Job Description

About Equitable Facilities Fund (EFF) 

Equitable Facilities Fund (EFF) is a nonprofit social impact fund that’s on a nationwide mission to help high-performing public charter schools spend more money on students and less on the costs of borrowing for their facilities. We offer school leaders simple and much-needed access to low-cost loans combined with support from an expert team that has walked in their shoes.

To date, EFF has invested nearly $1 billion in schools serving over 60,000 students, providing them with funding to amplify their impact. Equity is at the core of our mission, and we seek to create opportunity for students and communities that have traditionally been denied access to high-quality public schools. In 2023, we will launch EFF’s Fund II through which we will commit an additional $2 billion with increased prioritization for early-phase schools and schools run by leaders of color.

If you’re seeking to have a community-level impact on a national scale, apply to join our team!

The Opportunity

The Chief Program Officer will be a critical leader in EFF’s effort to ensure every high-impact charter school operating in historically marginalized communities has a pathway to affordable facilities. Reporting to the CEO and serving on EFF’s Senior Leadership Team, the CPO will build out and ultimately oversee a new “School Success” division designed to provide hands-on support for prospective and current portfolio members. The team will also run EFF’s lending business development function. The ideal candidate will possess deep leadership experience and a national reputation for deploying expertise, creativity, and a “whatever it takes” mentality to support schools. 

Who You Are

You believe all children deserve a quality education. And you believe accountability is critical to schools delivering results for students.

You’re an entrepreneur determined to create bold solutions to big problems. You know educational and financial inequity are generational challenges that necessitate creativity and persistence. Whether you’re structuring a high-impact deal or burning the midnight oil to build out school proforma, you’re committed to delivering value and doing the right thing.

You love helping schools save as much money as possible on their facilities. You’ll go above and beyond to ensure they get the best deal possible, whether from you or someone else. You want every school you interact with to gain something positive out of it.

You’re a seasoned leader who can go big picture with strategy and get in the grain with implementation. You like creating things that help individuals, teams, or even the entire sector get better.

You’ve served as a standard bearer for mission-oriented organizations. You inspire with your vision and drive things forward with your clarity of messaging. Stakeholders think highly of you and your work on behalf of schools.

You relentlessly champion racial equity and DEI values. These values have shaped you as an individual and are non-negotiable drivers of personal and professional decisions you’ve made throughout your career.

What You’ll Do

The Chief Program Officer will own a critical mix of external stakeholder and internal team management responsibilities including:

• • “School Success” Strategy & Management: Designing, hiring, and training a new division that will own the front-end of EFF’s lending practice — including deal sourcing, pipeline support, and deal structuring — in addition to providing support for our current school portfolio members.
  • Lending Business Development: Composing and owning accountability for a business development strategy that will generate 15-20+ loan closings annually. Prioritizing EFF’s “Invest Equitably” priority by identifying schools that might not find us on their own.
  • School “Pathmaking”: Managing a process to determine the appropriate borrowing “pathway” for 60+ schools per year that enter EFF’s pipeline. This includes leading EFF’s “Pathmaking Committee” and working with School Success teammates to recommend whether to advance deals to underwriting, defer until a later date, or refer to another lender.
  • Technical Assistance Delivery & Strategy: Defining and implementing technical assistance supports for prospective EFF borrowers. The CPO will train team members to provide guidance to schools on forecasting, project affordability, and financing options. Pending the results of a TA pilot EFF is conducting in 2023, the CPO may be tasked with building out a more robust TA practice over the next ~3 years.
  • Portfolio Support: Evolving supports, events, and communities of practice for EFF portfolio members. We plan to incrementally advance these offerings beginning in 2023.
  • Product Leadership: Supporting EFF’s “Innovate to Serve” priority and exercising creativity to deliver loan products, terms, and structures that best meet a variety of school needs.
  • Regional Funds: Supporting the Capital & Strategy Team in the development of EFF’s state and specialty fund strategy with a goal of launching 5 to 7 localized initiatives similar to EFF’s new Texas Facilities Fund. Owning key stakeholder relationships in specific regions and overseeing Principals who will directly manage the lending and school relationships for the regional funds.
  • Organizational Leadership: Serving as a key member of EFF’s Senior Leadership Team and partaking in cross-functional strategic planning, team-building, and goal-setting processes.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of professional experience including 10+ years as a senior leader in education and/or financial services; experience as a charter school or CMO CEO or Executive Director preferred
• Unyielding commitment to EFF’s mission to ameliorate educational, financial, and racial inequities
• Demonstrated advocacy for diversity, equity, and inclusion in workplace and investment practices
• Proven ability to launch new organizational initiatives (as demonstrated by founding a startup, launching a new division, etc.)
• Experience with financial, operational, and programmatic due diligence of charter schools or similar entities required
• Top notch quantitative and analysis skills
• Strong problem-solving skills and an ability to think “outside the box” and pivot as needed to support a growing business
• Customer service orientation and ability to collaborate across functional areas
• High degree of integrity and authenticity and a good sense of humor
• Interest in traveling 25% of time

Compensation & Benefits

The starting salary for this position is $200,000 – $250,000 with up to a 20% bonus based on organizational performance. Compensation is competitive, commensurate with experience, and may be subject to modest adjustments for high-cost-of-living geographies. We are proud to offer excellent benefits including a 6% 401k match. 

Location

We are open to applicants from across the continental U.S. The role will be expected to travel to NYC or other locations for 3+ days each month to participate in team activities.

Reporting Relationship

The Chief Program Officer will report to the CEO.

How to Apply

Job Types: Full-Time. Salaries: 100,000 and above.

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