Grant Accountant

Inside Philanthropy; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Public Counsel is seeking a Grant Accountant to join its Finance team in Los Angeles. The role manages accounting for grants, post-award activities, and audit preparations.

The position requires collaboration with the Grants team, program staff, and senior leadership to ensure compliance and effective spend-down of awarded funds. The successful candidate will maintain grant records, prepare invoices and reports, monitor expenditures, and contribute to process improvements in reporting and

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration/Accounting or related field.
• Advanced certification in grant accounting or management/administration preferred.
• Minimum 2-3 years of work experience in nonprofit grant accounting.
• Recent experience with nonprofit financial software, preferably Financial Edge or other Blackbaud products.
• Federal and other government grant, contract, and subcontract administration experience preferred.
• Post-award management of legal services grants and contracts preferred.
• Office of Management and Budget (Uniform Guidance) regulations and compliance experience preferred.

Responsibilities

• Maintain accurate financial records for assigned grants, including revenue, expenditures, and budget-to-actual monitoring.
• Review financial terms and conditions for subgrant and subcontract agreements.
• Serve as primary contact for audits and funder monitoring visits.
• Prepare monthly invoices, summary financial reports, and other sponsor reports.
• Monitor project activity to prevent over/under expenditure and review reimbursements.
• Collaborate with Grants, Legal Data, and program staff to respond to inquiries.
• Lead preparation of internal and external financial reports with program teams.
• Recommend improvements to accounting procedures and grant management processes.
• Design grant reporting dashboards and maintain grant knowledge.

Skills

Grant accounting

Nonprofit finance

Auditing support

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business Administration/Accounting

Grant accounting certification

Tools

Financial Edge

Blackbaud products

Job description

ABOUT PUBLIC COUNSEL

Public Counsel is a nonprofit public interest law firm dedicated to advancing civil rights and racial and economic justice, as well as to amplifying the power of our clients through comprehensive legal advocacy. Founded on and strengthened by a pro bono legal service model, our staff and volunteers seek justice through direct legal services, promote healthy and resilient communities through education and outreach, and support community-led efforts to transform unjust systems through litigation and policy advocacy in and beyond Los Angeles.

Public Counsel organizes its work through seven legal teams: Child, Youth & Family Advocacy, Community Development, Consumer Rights & Economic Justice, Homelessness Prevention, Immigrants’ Rights, Education Equity, and our impact litigation team, Opportunity Under Law.

Public Counsel has a staff of approximately 170. We are committed to building a diverse staff and encourage applications from people of color, people with disabilities, and people of all gender identities, gender expressions, and sexualities. We recognize the essential role of staff in achieving our goals, and we have set a long-term intention to provide competitive compensation, benefits, training, mentorship, and overall workplace wellness, making Public Counsel a leader among nonprofit law firms.

ABOUT THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT

Public Counsel’s Finance team is currently comprised of the Chief Financial Officer, Controller, Assistant Controller, Grant Accounting Manager, Accounting Analyst, and Finance Associate. The team manages the financial operations for a $25M+ budget, including planning, budgeting, accounting, and reporting on a diversified funding stream of individual contributions, grants, contracts, program service fees, and other sources of revenue.

JOB SUMMARY

Reporting to the Grant Accounting Manager, the Grant Accountant will join Public Counsel’s Finance team. The Grant Accountant will be responsible for managing the accounting and post-award (fiscal) aspects of all assigned contracts and grants.

The Grant Accountant role is critical to grant compliance and efficient spenddown of awarded funds. This individual will use the data to engage in analysis and make recommendations to senior leadership regarding factors that impact grant performance, including staffing and other expenditures. The person in this position must be able to work autonomously. This position exercises independent judgment and discretion and is responsible for making recommendations to improve grant reporting procedures, compliance, accounting procedures, and grant performance. This position supports the Controller in the annual audit process, while ensuring accuracy and effectiveness in all accounting procedures. This position also works closely with the Chief Financial Officer to perform additional required financial analysis and projections/modeling related to grants and contracts.

This position will involve the full breadth of grant accounting, with both pre-award and post-award activities, including budgeting, monitoring, and financial close-out. The position will have the following responsibilities:

• Maintain accurate financial records for assigned grants, including revenue, expenditures, and budget-to-actual monitoring
• Review financial terms and conditions for subgrant and subcontract agreements between Public Counsel and external partners and funders
• Serve as primary contact for assigned grants during single audits, desk audits, and funder monitoring visits including determining which documentations answers auditor requests and resolves findings
• Prepare monthly invoices, summary financial reports, and other reports required by funding agencies according to sponsor requirements
• Monitor monthly assigned project activity to prevent over or under expenditure and review submitted check requests and expense reimbursements to ensure they are allowable, reasonable, and allocable to the grant or contract
• Respond to requests for information and interact regularly with the Grants team, the Legal Data team, Directing Attorneys, and program staff
• Represent Public Counsel in responding promptly to inquiries from federal and non-federal contracts and grants officers, providing information (budget clarification and justifications) and documentation to meet their needs and requirements
• Lead the preparation of internal and external financial reports, including monthly and quarterly check-ins with programmatic teams
• Provide feedback on improving accounting procedures, reporting workflows, and grant management systems
• Design and put in place grant reporting dashboards and accounting processes for program teams
• Maintain knowledge of active grants and related reporting requirement
• Work closely with Directing Attorneys and Grant Accounting Manager on budgeting
• Review grant coding on expenditures to ensure compliance
• Prepare journal entries and reconcile grants invoices with general ledger
• Reconcile assigned general ledger accounts and prepare grant financial statements
• Review and monitor subcontracts and ensure proper general ledger reporting
• Perform other duties as assigned

Requirements

ESSENTIAL JOB SKILLS AND ABILITIES

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration/Accounting or related field, OR a combination of education and years of experience in a directly related field
• Advanced certification in grant accounting or management/administration preferred
• Minimum 2-3 years of work experience in nonprofit grant accounting
• Recent experience with nonprofit financial software, preferably Financial Edge or other Blackbaud products
• Federal and other government grant, contract, and subcontract administration experience preferred
• Post-award management of legal services grants and contracts preferred
• Office of Management and Budget (Uniform Guidance) regulations and compliance experience preferred