Managing Director, Climate Justice Fund

Job description

About Candide Group: Candide Group leverages capital to support the transition away from an extractive global economy to one that is built upon values of social justice and sustainability. We are a SEC Registered Investment Advisor based in Oakland, California, that supports families, foundations, athletes and cultural influencers nationally who want their money working for social justice. As impact investors, we seek to foster social benefit alongside financial return. We recognize that achieving our values will require an intense reorganization of society, and thus the pursuit of multiple strategies - in addition to our core line of work pursuing transformative impact through investing, we also leverage traditional advocacy through active participation in activism campaigns, work with other organizations about how they can better align their money and values, and maintain a thriving presence in media to affect change.

We prioritize intersectional and systemic change approaches, both amongst our portfolio and within our advocacy work. Candide Group supports investments across all sectors, geographies, asset classes and stages - including direct investments and funds; debt and equity - as long as we believe there is a strong impact intervention, a viable financial case, and a team with the skills to execute. Over half our portfolio is led by people of color and women - in general we have a strong commitment to equity and inclusion both within our team and the teams we invest in.

About this Position: The past few years have been a time of phenomenal growth and development for Candide Group. We launched the Olamina Fund, a $40M debt vehicle creatively providing access to capital to women and communities of color, onboarded a number of new advisory clients, and added 15-20 new investee relationships to our clients' combined portfolios every year. We also launched a Climate Justice Investment Collective in 2020 that has been investing specifically in renewable energy and climate change related opportunities specifically designed to benefit low-income communities and communities of color.

We now have a core group of supporters excited to move our "deal by deal" work in climate justice into a fund format, with both operational support and investment capital. We thus view this position as a unique opportunity for someone with substantial climate finance experience looking to build a fund, to do so with the groundwork already well-established and with the support of a built-in team.

The Managing Director will have the opportunity to lead development and implementation of this new portfolio, which will include loans to a variety of climate justice initiatives such as community solar and wind, energy retrofits, clean energy access for low-income communities of color. While core commitments and operating support are already being negotiated, there will be some fundraising involved to continue scaling the fund with the support of Candide Group's broader team and partners. However the core responsibilities will be much more centered on building out the fund's model and processes, and very quickly executing on deals.

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Improve upon our existing pipeline of climate justice project debt opportunities, prioritizing organizations serving low-income and diverse populations
• Develop and finalize the fund model. This will include modeling the fund's portfolio construction (investment pacing, expected portfolio returns etc.), and projecting cashflows to ensure the fund is able to cover expenses and investor returns
• Develop fund offering documents, such as Operating Agreement and Loan Documents
• Support fundraising conversations with prospective investors in the fund
• Evaluate opportunities from start to finish, producing well-researched diligence memos (roughly a memo every 1.5-2 months). Expect a site visit per opportunity-some travel required
• Structure and negotiate investment terms. We expect this will require a lot of customization, as every investment is likely to require different terms. In general, most investments are expected to be structured project-level finance, which may include asset-backed lending, credit guarantees/enhancements, or project equity
• Manage reporting of fund progress, both to Candide Group partners and to the investors-ideally improving upon our current systems
• Contribute to thinking about how this particular portfolio can scale, and on occasion support other client portfolios with their private debt allocation

The Ideal Candidate:

• Has a deep commitment to the principles of climate justice and environmental justice, and lived experience of the impacts of climate change on communities
• Has structured direct debt deals and/or project finance facilities requiring creativity and financial savvy
• Has fundraising experience (or is enthusiastic about learning the process)
• Has evaluated and deployed capital into private debt strategies, in particular into funds or intermediaries
• Is comfortable and experienced working with diverse populations
• Self-starter comfortable working independently, with high quality standards for work product

Additional Information: Please note that we expect this Managing Director to relatively quickly hire an additional team member with underwriting experience to support on portfolio construction and ongoing deal management. If you see yourself as a great #2 eager to learn alongside an experienced professional, please feel free to still send your resume to include in our resume bank for future hires related to this fund.

Location: Oakland, California preferred. Open to remote under certain circumstances.

Compensation: Competitive salary, commensurate with experience.

Application Instructions: Please email the following documents as pdf files to with the subject line "Job Application: Climate Justice" by January 3, 2022. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

• Resume
• Cover Letter
• 3 References (just names; will not be contacted until later in the process)
• Sample diligence memo or other investment-related writing sample
• Salary expectation (optional)

Candide Group, LLC is an equal opportunity employer and places a high value on workforce diversity. Candide Group, LLC does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, age, national origin, marital status, disability, veteran status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local laws.