Careers

The Fund seeks dedicated, talented and highly-motivated professionals who share our unyielding commitment to building a critical mass of great public schools in Chicago.

CURRENT OPENINGS:

1. Associate, Program & Investments
2. Summer Fellow, Communications
3. Summer Fellow, Principal Pride Campaign
4. Summer Fellow, Program and Partnership

TO APPLY:

Please review the job descriptions and qualifications for each position below. To apply, please email a resume and cover letter that outlines how your skills and experience meet the qualifications of the position for which you are applying. In your cover letter, please also indicate how you heard about this opportunity and the specific position for which you are applying.

All materials should be sent to careers@thefundchicago.org by the deadline specified for each position. We regret that we will not be able to respond to phone inquiries about this position.

The Chicago Public Education Fund is an equal opportunity employer. The Fund evaluates applicants for employment on the basis of qualifications, merit and work-related criteria without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, mental or physical disabilities, pregnancy, childbirth, medical condition, marital status or any other characteristic protected by law. The Fund employs and values a diverse work environment.

1. Associate, Program & Investments

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Associate, Program & Investments will report to the Manager, Program & Investments and will be responsible for working with the Program Team to develop and manage against a strategic plan to support and sustain efforts to ensure high quality school leaders in all of Chicago’s public schools. As part of this overall goal, the Associate will draft communications and meeting materials, manage logistics across diverse partners and organizations, conduct research, perform analyses, and collaborate with members of the team to ensure deliverables.

In 2018, the Associate’s primary role will be to support The Chicago Principal Partnership (The Partnership), a brand new effort to formalize and accelerate principal quality for leaders in Chicago’s public schools.

The ideal candidate must have:

• An entrepreneurial attitude, a strong work ethic and a detail-oriented approach
• Exceptional written and oral communication skills across a diverse set of audiences
• Comfort in new or unprecedented contexts
• Reasoned judgment and positive energy, including in high-stress situations
• A track record of leadership (in professional or personal contexts)

Responsibilities for this position include, but are not limited to:

Policy Management and Investments

• Support the development and execution of The Fund’s and The Partnership’s strategy to ensure principal quality on an ongoing and sustainable basis, including researching, analyzing and documenting successful models, approaches and policies that promote principal quality.
• Supporting the Manager, Program Investments and Fund leadership in creating reports, presentations and materials to share The Fund’s perspective on sustainable approaches for principal quality in Chicago, both internally and externally.

Partnerships & Communication

• Prepare proactive communications, updates and recommendations for The Partnership’s members and stakeholder community.
• Support partnerships with external vendors and partners, including but not limited to, helping to identify new partners, setting and ensuring delivery of shared goals and service benchmarks, troubleshooting, providing collective accountability and ensuring that partners meet deliverables or fulfill contract obligations.
• Manage updates to The Partnership’s website to ensure communications are accurate and reflect the current positioning of the organization.
• Support the drafting of reports and case studies to communicate findings from The Fund’s and The Partnership’s work, programs and investments.
• Support Partnership and Fund events, including planning, tracking and flawlessly executing on logistics.

General Responsibilities include:

• Serve as a member of a 7-person cross-functional Program Team, providing leadership in overall operational and programmatic execution of key Fund priorities.
• Add value to organizational activities such as strategic planning, document production, recruiting, and other duties as assigned.
• Represent The Fund at external events and exhibit The Fund’s core values of collaboration, equity, excellence, innovation, integrity, and leadership.

CANDIDATE QUALIFICATIONS

The Fund is seeking a highly motivated, entrepreneurial professional with at least three years of experience. Successful candidates will have:

Prior Experience

• Project planning experience with a strong track record of executing on and achieving results
• Strategy consulting, startup or education policy experience preferred, not required
• Experience working in public education in Chicago preferred, not required
• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent experience) required

Skills and Abilities

• Strong verbal and written presentation and communication skills, particularly with diverse audiences
• Highly proficient in Microsoft Office – particularly PowerPoint, Word and Excel
• Ability to develop and cultivate relationships and networks in order to achieve results
• Ability to manage self, manage workload effectively, be flexible and adaptive, and follow through on execution
• Ability to think through and manage many details, often on tight timelines

2. Summer Fellow, Communications

We seek a Fellow to work on our Communications team for the summer, including a Fellow who can produce content for The Fund’s blog. The projects are broken into the following main components:

Blog Posts

In partnership with the Manager, Policy & Communications, Fellow will create a list of principals to target for blog posts for the 2018-19 school year and develop an action plan that accounts for outreach, developing themes for posts, conducting interviews, drafting posts, consulting with Program and Development team members on drafts and copy editing. This process will be repeated until a bank of ~40 blog posts are developed.

Principal Profiles

Fellow will develop a list of principals to target for profiles and develop an action plan that accounts for conducting outreach, conducting interviews, drafting profiles, consulting with Fund managers on draft and theme, and final copy edits.

Development Support

Fellow may also support the Development Team in conducting research to identify new prospects and developing profiles for potential new fundraising sources.

Preferred Skills and Experiences

All Fellows must have exceptional verbal and written communication skills, particularly with diverse audiences. Fellows with a background in journalism have traditionally done well with this project. Fellow must be highly proficient in Microsoft Office, particularly Word and PowerPoint. Based on the nature of the project, Fellows must be comfortable developing and cultivating relationships with education professionals across Chicago. The Fund is a fast-paced organization, so the ability to manage many details on tight timelines is key.

3. Summer Fellow, Principal Pride Campaign

We are seeking Fellows to work on our Communications and Public Relations team for the summer, including a Fellow who can support the development and execution of our 2018 Principal Pride Campaign. The projects are broken into the following main components:

2018 Principal Pride Campaign

Fellow will support the Manager, Communications & Engagement in developing collateral for the Principal Pride Campaign. This could include developing web site and social media content, partner outreach materials, media collateral, and internal and external project updates.

Video Creation and Production

We seek a Fellow with experience with shooting, editing and producing video clips. The Fellow will receive a list of principals to target for video features and develop an action plan that accounts for conducting outreach, determining theme of videos, consulting with Fund managers on content, conducting video interviews and editing videos. Fellow will also produce the final video, which in addition to the video footage, will likely include graphics, maps and audio.

Preferred Skills and Experiences

All Fellows must have exceptional verbal and written communication skills, particularly with diverse audiences. Fellows with a background in journalism and video production have traditionally done well with this project. Fellow must have experience with creating video footage, editing videos and producing videos, inclusive of using graphics and audio. Fellow should be highly proficient in Microsoft Office, particularly Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Based on the nature of the project, Fellows must be comfortable developing and cultivating relationships with education professionals across Chicago. The Fund is a fast-paced organization, so the ability to manage many details on tight timelines is key.

4. Summer Fellow, Program and Partnership

We seek a Fellow to support our Program Team for the summer. Projects could include the following:

Program Management Support

The Fund’s Program Team collectively manages an annual investments portfolio of up to $1-2M. Summer Fellows will work closely with the Program Team to provide targeted support around program evaluation practices to develop insights that can inform our investment strategy and decisions. Fellows may also be asked to provide general administrative support for other Program Team activities. Tasks may include:

• Design a rubric to evaluate near-term and longer-term impact across program investments.
• Conduct one-on-one interviews and site visits with schools.
• Perform data tracking and entry using Excel.
• Prepare materials for meetings and events organized by the Program
• Manage Program Team files (electronic and hard copy formats).

Research and Reporting

The Fund maintains regular communications with key stakeholders on our programming efforts. In particular, this includes a monthly update on The Chicago Principal Partnership (The Partnership). Fellow may be asked to help research and draft content for monthly updates. Summer Fellows may also be asked to support the drafting of reports and case studies to communicate findings from The Fund’s programs and investments.

Event Planning and Support

The Fund is a “lean” non-profit organization where all employees are expected to engage in all levels of the organization’s work. This includes providing support for several events that we may host throughout the year. Audiences at these events may include educators, school district leadership, city and civic officials. For each event, a logistics team is put in place to ensure the event runs smoothly and properly enhances the brand of The Fund. Fellows could be asked to support the logistics team for several Fund events by creating and managing correspondences with key stakeholders, developing and executing against a project plan for event logistics, and representing The Fund by attending events.

Preferred Skills and Experiences

Fellow must have excellent project management and coordination skills in order to execute multiple workstreams. Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, particularly with diverse audiences, is required, including the ability to summarize and synthesize qualitative feedback. Highly proficient in Microsoft Office; intermediate or advanced skills in Excel, Word and PowerPoint preferred. Ideal candidate will have a strong research background, with the ability to collect, analyze and interpret data. Based on the nature of the project, Fellows must be comfortable developing and cultivating relationships with education professionals across Chicago. The Fund is a fast-paced organization, so the ability to manage many details on tight timelines is key.