Grants Manager

Zearn is the nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to inspire all kids to love learning math. Everything we do is driven by our belief that every kid is a math kid.

Our top-rated learning platform is designed to catch kids up and move them forward in grade-level math. And it works. Large-scale efficacy research shows students who use Zearn make significant gains in math proficiency, including the students who start multiple grade levels behind.

As a nonprofit, all of our work is driven by what is best for kids. At the same time, we operate as an intense and fast-moving technology company, inclusively solving hard problems that will impact current and future generations. The problems we solve require expertise in teaching, learning science, software development, design, video production, and countless other disciplines. As an organization that is always stretching to get to the next level of impact, every single person owns mission critical work.

If you’re ready to join our Team of problem solvers, and own work that will drive us to achieve impact at scale, we are looking for you.

Learn more about us at https://about.zearn.org/.  

• How do we build a reporting cadence that feels proactive rather than reactive for our most complex multi-year grants?
• What is the most efficient way to gather qualitative impact stories from across the organization without creating friction for other teams?
• How can we use AI tools to automate the tactical parts of reporting so more time can be spent on strategic narrative and data analysis?
• How do we systematically capture learnings from individual grants to synthesize patterns across the full portfolio,  surfacing the strategic narrative shifts that elevate Zearn's positioning with funders?

• Reporting Powerhouse: You have a specific expertise in grantee report outs and a passion for translating technical work into funder narratives.
• Dots Connector: You have the intellectual curiosity to understand the "why" behind the work and you actively shape how that thinking gets translated into strategy documents and funder narratives, not just execute against a brief.
• Execution Rigor: You thrive on hitting milestones and ensuring no detail is missed in a fast moving environment.
• Relationship Owner: You are comfortable being the face of an organization to external partners, managing communications with professional maturity and proactivity.
• Operational Empathy: You know how to get what you need from busy cross functional teams by being organized, clear, and helpful.
• Evidence Based Storyteller: You are comfortable with data and use it to build trust with funders.

• 4-6+ years of experience in grant management or project management, with a heavy emphasis on reporting and execution (ideally in the nonprofit or edtech sector).
• Prior experience as a grantee with a focus on managing report-outs to funders, rather than experience coming solely from the grant-making or foundation side.
• Exceptional writing and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to synthesize technical information into clear narratives for program officers or clients.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating complex, multi-stakeholder projects with many moving parts and cross-functional inputs.
• Technical proficiency in data analysis, basic financial tracking (budgets/spend), and the use of AI tools to accelerate coordination and writing.
• Bachelor’s Degree in a related field.
• Familiarity with compliance structures of large national philanthropic foundations.

• Title: Grants Manager
• Reports to: Director of Strategic Projects

• We aim to create a numeracy movement. This is no easy feat, and no one of us can solve this on our own.  Given that, Zearn is a transparent, collaborative, and open-to-feedback culture. 
• Our work is often collaborative in nature:
• We own our deliverables in close collaboration with others
• We communicate openly, and share early thinking and drafts often
• We seek ways to create and improve systems, and work with each other to contribute thinking in both asynchronous and synchronous discussions.
• We create a sense of community through regularly sharing context so we can collectively solve problems to drive Zearn’s velocity.

This role is remote and can be performed in any of the following states/locations:  

CA, CT, FL, IL, LA, MA, MD, NC, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, TX, VA, WA, WI and Washington D.C.