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Program Assistant 🔥


Overview: Groundswell Fund [1] is a public foundation that resources intersectional, solidarity-based grassroots organizing work that centers Black women, Indigenous women and other women of color including Transgender women of color. We fund within many social justice movements and are the largest funder of the U.S. Reproductive Justice (RJ) movement. For more than a decade, we have enabled foundations and individual donors to increase the impact of their giving by offering a different kind of philanthropic model. Different in who we are: A program staff of women of color, transgender people of color, and gender nonconforming people of color who come directly out of community and labor organizing and have a combined 70+ years of grassroots organizing and civic engagement experience within communities of color; a board comprised of grassroots leaders shaping strategy alongside funders and donors. Different in who we support: primarily Black and Brown women, including transgender women of color who are organizing at the grassroots. Different in how we support the field: not just through grants, but also through capacity-building support focused on boosting grassroots power, and funder organizing that lifts up our grantees to a larger audience of funders and donors who can move resources to their work, whether or not these resources come through our doors. Groundswell moves at least 80 percent of the dollars that come in our doors back out to the field. 

 

Since 2003, Groundswell has moved more than $60 million to the field in grants and capacity building support; increased the giving of dozens of national and local foundations; and helped bring thousands of new individual donors into the RJ movement. Our grantees have been instrumental in the passage of more than 250 pro-RJ policies at the state and local level and in blocking many regressive policies, and they have built a growing grassroots base of support for RJ across the U.S. In 2017, we expanded our funding to support multi-issue organizing led by WOC and transgender people of color across other social justice movement sectors, from environmental and economic justice, to immigrant and LGBTQ rights, and on. We also launched a 501(c)(4), Groundswell Action Fund, now the largest c4 fund in the country centering WOC-led c4 work.  

 

Virtual Organization: Groundswell is a completely virtual organization and has been for several years. We are committed to building a strong identity and thriving culture that is exemplary in the nonprofit world and in the greater landscape of fully remote organizations. When travel is safe again, we will have the opportunity to travel and see each other in person for retreats, conferences, and events; but until then, all our work is virtual. To succeed as remote workers, applicants should have a dedicated workspace, a commitment to clear and frequent communication, and comfort utilizing technology to increase collaboration and connection. Those with previous remote work experience are preferred, but we also welcome those who are new to remote work and understand the requirements of working in a thriving virtual organizational culture. 

 

Position Summary: The Program Assistant is responsible for supporting Groundswell’s grantmaking across five funds: Catalyst Fund, Liberation Fund, Rapid Response Fund, Black Trans Fund, and Birth Justice Fund, as well as supporting grants management through our capacity-building programs. Working closely with the rest of the Grantmaking and Capacity Building Teams, the Program Assistant contributes to the implementation of grantmaking, grants management, technical assistance, evaluation, and communications. This role will predominately provide support to the Liberation Fund, support cross team coordination and grantmaking, special projects, and general Grantmaking team administrative support and scheduling.  

 

Responsibilities: 

 

Grantmaking, Grants Management and Administrative Support   

  

  • Support Request for Proposals and reporting processes, including extensive accurate notetaking during grant application phone calls. Manage grants intake processes for Groundswell’s funds: Catalyst Fund, Liberation Fund, Rapid Response Fund, Black Trans Fund, and Birth Justice Fund. Supports grants processing for Groundswell’s capacity building programs, including the Integrated Voter Engagement Program and the Grassroots Organizing Institute.   
  • Support Groundswell’s annual RJ and Liberation Fund evaluations by prepopulating grantee surveys, following up with grantees, managing contact lists, and filing grantee surveys.   
  • Manage grant disbursement process, including generating grant agreements, supporting grantees and fiscal sponsors to complete forms, liaising with Groundswell’s Finance department and Capacity Building department, and filing completed grant agreements and documents.  
  • Support production and printing of Groundswell’s docket, including producing and reviewing charts for accuracy, collecting grantee photos, and coordinating with graphic designers and printers.  
  • Maintain up to date grantee data in database and server, and maintain timely and accurate filing of all grantee information online, including grant inquiries, proposals, reports, correspondence and updates.   
  • Support updating of grantmaking calendar to ensure the grantmaking department meets key deadlines throughout the year.   
  • Support ongoing communications with grantees and other audiences, including supporting timely communications with grantees in advance of deadlines and follow-up with grantees who miss deadlines.  
  • Support scheduling and calendar maintenance for Grantmaking team, which may include coordinating calls, meetings and travel for the Director of Grantmaking, Program Officers, and other Groundswell stakeholders as necessary.   
  • Support accurate coding and data input of Groundswell’s grantmaking data for various affinity groups.  
  • Support, maintain and contribute to the development of strong, efficient administrative systems and practices to improve the remote work of the Grantmaking team and Groundswell.  
  • Support the reconciling of grants accounting in partnership with the Finance department.  

 

Qualifications: 

 

Experience and Education  

  • At least three years of experience working or volunteering in social justice movements.  

  

Skills and Attributes  

  • Superb attention to detail and deadline-driven  
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to copy edit grant agreements or correspondence, and communicate effectively via phone and email with a range of stakeholders.   
  • Experience with scheduling and logistics management.   
  • Ability to work independently, on multiple projects at a time, and across several time zones.  
  • Comfort with online communications platforms and technology.  
  • Strong interest in philanthropy, grantmaking, and organizing funders to support reproductive justice and social justice issues.  
  • Unwavering commitment to excellence and producing high quality work products.   
  • Superior communication and interpersonal skills.  
  • Self-motivated and self-managed: the ability to work independently, take initiative, and manage up.   
  • Comfort working across cultures and difference, including experience and comfort working with people of color and transgender and gender non-conforming people.  
  • This is a remote position and applicants must be able to work from home. Groundswell staff and grantees are located across multiple time zones, so the candidate must be willing to be flexible with their work hours.  
  • Bilingual Spanish/English a plus.  

  

Computer Skills: To perform this job successfully, the candidate should have comfort and a high level of proficiency with the Microsoft Office suite of programs, the ability to work with basic web platforms, database software, web browsers, social media, and conferencing software. Experience with HR Management software, Slack, and project management tools also desired.   

 

The above job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Hired candidates should be willing to perform any other related duties as assigned by their supervisor.  

 

Work Schedule: Groundswell is a completely virtual organization, allowing for flexibility in work schedules for our staff across differing U.S. time zones. While work can usually be completed during standard business hours of the applicant's time zone, there may be times where early morning, evening, and weekend work may be needed to ensure organization-wide collaboration, to staff or attend events, and/or to meet organization workload needs during busy times of the year. When travel is possible again, staff whose jobs require travel can expect longer hours, as travel may happen outside of business hours and on weekends. 

Travel: No travel is expected in 2021. When travel is safe again, must be available to travel at least 5 times a year for overnight events/meetings across the U.S.  


  1. http://groundswellfund.org/

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