Available Positions

The Pivot Fund is seeking a Managing Director to lead the strategy and execution of our investments in independent news organizations serving Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color. Reporting to the CEO, this senior leader will oversee the Fund’s finance, administration, and communications, ensuring the operational excellence required to advance the Fund’s vital mission.

This is an opportunity to join a young, high-impact venture philanthropy organization dedicated to investing in independent, BIPOC-led community news outlets that play a critical role in building community engagement and multicultural democracy, yet often fly below the radar of traditional journalism funders. We invest at the intersection of identities, including BIPOCTM, disabled, women, gender non-conforming, sexual orientation, immigrant, refugee, and low-income communities.

Our Values

The Pivot Fund’s values are crucial to guiding every step of our process

• We center equity in our work
• We value collaboration and learning opportunities
• We believe in building relationships on the foundation of trust
• We are flexible and nimble to meet newsrooms’ ever-changing needs
• We use creative approaches to fight disinformation and polarization 

Responsibilities 

Lead strategy and execution of our investments in our portfolio news organizations

• Manage the due diligence that identifies outstanding organizations and maps out a three-year growth plan and investment
• Design and implement a program that drives results in the form of news organizations that grow, diversify their revenue streams, and attract outstanding talent, and build resiliency
• Support our full portfolio to develop the capabilities of our grantees’ leadership teams in areas such as:
  • Strategic planning
  • Attracting outstanding and diverse business talent into the community news sector
  • Financial management and revenue planning
  • Building world-class fundraising operations and revenue teams capable of fueling growth
  • Help identify key learnings, insights, and best practices that can be communicated externally or codified into tools and disseminated across the portfolio and to the field 
  • Provide vision and strategy for our portfolio learning community and cohort learning
• Inform The Pivot Fund’s strategy and programming through learnings and data drawn from our portfolio 

Coach leaders both internally and externally

• Provide close support to grantees and serve as their advisor and main liaison to The Pivot Fund
• Elicit and share best practices across teams 

Oversee the Pivot Fund’s business operations to successfully advance its mission

• Develop and execute business strategies to achieve short and long-term goals for the organization and its grantee partners
• Liaise with funders and other key stakeholders, including community members 
• Report to the CEO/and Board of Directors, providing market insights and strategic advice. 
• Develop and implement business plans to improve cost efficiency 
• Maintain positive and trust-based relations with business partners and other stakeholders, including grantee and funder partners 
• Oversee the company's business operations, financial performance, investments, and ventures 
• Supervise, guide, and delegate executives/consultants in their duties 
• Ensure company policies and legal guidelines are clearly communicated 
• Assess, manage, and resolve problematic developments and situations 
• Build and enhance the company's public profile at events, speaking engagements, etc. 
• Assist in fundraising and developing other revenues necessary to support Pivot Fund’s mission 

General Responsibilities

• Responsible for fiscal management that generally anticipates operating within the approved budget, ensures maximum resource utilization, and maintenance of the organization in a positive financial position 
• Responsible for implementing Pivot Fund’s programs that carry out the organization’s mission
• Responsible for strategic planning to ensure that Pivot Fund can successfully fulfill its mission
• Responsible for enhancing Pivot Fund’s image by being active and visible in the community and working closely with other professional, civic and private organizations 
• Responsible for participating in the hiring and retention of competent, qualified staff
• Responsible for the effective administration of Pivot Fund’s operations
• Support CEO with strategic planning and implementation
• Supervise and collaborate with organization staff 
• Support CEO in planning and operation of the annual budget
• Engage in fundraising and developing other revenues sources 
• Serve as Pivot spokesperson to the organization’s constituents, the media and the general public
• Review and approve contracts for services
• Establish and maintain relationships with various organizations and utilize those relationships to strategically enhance Pivot’s mission 
• Support CEO in establishing employment and administrative policies and procedures for all functions and for the day-to-day operations of the Pivot Fund
• Support CEO in overseeing marketing and other communications efforts

Position Requirements

• Degree in business, marketing, or a related field 
• Master's degree preferred
• Experience as a managing director or in a similar role, preferably in the news industry
• Experience in developing and implementing strategic and business plans 
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and presentation skills
• Experience working with multicultural teams
• Strong analytical, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills 
• Able to excel in high-pressure situations 
• Excellent organizational and leadership skills 
• Proficient in Microsoft Office

The Development Associate plays a critical role within The Pivot Fund, facilitating the organization’s fundraising and managing the associated grant reports, communications, and record-keeping. This role supports the sustainable growth of The Pivot Fund and will work to create the necessary conditions to grow The Pivot Fund’s fundraising capacity. The Development Associate reports to and works closely with the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director.

Main Responsibilities

• Grant administration and management. (20%)
  The primary role of the Development Associate is to identify and meet grant obligations. This includes end-to-end communications with the grantor, such as preparing grant acknowledgment letters, assisting in the submission and filing of grant applications and reports, and organizing grant details and deadlines, such as deliverables, reports and renewal dates. In addition, the Development Associate helps prepare fundraising campaigns, donor events, and meetings with key stakeholders.
• Donor stewardship and communications. (20%)
  The Development Associate is responsible for the organization of the Fund’s development calendar and cycle of regular correspondence with key stakeholders, including gift acknowledgments, newsletters, updates, and annual reports. Relatedly, the Development Associate compiles donor data, helps organize the annual holiday thank-you gift, and prepares documents, such as quarterly and project updates.
• Donor CRM management. (20%)
  The Development Associate is the primary staff member responsible for maintaining and managing the donor database. This role entails updating, entering, and tagging contacts and donations, managing various contact lists, and managing relevant deadlines. 
• Communications and marketing management and strategy. (20%)
  The Development Associate supports the Communications team by developing and implementing the Fund’s social media engagement strategies. This includes researching relevant information and writing content for social media. The Development Associate is responsible for managing online fundraising-related profiles (Guidestar, Benevity, etc.), ensuring we have the latest and most up-to-date information on websites. The Development Associate will support the Fund with Google Ads management.
• Impact measurement. (20%)
  The Development Associate supports the Fund on impact metric collection and tabulation among the Fund’s portfolio of media organizations. 

Position Requirements:

Diversity is critical to our work and our values. We are excited to do impactful and effective work with colleagues from various backgrounds, especially people from groups that have been historically marginalized in our society and in workplaces. We strongly encourage people from underrepresented groups to apply to this position.

The Fund knows that great candidates will have some but probably not all of the skills or experiences below. If you feel you might be the right candidate, please apply!

Desired Experience

• 1-3 years experience in fundraising and development.
• Experience managing general office and fundraising software, especially Salesforce.
• Experience creating and managing organizational systems for fundraising. 
• Experience crafting social media content. 
• A bachelor’s degree in business administration or nonprofit management, or related lived experience, is preferred. 

Skills and Orientation

• A passion for community news and the belief in a positive future for local journalism.
• A self-directed person who can set clear agendas and tasks and envision how to meet them and do so on time.
• Creative and nimble and can seize opportunities as they arise.
• Proactive self-starter, comfortable driving multiple projects while simultaneously seeking to launch new ideas.
• A proven collaborator who can inspire teamwork. 
• Skilled and versatile in utilizing internal and external resources to accomplish goals.
• Ability to quickly understand and assess opportunities and/or problems and respond with creative ideas and solutions.
• Highly organized, analytical, and data-driven.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills. 

Our Stage of Development

Launched in 2022, The Pivot Fund is a young organization. Familiarity and comfort with growing and changing organizations, as well as a commitment to collaboration, is critical to the success of this role.