Foundation Grants Manager

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All legitimate communication from our recruitment team will come from an official calstart.org email address via email, we will not text you about a role you have not applied to or shown interest in. We will not perform any interviews via text or Zoom chat.

CALSTART does not ask for any fees or personal information such as social security numbers or bank details during the recruitment process.

About Us:

CALSTART is a mission-driven industry organization focused on transportation decarbonization and clean air for all.

For over 30 years, it’s been CALSTART’s mission to develop, assess, and implement large-scale, zero-emission transportation solutions to mitigate climate change and support economic growth. CALSTART works with businesses, organizations, governments, and communities to create real-life impact toward clean air and equitable access to clean transportation for all. CALSTART provides scientific, technical and policy support for regulatory development and clean technology and infrastructure acceleration.

About The Role:

CALSTART is seeking a highly motivated Foundation Grants Manager to support our mission of improving air quality and combating climate change globally. This role will oversee the entire grants lifecycle, from proposal development and submission to funding approval, execution, and final grant closure. The Foundation Grants Manager will ensure compliance, accuracy, and efficiency in managing philanthropic grants from foundations and corporate funders.

This position collaborates closely with the Program Manager, Philanthropy and Grants Management, as well as teams across US Policy, Drive to Zero, finance, contracts, and external funders. Key responsibilities include coordinating and managing grant proposals, budgets, reports, and financial documentation to ensure timely and compliant submissions. The ideal candidate is detail-oriented, highly organized, and passionate about securing funding for impactful environmental initiatives.

• Philanthropic/Foundation Grant Proposals: Grants management and support for new, continuing, and renewal grant proposals and applications, from pre-application through grant closure.
• Creating project and/or program budgets that incorporate existing and new data, forecasting, analysis, and planning, while adhering to internal and external criteria and accounting guidelines.
• Drafting and editing of outlines and narrative for concept papers and full grant proposals, working with the project teams throughout the process.
• Compiling relevant materials and writing of sections as needed.
• Proven understanding of compliance and steps involved towards successful completion and submission of grant proposals.
• Grant Reports: Execution of all ongoing tasks to ensure that grant reports for foundation/philanthropic grants are completed and submitted in a compliant and timely manner.
• Working cross-teams to gather information, organize, coordinate, and provide guidance as needed.
• Compiling relevant materials and writing of sections as needed.
• Ensuring accuracy of both narrative and financial grant reporting, tailored to individualized national and international funder requirements.
• Ongoing problem solving to address obstacles encountered towards completion of the grant reports.
• Expenditure Tracking: Managing and providing support towards optimization of grant funds and expenditure tracking. Creation and implementation of new processes and systems.
• Incorporating revisions and reallocation requests as needed, adhering to funder approval processes.
• Creation and editing of detailed project and program budgets, incorporating information from a variety of sources.
• Ongoing budget forecasting, tracking, and calculations to ensure timely and compliant expenditures.
• Ensuring strict alignment between approved budgets and internal cost reports, as well as against projections.
• Other Day-to-Day: Proofreading, reviewing, editing, formatting, and polishing before each submission to a funder.
• As part of the grants management team, ensuring philanthropic funding needs and tasks are addressed across the organization.
• Ongoing and professional communications and convening of meetings.
• Gathering information and preparing forms and requests for CALSTART’s internal operations.
• Regularly and accurately updating library and database documents, CRM entries, and other tools.
• Communicating and flagging irregularities or issues; providing potential solutions as appropriate.
• Providing research and related analysis or summaries for potential funders and funding opportunities.

• Previous Foundation or Non-Profit grants experience is a must, preferably pre-award through grant closure
• Effective and efficient communication skills
• Strong working knowledge and experience with writing, editing, grants budgeting, and expenditure forecasting and tracking
• Confidence working with complex budgeting and numbers
• Careful attention to detail as well as proven prioritization and organizational skills
• A passion for numbers, writing, editing, detail, and problem solving
• Proven dedication to CALSTART’s mission would be a significant advantage
• A team player that isn’t above any task needed to get the job done

We understand that not everyone will match the above qualifications 100%. If your background isn't perfectly aligned but you feel you would be a great addition to the team, we'd love to hear from you.

We're a tight-knit team of world-class innovators, business minds, and change agents who believe passionately in our mission and put our team ahead of self. We are committed to the continued development and growth of our employees and invest in your success!

We care about your personal well being as much as your professional success and offer generous benefits to full time employees including: 100% company paid comprehensive health benefits for Medical, Dental, Vision, Short Term Disability, Long Term Disability and Life Insurance, Retirement plan with generous company contributions, FSA for Health and Dependent Care, 3 weeks of vacation time in the first year of employment, 11 paid company holidays, paid sick time, paid family leave, and more!

Our inclusive environment focuses on making decisions based on merit without regard to race, color, hair texture, gender, religion, age, nationality, social or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, LGBTQIA+ status, marital status, pregnancy, disability, genetics, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.