Senior Grant Writer, Development

Job Description Summary

The Senior Grant Writer will engage in a collaborative development writing process with fundraisers, program leaders and accounting staff to create a robust portfolio of funding proposals, letters of interests (LOIs), reports and other fundraising materials. This individual will develop and maintain a sound knowledge of Enterprise’s affordable housing programs and liaise with other departments to create comprehensive descriptions of programmatic activities, outputs, outcomes and impact. Efforts will ensure effective and timely proposal and report submission to donors and prospects thus enabling the successful cultivation, solicitation and stewardship of foundations, corporations and government agencies.

This role will contribute to organization-wide and team-based KPIs by accepting ownership for accomplishing new and ongoing requests, as well as exploring opportunities to add value to our collective fundraising potential.

The Senior Grant Writer will report to the Senior Director, Development and will support the grant writing efforts of nine frontline fundraisers.

Responsibilities:

• Oversee corporate, foundation, and government grant proposal and reporting process with the support of a Grant Writer.
• Work with fundraisers to evaluate upcoming writing deliverables, and then develop timelines and schedules to manage the cadence of workflow processes, including distribution of writing assignments, gathering of budgets and ancillary materials and review of deliverables in advance of deadlines.
• Prepare proposals by discerning concept, gathering and formatting information, writing drafts, and obtaining approvals. Determines proposal concept by identifying and clarifying opportunities and needs, studying requests for proposal (RFPs), and attending strategy meetings.
• Write, edit, assemble and submit new and renewal proposals, concept papers, program reports, letters of inquiry and stewardship documents in accordance with funder guidelines; adjusts proposal-writing by evaluating and re-designing processes, approach, coordination and boilerplate according to funder’s collective voice.
• Build confidence and rapport among colleagues and across Enterprise’s three divisions by assembling information and data, developing fundraising strategies and creating written materials for specific program areas.
• Interface with accounting staff and program leaders to create program budgets, budget narratives and financial reports.
• Work with database administrators and other internal teams to maintain up-to-date files for written materials in grants management system.

Qualifications:

• Deep knowledge of the fundraising process and prior grant writing experience with foundations, corporations and government agencies. Demonstrated expertise of government grant writing and affordable housing issues preferred.
• Undergraduate degree and minimum 7 years of experience in a similar position. Management of direct reports preferred.
• Excellent writing, editing and proofreading skills with knowledge of and proficiency in use of English grammar, punctuation and syntax.
• Must be able to write about the big picture and clearly discuss specific programmatic activities.
• Ability to exercise initiative gathering and organizing research materials from a variety of sources and quickly comprehend, analyze and synthesize information to accurately translate into grant proposals, reports and other donor-oriented materials.
• A professional, proactive and resourceful style with the ability to work independently and as a team player, to take initiative and to manage multiple tasks and projects simultaneously in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented environment.
• Experience with proposal budgets and financial reports and ability to convey information in narrative form as well as numerically.
• Ability to verbally communicate well and in a professional manner with a variety of audiences.
• Creative, detail-oriented, self-motivated and have a strong work ethic.
• Fully proficient in Microsoft Office. Salesforce proficiency a plus.