The Harold Grinspoon Foundation - Event Manager

The Event Manager plays a key role in shaping the success and impact of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation’s conferences and events. Reporting to the Director of Events, this position leads the planning and on-site execution of signature annual gatherings that strengthen relationships, elevate experiences, and advance the Foundation’s mission.  

This is a collaborative, highly visible role for a creative problem-solver who excels at coordination, communication, and customer service. The ideal candidate anticipates challenges, builds strong cross-department partnerships, and ensures each event demonstrates excellence, efficiency, and purpose. 

• Project manages the planning, logistics, and on-site execution of 2-3 signature HGF conferences annually, ensuring smooth operations and meaningful participant experiences by setting deadlines, planning the event, and tracking approval flow. 
• Act as a central connector between programs, operations, and communications teams to align goals, messaging, logistics and to execute digital, print, and marketing materials for events. 
• Develops and oversees comprehensive event project plans, event timelines, budgets, and deliverables, ensuring accountability and clarity across all teams. 
• Assist with collecting information for event budgets, invoice tracking, and payments. 
• Prepare a detailed conference run of show and schedule. 
• Build and maintain production schedules and load-in plans. 
• Support two additional HGF conferences annually. 
• Source, negotiate, and contract supplementary venues. 
• Anticipate and resolve challenges with resourcefulness and professionalism. 
• Foster strong partnerships across internal HGF teams to support high-quality execution. 
• Establish and maintain high quality relationships with existing vendors, and source new partners who can provide cost effective and creative services while meeting organizational standards, including but not limited to: 
• Catering: Plan and execute conference menus that accommodate kosher dietary laws, food allergies, and overall meal variety. Research and purchase conference snacks. 
• Photographers: Map out and schedule photographer based on needs and goals of the program team. 
• Audio Visual: Partner with AV vendors for cost effective, quality AV in both pricing and product. Manage event AV and production. 
• Supervise on-site vendor load-in/load-out and back-of-house areas. 
• Track conference data related to catering, hotels, and AV to inform event budgeting and planning. 
• Project manage ongoing conference video projects with HGF’s strategic storytelling partner. 
• Support HGF’s participation at external conferences, ensuring brand consistency, thorough logistics, and clear team communication. 
• Daily use of project management and event software (Wrike, Airtable, Bizzabo, and Slack) to enhance planning, reporting and collaboration. 
• Contribute to evolving the Foundation’s event strategy by planning with creativity, sustainability, and efficiency and by staying current with trends and best practices in the event planning and Jewish non-profit sectors. 
• Additional event responsibilities as assigned. 

Qualifications  

• 5+ years of experience in event management, ideally within mission-driven or foundation settings.  
• Demonstrated strength in cross-department collaboration and communication.  
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills. 
• Proven ability to lead on-site teams and manage multi-layered events from concept through completion.  
• Strong project management, with attention to detail, and consistent follow-through. 
• Exhibits the ability to understand how day-to-day tasks come together to create a broader event vision. 
• Demonstrates the ability to take an event vision and break it into actionable steps and timelines. 
• Creative, strategic thinker who remains calm and proactive under pressure.  
• Excellent interpersonal skills, with high emotional intelligence and the ability to navigate diverse work styles.  
• Proficiency in key event and project management platforms (Airtable, Wrike, and Bizzabo) and Microsoft Office Suite.  
• Commitment to continuous learning and innovation in event planning.  
• Availability for travel, including 6–8 trips per year that may last one week to ten days and quarterly visits to the Agawam, MA office.  
• Understanding this role works nontraditional hours and long days, leading up to and during events. Evenings and weekends are required for this role, including travel away from home for up to 7-10 days at a time.  
• Knowledge of the Jewish community and values-based event culture is a plus. 
• Valid driver’s license. 

Location 

This role is available fully remote within the U.S. or hybrid from our offices in New York City or Agawam, MA. Hybrid employees are expected to be onsite 60% of the time. All team members must be available during standard Eastern Time (ET) business hours for meetings and collaboration. 

Compensation  

A competitive salary ranging from $70,000–$80,000 annually commensurate with experience.