Director, Corporate Partnerships

How You’ll Contribute

The Advancement, Institutional Partnerships Team cultivates, solicits, and stewards philanthropic foundations, government and corporate partners who invest in the Society to drive impact through science, technology, education, exploration, and storytelling. The team collaborates with Society teams – and often works closely with NatGeo Content – to build transformative and impact-driven strategic partnerships. The team also produces global events that deepen connections and leverage the Society’s power to convene, and directs robust annual, major and planned giving programs empowering the Society with a broad base of public support.

The Director, Corporate Partnerships is a leader on Institutional Partnerships, Corporate Partnerships team and is responsible for identifying, cultivating, securing, and stewarding corporate philanthropic partnerships to advance the Society’s priorities and goals. They will design and implement market-driven strategies for business development outreach aligned with the National Geographic Society brand and mission.

Reporting to the Senior Director, Corporate Partnerships and located at the Society’s headquarters office in Washington, DC, the Director, Corporate Partnerships will collaborate across the Advancement, Communications and Programs teams to develop compelling partnership proposals that engage leading global corporations and corporate foundations in the Society’s work. They will be a creative, solutions-oriented professional with demonstrated experience in building successful corporate partnerships that leverage meaningful impact to meet mutual business objectives. They will steward a portfolio of high-impact, high-value partnerships, ensuring strategic alignment across internal teams and external partners, while driving measurable impact and deepening engagement to advance shared partnership goals. This includes serving as the relationship manager for the Chubb partnership, Blue Boundaries Initiative- a new research and conservation program focused on freshwater wetlands, coastlands, and reefs. This position will ensure the partnership is well-managed and executed across several programmatic areas, oversee the fulfillment of partnership deliverables, stay attuned to evolving partnership needs, lead monthly reporting and updates for the partnership, and serve as the primary point of contact with the company.

Your Impact

Responsibilities Include:

• Manage and cultivate a portfolio of high-value, high-impact partnerships, ensuring strong alignment between internal stakeholders and external partners, while delivering measurable results and fostering sustained engagement to achieve the partnership’s shared objectives (75%).

• Identify, cultivate, and steward potential new and current corporate partnerships that align with NGS priorities through proactive outreach, including representing NGS in meetings, events, trade shows, etc. (5%)

• Lead the internal development, coordination and review of corporate philanthropic partnership proposals, including collaboration and strategic alignment across Advancement, Communications and Programs divisions (10%)

• Develop, implement, and track strategic plans for corporate partnership engagement for priority NGS programs working closely with other Institutional partnership engagement staff as well as program leads (5%)

• Serve as a thought partner in developing creative and compelling partnership strategies across the Institutional Partnerships Team to engage, retain and grow NGS’s corporate partners (5%)

What You’ll Bring

Educational Background

Bachelor’s degree required, Masters degree preferred. 

Minimum Years and Type of Experience   

10+ years of experience in corporate partnerships, fundraising, corporate social impact, partnership marketing, business development or related fields. 

Necessary Knowledge and Skills

• Demonstrated success in securing and managing 6-7 figure corporate partnerships in a non-profit setting

• Understanding of current trends in corporate social responsibility, sustainability, DEI, and communications

• Strong communication and presentation skills with a high degree of confidence in interacting with senior executives

• Evening/weekend hours for assigned meetings or events and 15-20% travel will be expected when normal operations resume 

 Desired Qualifications

• A creative, solutions-oriented approach to building mu