About The Kresge Foundation
The Kresge Foundation is one of the top 20 private philanthropic foundations in the United States and the only one focused exclusively on expanding opportunities for people with low income in American cities. With an endowment of approximately $4 billion and a staff of over 100 employees, the foundation deploys grants and social investments across arts and culture, education, environment, health, human services, and community development. The foundation’s state-of-the-art headquarters maintains an array of energy-efficient, water- conserving and health-promoting systems. The foundation also operates an office in Detroit’s Midtown district.
Social Investment Practice
Kresge uses a full spectrum of capital tools to address the financial barriers that confront communities of color and other underserved communities. We work alongside our seven program teams to unlock capital for those places and projects that improve equitable outcomes. Our work supports an often under-resourced community-development financial system and includes program-related investments (PRIs) loans, equity investments, strategic deposits, and unfunded guarantees, which helps other investors invest in ways and in places they might not otherwise.
Social investing at Kresge dates to the financial crisis of 2008. In 2015, Kresge’s Board of Trustees approved a $350 million impact investing pool to be deployed through 2020. A goal to leverage $1 billion from other investors was surpassed in 2019. We seek to partner with banks, other foundations, and government sources, and frequently partner with Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and mission-aligned intermediaries. We also work with our endowment partners to deploy mission-related investments (MRIs) from Kresge’s corpus.
To learn more about The Kresge Foundation visit https://kresge.org/. To learn more about the Social Investment Practice visit https://kresge.org/our-work/social-investment-practice/.
The Opportunity
The Director of Portfolio Management oversees the team managing an existing portfolio of 100+ program related investments held by the foundation in furtherance of its charitable purpose. The team includes a portfolio manager and portfolio analyst who, working closely with the Director, tracking and monitor these investments, managing and projecting cashflow, distilling lessons, anticipating and mitigating problems, and working with individual investees to support investment objectives and investee development.
The Social Investment team at the Foundation prides itself on being committed to impact first. Through their investments, they focus on improving conditions in underserved communities as well as building the capacity of organizations that serve those communities. There is a deep commitment to flexibility in order to meet these goals and the result is an extremely diverse and complex portfolio of investments. This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced financial professional who is excited about that variety, and passionate about the mission, to have deep impact across the country by focusing on the stability and sustainability of the existing portfolio.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Portfolio Management
- Provide overall portfolio management of the SIP PRI portfolio, including direct investments, managed funds, guarantees, and many other “impact first” non-traditional investments.
- Maintain primary responsibility for workouts and troubled assets.
- Cultivate talent and provide day-to-day supervision of the portfolio management staff.
- Work with the Finance and Investments team to accurately forecast cash receipts and disbursements.
- Develop sophisticated portfolio management tools to quantify and monitor risk within the portfolio.
- Lead the buildout of new processes and recommend systems and technological improvements to improve management of the portfolio where needed.
- Generate and oversee the creation of monthly and quarterly reports and present relevant material to the executive team and board committee.
- Work with the Managing Director of SIP to develop and monitor Objectives and Key Results.
- Work with external partners to explore monetizing specific assets within the portfolio.
- Work with legal counsel to review and support portfolio activities.
- Be a central point of contact for many investee partners.
- Work with internal stakeholders to design and implement an SI Analyst program.
- Work with investees to unwind and exit existing SI transactions.
- Mentor and train junior staff.
- Represent SIP at external convenings, media events, and industry conferences.
- Maintain a strong working relationship with colleagues in Finance, Investments and Grants Management to ensure good internal controls and all necessary information is available to meet internal communication needs.
Candidate Profile
The ideal candidate will have the following professional and personal qualities, skills, and characteristics:
- Bachelor’s degree in business, nonprofit management, policy, finance, accounting, or related field
- Ten to fifteen years’ experience in philanthropy, portfolio management, commercial banking, or community development finance.
- Experience in program related investing, preferred.
- A strong track record of portfolio management.
- Experience in managing troubled assets, particularly around program goals.
- Demonstrated mission-driven professional who can balance the needs of professional portfolio management with empathy, compassion, and a commitment to our investees’ success.
- A demonstrated commitment to social impact and community development.
- Extensive experience in the nonprofit sector, philanthropy, and/or portfolio management.
- Demonstrated skills in financial forecasting, cash-flow management, portfolio management, financial modeling, policy and procedure development, and leadership.
- Highly developed relationship building skills to partner successfully with external partners and the internal operational teams.
- Ability to combine a high attention to detail with emotional intelligence to successfully support and lead members of the portfolio management team.
- Strong written and oral presentation skills to effectively communicate with a variety of internal and external stakeholders, including executive team members and board members.
Compensation & Benefits
The annual starting salary for this position is $186,413. Individual offers will be based on the candidate’s years of experience and our practice of upholding salary equity within the foundation.
Some of the benefits include:
- Health, dental, vision and life insurance
- Paid time off
- Half day Fridays
- 401k and 401k matching
- Tuition reimbursement
- Life, accident, and disability insurance
- Full relocation to the metro-Detroit area for eligible candidates
This position is located in Troy, Michigan and requires relocation to the metro-Detroit area within 90 days. The Foundation currently has a hybrid schedule with Tuesday and Wednesday as standard in-office days, however, there may be times when you will have to adjust the days based on work needs. This position also includes some domestic travel.
Contact
Koya Partners l Diversified Search Group has been exclusively retained for this engagement, which is being led by Erin Reedy and Shannon O’Neill. Submit a compelling cover letter and resume by filling out our Talent Profile. All inquiries are strictly confidential.
Kresge is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and strongly encourages applications from people of color, persons with disabilities, women, and LGBTQ+ applicants. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability or other applicable legally protected characteristics.