Senior Paralegal, Charitable Planning - Cleveland - Cleveland Foundation

Description

About Us

The Cleveland Foundation, established in 1914, is the world's first and one of the largest community foundations, with assets exceeding $3.9 billion. Our mission is to enhance the lives of all residents in Greater Cleveland, now and for generations to come.

As we continue to grow and evolve, we are dedicated to building strong relationships and trust across our community, working collaboratively to create innovative, impactful, and internationally recognized contributions to the field of philanthropy.

About You

You are a detail-oriented and proactive professional with a strong interest in both legal operations and accounting within a mission-driven nonprofit environment. Highly organized, analytical, and efficient, you thrive in roles that require precision, discretion, and thoughtful collaboration across disciplines. You bring the ability to execute and coordinate work at the intersection of Legal and Finance, supporting each function within clearly defined roles, controls, and accountability frameworks.

You are comfortable managing complex data, navigating compliance systems, and supporting financial processes while applying a strong legal lens to charitable planning and administration. Whether preparing fund agreements, assisting with complex outright and estate gifts, or managing gift processing and administration, you bring clarity, organization, and insight to every task. As a trusted partner to the Legal, Finance, and Philanthropy teams, you understand how disciplined legal and financial infrastructure underpins effective donor stewardship and philanthropic impact.

Job Summary

The Senior Paralegal, Charitable Planning & Administration role is a dual-function position that bridges Legal and Finance to support charitable planning, gift administration, and compliance. It advances the organization's goals by ensuring legally sound, well-coordinated charitable giving and gift administration processes while maintaining clear accountability within each department. As part of the Legal team, the role supports the General Counsel and Legal Counsel with legal services related to charitable giving, contracts, compliance, and legal operations, while also providing defined operational support to Finance. The position reports directly to the General Counsel, with finance-related work performed under the functional direction of the Vice President, Accounting.

Key Responsibilities

• Ensure legally sound, donor-intent–aligned charitable giving and gift administration by integrating legal oversight, compliance, and operational execution across the lifecycle of complex gifts, estates, trusts, and funds.
• Advance organizational effectiveness and risk management by supporting high-quality legal services, contract governance, and compliance practices related to charitable planning, agreements, and foundation operations.
• Enable accurate, timely, and compliant gift administration by overseeing critical processes for gift receipt, allocation, acknowledgement, fund setup, and specialized fund transactions in close coordination with Legal, Finance, and Philanthropy.
• Strengthen cross-functional coordination and donor experience by serving as a trusted operational and legal partner to internal teams, donors, and external advisors, ensuring clarity, consistency, and responsiveness in donor transactions.
• Improve systems, data integrity, and decision-making by contributing legal and operational expertise to Salesforce and contract management tools, and by producing reliable reporting on planned gifts, estates, trusts, and funds.

Competencies & Behavioral Expectations

• Judgment
• Communication
• Teamwork & Collaboration
• Adaptability
• Problem-Solving

Required Qualifications

• A bachelor's degree in a relevant field and/or paralegal certificate or equivalent legal training.
• Minimum five to seven years' experience in a paralegal, legal operations, trust and estate administration, charitable planning, or related role; nonprofit, finance, and/or in-house experience a plus.
• Demonstrated experience drafting and reviewing complex legal documents, including charitable gift agreements, fund agreements, estate and trust related documents, or comparable instruments.
• Working knowledge of estate planning, trusts, charitable giving vehicles, and donor-advised funds, including donor intent and compliance considerations.
• Experience supporting or coordinating estate and/or gift administration, receipting, or accounting-adjacent processes.
• Ability to work effectively in a dual-reporting or matrixed environment, balancing priorities across departments while maintaining clear role boundaries.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and data-management skills, with the ability to manage multiple workflows and deadlines with a high degree of accuracy.
• High level of discretion and sound judgment in handling confidential legal, financial, and donor information.
• Proficiency researching individuals and other funding sources through online resources (Lexis, etc.) and other electronic and print sources of information.
• The ability to collaborate successfully with a diverse group of individuals internal and external to the organization.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proficiency with software platforms, such as Agiloft, Salesforce, iPhi/Ren, PG Calc, Microsoft Office and/or other contract lifecycle or project management systems
• Work Environment
• The role is primarily office-based, involving frequent interaction with executives, staff, and external partners.
• The position may require prolonged periods of sitting, as well as occasional lifting of light office supplies and materials.
• Occasional extended hours to meet deadlines or support special events.
• Occasional travel may be required for meetings, events, or conferences.

Status: Regular, Full-Time, Exempt