Senior Partnerships Manager

DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help a teacher in need, moving us closer to a nation where every student in every community has the tools and experiences they need for a great education.

Since 2000, more than 5 million people and partners have contributed $1 billion to support 2 million teacher requests for classroom resources and experiences. Projects range from art supplies to build the set for a school musical, to books and puzzles that affirm students’ identities, to bird seed for an at-home science project. We proudly serve all US public schools, public charter schools, and Head Start centers, and we combat systemic inequity by driving a majority of donations to schools that have been historically underfunded due to economic and racial inequity.

DonorsChoose has been recognized as a best place to work by GOOD Magazine and the Nonprofit Times, while Fast Company named DonorsChoose one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World—the first time a charity has made this list. Our dedicated team works from across the United States to bring classroom dreams to life.

About the Corporate & Foundation Partnerships Team

As part of the Community Growth & Impact Team, the Corporate & Foundation Partnerships team raises funds for teachers and students by designing and executing philanthropic partnerships with corporations and foundations, and renewing and growing those partnerships over time. Typically we aim to raise $60M annually through creative, collaborative partnerships with our institutional donors. (More about our partnerships)

About the Role

As Senior Partnerships Manager, you will own relationships with multiple corporate and foundation partners, drive meaningful business and impact outcomes for our partners, and grow classroom support over time. Reporting to the Partnerships Director, you will serve as an additional resource and coach (second chair) to Manager-level peers and their portfolios, as needed.

Our team operates like a customer success team, delivering an excellent experience to our partners and using B2B consultative sales techniques to renew partner donations. We drive the DonorsChoose mission by unlocking partner support to address educational inequity.

In this role you will: 

• Grow and sustain partner support
  • Contribute to our revenue goal by securing fundraising from your portfolio of $250K+ partners.
  • Cultivate deep relationships with your partners. Become the expert on what motivates them, what constraints they might face, how their organizations are structured, and what may be on the horizon to drive retention and increased partner support.
  • Identify opportunities to meet additional business or impact goals for your partners and craft customized pitch ideas to engage each partner and inspire them to support our mission.
  • Learn and iterate on our sponsorship benefits and partnership options, and leverage our data to craft bespoke and impactful pitches.
• Manage and execute best-in-class partner campaigns
  • Work directly with corporate and foundation partners and lead cross-functional project teams to meet partner goals, impact milestones, and organizational priorities.
  • Deliver excellent operational outcomes and creative solutions for partnership deliverables such as connection to schools, employee engagement, media storytelling, and funding logistics.
  • Analyze and present data and stories to illustrate partners’ impact.
• Contribute to team
  • All team members share sales and partnership strategies, support teammates when needed, and identify other opportunities to contribute to the team and organizational culture. 
  • Serve as a resource and coach (second chair) to Manager-level peers for external meetings with relationships in their portfolios, as needed.
  • Own and maintain partnership records, continuously updating key details and logging emails, calls, and meeting notes.
  • You’ll also play a key role in our evolution to more directly address racial inequity in education through our partnerships.

This role may be perfect for you if:

• You’re committed to our mission to support