Director of Investments & Strategy

Director of Investments & Strategy

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Chicago Beyond is a national philanthropic organization that addresses systemic inequity by backing solutions led by those closest to the issues. Since our inception in 2016, Chicago Beyond has invested more than $65 million in catalytic funding in over 250 individuals and community organizations while leading national systems‑change initiatives. Because there is no single barrier to equity, Chicago Beyond engages in opportunities across philanthropy, justice, health, and beyond.

• Multiyear Investment Partners: Through multimillion‑dollar, flexible grants and partnership support, we work to increase the impact of solutions led by those closest to the issues.
• Rapid Response Fund: This fund quickly delivers unrestricted grants to organizations and individuals with solutions for their own communities across the country. Our investments strengthen partners’ wide‑ranging work.
• Leader in Residence: The Leader in Residence program offers funding and support to selected leaders, empowering them to develop innovative, transformative ideas that create meaningful impacts in targeted communities.

Chicago Beyond was founded by Liz Dozier, a nationally renowned former educator and high school principal. Chicago Beyond’s innovative and impactful work has been featured on both the local and national level from the Chicago Tribune to the Clinton Global Initiative to Aspen Ideas Festival and Stanford Social Innovation Review. For more information on Chicago Beyond, please visit Chicago Beyond.

The Director of Investments & Strategy is a senior leader responsible for shaping and executing Chicago Beyond’s investment strategy, leading the full investment lifecycle, driving organizational strategy in partnership with senior leaders, and ensuring that learning from our partners meaningfully informs our work. The role integrates investment strategy, impact measurement, and ongoing learning to ensure that Chicago Beyond deploys resources in ways that elevate new possibilities, challenge conditions holding systemic inequities in place, and generate actionable insights for the field.

Reporting to the Chief Strategy Officer, the Director will lead the Investments team, steward the investments process from sourcing to contracting and partnership management, and ensure that our work is aligned with our mission, values, and long‑term goals. In addition to what is outlined below, you will be responsible for other duties as assigned to support the goals and objectives of the organization.

• Identifying & Translating Trends into Investment Strategy: Evaluate ecosystem trends and partner learnings to identify emerging patterns, insights, and high‑leverage opportunities for impact. Lead Chicago Beyond’s investment strategy, ensuring alignment with mission, values, systemic opportunities, and organizational priorities. Develop and refine investment theses that articulate the problem, systemic levers for change, and the potential models that can drive change.
• Learning & Insight Capture: Ensure the consistent capture of learnings from diligence, partner conversations, and field experiences. Build structures (templates, trackers, debriefs, reflection routines) that surface insights early and reliably before they become obvious to the field. Lead the organization in identifying how these insights can shift practices in the field. Redesign approaches to partner learning conversations that unlock new ideas, strengthen outcomes, and generate insights that drive systems change, future external insights products, and our voice in the field.
  
  Develop approaches for internal learning conversations that translate insights into strategic shifts and organizational priorities.
• Organizational Strategy & Strategic Initiatives: Partner with the Chief Strategy Officer to lead organizational strategic planning, ensuring strategy remains adaptive and informed by partners, ecosystem shifts, and internal reflection. Lead major strategic initiatives from concept to execution, managing cross‑functional timelines, resources, and…