Managing Director, Investor Relations Team

THE ORGANIZATION

The Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF) is a leading nonprofit venture philanthropy fund dedicated to identifying the nation’s best public charter schools, investing in their expansion, and helping to increase their impact. Our “portfolio” includes 200+ charter school networks that operate 17,000+ schools and serve more than 725,000 students. We are committed to expanding the impact of schools that are closing achievement and opportunity gaps. CSGF operates with the same strategies, discipline, and focus as a venture capital firm by awarding multi-year grants and loans to talented education entrepreneurs building networks of high-quality charter schools that enroll traditionally underserved students. Ultimately, we think the portfolio can grow to serve ~1,000,000 students within a decade.

This is an exciting time to join the Charter School Growth Fund. We recently launched a new philanthropic fund, building on our 15-year track record of success. CSGF’s new five-year “Fund IV” is larger in size and scope than previous funds, with a goal to continue to fuel charter sector growth, accelerate innovation, and strengthen long-term outcomes for students, particularly students of color and those from low-income backgrounds. Our new fund will continue to prioritize investments in leaders of color as our current portfolio is led by more than 50% leaders of color and more than 50% female leaders. We believe it is vital for the networks we support to be proximate to the lived experiences of the students and communities they serve.

THE OPPORTUNITY

CSGF is seeking a Managing Director to be part of our highly collaborative Investor Relations Team (IRT). This person will report to the Chief External Affairs Officer and play a crucial role in managing the team, effectively communicating with prospects, investors and stakeholders to maintain positive relationships and ensure a clear understanding of CSGF’s financial performance and strategic direction. This role would be most exciting for someone who thinks strategically and is a problem-solver, and yet is comfortable analyzing complex, detailed information to articulate and share solutions and insights. CSGF is a national leader in aggregating K-12 and post-secondary performance data, and our investors greatly value the learnings coming from our organization’s investment in and support to the entrepreneurial charter networks in our portfolio.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Leadership (Internal)

• Set the vision and strategic direction for IRT including goals, priorities, and objectives to optimize relationships with investors in CSGF
• Provide executive oversight of the investor experience, develop and manage strategies to ensure that all investors are experiencing world-class service and stewardship
• Manage the team’s Vice Presidents to develop, implement, execute, and evaluate long-term goals and strategies. 
• Establish supportive and cooperative working relationships to share best practices, new ideas, and collaborate on donor cultivation when needed.
• Provide strategic advice, support, and thought partnerships to internal project teams and leadership in the areas of donor stewardship. 

Leadership (External)

• Manage an existing warm portfolio of prospects, including established donors and unfulfilled pledges. Experience managing grants from individuals and national foundations that can range in size from $1M to $100M+.
• Cultivate relationships with high-capacity prospects and tap into emerging markets with potential.
• Play a pivotal role in advancing CSGF’s fundraising efforts as we set the strategic direction and key fundraising targets for CSGF’s Fund V.
• Oversee the collection, analysis and data reporting for existing investors. 

Team Leadership & Management

• Commitment to developing and supporting a high-performing IRT team to meet Fund IV objectives and begin planning for execution of Fund V goals. This includes building and maintaining a positive team morale and giving and receiving feedback. 
• Serve as a liaison to IRT Vice Presidents and other CSGF teams in order to help advance portfolio member related CSGF goals.
• Lead the investor relations team by building, leading and coaching a dynamic, diverse and highly competent team of fundraisers, in remote settings, including management of three Vice President-level direct reports.  

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Skills and Characteristics

• Extensive professional fundraising experience with expertise in principal and major gift cultivation and solicitation of multi-million dollar investments
• Proficiency understanding and communicating about budgets and financials 
• Exceptional interpersonal and communications skills and ability to build trusting relationships with diverse constituencies 
• Ability to communicate effectively in writing and verbally both one-on-one and with groups
• Strong people management and team leadership skills, including delegation, goal-setting and prioritization
• Ability to make decisions with partial information: effortlessly balance and transition between urgent demands with long-term projects 
• Strategic thinking and analytical skills: demonstrated ability to lead strategies and problem solve effectively to achieve goals 
• Strong project and time management experience that drives efficiency and excellence in all aspects of work: Manage multiple, concurrent projects with sometimes competing deadlines 
• Entrepreneurial mindset: brings creativity, innovation, and flexibility to all projects
• Engage effectively at both the complex, strategic and simple, tactical level. As a leanly staffed team, CSGF hires team members who are as comfortable engaging in complex, strategic vision-setting conversations with thought leaders across the country as they are scheduling their own meetings 
• Passion for creating social change through the impactful investment of private capital 
• WIllingness to travel infrequently (~10% of the time)
• Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, belief that diversity of perspectives results in better outcomes and a desire to establish an inclusive environment that fosters open feedback and growth

Educational Background and Work Experience

• Bachelor’s degree required
• 10+ years’ work executive-level leadership in the areas of investor relations, fundraising, finance, management consulting and/or external affairs. 
• 5+ years of previous experience managing teams, preferably with layers  
• Experience in an education-adjacent organization preferred
• Experience with charter schools is a plus

WORKING AT CSGF 

We are focused on hiring and developing great people and believe that building diverse perspectives  across our team make us more effective in expanding our impact. (This is reflected in Our Commitment to Diversity Statement.) Our core values are: 

Results

• We believe that student success is the ultimate measure of our performance.
• We work with urgency and intentionality for the portfolio and their schools. 
• We hold ourselves accountable to strong outcomes.
• We relentlessly prioritize our resources to drive positive, measurable, attributable impact for the charter leaders, their schools, and ultimately students.
• We believe strong results come from good decisions, and the best decisions are made when we use data - both quantitative and qualitative - and gather input from diverse perspectives, especially those most impacted by the work.  
• We celebrate our wins and learn from our losses.

Teamwork

• We value organization over team, and we value team over individual.
• We actively break down silos and collaborate across teams.
• We believe building strong, healthy relationships is critical to move our work forward.
• We seek to proactively communicate across teams to strengthen our outcomes and add value for the portfolio.

Integrity

• We believe that trust is our most important asset, and we must earn and maintain the trust of the portfolio member leaders, investors, and our team to achieve our goals.
• We are often entrusted with sensitive and confidential information about the portfolio - we do not ever violate these confidences.
• We show ownership for our successes and our failures. 
• We speak directly to the person, even when it's messy and hard, and get ahead of potential problems.
• We do the right thing, even when no one is watching.

Respect 

• We understand and acknowledge our place in the value chain – the students, teachers, principals and other leaders at portfolio networks are doing the hardest, direct and most impactful work in their schools each day.
• We prioritize humility and embrace getting better every day.
• We are curious and open-minded.
• We are aware of our own biases and how they might affect our judgment, and we take ownership to mitigate their impact.

Entrepreneurship

• We take calculated risks, looking for new ways to add value and improve how we work.
• We are problem solvers in all aspects of our work.
• We actively connect people and ideas in strategic ways to foster new ideas and learning. 
• We acknowledge not all investments will succeed and embrace failure as it facilitates deeper learning for our organization and the portfolio.

COMPENSATION

Compensation is commensurate with experience and education. The target salary range for this role is $175,000-$225,000 annually. CSGF offers a very competitive package of benefits, including: health, life, disability and dental insurance coverage; vacation/holidays and parental leave; and participation in CSGF’s 403(b) plan. Candidates must have permanent authorization to work in the US.

START DATE

CSGF is seeking candidates who can start as soon as possible.

E-VERIFY STATEMENT

This employer participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you. Including terminating employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the I-9 form.

Charter School Growth Fund provides equal employment opportunity for all applicants and employees.