Director, Institutional Giving - Bet Tzedek Legal Services

For 50 years, Bet Tzedek Legal Services has provided high-quality, free legal services to Los Angeles’ most vulnerable residents. With over 100 staff members and a significant volunteer base, the agency harnesses a pro bono model of service to help people of all communities and generations secure life’s necessities. Bet Tzedek uses a multifaceted approach to advance justice at the individual, community, and systemic levels through education and outreach, advice and counsel, direct representation, self-help clinics and publications, impact litigation, and policy advocacy. Staff and pro bono volunteers provide a continuum of free legal services through four core program areas: Justice for Workers, Taxpayers & Small Business Owners; Justice for Seniors, Dependent Adults, & Caregivers; Housing Justice for Tenants, Homeowners & Unhoused Individuals; and Justice for Children & Families. Bet Tzedek seeks a dynamic, creative, and collaborative individual with strong research, writing, and management skills to lead the agency’s Institutional Giving team. This position is a management position under the agency’s External Affairs team and has four (4) direct reports, including grant officers and a Director of Data, Information, and Technology.

Reporting to the Vice President, External Affairs, the Director of Institutional Giving plays a central role in Bet Tzedek’s sustainability and growth by developing strategies, tactics, and internal systems to find, maintain, and increase foundation and government grant funding to support Bet Tzedek’s legal programs. Collaborating with staff, funders, and community partners; the position serves as a key link between the Legal Program Managers, Finance, Senior Leadership, and External Affairs teams in managing the agencies 70+ grants and its relationships with institutional funders. The Director of Institutional Giving leads a team of three (3) grant officers that are responsible for developing grant proposal narratives, locating and assessing new grant funding prospects, preparing grant reports, cultivating relationships with grant funders, hosting site visits, tracking data and deliverables, reporting to the agency’s senior leadership regarding grant performance, and performing other functions related to managing, growing, and stewarding the agency’s $16M portfolio of grants. The Director of Institutional Giving also supervises the Director of Data, Information & Technology’s work with the grant officers and advocates to track case and client data and prepare grant outcome data and reports.

This position is eligible for Bet Tzedek Legal Services’ hybrid/remote workplace designation. While the primary workplace is Bet Tzedek’s offices, at the discretion of the immediate supervisor, the employee may be permitted to work remotely or may be required to work in other locations depending on workload/business obligation.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

Grant Writing and Reporting:

• Directs grant proposal development, including subject matter research on Bet Tzedek’s legal practice areas, writing narratives, and collaborating in the development of program performance metrics and grant budgets.
• Partners closely with Data and Finance teams to provide regular reports to Bet Tzedek’s Senior Leadership, Board, and other stakeholders regarding progress on grant deliverables and fundraising goals.
• Manages the agency’s central yearly calendar of both public and private grant deadlines, assigning projects, creating timetables, and monitoring progress to ensure successful and timely applications, reports, supplemental documents, and other grant-related submissions, as well as funder meetings.
• Writes, assembles, and submits grant proposals and reports, coordinates funder site visits, and does other direct grant management activities.

Grant Strategy and Fund Development:

• Prepares grant revenue projections as part of the agency’s annual budgeting process and regularly reports progress to Senior Leadership.
• Researches and thoroughly assesses new funding opportunities, serving as the central coordinator in a deliberative process of gathering input from Program Managers, Finance staff, and Senior Leadership, and providing analysis and recommendations.
• Participates with Program Managers and others in the development of new program and project concepts and creates compelling narratives for grant funders and other external audiences.
• Leads and participates in high-level fundraising strategy discussions with the Finance and Senior Leadership teams.
• Leads the grant team, Program Managers, and Senior Leadership in strategically cultivating relationships with institutional funders, developing strategies and tactics for solidifying and increasing funders’ commitments to the agency.
• Conducts appropriate prospect research on local and national public and private grant makers to identify funding opportunities in line with the agency’s strategic goals and priorities.

Grants & Contracts Stewardship and Management:

• Creates efficient procedures and workflows for managing grants, including startup, renewals, amendments, and reports, and provides support and input as needed to the Finance team and Senior Leadership on budgets, modifications, grant compliance, quality assurance, and audits.
• Collaborates with Program Managers, Finance, Data, and Senior Leadership teams as appropriate to assist in identifying and resolving problems with grant spend-down or achieving deliverables.
• Serves as key liaison between the legal teams, Finance team, and institutional funders for grant-related questions and issues.
• Collaborates with other key staff in facilitating program audits and monitoring visits by institutional funders and preparing staff to participate successfully in these visits.
• Collaborates with compliance staff as needed in ensuring grants are managed in accordance with funders’ requirements.
• Provides training(s) as appropriate to Program Managers and staff on understanding grant funding, cultivating funder relationships, and managing grants.

Institutional Giving Staff Management:

• Serves as the hiring manager for the Institutional Giving team, working with HR to ensure team is appropriately staffed and attending to all recruitment and retention efforts in relation to the team.
• Supervises a team of grant officers in managing grant projects, developing proposals, reporting to funders, researching and identifying prospects, cultivating funder relationships, developing expertise in legal subject areas, and all other duties of a grant officer.
• Supports the professional development of the grant officers and regularly evaluates the grant officers by working with officers to identify professional development opportunities and facilitating quarterly and yearly evaluation meetings.
• Administrative:
• Actively participates in management team meetings, External Affairs team meetings, and committees.
• Attends staff meetings.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

$105,000.00 - $125,00.00 (DOE/DOQ)

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s Degree and at least six years previous experience with the duties described.
• Demonstrated success in both public and private grant proposal writing.
• Experience directing and supervising staff.
• Willingness and ability to work occasional evenings and weekends as needed.
• Reliable transportation to attend offsite meetings and functions.
• Mission driven, with a demonstrated commitment to Bet Tzedek’s mission to provide social and economic justice to those who need it most (required).
• Strategic thinker, able to conceptualize, lead and execute complex projects and effectively convey their impact to various audiences (required).
• Excellent project management skills (required)
• Excellent written and verbal communications skills; strong presentation and persuasive writing skills (required).
• Demonstrated experience and skill in staff supervision (required).
• Excellent relationship management skills; able to interact professionally with a diverse population of stakeholders, colleagues and potential or current funders (required).
• Able to manage multiple projects in a very fast-paced, deadline-driven environment (required)
• Outstanding research and analytical skills (required).
• Excellent organizational skills with attention to detail, accuracy, and ability to meet deadlines and objectives, and evaluate the success of the team’s efforts (required).
• Ability to work with diverse groups of people, and a commitment to applying principles of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in the performance of your job (required).
• Strong computer proficiency in: MS Office Suite, Raiser’s Edge and/or RE NXT; Relational databases, internet research search engines (required).
• Experience working with case management systems such as LegalServer, and excellent ability to understand and analyze data and create meaningful quantitative metrics for grant deliverables (required).

HOW TO APPLY:

• Email letter of interest and resume to bettzedek.97.843@applynow.io, subject “Director, Institutional Giving.” Resumes submitted without a cover letter will not be considered. Please, no phone calls.

To best serve our communities, Bet Tzedek seeks diverse staff with cultural competency reflecting our client populations. We strongly encourage candidates from traditionally underrepresented communities and historically oppressed groups to apply