Director, Development - Institutional Giving

Company Description

Uncommon Schools is a nonprofit network of high-performing, public charter schools providing an outstanding K-12 education in historically under-resourced communities. We have proudly built schools that reflect our student population, with more than 60% of our teachers and staff across our network identifying as a person of color. Uncommon currently manages 53 schools serving 20,000 students in five cities: Boston, Camden, New York City, Newark, and Rochester. We are proud that Uncommon graduates persist in and graduate from college at five times the rate of their peers nationally. We achieve this by offering strong academic, co-curricular, and social-emotional learning that prepares students for success in college and beyond.

Job Description

The Director of Institutional Giving will be responsible for planning, managing, and implementing activities that increase, diversify, and sustain philanthropic support for Uncommon Schools from foundations, corporations, and government entities. This person will be a leader on the Development team – they will be responsible for developing and driving institutional strategy across Uncommon’s Home Office and regions. They will serve as the lead relationship manager for a portfolio of private foundations, corporate partners, and other institutional donors and be responsible for creating and implementing a comprehensive development plan to reach short- and long- term fundraising goals both within this portfolio and the organization’s entire portfolio of institutional funders.

• Lead the creation and execution of a comprehensive strategy and implementation plan for current, lapsed, and new institutional donors to meet fundraising goals
• Manage relationships with a portfolio of institutional funders including producing grant applications, reports, presentations, invitations, and other correspondence associated with cultivating and soliciting funders, as well as leading the planning and execution of site visits, meetings, and events
• Lead institutional pipeline, being responsible for proposal and report preparation and compliance to all grant requirements across the team
• Expand and diversify foundation donor pipeline and work closely with other team members to secure funding for existing and new initiatives.
• Build out an up-and-coming corporate giving program to build a robust suite of volunteer and funding opportunities to attract corporate partners.
• Supervise the solicitation and management of competitive government grants, including leading collaboration with internal partners in order to ensure our compliance and meet program goals.
• Establish relationships and collaborate with school, regional, and Home Office teams to clearly define organization initiatives and tailor data and programmatic initiatives to align with the grant-making priorities of each funder
• Use data and insights from donor management system (Salesforce) to drive reporting and decision making across portfolio and maintain accurate and up-to-date records of progress with funders

Qualifications

• Commitment to the mission of Uncommon Schools
• Demonstrated experience and success cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding gifts from foundation and corporate funders; proven relationship management skills
• Deep knowledge of institutional fundraising landscape and trends
• Ability to represent the organization to prospective and current funders
• Superior written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills
• Demonstrated strategic planning and goal-setting skills
• Proficient in data analysis and using data insights to drive action
• Shown strength in project plan development, management, and execution; an ability to drive complex, multi-faceted projects forward to deliver results on time
• Sophisticated problem-solving and decision-making skills
• Ability to multi-task and lead multiple high-priority projects and deadlines at once
• Collaborative and team-oriented
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced entrepreneurial environment

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience and success cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding competitive government grants.
• Experience managing boards or other volunteer leadership
• Experience using Salesforce as donor CRM
• Familiarity with grants and working knowledge of Workday

Education Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required

Experience Requirements:

• 5-7+ years of progressively responsible experience in non-profit institutional fundraising
• Previous experience in K-12 public education preferred

Travel Requirements:

• Travel to schools locally and regionally on an ad hoc basis (approx. 1-2 times per month
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