and retain stakeholders based on these stated expectations for how we achieve our mission and vision. Each are supported with core competencies and narrative for the sake of clarity.

We Dream Big. We speak up, innovate, push the boundaries and keep the creativity flowing. We don’t accept the status quo because the stakes are too high. We have an incredible belief that growth and change is possible. While we dream big, we are laser focused on our intended goals and outcomes for our Scholars, our city and the world.

We Show Up. We show up every day; not just physically, but with a positive attitude and willingness to work, connect, challenge, engage, solve problems and have fun. We don’t wait for someone to tell us what to do. We take action and get the job done. If we don’t know how, we figure it out through our knowledge, exploration or our network.

We Embrace Our Differences. We represent a multicultural nation and our collective backgrounds, experiences, styles, values, perspectives and beliefs are an asset to the world. We recognize that together we achieve better outcomes more quickly. Justice and equity starts with us using our collective voice.

We Model the Way. We exhibit the behavior that we want to see in others and in the world. Titles are granted, but our behavior is what earns us respect. In order to model the way, we must be clear about our guiding principles, celebrate our accomplishments and learn from our challenges and failures.

We Care For Each Other Along the Way. We adapt to the needs of the person in front of us. We pause, reflect and listen. We do our best work when we are in good relationship together. We care personally and challenge directly.

We Keep Our Word. When we commit, we are all in. Whether for events, a Scholar, a peer or ourselves. Our words are as powerful as our actions and are the building block of trust, respect, self-worth and integrity.

Position Summary:

The Manager of Grant Writing is a key member of the development and engagement team who will lead the grants-based fundraising efforts for Chicago Scholars. This role collaborates with the Managing Director of Development and program staff regarding grant-based fundraising strategy and develops proposals and reports for private and government grants. The optimal candidate will excel in the areas of writing and project management.

Key Responsibilities:

· Manage all grant writing efforts, including development and submission of LOIs, applications, proposals, and reports.

· Work with internal stakeholders to collect up-to-date and compelling data, program descriptions and stories to match funder requirements.

· Compile and submit all required reports in a timely manner, working collaboratively with donors to satisfy requests for information and proactively share insights.

· Support cultivation of foundation relationships through direct engagement and site visits.

· Manage prospect research efforts to follow up on leads and identify new prospects.

· Track and maintain active prospect pipeline revenue projections and targets for grants-based fundraising.

· Ensure proper collection and recording of donations within development database and financial records. 

· Manage comprehensive grants and reporting calendar, inclusive of donation cycles for multi-year donors; ensure on-time reminders and pledge invoicing.

· Maintain and manage grant-based funder records in the development database to ensure the accuracy of all donor data and information.

· Update the grant boilerplate annually with new language, stories, and data, as needed.

· Maintain organized and thorough grant files.

Additional Responsibilities:

This role will occasionally work on nights and weekends for Scholar and development events and programming and may have the opportunity to manage an intern. This role is also required to attend and support mandatory all staff events.

Qualifications:

• Education: College degree required, nonprofit management or grant writing concentration a plus
• Experience:  
  • Minimum of 2 years of experience in nonprofit fundraising, grant writing experience preferred
  • Government grants experience strongly preferred
  • Salesforce or other donor database experience preferred

Core Competencies:

• Growth Mindset: Views growth as important for personal and professional development; seeks out opportunities to expand skills, even if change is required. Regularly seeks feedback and coaching to succeed in doing more complex work. Provides feedback to supervisor.
• Adaptability: Ability to operate effectively and flexibly in changing contexts and operating environments. Ability to manage change to support teams and reach intended goals. Adjusts work priorities to meet feedback and changing demands.
• Teamwork/Collaboration: Demonstrates awareness and respect of cultural and individual values. Listens to ideas from others even when different from own. Willing to take on additional tasks as needed to achieve team objectives. Actively      participates as a team member and shows willingness to contribute and be open to feedback.
• Accountability/Project Management: Effectively manages own work, and work of teams when relevant, ensuring delivery of high-quality work. Meets deadlines early, assesses if a roadblock will delay deadline and communicates changes as needed, work products (ex: reports, documents, files, etc.) are consistently complete and accurate.
• Problem Solving/Critical Thinking: Able to break down tasks into manageable sections to make informed decisions and solve problems. Leverages the strengths of others to tackle a problem.
• Leadership Intelligences: Ability to meet people where they are at, treat them with respect, and influence them. Ability to effectively represent Chicago Scholars in any environment.
• Communication: Able to read and interpret information effectively, clearly articulate a plan of action, and influence others by      way of written and verbal mechanisms. Communicates goals, objectives, and strategies frequently and aligns them with work and tasks. Consistently adjusts style and tone to suit the target audience.

Best Offer First Policy: The data nationally show for every $1 paid to white men, women earn 82 cents, black men earn 88 cents, and black women earn 76 cents.  Women and black and brown people are also less likely to negotiate than their white male peers. Chicago Scholars has decided to offer our best offer first rather than wait for a potential negotiation. This allows us to set salaries based on market data and internal equity and ensure fair and equal pay for every role. 

If you have questions regarding either of the above policies, or any of Chicago Scholars employment policies, please reach out to the Human Resources team at humanresources@chicagoscholars.org with the subject line: Policy Question.

Starting Salary Range: $56,000-$60,000 annually

To Apply

Please click 'Apply' to submit your application which should include a resume and cover letter. 

Please include a cover letter that explains your interest in grant writing and highlight any experience not on your resume that is relevant to the responsibilities of the role.