GRANTS ACCOUNTING SPECIALIST NEEDED ASAP in SEATTLE, WA

[wa_reception]

THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
Saving the Last Great Places

POSITION DESCRIPTION


POSITION: GRANTS ACCOUNTING SPECIALIST
FLSA STATUS: Exempt


ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

The Grants Specialist is directly responsible for the fiscal oversight, administration and fundraising coordination of government-funded grants and contracts for the Washington Operating Unit of The Nature Conservancy (TNC). Fiscal and administrative responsibilities include preparing financial reports and tracking budgets for project managers, reviewing incoming award agreement documents, working with attorneys to draft contracts for services documents from standard templates, setting up awards in the central finance systems, preparing and submitting invoices, financial and progress reports to agencies and maintaining master agreement files and databases. The Grants Specialist is an essential part of a public fundraising team with duties that include prospecting for government grant funding opportunities, reviewing proposal documents and budgets, compiling and submitting grant application packets to agencies and tracking outstanding proposals, fundraising goals and dollars raised to date.

The Grants Specialist works closely with:
• Project managers, protection staff and partners to review proposal budgets and financial reports to ensure that the terms and conditions of agreements are met and properly documented,
• TNC’s legal staff and external agency contracting officers to negotiate financial and administrative requirements of new agreements,
• Contract managers and legal staff to serve as primary point of contracts for services administration issues and ensure that contracts meet TNC standard operating procedures and administrative requirements,
• Scientists, conservation program and public fundraising staff to identify fundable priority work and government grant funding opportunities and to coordinate the proposal drafting and submission processes,
• External Affairs Department staff to track public fundraising prospects and chart progress for quarterly board reporting and fundraising campaigns,
• Internal Audit and Grants Services Network staff to respond to inquiries and the resolution of action items detailed in audit response reports, and with
• Finance Department staff to draft annual budgets and communicate issues relevant to TNC’s operations.

The Grants Specialist will be based in Seattle and support the Washington Operating Unit. The position is supervised by the Federal Government Relations Director and works in the External Affairs Department.


KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS:
• Bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting or business administration and 2 to 3 years related experience or equivalent combination. Minimum 2 years of successful experience in government grants and contracts administration preferred.
• Current knowledge of applicable U.S. Federal government circulars (OMB Circulars A-110, A-122 and A-133), state and local regulations, and ability to interpret standard contract clauses.
• Demonstrated experience in MS Office, including Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint. Requires adeptness with Excel and ability to manipulate, analyze and interpret data and produce reports.
• Demonstrated experience using accounting, database and financial reporting systems.
• Excellent organizational, proofreading, writing and verbal communication skills.


COMMUNICATIONS/INTERPERSONAL CONTACTS:
• Communication and presentation skills include ability to persuasively convey TNC‘s mission and standard operating procedures to staff, partners and sponsoring public agencies.
• Ability to solicit program support through clear written communications, including proposal writing and other written materials.

COMPLEXITY/PROBLEM SOLVING:
• Proven ability to organize priorities, meet deadlines, and manage peak periods of activity while maintaining related paper records.
• Experience in interpreting guidelines and analyzing factual information and ability to modify processes in response to changing circumstances.
• Successful experience in researching, and compiling information from many sources.
• Strong problem solving skills.

RESPONSIBILITY/OVERSIGHT –FINANCIAL & SUPERVISORY:
• Financial responsibility includes budget development and external reporting to donors.
• Ability to identify and resolve issues having financial implications.
• Must be able to coach and work collaboratively with others.

DISCRETION/LATITUDE/DECISION-MAKING:
• Exercise independent judgment. Work affords significant opportunity to act independently on assigned tasks.
• Act in supervisor’s stead when instructed.
• Ability to exercise discretion and maintain confidences.

WORKING CONDITIONS/PHYSICAL EFFORT:
• Work requires only minor physical exertion and/or strain.
• Willingness to travel to area project sites/offices and to organization-wide meetings.





Please submit cover letter and resume by May 29th, 2007 to wa_reception@tnc.org or The Nature Conservancy Search Committee 1917 First Avenue Seattle, WA 98101





The Nature Conservancy is an Equal Opportunity Employer