Grants Coordinator

Title: Grants Coordinator

Department: Community Impact

Reports to: Vice President of Community Impact

Employment status: Full-Time

FLSA status: Exempt (salary)

Salary Range: $40,000-$45,000

WHO WE ARE & WHAT WE DO:

United Way of Olmsted County (UWOC) is a community change organization that fights for the education, health, and financial stability of every person in our community. United Way fights to erase divisions, bridge divides, and right inequities. We connect people with resources that change lives and transform our community.

You can learn more about our organization, our impact, and our values at www.uwolmsted.org

HOW YOU’D FIT IN & STAND OUT:

• This role is managed by the Vice President of Community Impact and sits on United Way’s Community Impact team, which is a team of four. Our team has strengths-based culture and finds value in diverse skills and strengths.
• Our team is a group of strong, social justice-oriented individuals who believe in high quality work to achieve community-level change. We are interested in continuous growth and improvement, as well as having hard conversations. We know that the best strategies aren’t always the easiest ones. We welcome dissenting views and would like a team member who doesn’t shy away from disagreements.
• We are looking for someone to take on the partner-facing operations of our core grants to local nonprofit programs. This includes developing Request for Proposals (RFPs), which involves working closely with both volunteer grant reviewers and nonprofit applicants in group settings as well as one-on-one.
• This role also provides support for research, evaluation, and reporting activities across our Community Impact work. You would have the opportunity to engage local experts in the field, as well as other researchers as you see fit.
• In other nonprofit organizations this role may have a title like “Program Officer” or “Grants Manager”
• Our organization is expanding its geographic footprint and are looking for someone who can help us think creatively, strategically, and boldly as we push new work forward.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Grants Coordinator will lead partnership, learning, and continuous improvement efforts to increase the impact of our community change strategies. They will manage the day-to-day partner-facing operations of our core grantmaking processes. Our grantmaking processes provide funds to local nonprofit programs supporting access to food, housing, healthcare, and early education, as well as place-based initiatives, and leadership development initiatives.

Grant operations

• Stay current on community needs, solutions, and areas of opportunity in health, education, and financial stability.
• Develop Request for Proposals and oversee the grantmaking and awarding process. This includes building relationships with nonprofits, recruiting and guiding volunteer grant reviewers, managing the partner facing operations of these grants, continuously evaluating the process for improvement, and utilizing an equity lens to remove barriers for nonprofits to receive funding.

Relationships and partnerships

• Build and maintain trusting relationships with grantees, prospective grantees, volunteers, and community stakeholders.
• Provide technical support to nonprofit partners within your skill set and United Way’s
• competencies, such as grant writing, research, evaluation, or facilitation.
• Participate actively as a member of the Community Impact team. We believe that diverse strengths, experiences, and points of view make our work better, and we are seeking a thought partner who will contribute to the overall work of our small but mighty team.
• Inspire high levels of volunteer engagement, performance, and satisfaction by communicating and modeling UWOC’s vision and values.

Evaluation and research

• Collect, analyze, evaluate, and present data on the results of UWOC’s work.
• Work collaboratively to develop performance measures to evaluate and communicate about internal and external programs. We use the Results Based Accountability measurement framework, which you can learn on the job.
• Stay current on local conditions and issues by reviewing local, state, and national data sources (eg. Minnesota Student Survey, Census, Community Health Needs Assessment).
• Contribute to organization-wide efforts to translate data into everyday language to tell the story of community experiences and UWOC’s work by creating meaningful, easy-to-read reports for internal and external audiences. On occasion, translate this information for our own grant writing and reporting.
• You probably don't have specific work experience in each of these areas, and that’s okay. We expect our new Grants Coordinator will have done some but not all of these types of tasks in the past. We will provide support for on-the-job learning, as long as you possess the core competencies described below.

THIS JOB IS FOR YOU IF YOU:

• Feel passionate about creating equitable community change
• Enjoy working with both people and processes
• Possess strong written and verbal communication skills in English
• Are comfortable working on a PC and using or learning Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Excel, Microsoft Forms, grants management software

Possess the following core competencies:

Plan wisely and stay organized: Analyze information, generate alternatives, and recommend solutions that ensure efficient and effective use of resources to achieve UWOC goals. Approach work with a learning mindset, staying curious about other ways of doing things. Think big about the challenges facing our community and break down big ideas into action steps. Remove barriers in our grantmaking and partnership processes. Find ways to connect your work to other department areas. Communicate plans effectively, updating relevant partners and colleagues often. Take time to review details and ensure all tasks are executed correctly.

Focus on relationships: Build the trust of colleagues and community partners by demonstrating honesty, consistency, integrity, and transparency. Bring people along and approach conflict with an open and curious mindset, always focusing on the subject at hand, not the people involved. Seek out and value diverse perspectives, demonstrate intercultural mindsets, and contribute to a culture of belonging and antiracism within the organization.

Learn from data and communicate it effectively: Dive deep into community data, research, conversations, etc. to understand the greatest needs our community is experiencing. Be willing to be surprised by what you learn, and adjust your plans based on new information. Look at data sets from multiple sources, synthesize what you’ve learned, explain high level trends and derive key insights to influence decisions. Tell the story behind the data in written communications, visuals, and speaking engagements.

HOURS:

• Our typical work week is 37.5 hours.
• Located in our service area of Olmsted, Dodge, Winona, or Fillmore Counties – We are looking to hire a resident or someone willing to live within daily commuting distance, as we are rooted in our local community. Some in-person meetings and activities are required as safety permits.
• Typical office hours are Monday-Friday from 8:30am-5:00pm.
• We offer flexible work schedules to meet individual and family needs, and we need you to be available during peak times to meet with internal and external stakeholders. We are willing to work together to make sure employee and organizational needs are met.
• Hybrid/remote work options are available on an individual basis.
• Occasional availability outside of typical office hours is expected for special events, as individual circumstances allow .

OUR WORKPLACE:

United Way of Olmsted County is an equal opportunity employer. Individuals who share lived experiences with the people and communities we serve are strongly encouraged to apply. We intentionally do our best to eliminate bias and remove barriers that may limit other applicant pools. UWOC encourages applications from individuals of all races, genders, ages, and abilities.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

• Starting salary of $40,000-45,000 per year, depending on qualifications.
• Employees are paid electronically twice a month.
• Benefits include health, dental, and life insurance; 403b retirement plan with generous employer match available after one year of employment; 8 weeks paid parental leave.
• 20 days paid time off plus 10 paid holidays (New Year’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and two floating holidays to be used at the employee’s discretion).

TO APPLY:

To apply, please email Zeni Aly (zenia@uwolmsted.org). In the email we ask for:

1. 2-3 paragraphs in the email (not attached, write in the body of the email) telling us why you are interested in this position and how you believe you meet the qualifications.

• By paragraph we mean a set of 3-7 sentences, meaning your email should be approximately 6- 21 sentences long.
• You will not receive more or less consideration because of a shorter or longer email.
• DO NOT send us a traditional cover letter. In this process we are seeking someone who pays attention to detail and follows direction. If you send a cover letter, this will be considered not following directions.

2. A summary of your work/skills/training/educational history as an attachment OR a link to your LinkedIn profile

• We do not have a preference on which one.
• You will not receive special consideration for sending both.
• Our aim is to understand where you have worked/volunteered before and the types of roles you have had. Maybe you have led research projects in the nonprofit sector, maybe you have incredible relational and organizational skills from the education sector, maybe you have experience collecting data to evaluate programs—we are open and interested in learning from folks across the spectrum of experience and industry.

Qualified applicants will receive a reply within five business days to schedule a conversation. We will keep the position open until filled. Start date is flexible—ideally someone will begin full time by October 16th.