ORGANIZATION OVERVIEW
Founded in 2012 by Liesel and Ian Simmons, Blue Haven Initiative (BHI) is a single-family office managing diversified a global investment portfolio. As one of the first family offices created with impact investing as its core mission, BHI seeks market rate return on its investments as well as maximum social and environmental impact. BHI recognizes not all solutions are a good fit for commercial investment and supports nonprofit and civic work through its philanthropy. We leverage our flexible role as a private family office to deploy different capital types and use our voice to inform the growth of the impact investing field.
The entire BHI team is composed of 12 full-time employees across four departments: Civics, Initiatives, Operations, and Ventures.
TEAM OVERVIEW
While markets can scale many solutions, they cannot (and should not) do everything. A signature focus of Blue Haven is the in-house philanthropic portfolio, Initiatives. The Initiatives team closely collaborates with ecosystem partners to identify social and environmental challenges best served by grant capital, concessionary investment, or charitable donor collaborative projects.
The team deploys $3M to $5M annually in grants and philanthropic investments to nonprofits and early-stage companies with clear impact objectives, managing a vibrant portfolio of about 15 partners. The Initiatives strategy has supported impact investing and climate change field-building activities, as well as human capital and leadership development interventions. The portfolio is geographically concentrated in the US and Sub-Saharan Africa. Partners include: Tipping Point Fund, ImpactAssets, VC Include, Boardroom Africa, Apolitical Academy, Prime Coalition, Energy for Growth, Ampersand, and Third Derivative.
POSITION SUMMARY
Reporting directly to the Initiatives’ Manager and Blue Haven’s Co-Founder, the Strategic Analyst will help drive the team’s entire grant making process, from pipeline-building to due diligence and portfolio
management. We believe there are significant growth opportunities for the Analyst to expand their skillset, begin serving as a key contributor to portfolio strategy, and gain exposure to a range of leaders in impact investing and international development, including foundations, accelerators, and think tanks.
The role is a full-time, remote position with an expected start of May or June. While the individual can live outside ET time zone, we require they work at least 6-hours per day overlapping with East Coast business hours (8 AM – 5 PM). The office is headquartered in Cambridge, MA with employees across the US. BHI operates as a remote workplace, offering location flexibility during and post-pandemic. Once travel becomes safe again, this individual can expect to travel 25% of the time, mostly in the US and East Africa.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
A detailed description of the position is included below:
• Pipeline and due diligence
o Coordinate and participate in introductory calls with new organizations seeking funding
o Review grant proposals and prepare grant screens and memos to assess impact and viability
o Present key findings, opportunities, and risks to Co-Founder, Manager, and external Advisor
• Grant and philanthropic investment management
o Support processing of grants, investments, and consulting contracts from a donor-advised fund
o Lead quarterly outreach to grantees and gather portfolio impact and financial reporting
o Update team budget and document meeting notes in Salesforce
o Streamline and improve grant making processes
• Relationship management
o Serve as a point of contact for business partners, grantees, consultants, and co-funders
o Convene and facilitate relationship-building opportunities between BHI and the ecosystem
o Develop and maintain effective, cross-organizational relationships with different BHI teams
• Strategy development
o Conduct data-driven research on complex social and environmental challenges
o Participate in brainstorming to inform portfolio strategy and impact hypotheses
o Build high-quality deliverables to capture portfolio strategy (e.g., PPT presentations, reports)
• Special projects
o Help lead Catalytic Capital investment portfolio along with Ventures team
o Serve as project manager when team launches new initiatives or partnerships (i.e., HR Leadership course, cash management strategy, employee donations, donor collaborative, etc.)
o Support Founder with Chief of Staff responsibilities, including panel and meeting preparation
o Assist with knowledge capture and drafting of internal and publicly shared lessons learned
We’ve listed some illustrative projects the Analyst may be involved in, as examples of daily activities:
• Preparing a comprehensive impact report to capture critical portfolio-wide updates
• Processing a philanthropic investment into an e-mobility startup together with the Ventures Associate
• Supporting project management of a course focused on talent management for African startups
• Drafting a blog on emerging business models and nonprofits focused on gig economy
• Writing grant memos to assess a clean tech accelerator or new research on catalytic capital use cases
QUALIFICATIONS
Our ideal candidate will have these attributes:
• Creative problem-solver with a curiosity to unpack complex social and environmental challenges
• Quick learner with capability to build processes, strategies, and programs from scratch
• Self-directed and able to independently manage multiple responsibilities
• Ability to analyze data, conduct research, and distill takeaways into a meaningful strategy
• Good judgement and integrity when handling sensitive responsibilities associated with
• No ego and awareness of the power dynamics associated with charitable giving
• Detail-oriented with excellent written and verbal communication
• Highly collaborative and inclusive team player
These qualifications would be great to have, but are not necessary to apply:
• Mission-alignment and demonstrated interest in social impact, philanthropy, or impact investing
• 1–5 years of work experience in international development, consulting, philanthropy, nonprofits, social entrepreneurship, or private sector
• Familiarity with basic project management, finance, accounting, and budgeting principles
• Experience with Microsoft suite of products (Excel, PPT, and Word) and Salesforce
We believe that university degrees are not accessible to everyone. Therefore, this role does not require a university education. Instead, share the pathway you took to build your unique professional skillset!
At Blue Haven Initiative, we believe that generating social impact starts with diverse teams and partners. This means cultivating an equitable workplace that encourages collaboration and creativity, and we actively recruit and empower diverse people who represent the next generation of leadership. Applicants will never be disqualified nor discriminated against by race, class, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, age, veteran or disability status, criminal history, or educational attainment.
BENEFITS AND COMPENSATION
BHI will provide compensation commensurate with work experience, the salary range for this role is: $70 –$85K. Benefits include healthcare, paid parental leave, retirement, philanthropic matching program, flexible vacation, and remote work expense budget.
TO APPLY
Please submit your application via online application form.
The priority deadline for applications is 11:59 PM ET on April 25th, 2021. Applications will continue to be accepted after the deadline and reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled. To facilitate an inclusive, bias-blind recruitment process, please remove the following from your resume and CV:
• Your name and contact information (including from the file name)
• School name references (high school, undergraduate, graduate)
• Personal hobbies and interests
You can find an example of a blind resume here. You do not need to reformat your resume, and you may leave your degree and field of study (e.g., B.A. Biology).
If you have any questions about Blue Haven or the Strategic Analyst position, we encourage you to reach out to Megan McCarthy at megan@bluehaveninitiative.com.
