Grants Manager

Job Overview: The Grants Team at IRC in Northern California’s (NorCal) four offices in Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento, and Turlock/Modesto works to leverage public and private funding opportunities through prospecting, proposal development, grants, and subaward contract management. The Grants Manager is primarily responsible for overseeing pre- and post-award activities required to prepare concept notes, proposals, and budgets, comply with internal approval processes, and align with compliance requirements of public agencies and private foundations for a geographic-specific portfolio. Work is performed with a team of local Grants Coordinators in collaboration with IRC NorCal’s Senior Grants Manager, Development Director, and IRC NorCal’s senior leadership, finance, programs, as well as headquarters’ technical team, and awards and business development units.

Major Responsibilities: 

Prospecting

• Responsible for managing a geographic-specific portfolio that supports two offices, ensuring specialized expertise in a focused, location-defined portfolio. 
• Represent NorCal offices in regional opportunities in close coordination with Executive Director, Site Directors, Development Director, Technical Advisors, Senior Grants Manager, Program Managers, relevant program leads, and grant coordinators.
• Collaborate with the Senior Grants Manger and Development Director in prospecting efforts, utilizing an internal standard operating procedure to support both restricted and unrestricted fundraising needs.
• Responsible for prospective research on potential public and private funders and grants, develop and oversee proposal calendars for each department, and be a local expert in the fundraising and donor landscape for assigned area. 
• Expected to attend funding-related informational events, webinars, and discussions. Responsible for sharing pertinent information with department leads and Site Directors to facilitate forecasting.

Proposal Development (Pre-Award)

• Lead concepts, note, proposal, and budget development, including ensuring log frames, program design, and narrative meet high quality standards in coordination with Grants Coordinators, Programs/Site directors, Finance Director, and headquarters’ Resource Acquisition and Management (RAM), and ensure all supporting documentations in the applications are up to date. Responsible for finalizing all proposals and ensuring quality control over proposal content.
• Provide pre-award support and coverage when needed to the local offices.
• Lead negotiation and agreements stage with donors and ensure contract terms are communicated with Finance and Programs through grant kick off meetings and recorded in Asana project tracking.
• Coordinate grant opening and closing meetings for every funded opportunity across the NorCal portfolio. 
• Be a local subject expert for IRC’s Business Development Standards for the pre-award process.

Grants Management (Post-Award)

• Support donor requests and conversations with department leads, Site Directors, Grants Coordinators, and Finance personnel with budget modifications, No Cost Extensions, or any agreement modifications.
• Provide support with reports, including copy-editing, coordinating report timelines with headquarters, and submission. 
• Serve as a main point of contact for donors across NorCal to ensure communication adheres to IRC policy and best practices. 
• Develop and ensure the effective maintenance of contract and grant files for each funded program with consistent documentation standards.
• Be a local subject expert for IRC’s Business Development Standards for post-award process.
• Be a local subject expert for IRC’s internal grants systems (PEERS and OTIS).

Partnerships

• Be a local subject expert in IRC’s internal partnership process, PEERS, provide technical support to the Grants Coordinator to ensure subawardees’ contracts are drafted with detailed information on scope of work, deliverables, fund disbursement, and monitoring plans in coordination with the partners and program staff, and in compliance with Finance and RAM.
• Support Grants Coordinators in communication with grant partners across assigned offices to ensure communication adheres to IRC policy and best practices.
• Primarily engages local partners and internal staff to handle routine grant operations, ensuring smooth coordination and compliance with grant requirements while maintaining strong working relationships.

Supervision & Training

• Provide leadership and management of grants teams across Northern California to ensure all departments are covered and team workload is managed in a way that respects and promotes work life balance and professional growth.
• Provide training and support for new hires, ensuring staff meet the expectations of their role and meet responsibilities in a timely manner. 
• Be a local subject expert in OTIS and IRC’ RAM’s Business Development processes, and the local Northern California Business Development workflow. 

Systems & Accountability

• Maintain proposal calendar, pipelines, grants tracking, and regularly update Senior Development Manager, Senior Program Managers, Program Managers, and Site Directors with up-to-date data for the offices.
• Ensure the go/no-go review process of opportunities are consistently applied and strengthened by working with senior management to ensure proposals are of high quality and grants staff are at capacity.
• Ensure continuous maintenance of Asana, OTIS, and Box to track opportunity pipelines, award management, and reporting in coordination with senior management, Finance, and program staff
• Executes established policies, with limited involvement in broader strategic decision-making. Ensures effective implementation and adherence to organizational guidelines while supporting operational goals.
• Leverage regular communications with Finance, RAM, and individual NorCal office to improve SOP and workflow 

Secondary Duties

• Work closely with site leads and program staff to prepare interim and final reports to grantors. 
• Promote and actively participate in initiatives and efforts to build team engagement, inclusion, and cohesion in IRC NorCal.
• Foster ongoing learning, honest dialogue, and reflection to strengthen safeguarding and to promote IRC values and adherence to IRC policies.
• The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

Key Working Relationships: 

• Position Reports to: Senior Grants Manager
• Position Supervises: All grants team members across NorCal
• Indirect Reporting: Development Director and Executive Director
  Other Internal and/or External Contacts: 
  • Internal: Director of Finance, NorCal Site Directors, NorCal Program Managers & Coordinators, Technical Advisors, HQ Resource Acquisition and Management department 
  • External: Foundations and public funders at city, county, state, and federal levels

Job Requirements: 

Education: 

• Master’s Degree in nonprofit management, community development, social sciences, social work, or related fields, or demonstrated work experience of similar knowledge. 
• Certification or continuing education in project management, proposal development and/or fundraising a strong plus.

Work Experience: 

• Three+ years of nonprofit or public sector experience in development and grants 
• Three+ years of experience in a supervisory role

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies: 

• Excellent writing, research, and organizational skills. 
• Familiarity with grants process of government funding agency(ies) (federal, state, or county/city level) 
• Familiarity with the Northern California non-profit/philanthropy environment a plus
• Familiarity and comfort working with budgets and finance departments
• Ability to work autonomously in their scheduling and prioritizing within tight deadlines and focused on the work product.
• Self-directed but with strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work well within a team
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications: Word, Excel, Outlook, and project management tools, e.g. Asana
• Experience in IRC systems of PEERS and OTIS a plus (for IRC internal candidates)

Language Skills: 

•  Excellence in written and spoken English

Working Environment: 

• Standard hybrid office environment (this is not a fully remote position)
• Quarterly travel to other regional sites (Oakland, Sacramento, San Jose, Turlock/Modesto) required

Compensation: Posted pay ranges apply to US-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget.  Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

Equal Opportunity Employer: We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation.

US Benefits: We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $143 per month, dental starting at $6.50 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching, disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles.
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