About us

The Alaska Community Foundation (the Foundation) is a nonprofit, public foundation with a mission of inspiring the spirit of giving and connecting people, organizations, and causes to strengthen Alaska’s communities now and forever. To learn more please visit our website: alaskacf.org.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Grants Management Specialist is an entry level position, responsible for administering Foundation’s grants, including the creation of competitive grant & scholarship application cycles, the processing of awards, maintenance of scholarship & grant records, customer service for student applicants, monitoring of grant performance, and compliance with organizational policies and IRS rules and regulations.

Your Impact

1. Provide phone & email support to prospective applicants & fund advisors and serve as a liaison to the grantees as they navigate the application, initiation, and reporting processes, corresponding with applicants and grantees as requested, and providing a high level of service at all times.
2. Help maintain ACF’s external facing scholarship, grantee and grant application portals – Grant Lifecycle Manager (GLM) & Scholarship Lifecycle Manager (SLM).
3. Understand and ensure compliance with IRS and ACF requirements and regulations, as well as scholarship & grants best practices.
4. Represent the Foundation in the community as directed including in the Alaska Scholarship Provider Network and National Scholarship Provider Association.

Scholarship Program Management

This position is responsible for coordinating more than 50 annual scholarship programs and application processes, providing top-notch support to the student applicants as well as the generous donors who make these scholarships possible. This position acts as the main point of contact with youth organizations statewide to conduct outreach in collaboration with the Program & Grants team. This is an in-office position based in Anchorage.

1. Manage all Foundation scholarship cycles
   1. Lead the outreach and publicity for scholarships, with assistance from the Communications team.
   2. For each scholarship program, ensure alignment between the fund agreement, guidelines, application, evaluation criteria, and marketing materials.
   3. Participate in facilitating committee meetings to review award recommendations.
2. Collaborate with the Director of Program & Grants to develop a scholarship committee orientation.
3. Manage scholarship award processing and reporting.
4. Collaborate with Development team to create a webinar for donors interested in starting a scholarship fund.
5. Collaborate with Director and Development team to onboard newly funded scholarship programs.

GRANTS Program Management

This position is responsible for managing the application process of roughly 10 competitive grant programs and administering thousands of individual grants across every region in the State and all nonprofit sectors. The position works collaboratively with the Program and Grants team and members across all departments at the Foundation, particularly Finance. This is an in-office position based in Anchorage.

1. Competitive Grant Process Support
   1. Lead the implementation of and ensure adherence to grantmaking workflow processes and procedures, from building out the application to the review process, the initiation paperwork, and all the reporting through closeout.
   2. Provide draft review feedback to grant applicants.
2. Coordinate annual, competitive, and non-competitive grant processing for ACF in partnership with the Director of Programs & Grants.
3. Grant Due Diligence
   1. Ensure that grants are coded accurately and consistently, as a basis for providing reports to ACF staff and partners.
4. Enforce compliance with grants management system policies and procedures.
5. Working with the Development department, connect with fund holders about questions/concerns regarding their grant recommendation.
6. Provide Foundation staff and partners with both high-level and detailed data about the grantmaking programs of ACF that demonstrate the organization’s impact in our communities.
7. Develop and maintain queries, data extracts, and reports in response to ad hoc requests; as well as scheduled needs such as the quarterly production of board-related materials.
8. Assist with the archiving of ACF’s grant records.
9. Maintain grants operations manual.

Program and Grants Team Role

• Collaborate on annual planning with the Foundation's Program and Grants team.
• Educate and trains staff on scholarship management systems where appropriate.
• Support other Foundation grant cycles as requested by the Director of Programs and Grants.

• Support at a high level the Pick.Click.Give. program. Some key responsibilities associated with this duty include managing the eligibility application cycle, managing vendors and various relationships associated with executing the program successfully, and growing the program year over year. 

• Other duties as assigned.

 What you bring

1. Your appreciation for Alaska, its youth, and nonprofits.
2. Strong analytical skills & attention to detail.
3. Your excellent communication skills, including enthusiasm for and comfort with public speaking.
4. Your ability to be flexible in a fast-paced environment and to adjust daily as priorities shift.
5. Your ability and eagerness to work as part of the Foundation team.
6. Your talents for working independently and taking initiative when appropriate.
7. Your good judgment and professionalism.

Position Qualifications

1. Experience working with a nonprofit agency professionally or as a volunteer.
2. Experience working with high school youth preferred.
3. Associate degree or equivalent experience in a nonprofit, paralegal, or accounting role.
4. Strong computer skills and database management including Microsoft Office (Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Word, SharePoint, OneDrive, etc.).
5. Strong critical thinking and analytic skills.

What we Offer

The Salary range is between $49,000 and $59,000 and is commensurate with experience and expertise.

Benefits (upon eligibility) include:

• Health, Dental and Vision plans with generous employer funding of employee premiums and some employer funding of dependent premiums.
• A 401(k) retirement plan with an employer match after one year of service.
• Starting PTO is 18 days year and rises incrementally after 2 years of service.
• 12 paid Holidays per year.
• Group insurance including life/short term disability/long term disability provided by employer.
• Other benefits include an Employee Assistance Program, Flexible Spending and Dependent Care Spending accounts, an Employee Giving Program and four hours of flexible time each week.

 Application Process

If you are comfortable with the salary range, meet the position qualifications and are ready to bring your knowledge skills, and abilities to our team please apply for the Scholarship Program Officer position. This position is open for applications until filled. Applications must include a cover letter, resume, and three professional references. Please send to Christine Brown at christineb@alerachr.com.

The Alaska Community Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes a diverse pool of applicants.

WORK ENVIRONMENT AND PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

The work environment and physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk or hear. The employee is frequently required, sometimes for extended periods, to stand or sit. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, multi-function machines, and filing cabinets. The employee is occasionally required to climb stairs; use hands to type, finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; balance stoop, kneel, or crouch; and get in and out of vehicles. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move small or large objects up to 50 pounds. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, depth perception and the ability to adjust focus.