Executive Assistant to COO

Position Grade: 4

THE AREA FOUNDATION

The Area Foundation serves as the community’s most trusted and impactful philanthropic partner, managing more than 500 charitable funds totaling $1.3 billion in assets. Coordinating efforts with numerous area nonprofits, the Area Foundation serves as a collaborative leader, connecting donors to address key community issues and investing in our future. Since 1964, over $900 million for scholarships and grants have been awarded to close opportunity gaps for those who need it most in San Antonio.

Learn more about your community foundation .

Our core values are Excellence, Passion, Integrity, and Community.

The Executive Assistant to the Chief Operating Officer serves as a trusted administrative and operational partner to the COO, providing high-level executive support, project coordination, workflow management, and cross-departmental follow-through. This role supports the effective operation of the COO’s office by managing priorities, preparing materials, coordinating communications, tracking action items, and helping ensure operational commitments move forward in a timely and organized manner.

• Executive & Administrative Support:
  Manage the COO’s calendar, scheduling, and meeting logistics, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities.
• Prepare agendas, materials, presentations, and follow-up documentation for meetings.
• Handle correspondence, emails, and communications on behalf of the COO with professionalism and discretion.
• Maintain accurate filing systems, records, and databases (digital and physical).
• Other duties as assigned.

• Manage and coordinate executive and cross-functional projects on behalf of the COO, ensuring timely execution, stakeholder accountability, and alignment with organizational priorities.
• Monitor project progress, identify potential risks or delays, and proactively escalate issues to the COO for resolution.
• Track deadlines, deliverables, risks, dependencies, and follow-up items across operational and cross departmental initiatives.
• Facilitate follow-up communications and accountability with stakeholders to ensure commitments are completed on schedule.
• Prepare reports, summaries, dashboards, briefing materials, and documentation for leadership, board, committee, and internal planning needs.
• Support operational projects related to facilities, HR, Learning and Development, staff meetings, culture initiatives, policy updates, and organizational planning.

• Supports onboarding, training, and ongoing guidance to ensure consistency in operational processes, customer service standards, and internal administrative support.
• Monitors work progress, provides feedback, and escalates priorities or performance concerns to the COO as appropriate.
• Helps ensure coverage, responsiveness, and continuity across front desk, operations support, meeting logistics, and administrative workflows.

• Serve as a liaison between the COO’s office and internal staff, board members, and external partners where applicable.
• Support the COO in fostering a collaborative, responsive, and service-oriented workplace culture.

• Assist with vendor and contract management, expense tracking, and budget support as applicable.
• Coordinate operational workflows and communications across teams as directed by the COO.

• Provide administrative support as needed to the Operations Department.
• Provide backup support to front desk and support coverage planning as needed.

Education & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree preferred; equivalent combination of education and experience will be considered.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in executive support, senior administrative support, operations coordination, or project support; nonprofit, foundation, or missions-driven experience preferred.
• Prior experience coordinating workflows, tracking action items, supporting senior leadership or providing lead/supervisory guidance preferred.

Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities

• Exercise sound judgment in prioritizing requests,…