Reports to: Vice President, Justice & Opportunity
Organization Summary:
United Way of New York City (UWNYC) is a nonprofit mobilizing people and organizations to eradicate barriers and create opportunities that improve the lives of low-income New Yorkers. Part of the United Way Worldwide system, one of the world’s most recognized charitable brands, we envision caring communities in which all individuals and families have access to quality education and the opportunity to lead healthy and financially secure lives. We strive to model our values in all our relationships, both internal and external: Collaboration, Compassion, Integrity, Accountability, and Superior Performance.
About the Atlas Innovation Fund:
Led by United Way of New York City (UWNYC) in partnership with the New York City Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS) within the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ), the Atlas Innovation Fund (AIF or “the Fund”) provides meaningful grants to nonprofit community-based organizations who run innovative programs that aim to prevent violence and address its root causes in our neighborhoods. Funding decisions are made by the Funding Review Committee which includes community members, nonprofit leaders, funders, and other stakeholders. In addition to direct grant money, AIF will provide technical assistance, researchers, and evaluators to build the evidence base that will help programs secure larger grants. The AIF aims to fund organizations standing up innovative violence prevention programs and practices in New York City that have not yet been able to access large institutional or government grants to foster greater impact and access to future funding. We specifically want to help programs:
- strengthen their core data, evaluation and storytelling systems;
- measure their programmatic impact, either quantitatively through data and evaluation, or qualitatively through storytelling and development of logic models; and
- access transformational government or philanthropic grants.
Through the AIF, we aim to lift promising practices that could be adopted across New York City and beyond.
Position Overview:
The Director, AIF is the facilitator, coordinator, and visionary of the AIF. They will serve as the liaison between funders, lead organizations MOCJ and UWNYC, Funding Review Committee, grantees, the public, and all other stakeholders. They must be a highly skilled relationship manager with a deep understanding of community-based organizations and a knowledge of violence prevention work across NYC. They must have experience working with funders, evaluation committees, and community-based organizations. The ideal candidate will be both organized and thorough as well as creative and entrepreneurial, with a keen sense of equity and fairness.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Meeting facilitation
- Organize and staff funder, Funding Review Committee (FRC), grantee, and other meetings with stakeholders.
- Prepare agendas, arrange pre- and post meeting debriefs, facilitate scheduling and logistics (space, media), prepare meeting notes.
- Coordinate with internal UWNYC teams to administer the distribution of grant funds to grantees
- Work with Administration, Finance, Justice & Opportunity, and Strategic Initiatives teams to prepare templates for grant letters, reports, etc.
- Draft grant letters, invoices, reports and other materials as needed.
- Financial oversight
- Work with UWNYC Finance team to manage the AIF budget
- Coordinate payment to grantees with Finance team
- Program oversight: grantees
- Oversee grant performance and payments for grantees
- Oversee distribution of funds to grantees
- Draft correspondence with grantees
- Collect impact stories and data points from grantees
- Convene grantees, connect them to TA and resources, etc.
- Donor relations and fundraising
- Liaise with AIF funders to update on the Fund and grantees
- Solicit input and participation from funders
- Partner with Strategic Initiatives team to draft proposals, request renewed funding, build budgets for funding requests, report on the work of the Fund, etc.
- Communications
- Partner with UWNYC Marketing & Communications team to build and maintain AIF website landing page
- Work with Marketing & Communications team to draft and circulate occasional news releases as needed
- Compile grantee stories and opportunities for video production
- Set-up for new funding cycle
- Update and refresh Request for Proposals document
- Facilitate webinar and office hours for applicants
- Update FRC
- Facilitate launch of next funding cycle
Skills, Knowledge and Experience:
- Bachelor’s degree required
- Five to eight years of experience in fund or program management, donor relations, community engagement, or any other relevant nonprofit, philanthropic, or community work
- Demonstrated experience facilitating and coordinating groups of high-level, engaged, and invested committee members
- Excellent writing, editing, verbal, and presentation skills
- Demonstrated skill and comfort in building relationships with community-based organizations
- Knowledge of violence prevention and public/ neighborhood safety work
- Innovative thinker, with a track record for translating strategic thinking into action plans and results
- Excellent judgment and creative problem-solving skills, including negotiation and conflict resolution
- Superior management skills, including the ability to advocate for and manage to budget priorities
- A passion for UWNYC’s mission, vision, and accomplishments
- Note: this is a dynamic, new position and an opportunity to shape a very needed resource to community. If you don’t fit the above criteria but have a passion for this work and thoughts on how to make the Atlas Innovation Fund great, please apply! We would love to meet you and learn more.
Salary range
- $80,875 - $ 112,522
- The final determination of salary, within this range, will depend on the candidate’s education, skills and experience required for the particular position.
Additional Requirements
- Fully vaccinated for Covid-19
- Background check
- UWNYC is presently on a Hybrid/In-Person work schedule
United Way of NYC Core Competencies for All Staff
- Mission Focused: Catalyze others’ commitment to the mission to create real social change that leads to better lives and healthier communities. This drives their performance and professional motivations.
- Relationship-Oriented: Understands that people come before processes and is astute in cultivating and managing relationships toward a common goal.
- Collaborator: Understands the roles and contributions of all sectors of the community and can mobilize resources (financial and human) through meaningful engagement
- Results Driven: Dedicated to shared and measurable goals for the common good: creating, resourcing, scaling and leveraging strategies and innovations for broad investment and impact
- Brand Steward: Steward of the brand and understands his/her role in growing and protecting the reputation and results of the greater network.
How to apply:
Please apply on our United Way of New York City career page. No phone calls or faxes accepted.
United Way of New York City is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer