Grants Support Coordinator

Position Summary

The Grants Support Coordinator reports directly to the Division Chair for Social Sciences and Education and will be primarily responsible for providing administrative support to faculty in the Division of Social Sciences and Education, on their externally-funded grants.

There may be other duties as assigned by the Division Chair. The individual will be managing multiple tasks simultaneously and may deal with materials that are sensitive and confidential in nature.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities A. Manages budget and procurement functions for divisional faculty and for the Division Chair for grant budgets from federal agencies, foundations or corporations, and any other budgets as assigned.

This may include, but not limited to :

• Develops and implements comprehensive strategies to acquire and manage procurement-related requests;
• Creates requisitions in SpelShop for ordering supplies, creating purchase orders, and invoicing;
• Submits check requests in SpelShop for student stipends, travel, and other reimbursements;
• Assists vendors with completion of vendor profiles, independent contractor agreements, guest speaker forms, sole source justification forms, and ACH forms for direct deposit;
• Works closely with Accounts Payable to ensure prompt approval and payment of invoices;
• Collaborates with colleagues in the offices of Spelman Technology Services (STS), Environmental Health & Safety Compliance (EHSC), and Facilities Management & Services (FMS) to secure approvals for special requests for equipment;
• Coordinates with the appropriate individuals to ensure orders are received, properly inventoried, and tracked as necessary;

Manages and monitors the process to completion.

• Provides correspondence to the end-user regarding the status of orders;
• Maintains spreadsheets (Excel or Smartsheets) and documents related to expenditures (and appropriate budget adjustments) for all budgets managing;
• Reconciles budgets in Ellucian Banner, ensures that all journal entries are posted to the correct budget account lines, and interfaces with Administrative Services to resolve budget and vendor disputes;
• Submits budget transfer requests after consulting divisional faculty and receiving approved budget justifications and College policies on allowable transfers;
• Processes paperwork for stipends, per diems, summer salary, and the disbursement of other funds for faculty and the Division Chair on their grants.

B. Provides programmatic support for divisional faculty with grants, which may include, but not limited to :

• Hires students to serve as research assistants or other roles as indicated in approved budget justifications (may be listed as participant support costs’ on budgets);
• Reserves rooms for major meetings associated with grant budgets (e.g. workshops, meetings of undergraduate research assistants);
• Assists with planning events, including creating flyers, sending out correspondence to constituents, making travel arrangements, ordering food, etc;
• Responds promptly to emails and phone messages from faculty, students, vendors, guest speakers and consultants receiving payment from externally-funded grants;
• Interfaces with key units of the college (Office of the Provost- Faculty Affairs, Office of Research, Innovation, & Collaboration (ORIC), or Institutional Advancement) as needed to manage grant-funded activities;
• Maintains a calendar of grant-funded events as well as key divisional events and websites.

C. Works closely with ORIC’s Research Development & Sponsored Programs Unit (Grants Specialists), Foundation Relations in Institutional Advancement, and Budgets & Contracts on post-award management of externally-funded grants.

D. Participates in budget orientation meetings with new awardees.

E. Supports management with information and reports by doing the following :

• Develops and maintains a database or repository of grants funded to faculty in the Division;
• Creates reports about grants in the Division and the various activities / initiatives;
• Composes, edits, and revises documents and routine correspondence;
• Gathers information and formats ancillary materials needed for reports (annual, quarterly, monthly);
• Works with ORIC’s Evaluation, Monitoring, & Data Unit as needed for evaluation reports;
• Assists with the collection of documentation related to partnerships and MOUs;
• Drafts presentations and reports about the Division’s grant-funded initiatives;
• Provides information to various constituencies regarding grant-funded programs and research activities in the Division as requested and approved by the Division Chair.

F. Assists divisional faculty in managing student activities related to grant-funded scholarships :

• Organizes materials needed to select students for scholarship programs;
• Develops information needed to orient students to the requirements of each program;
• Implements a comprehensive approach for disseminating program information to a range of constituencies;
• Coordinates with ORIC’s Undergraduate Research & Training Programs Manager as needed to support activities related to grant-funded research and training activities.

G. Participates in professional development seminars, workshops, and conferences; and stays abreast of current trends related to research administration, which may include learning topics to become a certified research administrator (CRA).

H. Supervises general college work-study students, when needed. Required Qualifications Bachelor’s degree and four years of administrative / grant management experience, or an equivalent combination of education, experience, and training is required, preferably in a college / university setting.

This position requires strong customer service focus, attention to detail, and time management skills. Professional demeanor with the ability to interface with internal and external customers with diplomacy, tact, and confidentiality is essential.

Independent judgment is necessary to plan, prioritize and organize a diversified workload with attention to detail. Work requires fact-finding and compilation skills plus ability to perform a variety of tasks simultaneously.

Must possess the aptitude to learn quickly.

Excellent oral communication skills are required when providing information and responding to questions from internal and external customers in one-on-one or group situations.

The individual must be able to write business correspondence and procedure manuals plus compose memos, letters, and e-mails.

Also, must be able to read, analyze, and interpret documents such as safety rules, operating and maintenance instructions, proposals, award documents, and procedural manuals.

Good proofreading skills are essential.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must have advanced level computer skills using the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook) and Adobe.

In addition to producing correspondence, memos and e-mails, duties may involve assignments that require creating mail merges, fliers, newsletters, fillable forms, PowerPoint presentations, tables, graphs, and spreadsheets containing formulas and pivot tables.

Preferred Qualifications The use of applications such as SmartSheets, Qualtrics, Google Forms, and social media platforms are strongly preferred.

Certifications, Licenses, Restrictions None. Physical Demands While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to : sit, walk, use hands to handle office supplies, operate computer and other office equipment, talk, and hear.

The employee is frequently required to reach with hands and arms , and stand. The employee is occasionally required to : climb, and lift and / or move up to 15 pounds.

Specific vision abilities required by this job include the ability to adjust focus. Shift Days % Travel Required 0% Full Time / Part Time Full-time Work Location / Schedule : This position requires onsite work and is not eligible for remote work.

FLSA Non-Exempt Number of Vacancies 1 Anticipated Candidate Start Date Position End Date