The Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF) is a leading nonprofit venture philanthropy fund dedicated to identifying the nation’s best public charter schools, funding their expansion, and helping to increase their impact. Our portfolio includes 68 public charter school networks that operate 980 schools and serve more than 420,000 students in 28 states. We operate with the same strategies, discipline, and focus as a venture capital firm by awarding multi-year grants and loans to talented education entrepreneurs who are building networks of high-quality charter schools that enroll significant numbers of low-income and minority students. Ultimately, we think our portfolio can grow to serve ~1,000,000 students.
OPPORTUNITY
The Role: CSGF is seeking an Investment Manager to focus on analytics and assist in overall management of both the Seed and Memphis Funds. The Manager will support the Investment Principal with investment analytics, due diligence, portfolio management, and investor communications related to those two funds. The ideal candidate will have strong project management, execution, and analytical skills. Additionally, we are looking for a team member who is passionate about and committed to K-12 education reform and will demonstrate an ability to communicate effectively with diverse groups of stakeholders.
The Team: This role will be part of the Seed and Memphis Fund team and will report directly to the Investment Principal. In 2019, we launched an expanded effort, our Seed Strategy, to invest in early-stage public charter schools seeking modest growth in the next few years. This built on the success of our Emerging CMO (ECMO) work that was focused exclusive on leaders of color. As part of our Seed Strategy, we are now open to all early-stage leaders doing great work, especially leaders of color and those in non-traditional geographies and school models. The new Investment Manager will help us grow this exciting new area of work as well as the Memphis Fund, which to date has enabled public charter school enrollment in Memphis to double from serving 11% to 22% of the city’s students.
Key Responsibilities
Below is a general outline of responsibilities to support both the Seed and Memphis Funds. CSGF is a fast-moving organization and roles and responsibilities may change to meet the needs of the organization and the public charter school networks we support.
Data, Insights, and Presentation
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- Support efforts to analyze portfolio information, including academic data, to develop insights on fund and underlying school performance
- Prepare materials necessary to provide updates, highlight trends, or make investment recommendations including memos, charts, and presentations for team, funders, and portfolio schools
- Analyze, review, and provide insights on proposed charter school budgets and general financials
- Coordinate with CSGF team members on data insights and reporting. Data will be used for reporting on investments, funder flows, school growth metrics, and cash projections
Strategic Initiatives
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- Support the creation of a landscape analysis and/or business plan for CSGF’s Southeastern markets through strong project management, quantitative and qualitative analysis, and the creation of materials for a range of relevant conversations
- Support other strategic initiatives as needed
Investment Sourcing and Selection
- Support sourcing efforts to identify potential investment candidates, particularly in the Southeast. Activities include:
- Lead academic and data screening process to identify potential candidates
- Review applicant materials
- Conduct introductory calls with potential applicants, funders, or others prior to school visits
- Manage logistics to ensure team is sufficiently prepared for sourcing, diligence, and other relevant visits. Participate in visits as needed
- Work closely with Principal to support the preparation of materials for board meetings focused on investment approvals
Project Management
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- Keep team on track to meet fund goals and all related deadlines
- Engage in internal, cross-team coordination
- Collaborate with team to continuously improve internal processes
- Lead logistics for relevant events and meetings
Required Qualifications
Skills and Characteristics
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- Deep commitment to CSGF’s mission and a passion for working with early-stage charter entrepreneurs
- Strong analytical and quantitative skills with demonstrated ability to convert raw data sets into meaningful analyses and visualizations
- Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power Point
- A passion for detail that drives efficiency and excellence in all aspects of work
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines
- Excellent strategic thinking, communication, and creative problem-solving skills
- Willingness to travel extensively
Educational Background and Work Experience
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- Bachelor’s degree required
- Three to five years of work experience, preferably including management consulting, investment
banking, data analysis, operations, project management, or similar experience - Experience in education/non‐profit field is a plus
WORKING AT CSGF
Our Core Values Are
We are focused on hiring and developing great people and believe that building diverse perspectives across our team make us more effective in expanding our impact. (This is reflected in Our Commitment to Diversity Statement.
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- Results. We work relentlessly to create efficient, measurable, and sustainable results. We strive for excellence and pursue our mission tenaciously. Ideally, you thrive working in a self-directed manner in a fluid environment where flexibility and tenacity are required.
- Entrepreneurship. We embrace calculated risks and new approaches. We have an entrepreneurial spirit that welcomes innovation, diversity of ideas, and risk. We rely on you to question conventional wisdom and think independently.
- Integrity. We are truthful, fair, and trustworthy in all aspects of our work. We hold ourselves and our partners to the highest ethical standards. We trust you will too.
- Respect. We appreciate the challenges faced by education entrepreneurs and recognize the limits of our own knowledge. We understand that our ultimate success depends on that of our partners. Your humility will be key to building trusted and authentic relationships.
- Teamwork. We value each of our team members as individuals but believe that we achieve the greatest results by working together. We willingly sacrifice individual interests and recognition for greater collective impact. We hope having fun at work is important to you and that you are a team player.
If interested, please apply here.
