Chicago Beyond is a venture philanthropy fund that seeks to create positive, trans-formative change for the most marginalized young people in Chicago and beyond. Chicago Beyond strives to identify the most disruptive and innovative ideas in youth safety and education to invest in, to learn from, and, most importantly, to grow. Working hand-in-hand with its partners, Chicago Beyond strives to do whatever it takes to grow the impact of the most effective ideas – from supporting strategic growth plans to testing the idea’s effectiveness through research partnerships
Position Details
Chicago Beyond is looking for Associates to join its Growth team. The Growth team is responsible for the “grow” of Chicago Beyond’s approach – growing innovative ideas and organizations to create positive, transformative change for young people in Chicago and beyond. The Associate will specifically be responsible for:
Conducting intensive due diligence on potential investment opportunities
- Evaluate potential investment opportunities based on strategy, business, and growth plans
- Perform any required financial modeling and analysis of historical financial statements, forecasts, and budgets
- Understand comparable organizations, the broader community / market implications, and any industry benchmarks
- Prepare investment analyses and due diligence reports, which will be shared with Chicago Beyond’s Investment Committee and Board
Helping grow effective and impactful organizations, ideas, and approaches
- Develop strategic plans for Chicago Beyond’s investments to grow their impact in a sustainable manner
- Work with investments on various initiatives to grow and scale their impact (e.g., build organizational infrastructure, evaluate funding strategies)
- Help build Chicago Beyond’s knowledge on helping innovative and effective organizations, ideas, and approaches grow
Providing ongoing support for a select portfolio of investments and ensure the investment partners will be well-positioned to maximize their impact
- Develop and maintain relationships with Chicago Beyond’s investment partners
- Help monitor Chicago Beyond’s investments and track key metrics, data, and outcomes over time
- Proactively identify potential risks with any investment partners and mitigation strategies
- Deep passion for Chicago Beyond’s mission and objectives
- Ability to work effectively in collaboration with diverse or underserved populations
- Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Aptitude for analytics and quantitative analysis
- Ability to shift seamlessly between high-level strategy and execution work
- Ability to communicate and work closely with organizations in varying stages of development
- Record of strong academic performance (Bachelor’s Degree required)
- Two to four years of work experience in rigorous, strategic, and fast-paced areas such as management consulting, investment banking, private equity or venture capital
The Associate will be an integral member of the Chicago Beyond team and will have opportunities to participate and contribute to other Chicago Beyond initiatives.
Position Requirements
- Deep passion for Chicago Beyond’s mission and objectives
- Ability to work effectively in collaboration with diverse or underserved populations
- Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- Aptitude for analytics and quantitative analysis
- Ability to shift seamlessly between high-level strategy and execution work
- Ability to communicate and work closely with organizations in varying stages of development
- Record of strong academic performance (Bachelor’s Degree required)
- Two to four years of work experience in rigorous, strategic, and fast-paced areas such as management consulting, investment banking, private equity or venture capital
If interested, please apply here.
