The LIFT Fund seeks a Projects Manager to join its growing team and lead a subset of LIFT’s initiatives. The Projects Manager will work closely with all Fund staff but report directly to the Director of Strategy and Operations. The ideal candidate is someone who shares LIFT’s deep commitment to equity and worker power and is both a strategic thinker and operator. This individual should excel at moving work from idea to action, managing consultants and vendors, and toggling between LIFT’s overarching strategy and the nitty gritty of project development. A key part of this role is contributing to strategic communications planning and implementation. The Projects Manager would ideally feel equally at home ushering a planning process for a new initiative, drafting a press release, contributing to event planning, or analyzing grantee data to showcase impact. As a growing organization, all staff members must be comfortable with change and actively seek to support each other.

About the LIFT Fund

The LIFT Fund, or Labor Innovations for the 21st Century Fund (LIFT) Fund, is a unique collaborative fund dedicated to supporting new forms of worker organizing and coalition building between philanthropy and the labor movement. By pooling scarce resources to build a common agenda and investing those resources into new forms of organizing, LIFT supports unconventional approaches that energize community-labor alliances to meet the challenges of the future.

LIFT has historically funded partnerships on a national level, and has expanded its original Labor-Community grantmaking to include a Racial, Gender, and Economic Justice initiative to catalyze leading-edge efforts that bolster coalition-building, strategy development, and/or campaign execution of partners that are centering racial justice and worker power-building in their collaboration.

Over the last two years, LIFT has experienced great programmatic growth, launching the Southern Workers Opportunity Fund. SWO invests in ecosystems that increase worker power and improve the economic livelihoods and social conditions for workers across the U.S. South. In its first grantmaking cycle, SWO will invest in Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to strengthen their existing worker power coalition-building efforts, expand innovative organizing tactics, and further develop each state’s sectoral strategy for civic engagement.

Continuing on this trajectory of growth LIFT is exploring expanding its work to include projects in the Midwest and California. Following the completion of the current phase of research and engagement with local and regional leaders, LIFT and its partners will determine the most value-add role that LIFT could play in advancing an inclusive labor movement in these areas.

Responsibilities

The Projects Manager role is best suited for someone who is extremely flexible and comfortable managing several projects and communications work streams.

• Lead and manage consultants, researchers, and other vendors that will assist LIFT in exploring new key initiatives and managing our communications
• Bring community organizations, labor, and philanthropy together to establish a shared analysis and action plan for LIFT projects in new geographic areas (e.g., Midwest and California)
• Support event planning for convenings, meetings, and other (field-facing) events
• Support LIFT’s steering committee meetings, funder briefings, and webinars
• Support the leadership team in fundraising and funder engagement activities by supporting grant proposal writing and reporting, tracking programmatic impact through specific metrics, and connecting new initiatives to funder interests
• Collaborate with and manage LIFT’s communications firm to coordinate communications for the Fund, including creating and editing announcements, press releases, e-newsletters, web updates, talking points, and annual reports as well as managing media opportunities and maintaining the team’s editorial calendar
• Manage LIFT’s communications tools (e.g., Google, Constant Contact, ZOOM), update contacts to be used in communications, and develop and maintain guidelines and protocols to strengthen and streamline communications processes
• Contribute to the team’s collective knowledge and role as a thought leader on the worker and labor movement, stewarding continued strategy and partnership development and staying current on the latest developments
• Participate in planning, team building, and regular meetings with staff

Qualifications

• At least four years of experience in a relevant field, including at least one leading your own large-scale project on worker/labor, philanthropy, and/or communications
• Knowledge in one or more of these issue areas: worker voice and power; economic opportunity and/or justice; racial and gender equity; workforce development
• Experience with and aptitude for detail-oriented tracking and management of a program or organization’s many moving pieces
• Experience managing multi-stakeholder partnerships; it’s a plus if that experience includes philanthropic and labor partners
• Experience in and committed to bringing an equity lens to your work, including racial, class, and gender analysis
• Ability to operate with a high degree of autonomy, accountability, & flexibility
• Brings a “get it done” mentality and intellectual curiosity to your work, enjoying learning new things or pinch-hitting for team members when needed

• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written
• Team player, highly collaborative, and has strong interpersonal skills
• Proficiency with research, data collection, review, analysis, and reporting
• Demonstrate ability to plan, implement, and assess communications projects
• Strong aptitude and desire to produce compelling content in a timely manner and for a wide range of audiences — from private funders to social justice movement leaders to members of the media
• Strong skills in PowerPoint, Excel, and Word; knowledge of Google Apps, Constant Contact, ZOOM, YouTube/Vimeo, and social media platforms
• Comfort working on a remote team and the flexibility to work across time zones
• Anticipated travel 15-20% of the time to staff retreats, conferences, program events, and professional development opportunities
• Preferred but not necessary: Spanish proficiency, experience living or working in California or the Midwest

Salary, Benefits, Location, and Eligibility

• $75,000-90,000 depending on experience
• Generous benefits, including health insurance, vacation days, and retirement options, are comparable to large nonprofit organizations and philanthropies.
• Start date in February or March 2023
• Remote job open to all candidates eligible to work in the United States and who reside anywhere in the United States, tribal nations, and U.S. territories

This position is employed by Neighborhood Funders Group, which is the LIFT Fund’s fiscal sponsor. The staff members of NFG are represented by CWA Local 9415 and this position is currently configured to be part of the bargaining unit. NFG is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion or belief, disability, gender, nationality, ethnicity, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or any other status protected by law. Women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and people from working-class backgrounds or with lived experiences with the issues that the SWO Fund works on are especially encouraged to apply.

To apply, please submit your resume and cover letter to jobs@theliftfund.org by December 5, 2022. We will review applications on a rolling basis.