Fund Manager

Position Title: Fund Manager

Reports To: Executive Director

Location: Hybrid – Boston (minimum 3 in-office days/week)

Salary Range: $87,000 to $95,000

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About City Life / Vida Urbana:

City Life/Vida Urbana is a 52-year-old multilingual, grassroots housing justice organization committed to building collective power to fight displacement and win housing as a human right. We use a radical organizing model that connects personal housing struggles to broader systems change. Our team is grounded in shared values of racial, economic, and gender justice, and we seek team members who thrive in collaborative environments.

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Position Overview:

City Life/Vida Urbana is an organization that innovates and transforms to meet the needs of our communities. One of our next projects is an anti-displacement real estate fund, known as “REfund.” The fund is set to enter its pilot phase by the end of 2025. It seeks to raise $5 million to enable our communities to acquire tens of deed-restricted, tenant-governed affordable housing units across Greater Boston.

We are seeking a fund manager to steward REfund. In this role, you will be responsible for implementing the fund's strategies and operations. This role is unique in that it draws on expertise across multiple domains, such as community organizing, housing policy, financial regulation, and real estate. Unlike conventional fund managers who primarily serve investors, a successful REfund fund manager will work in right relationship across many constituencies – tenants, community-based organizations, mission-aligned investors, and broader city-wide actors.

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Key Responsibilities:

We envision the responsibilities of our fund manager to cover several areas, which are likely to fluctuate based on where REfund is in its life cycle. For example, finalizing fund design, fundraising may take higher priority in the early stages of REfund, while deal origination and working with borrowers may take more time in its later stages.

Deal Origination & Process Facilitation

• Engage extensively with City Life’s organizers and its tenant associations to inform how REfund can support ongoing organizing efforts, especially to uplift building acquisition as a possible outcome of the City Life’s “the sword, the shield, and the offer” model
• Source, evaluate, and present investment opportunities to REfund’s loan committee centered on the fund’s investment criteria
• Connect or convene with REfund’s advisory committee when needed for particular transactions

Fund Design and Administration

• Finalize fund processes such as underwriting criteria, reporting requirements, and governance structure.
• Manage the fund's overall portfolio, partnering with REFund’s back office service partner Seed Common to monitor project cash flow and offer oversight on materials for investors
• Coordinate with Seed Commons to help ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations
• Provide impact reporting as needed to ensure community transparency and accountability (minimum quarterly)

Education

• Facilitate regular workshops using popular and political education approaches to build the capacity for City Life members, staff, and Board to understand and govern REfund
• Iterate curriculum developed as part of City Life / Vida Urbana’s “REfund Ready” series

Fundraising

• Identify and cultivate relationships with individual and institutional investors aligned with the fund's mission and values
• Represent the fund publicly and communicate its mission, strategy, and impact to diverse audiences, especially to support City Life’s broader campaigns and narrative strategies

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Qualifications:

• Lived, learned, and/or labored experience implementing projects that advance racial and economic justice.
• A grounded perspective on the political economy of housing and how the tools of finance can support movements for community control.
• Proficient in financial analysis, particularly in affordable housing. Has a deep understanding of integrated capital approaches and their relational possibilities for community-led investment.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and relationship-building skills. Demonstrated experience in using popular and political education approaches to teach and learn from/with others.
• Strong strategic thinker with high attention to detail and openness to experimentation and adaptation.
• Comfortable operating in ambiguity, with a desire to seek clarity. Determined to ask hard questions to ensure alignment and comprehension.
• Commitment and dedication to City /Life’s community organizing and grassroots leadership development first. Experience engaging in principled struggle and transforming dominant culture in the workplace.
• Substantial familiarity with Boston's housing and philanthropic ecosystems
• Spanish fluency is a plus.

• 100% employer-paid medical and dental insurance
• Health Reimbursement Account (HRA)
• 401(k) with employer contribution after 9 months
• 3 weeks paid vacation, 12 paid holidays, and sick leave

• Spanish fluency is a plus.