Director of Investments & StrategyChicago Beyond • Chicago, IL, United States
Director of Investments & Strategy
Chicago Beyond • Chicago, IL, United States
16 hours ago
Job type
- Full-time
Job descriptionMultiyear InvestmentPartners : Through multimillion-dollar, flexible grants and partnership support,we work to increase the impact of solutions led by those closest to the issues. Rapid Response Fund : This fund quickly delivers unrestricted grants to organizations and individualswith solutions for their own communities across the country. Our investmentsstrengthen partners’ wide-ranging work. Leader in Residence : The Leader in Residence program offers funding and support to selected leaders,empowering them to develop innovative, transformative ideas that createmeaningful impacts in targeted communities. Identifying &Translating Trends into Investment Strategy : Evaluate ecosystem trends andpartner learnings to identify emerging patterns, insights, and high-leverageopportunities for impact. Lead Chicago Beyond’s investment strategy, ensuringalignment with mission, values, systemic opportunities, and organizationalpriorities. Develop and refine investment theses that articulate the problem,systemic levers for change, and the potential models that can drivechange. Learning &Insight Capture : Ensure the consistent capture of learnings from diligence,partner conversations, and field experiences. Build structures (templates,trackers, debriefs, reflection routines) that surface insights earlyandreliably before they become obvious to the field. Lead the organization inidentifying how these insights can shift practices in the field. Redesignapproaches to partner learning conversations that unlock new ideas, strengthenoutcomes, and generate insights that drive systems change, future externalinsights products, and our voice in the field. Develop approaches for internallearning conversations that translate insights into strategic shifts andorganizational priorities. OrganizationalStrategy & Strategic Initiatives : Partner with the Chief Strategy Officerto lead organizational strategic planning, ensuring strategy remains adaptiveand informed by partners, ecosystem shifts, and internal reflection. Lead majorstrategic initiatives from concept to execution, managing cross-functionaltimelines, resources, and deliverables. Identify emerging opportunities, risks,and areas requiring strategic shifts and advise senior leadership onrecommended next steps. Work with Communications and leadership to translateinvestment insights into compelling strategic narratives for the field. Investment Process : Lead the Investment’s team sourcing and due diligence process. Ensure diligenceprocesses are rigorous, timely, equitable, and anchored in Chicago Beyond’svalues. Oversee development of investment proposals and materials for decision-making,ensuring they reflect clear logic & structure, systemic framing, andalignment with Chicago Beyond’s goals. Facilitate cross-team collaboration tointegrate insights, contextual analysis, and trends into investmentrecommendations. Oversee the contracting process and establish strong processesfor contract management, timelines, deliverables, and disbursement.Continuously improve the investments process and approach. InvestmentPartnership Management : Oversee partnership management across the fullportfolio, ensuring investment partners have a high-quality, trust-basedexperience. Identify, track, and surface patterns, risks, opportunities, andstrategic adjustments. Define and steward partnership models, expectations,engagement rhythms, and learning structures. Manage relationships with Fellowsand Leader in Residence partners. Impact : Lead Chicago Beyond’s qualitative and quantitative impactmeasurement approach across investments and key bodies of work. Define KPIs,impact frameworks, and approach for data collection & capture. Develop andoptimize dashboards, tracking tools, and evaluation systems that synthesizequalitative, quantitative, and contextual data. Develop methods to identifysignals of systemic change. Produce memos, insights briefs, and leadershipupdates that inform decisions and shape field influence. Systems & Tools : Own and improve systems that support investment processes, impact tracking, andstrategic execution (e.g., CRM, trackers, dashboards). Ensure documentation,data, and learning are organized, accessible, and high quality. Lead continuousimprovement of tools and processes that strengthen decision-making,coordination, and organizational learning. Team Leadership& Management : Lead and develop the Investments team, providing cleardirection, coaching, development, and accountability. Foster a culture ofcuriosity, collaboration, equity, trust, and excellence. Ensure team membersare supported, aligned, and empowered to execute effectively. StakeholderEngagement & Field Leadership : Cultivate relationships with proximateleaders, funders, community partners, and experts to strengthen strategy andecosystem context. Support Chicago Beyond’s field influence by ensuringpatterns and learnings are surfaced for future insights and communicationswork. Exceptional judgmentand pattern recognition in complex ecosystems with the ability to seeconnections, identify underlying dynamics and leverage points, and synthesizeinformation to guide strategic choices Demonstratedexperience leading investment strategy, due diligence, partnerships, or complexstrategic initiatives. Strong analyticaland systems-thinking skills, with the ability to synthesize qualitative,quantitative, contextual, and narrative evidence. Strong strategicplanning and project management skills, with the ability to set clear goals,develop actionable plans, and drive results. Demonstrated abilityto develop KPIs, dashboards, measurement frameworks, and reporting mechanismsthat drive insight and decision making. Exceptionalcommunication and storytelling skills with the ability to translate complexideas into compelling, structured narratives. Strong collaboratorwith the ability to translate strategy into actionable plans and delivermeasurable results. Excellentleadership, management, and interpersonal skills, with experience buildingstrong internal culture and high-performing teams. Strong strategicthinker who can connect the dots across issue areas, organizations, andecosystem conditions. Highly organized anddetail-oriented with the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-pacedenvironment. Always Equitable – People in our communities face unimaginable obstacles to achieving their fullest human potential. So, we must fight for equity, not equality. Incessantly Urgent – The simple fact is that lives are literally at stake right now. The unacceptability of the situation requires our relentless bias to action in order to accelerate our impact. Endlessly Creative – To dramatically impact the lives of our youth and communities, we must employ imagination to augment or replace the usual, typical, and predictable. Stubbornly Audacious – Entrenched challenges require disruptive ideas boldly applied. We must be unafraid to embrace risks. UncompromisingIntegrity – How we achieve our mission is equally as important as our mission. We must do right by our youth, our communities, our partners, and our teammates and ourselves.
About Chicago Beyond
Chicago Beyond is anational philanthropic organizationthat addresses systemic inequity by backingsolutions led by those closest to theissues.Since our inception in 2016,Chicago Beyond has invested more than $65 million in catalytic funding in over 250individuals andcommunity organizations whileleading national systems changeinitiatives. Because thereis no single barrier toequity, ChicagoBeyondengages inopportunities across philanthropy, justice, health, andbeyond.
We address systemicinequity in three ways :
- Investments : We makecatalytic investments to increase the impact of solutions led by those closestto the issues.
- NationalInitiatives : We lead national initiatives in partnership with change makers tochallenge and reshape the status quo.
- Insights : We provideinsights to disrupt and reimagine “systems as usual” and share learnings onequitable funding, practices, and policies.
About ChicagoBeyond’s Partners
Through flexiblefunding, strategic support, and an equitable approach, Chicago Beyond’spartners are strongly positioned to provide high-quality services to theircommunities and reshape systemic structures to improve lives.
Our investmentpartnerships include :
Chicago Beyond was founded by Liz Dozier, a nationally renowned former educator and high school principal. Chicago Beyond’s innovative and impactful work has been featured on both the local and national level from the Chicago Tribune to the Clinton Global Initiative to Aspen Ideas Festival and Stanford Social Innovation Review. For more information on Chicago Beyond, please visit chicagobeyond.org.
Position Details
The Director of Investments & Strategy is a senior leader responsible for shaping and executing Chicago Beyond’s investment strategy, leading the full investment lifecycle, driving organizational strategy in partnership with senior leaders, and ensuring that learning from our partners meaningfully informs our work. The role integrates investment strategy, impact measurement, and ongoing learning to ensure that Chicago Beyond deploys resources in ways that elevate new possibilities, challenge conditions holding systemic inequities in place, and generate actionable insights for the field.
Reporting to theChief Strategy Officer, the Director will lead the Investments team, stewardthe investments process from sourcing to contracting and partnershipmanagement, and ensure that our work is aligned with our mission, values, andlong-term goals. In addition to what is outlined below, you will be responsiblefor other duties as assigned to support the goals and objectives of theorganization.
KeyResponsibilities :
Qualifications :
Working at ChicagoBeyond
Our values guide ourwork.
Benefits
Thesalary range for this role is $125,000 - $150,000. Chicago Beyond provides acomprehensive benefits package, including competitive medical, dental, andvision plans, a matching 401(k) program, and generous paid time off.
Chicago Beyond is anequal opportunity employer and strongly encourages applications from people ofcolor, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ+, and other underrepresentedapplicants.
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Director Of Strategy • Chicago, IL, United States
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