About Chicago Beyond

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.

We address systemic inequity in three ways: 

• Investments: We make catalytic investments to increase the impact of solutions led by those closest to the issues. 
• National Initiatives: We lead national initiatives in partnership with change makers to challenge and reshape the status quo.  
• Insights: We provide insights to disrupt and reimagine “systems as usual” and share learnings on equitable funding, practices, and policies. 

About Chicago Beyond’s Partners  

Through flexible funding, strategic support, and an equitable approach, Chicago Beyond’s partners are strongly positioned to provide high-quality services to their communities and reshape systemic structures to improve lives. 

Our investment partnerships include: 

• 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 chicagobeyond.org.

Position Detail

As the Administrative & Operations Associate at Chicago Beyond, you will play a pivotal role in shaping how people experience Chicago Beyond through our space and events in addition to keeping the organization running smoothly day-to-day.  

Reporting directly to the Director of Business Operations (DBO), this role closely leads and supports process improvement initiatives, project management, and core operational execution including administrative support to the leadership team. You will also help operationalize Chicago Beyond's strategy by translating priorities into reliable systems, thoughtful experiences, and well-run operations. This includes operationalizing our space strategy, supporting partners to ensure their events are smooth and effective, and maintaining the infrastructure that allows our teams and partners to do their best work.  

This is a hands-on, strategic, and highly trusted role for someone who is organized, proactive, detail-oriented, and comfortable navigating ambiguity. You will be a central connector across people, systems, and spaces, ensuring that our operations are reliable, responsible, and thoughtfully executed. 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.  

Key Responsibilities:    

Visitor Experience  

• Curate and continuously improve a consistent, high-touch visitor experience aligned with Chicago Beyond’s values.  
• Develop and maintain visitor experience standards. 
• Own the day-to-day experience of our space, ensuring it is welcoming, intentional, and thoughtfully maintained. 
• Serve as a visible, trusted on-site representative of Chicago Beyond and as the primary point of contact for general space inquiries and visitors. 
• Anticipate partner and guest needs, proactively addressing friction and elevating the experience.

Event Operations and Support 

• Develop, maintain, and continuously improve event experience standards, including AV playbooks and safety, security, and emergency protocols. 
• Support planning and execution of single and multi-day events of varying complexity, managing logistics including but not limited to catering, facilities, accessibility needs, registration, signage, materials, vendors, and space setup. 
• Coordinate closely with internal teams and national partners on pre-event planning, logistics, and post-event follow up. 
• Support development and execution of day-of run-of-show, including vendor coordination, to ensure a seamless participant experience. 
• Serve as a reliable operational partner to teams hosting events, anticipating needs, resolving issues in real time, and ensuring partners are set up for success so experiences run smoothly end-to-end. 
• Manage AV requirements and hybrid event technology based on event, content, and production requirements. 
• Coordinate post-event follow-up logistics as needed (materials, notes, reimbursements, documentation, Thank Yous, gifts). 
• Apply a continuous improvement mindset to capture lessons learned and raise the bar for future events.  

Operations and Process Improvement 

• Act as an operational partner to the Director of Business Operations, translating priorities into systems, workflows, and execution plans.  
• Partner closely with the Director of Business Operations on budget management, expense management, and financial reporting to ensure expenses are complete, accurate, timely, and aligned with internal controls. 
• Support hiring logistics across the full lifecycle, including scheduling interviews, coordinating candidates, supporting onboarding, and assisting with administrative aspects of professional development. 
• Develop & maintain dashboards and trackers for key operational areas such as events, inventory, and vendors, helping to create visibility, accountability and continuous improvement across our work 
• Identify opportunities and lead projects to improve efficiency, clarity, and effectiveness across administrative and operational processes. 
• Support special projects and initiatives assigned by the Director of Operations, collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to achieve objectives.  
• Support implementation of new tools, systems, or workflows led by the Director of Business Operations.

Executive Administrative Support

• Provide executive administrative support to key team members as required, including but not limited to calendar management, scheduling, meeting preparation, and business travel arrangements. 
• Serve as the primary point of contact for the organization, screening calls, responding to inquiries, and managing correspondence.  
• Assist the DBO with administrative needs (e.g., logistics, drafting correspondence, preparing reports, and conducting research). 
• Facilitate communication among team members, ensure timely dissemination of information, and manage several key organization-wide calendars (e.g., national comms calendar, events calendar, etc.). 

Office & Space Management  

• Own day-to-day office operations, including baseline AV setup, inventory management, supply procurement, kitchen upkeep, vendor relations, and ensuring shared spaces are clean, functional, and welcoming.  
• Manage usage of Chicago Beyond’s space, including partner requests, external meetings & events, managing/greeting visitors, setting up conference rooms, and organizing catering when necessary.  
• Serve as the point person for facilities, vendors, maintenance and office space requests, mailing and shifting, etc.  
• Open and close the space daily.   
• Develop and support safety, security, and emergency protocols for the space. 
• Manage key shared calendars (events, space usage, internal milestones).

Qualifications: 

• 2-4+ years of experience in administrative, executive support, operations, event management, project management, or office management roles. 
• Bachelor’s degree in business administration or related field.  
• Hospitality mindset with demonstrated expertise curating high-touch experiences and supporting complex events; experience with high-production or multi-day events a plus. 
• Service orientation mindset, acting before issues arise and anticipating needs.  
• Strong operational judgment and professionalism, with the ability to assess nuance, manage risk and trade-offs, and handle sensitive information with discretion and integrity.  
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with comfort engaging senior leaders and external stakeholders including partners, press, and public officials.  
• Comfort managing complexity under time pressure in fast-paced environments. 
• Proven ability to work independently, anticipate needs, adapt to changing priorities, and follow through reliably. 
• Process-oriented thinker with a continuous improvement mindset and ability to adapt processes over time. 
• Tech-savvy with strong fluency in collaboration, project management, calendar management software, email, and office tools (ex: Slack, Asana, Notion, CRM, Microsoft Office, calendar and email platforms) and comfort quickly learning new systems (including AV systems). 
• Strong organizational and project management skills, with the ability to prioritize tasks and manage multiple deadlines effectively.  
• Basic financial acumen, including experience with budget tracking and financial reporting; QuickBooks experience a plus.

Working at Chicago Beyond  

We are an agile, ambitious team with diverse experience across various sectors. We thrive on challenging each other and continuously learning, united by our passion for equity and lasting impact. If you are an entrepreneurial individual looking to join a dynamic community with significant opportunities to grow and shape what you do, then this will be a perfect role for you. Please note that this role currently requires 5 days in our Chicago office.    

Our values guide our work.   

• Always Equitable – People in our communities face unimaginable obstacles to achieving their fullest human potential. So, we must fight for equity, not equality. 
• Incessantly Urgent – The simple fact is that lives are literally at stake right now. The unacceptability of the situation requires our relentless bias to action in order to accelerate our impact. 
• Endlessly Creative – To dramatically impact the lives of our youth and communities, we must employ imagination to augment or replace the usual, typical, and predictable. 
• Stubbornly Audacious – Entrenched challenges require disruptive ideas boldly applied. We must be unafraid to embrace risks. 
• Uncompromising Integrity – How we achieve our mission is equally as important as our mission. We must do right by our youth, our communities, our partners, our teammates and ourselves.

Benefits  

The salary range for this role is $70,000 – 85,000. Chicago Beyond provides a comprehensive benefits package, including competitive medical, dental, and vision plans, a matching 401(k) program, and generous paid time off.  

Chicago Beyond is an equal opportunity employer and strongly encourages applications from people of color, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ+, and other underrepresented applicants.