About Elevate

Elevate is a small business providing comprehensive grant writing support to nearly 100 nonprofit organizations working on a wide variety of issues. Our fully-remote staff work on teams and build long-term partnerships with clients to support every stage of the grant cycle: fundraising strategy & goal development, prospect research and cultivation, drafting and submission, and funder stewardship. All staff work remotely, with the option to visit our co-working space in downtown DC or meet with clients and teams in-person provided that these activities align with our COVID-19 policies. All candidates must be legally authorized to work for Elevate, and must work for Elevate, in the United States.

Staff benefit from flexible scheduling, built-in mentorship and support from colleagues on their client teams, a dedicated supervisor responsible for training and professional growth, established career development pathways that outline clear expectations for current and future positions within the company, and the opportunity to work with a portfolio of clients that align with their interests or provide exposure to new social change issues. 

For more information about our organizational culture and the clients we serve, visit our website here. 

Overview of the Position

For this position, we are seeking Grant Writers with at least one year of experience to research funding opportunities as well as plan, draft, edit, and submit the majority of written deliverables for 4-5 nonprofit clients working on a wide range of issues. Your day-to-day work for these clients will be overseen by experienced team Directors who are responsible for aligning the work of the team to your clients’ institutional fundraising strategy. Your professional growth will be supported by a dedicated Supervisor.

Candidates must have at least one year of comparable experience with the key tasks and responsibilities listed below and demonstrated ability to meet the key competencies for the role.

Key Tasks & Responsibilities

• Plan, draft, edit, and submit approximately 4 written deliverables (LOI, grant proposal, reports, and concept papers) for each client;
• Produce detailed research summaries on funding opportunities identified by your team Director to present viable opportunities to your clients;
• Attend and participate in weekly or bi-weekly client meetings;
• Prepare for and participate in internal team check-ins;
• Contribute positively to Elevate’s culture and community through All Staff and department meetings, as well as internal working groups and committees.

Key Competencies 

Fundraising & Nonprofit Expertise. You develop strong first drafts of written deliverables by aligning existing language to funders' questions interests and recommend new language where appropriate to your team Director. Your writing consistently demonstrates strong sentence mechanics, concision, and readability/professional presentation; a strengths-based approach; and good organization and argumentation. You develop comprehensive summaries of well-aligned funding opportunities for different organizational needs that articulate nuanced alignment between your clients' work and the funder's interests. You recommend what attachments or information to include in grant proposals to strengthen your proposals. You have a working knowledge of strong program design and non-profit structure and the fundamental components of grant applications, including nonprofit financials and common nonprofit documentation. You are learning best-practices in developing program metrics and evaluation, including goals, outputs, outcomes, and evaluation methodologies and you are familiar with more complex components of applications.

Consulting & Professional Communication. You are committed to cultivating effective verbal and written communication skills that strengthen team collaboration in team check-ins and client meetings. You are committed to developing skills to address director and client feedback or concerns directly and honestly and work closely with your supervisor to address any concerns promptly.

Information Processing. You understand the multiple channels, including emails, client meetings, internal check-ins, required for information collection and are able to transfer information from these channels to relevant work products and appropriate colleagues. You proactively identify information gaps and request additional information from appropriate sources.

Timeliness & Prioritization. You are consistently accountable to internal and external deadlines. The work you produce by the agreed upon deadlines aligns to Elevate quality standards, including complete drafts, professional formatting, and adherence to the strategy developed in collaboration with your Director and client.

Problem Solving. You proactively identify when deliverables with hard deadlines are not on track for a timely submission and work with your team Director to ensure the team receives the information or approvals we need on time. You identify missing or outdated data and/or program information and recommend updates to your team Director. You ensure that updates are transferred from one work product to another independently.

Attention to Detail. All deliverable submissions align to funder guidelines, incorporate up to date and approved information/attachments from the client and are carefully reviewed to avoid copy/paste errors. You identify incomplete, inaccurate, or inconsistent organizational or program information that impacts the quality of our grants and reports and raise those concerns to your Director to help resolve.

Continuous Learning. You demonstrate a commitment to building functional expertise in your role; recognize mistakes as they come up and proactively identify methods to prevent them; and take feedback from your teammates and make changes to your workflows and processes to incorporate the feedback. You provide specific feedback to your teammates independently.

Tools & Systems. You adhere to and consistently use Elevate's standard tools and systems, including Dropbox, Gmail and Gchat, and Zoom video conferencing. You develop greater familiarity with Salesforce, with a focus on looking up funders and grant opportunities in Elevate's system.

Compensation and Benefits 

The annual salary for this full-time position is $62,500 and is based on a market analysis of comparable job duties and positions within the nonprofit sector and across a variety of United States geographies. Due to our commitment to internal parity within each position and across the company, we do not negotiate salaries.

In addition to this base compensation and flexible work schedule, we offer a generous benefits package to all staff, including:

• Health insurance: On average, Elevate pays over 94% of the medical premium, 80% of the dental premium, and 80% of the vision premium for employees only. Dependent coverage is the full responsibility of individual employees.
• Paid time off: 15 days’ vacation, 8 sick days, 12 company holidays, 24 hours of voting leave and civic engagement leave. 
• Winter Break: The office typically closes in the last week of the calendar year (between December 24 and January 2nd). Employees can choose to take the full break or apply some of this time for religious observance days (up to three) at other times of the year. 
• Summer Break: The office typically closes the first week of July. 
• Sabbatical Leave: Staff with six years of FT service or more are eligible for a 4-week (21 day) paid sabbatical.
• 401(k) retirement plan- We offer a 2% employer match after the first year of employment.
• Reimbursements for your personal cell phone and home internet
• A $200 initial office set up stipend with an additional $100 stipend annually
• A $500 annual professional development stipend, in addition to a robust and growing internal training program provided free to staff.

All applicants should apply via our hiring platform. You are asked to provide an updated resume, cover letter, and work sample demonstrating your strategic recommendations to clients.

Your resume and cover letter should detail the following:

• Relevant skills and experience;
• Your interest in the position, including your interest in advancing in your career at Elevate, specifically;
• Your professional strengths;
• Evidence of your alignment with our company values.

Based on these materials, a hiring manager will contact you with next steps on a rolling basis. Applicants whose experiences and qualifications are strongly aligned with the position will be asked to complete a hiring exercise designed to assess your fundraising strategy and grant writing skills, as well as an interview process that will include at least two interviews prior to final decisions.