Associate Director for Foundation and Corporate Grants

About Lydia Sierra Consulting (LSC):

LSC has provided comprehensive fund development services since 2010, raising tens of millions of dollars for community-based organizations founded and run by grassroots leaders, large non-profit institutions serving marginalized urban communities, and city government agencies pursuing funding for equity-focused initiatives. Our clients work across a variety of program areas, including environmental justice, climate resilience, youth development, re-entry services, neighborhood development, community organizing, policy advocacy, economic democracy, criminal justice reform, affordable housing, community health, and more.

About the Position:

LSC has grown significantly in recent years and we are now seeking an experienced and passionate professional to join our tight-knit team as Associate Director for Foundation and Corporate Grants (serving as a counterpart to our Associate Director for Government Grants, and working closely with/reporting to our Director of Fund Development, who oversees all work). This new team member will primarily lead the development of private foundation and corporate grant proposals, but may also contribute to government proposal projects, as needed.

Background Requirements:

The ideal candidate is, first and foremost, an experienced, high-level project manager with the capacity, skills, and disposition to effectively lead diverse, collaborative teams and facilitate the development of large, complex grant proposals. Project teams for proposals regularly comprise LSC Proposal Writers, as well as client leadership, key client staff members, program partners involved in proposed work, and/or other consultants and stakeholders involved in program implementation.

A background in nonprofit fund development and/or nonprofit management is a plus, but we’ve also found that candidates who possess deep and high-level project management experience within academia or government agencies (leading the development of deliverables such as large-scale studies or reports) have excelled at LSC. So, while we are seeking a seasoned professional, we are open to a range of backgrounds. In addition to excellent project management skills, other key requirements and capacities include:

• Strong writing and editing skills; deep familiarity with the mechanics of proposal construction (including needs statements, work plans, goals and outcomes, timelines, logic models, evaluation plans, budgets and budget narratives, etc.)
• High level of comfort working with technical and/or data-heavy content, while preserving “human stories” and conveying the passion, vision, and voice of our client organizations
• Extremely organized, detail-oriented, and an excellent communicator; strong ability to manage workflows and processes that keep complex projects (with many moving parts and involving many diverse personalities) on schedule and up to quality standards
• Excellent interpersonal skills; confident enough to provide strong recommendations/guidance to clients, but humble enough to learn from and defer to those with subject matter expertise and on-the-ground, lived experience
• At least 5 - 10 years of relevant professional experience
• The LSC team is fully remote, so familiarity and comfort with Google Workplace is necessary; experience with project management software is a plus

An important note: The ability to build trust with our clients is essential. Our success relies on a covenant of trust with non-profit leaders who have often personally endured trauma resulting from structural racism and inequality. Therefore, the individual hired for this position must not only be extremely reliable and maintain the highest ethical standards, they must also be cognizant and mindful of the challenges faced by marginalized urban communities and their connection to long histories of economic, social, racial, and environmental injustices.