Vice President of Grantmaking

Are We the Place for You?
We are a nonprofit organization and a certified community development financial institution (CDFI) intermediary that was founded in 1974 and headquartered in New York City. Inclusiv is the largest network of community development credit unions (CDCUs) dedicated to fostering financial inclusion in low-income communities across the country. Through our network of over five hundred community development credit unions, we serve more than twenty million individuals with limited incomes or those living in historically redlined areas. Collectively, our members support people in low-income urban, rural, and reservation-based communities nationwide, managing over $295 billion in community assets.

In 2024, Inclusiv was selected for one of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Communities Investment Accelerator (CCIA) awards and will be using these funds to create a new grantmaking program to support credit unions that will initiate and expand affordable green lending programs that serve low-income and disadvantaged communities.

Is This the Career for You?
The Vice President of Grantmaking will spearhead a groundbreaking initiative that will distribute $1.68 billion in grants to credit unions over 4 to 5 years. This program will enable credit unions to offer lower-cost loans for clean energy and energy efficiency projects in low-income and disadvantaged communities (LIDACs), which often face barriers to participation in the green economy.

In this pivotal role, the Vice President will be responsible for building and leading a dynamic team of twelve professionals dedicated to the design, implementation, and management of the grant program for CCIA. This team will be tasked with crafting innovative grantmaking strategies that not only meet the program's objectives but also align with the needs and capabilities of credit unions. The Vice President will report directly to the Senior Vice President of the Center for Resiliency and Clean Energy, collaborating closely with various stakeholders, including the CCIA Credit Union Success team, the Network team, Inclusiv Senior Management, and credit union lenders.

The responsibilities of the Vice President of Grantmaking will encompass all facets of the grantmaking process. This includes developing comprehensive program guidelines and criteria, overseeing the application and selection process, and ensuring that projects are successfully launched and executed at the credit union level. Additionally, the Vice President will be tasked with troubleshooting any challenges that arise throughout the grant lifecycle, ensuring that the program remains on track to achieve its ambitious goals.

The ideal candidate for the Vice President of Grantmaking role will approach this role with imagination, collaboration, and flexibility, fully equipped to lead the implementation of this transformative initiative. To succeed in this role, it will be important to have experience in one or both of the following areas:

• CU Lending: Experience and understanding of how to create and manage a successful and fi-nancially sound credit union lending program that understands how to responsibly lend to low-income and disadvantaged borrowers.

• Sophisticated Grantmaking: Understanding of how to manage (and/or build) a rigorous grantmak-ing program at a sophisticated grantmaking organization (large foundation or government)

We are looking for a leader who brings confidence and enthusiasm and can think strategically and quickly move from strategy to implementation, creating a clear structure and detailed work plan, and building the team to execute the program deliverables. This role will apply a cooperative approach to design a grantmaking process that will bolster the institutional strength of credit unions and enhance their capacity to support green lending practices in communities most affected by disproportionately high energy cost burdens and increasingly devastating climate and weather events. Our perfect candidate will be open-minded, inquisitive, and strategic, with a demonstrated commitment to credit union lending and impactful and rigorous grantmaking practices.