THE PUGGLE
SHARING WITH OTHERS TO MAKE
FASTER PROGRESS FOR ALL
Out in the bush, you’ll have to go into the pouch of a mama echidna to pet her baby puggle. Our Puggle is easier to find, showing up every month to share what we’re learning about emerging issues in girls’ education. Other posts provide our analysis of recent research and events and feature stories from our grantees. Explore more below, including a link to our resource library.

We’re Hiring An Administrative & Grants Manager
admin | August 29, 2019

We’re looking for someone to join our team! If you know anyone who would be a good fit for our small-but-mighty, San Francisco-based team please share the job description for our Administrative & Grants Manager.

Job description details below and as a PDF through the link above. Application deadline is October 1st.

 

About Echidna Giving 

Echidna Giving is a private funder with one sole aim: getting more girls into better schools to live better lives. Investing in girls pays dividends for us all: what she learns in school can transform her life, her family, her community, and her nation for generations to come. That’s why we’re committed to funding up to $700 million in the next 40 years to bring quality, gender-responsive education to both girls and boys in lower-income countries. Because when all kids learn equally, our world becomes more equal, too. (Learn more at www.echidnagiving.org.)

Organization in Development with an Entrepreneurial Culture

Echidna Giving has a small team. Although we have built out an initial set of systems and processes, there are many dimensions along which Echidna Giving is still a start-up in learning mode. The Administrative and Grants Manager will have an opportunity to help shape the way we approach our systems. He or she will need to be self-motivated to work independently and autonomously, flexible — including  to take on unanticipated roles as required when working on a small team — and approach work with a proactive and collaborative spirit.

The Administrative and Grants Manager should be someone with natural affinity, and skill, for creating frameworks and systems that do not tip-over into bureaucracy and an entrepreneurial spirit which appreciates a learning culture willing to iterate. She or he must be extraordinarily organized and have a penchant for details. In addition, she or he will need to reflect Echidna Giving’s tone and culture which is: humble, respectful of the expertise of grantees and partners and focused on substance more than form. 

About the Position

The Administrative and Grants Manager will provide support to the rest of the Echidna Giving staff, which includes the President, Managing Director, Senior Program Officer, and Accounting Manager. She or he will be responsible for a combination of grants management as well as operational, project, and program related duties listed below and may represent these functions to both the foundation’s internal departments and external constituents.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Administrative and operational support (approximately 30%)

  • Manage calendars for team members, including scheduling individual and group meetings and follow-up
  • Assist with the team’s work-related travel, including obtaining visas where necessary; assist with developing travel plans and logistical arrangements, including processing expense reports
  • Take notes for quarterly board meetings as well as internal team meetings and external meetings when appropriate, synthesize and keep track of action items when needed
  • Plan and coordinate logistics for meetings and events, including: prepare agendas, secure meeting facilities, arrange transportation and catering, working with IT and other operational vendors 
  • Coordinate with appropriate vendors to ensure that the organization has sufficient supplies, equipment, and space to conduct its work.
  • Assist in researching and compiling background material
  • Answer and route incoming telephone calls, mail, and email; answers inquiries and takes messages as needed.
  • Draft and develop business correspondence as directed; respond to information requests.
  • Maintain contact list and manage sharing information through newsletters, holiday cards, etc.
  • Improve the working environment to increase staff productivity.
  • Manage and direct internal processes like annual performance reviews, board meeting material development, and other special projects

Grants Management (approximately 45%)

  • Work with Managing Director and Senior Program Officer to manage every stage of the grantmaking process: tracking letter of inquiry (LOI) process and grant proposal solicitation, processing grant proposals, tracking, and reporting
  • Help migrate Echidna Giving onto SmartSimple, our first grants management system
  • Ensure that the grant database is accurate and up to date: support data entry into grants management system, help to compile and maintain relevant grantee information
  • Run reports and generate insights on Echidna Giving’s grantmaking portfolio. Work with other staff to identify ways to improve and streamline our decisions and processes.
  • Shepherd development of quarterly board meeting materials, including reporting on progress, preparing budget updates, sharing grant summaries, etc. Help prepare grant recommendation materials, including reviewing documents to ensure accuracy of final grant amounts. Compose and proofread grant summaries as directed.
  • Organize, draft, and manage Program mailings and communications with current and potential grantees.
  • Ensure that grant proposals are received in a timely fashion. Compile and maintain relevant grantee information, and track the status of approved grants through completion of payment process.
  • Support other staff in conducting due diligence on grantees, including reviewing financial health of organizations and ensuring compliance with applicable requirements.
  • Oversee the life cycle of approved grants by managing an accurate, timely grant reporting process; support Program staff in monitoring the reports queue; ensure timely report closure; keep no-cost extensions in check; and help review budgeted versus actual financial reports.
  • Provide technical support to staff and grantees related to grants management process

Financial Management (approximately 10%)

  • Help to process expenses, invoices, and contracts
  • Coordinates with Accounting Manager to prepare and manage operating and grants budgets
  • Ensure grant payments are scheduled and processed in a timely fashion
  • Manages relationships with external fund and project managers

External Relations (approximately 15%)

  • Event production and management
    • Board meetings
    • Advisor gatherings
    • Sector events
    • Echidna Giving hosted/sponsored workshops
  • Manage the brand, collateral, website
  • Coordinate meeting schedules around major sector events
  • Assist with website updates and other special projects as requested
  • Manage correspondence of unsolicited grant requests and general website inquiries 

Education and Experience Requirements: 

  • Bachelor’s degree required 
  • 3+ years work experience with grants management systems

Qualifications and Skills:

  • Experience in effectively supporting multiple individuals.
  • Maintains high standard of quality, efficiency and attention to detail 
  • Ability to manage and track deadlines, prioritize and handle multiple tasks independently
  • Strong organizational skills 
  • Excellent oral and written communication skills and the ability to handle communications tactfully and professionally with a high attention to detail and accuracy
  • Experience managing files within a formal content or document management system, including experience working in a grants management system. 
  • Demonstrated ability to problem solve using analytical and reasoning skills to maintain, identify, and make recommendations to improve operational systems.
  • Proven ability to problem-solve and follow-up appropriately on process and procedural issues
  • Ability to take specific direction when necessary, along with a high level of independent judgment and initiative. Ability to anticipate supervisors’ needs and creatively address problems with appropriate, timely solutions.
  • Demonstrated flexibility, maturity, and ability to work with a team of varying backgrounds and styles.
  • Technologically savvy in word and application processing, email, web, and presentation software such MS Suite and Google Drive 
  • Flexibility, sense of humor, grace under fire, collaborative but able to work independently

How to Apply

Please send a resume and cover letter explaining how your skills fit this position.

  • Email: echidna@echidnagiving.org
  • Subject Line: [Your Name] – Administrative and Grants Manager, Echidna Giving

Application deadline: October 1, 2019.

Echidna Giving is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes a diverse pool of candidates in this search.

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    • We’re Hiring An Administrative & Grants Manager
    admin | August 29, 2019

    We’re looking for someone to join our team! If you know anyone who would be a good fit for our small-but-mighty, San Francisco-based team please share the job description for our Administrative & Grants Manager.

    Job description details below and as a PDF through the link above. Application deadline is October 1st.

     

    About Echidna Giving 

    Echidna Giving is a private funder with one sole aim: getting more girls into better schools to live better lives. Investing in girls pays dividends for us all: what she learns in school can transform her life, her family, her community, and her nation for generations to come. That’s why we’re committed to funding up to $700 million in the next 40 years to bring quality, gender-responsive education to both girls and boys in lower-income countries. Because when all kids learn equally, our world becomes more equal, too. (Learn more at www.echidnagiving.org.)

    Organization in Development with an Entrepreneurial Culture

    Echidna Giving has a small team. Although we have built out an initial set of systems and processes, there are many dimensions along which Echidna Giving is still a start-up in learning mode. The Administrative and Grants Manager will have an opportunity to help shape the way we approach our systems. He or she will need to be self-motivated to work independently and autonomously, flexible — including  to take on unanticipated roles as required when working on a small team — and approach work with a proactive and collaborative spirit.

    The Administrative and Grants Manager should be someone with natural affinity, and skill, for creating frameworks and systems that do not tip-over into bureaucracy and an entrepreneurial spirit which appreciates a learning culture willing to iterate. She or he must be extraordinarily organized and have a penchant for details. In addition, she or he will need to reflect Echidna Giving’s tone and culture which is: humble, respectful of the expertise of grantees and partners and focused on substance more than form. 

    About the Position

    The Administrative and Grants Manager will provide support to the rest of the Echidna Giving staff, which includes the President, Managing Director, Senior Program Officer, and Accounting Manager. She or he will be responsible for a combination of grants management as well as operational, project, and program related duties listed below and may represent these functions to both the foundation’s internal departments and external constituents.

    Essential Duties and Responsibilities

    Administrative and operational support (approximately 30%)

    • Manage calendars for team members, including scheduling individual and group meetings and follow-up
    • Assist with the team’s work-related travel, including obtaining visas where necessary; assist with developing travel plans and logistical arrangements, including processing expense reports
    • Take notes for quarterly board meetings as well as internal team meetings and external meetings when appropriate, synthesize and keep track of action items when needed
    • Plan and coordinate logistics for meetings and events, including: prepare agendas, secure meeting facilities, arrange transportation and catering, working with IT and other operational vendors 
    • Coordinate with appropriate vendors to ensure that the organization has sufficient supplies, equipment, and space to conduct its work.
    • Assist in researching and compiling background material
    • Answer and route incoming telephone calls, mail, and email; answers inquiries and takes messages as needed.
    • Draft and develop business correspondence as directed; respond to information requests.
    • Maintain contact list and manage sharing information through newsletters, holiday cards, etc.
    • Improve the working environment to increase staff productivity.
    • Manage and direct internal processes like annual performance reviews, board meeting material development, and other special projects

    Grants Management (approximately 45%)

    • Work with Managing Director and Senior Program Officer to manage every stage of the grantmaking process: tracking letter of inquiry (LOI) process and grant proposal solicitation, processing grant proposals, tracking, and reporting
    • Help migrate Echidna Giving onto SmartSimple, our first grants management system
    • Ensure that the grant database is accurate and up to date: support data entry into grants management system, help to compile and maintain relevant grantee information
    • Run reports and generate insights on Echidna Giving’s grantmaking portfolio. Work with other staff to identify ways to improve and streamline our decisions and processes.
    • Shepherd development of quarterly board meeting materials, including reporting on progress, preparing budget updates, sharing grant summaries, etc. Help prepare grant recommendation materials, including reviewing documents to ensure accuracy of final grant amounts. Compose and proofread grant summaries as directed.
    • Organize, draft, and manage Program mailings and communications with current and potential grantees.
    • Ensure that grant proposals are received in a timely fashion. Compile and maintain relevant grantee information, and track the status of approved grants through completion of payment process.
    • Support other staff in conducting due diligence on grantees, including reviewing financial health of organizations and ensuring compliance with applicable requirements.
    • Oversee the life cycle of approved grants by managing an accurate, timely grant reporting process; support Program staff in monitoring the reports queue; ensure timely report closure; keep no-cost extensions in check; and help review budgeted versus actual financial reports.
    • Provide technical support to staff and grantees related to grants management process

    Financial Management (approximately 10%)

    • Help to process expenses, invoices, and contracts
    • Coordinates with Accounting Manager to prepare and manage operating and grants budgets
    • Ensure grant payments are scheduled and processed in a timely fashion
    • Manages relationships with external fund and project managers

    External Relations (approximately 15%)

    • Event production and management
      • Board meetings
      • Advisor gatherings
      • Sector events
      • Echidna Giving hosted/sponsored workshops
    • Manage the brand, collateral, website
    • Coordinate meeting schedules around major sector events
    • Assist with website updates and other special projects as requested
    • Manage correspondence of unsolicited grant requests and general website inquiries 

    Education and Experience Requirements: 

    • Bachelor’s degree required 
    • 3+ years work experience with grants management systems

    Qualifications and Skills:

    • Experience in effectively supporting multiple individuals.
    • Maintains high standard of quality, efficiency and attention to detail 
    • Ability to manage and track deadlines, prioritize and handle multiple tasks independently
    • Strong organizational skills 
    • Excellent oral and written communication skills and the ability to handle communications tactfully and professionally with a high attention to detail and accuracy
    • Experience managing files within a formal content or document management system, including experience working in a grants management system. 
    • Demonstrated ability to problem solve using analytical and reasoning skills to maintain, identify, and make recommendations to improve operational systems.
    • Proven ability to problem-solve and follow-up appropriately on process and procedural issues
    • Ability to take specific direction when necessary, along with a high level of independent judgment and initiative. Ability to anticipate supervisors’ needs and creatively address problems with appropriate, timely solutions.
    • Demonstrated flexibility, maturity, and ability to work with a team of varying backgrounds and styles.
    • Technologically savvy in word and application processing, email, web, and presentation software such MS Suite and Google Drive 
    • Flexibility, sense of humor, grace under fire, collaborative but able to work independently

    How to Apply

    Please send a resume and cover letter explaining how your skills fit this position.

    • Email: echidna@echidnagiving.org
    • Subject Line: [Your Name] – Administrative and Grants Manager, Echidna Giving

    Application deadline: October 1, 2019.

    Echidna Giving is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes a diverse pool of candidates in this search.

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      July was a hot month—literally, with record-breaking heat in many

      Dana Schmidt

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    • MAY

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      Dana Schmidt

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      Dana Schmidt

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      Dana Schmidt

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      Dana Schmidt

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      Dana Schmidt

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      Dana Schmidt

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    • LIBRARY
    We believe in exchanging ideas and sharing knowledge. Here’s some of what we’ve been reading to inform our thinking on girls’ education. Feel free to suggest additional resources for us to read and feature!