Director of Institutional Relationships
About The Position
Family Promise of West Michigan is seeking a Director of Institutional Relationships to join their team. This role is responsible for securing and growing philanthropic support from family foundations, corporations, and private foundations. This highly external-facing, revenue-generating role serves as the organization’s primary relationship manager for institutional partners by cultivating and stewarding long-term relationships that result in increased philanthropic investment. The position reports to the Vice President of Strategic Growth. Family Promise of West Michigan's culture is centered on compassion, collaboration, and commitment to families, valuing teamwork, integrity, and a solutions-focused approach.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
- 3+ years of successful experience securing funding from family, corporate, and private foundations.
- Demonstrated success cultivating philanthropic relationships resulting in significant institutional investments.
- Exceptional interpersonal, networking, presentation, and written communication skills.
- Strong project management and organizational abilities with the capacity to manage multiple priorities.
- Experience collaborating across departments and working with CRM and grant management systems.
- Comfortable working in a multi-faith based, mission-driven environment.
- Proficiency in Google Workspace, donor management tools, and digital platforms.
- Documented valid driver’s license.
Responsibilities
- Develop and execute a comprehensive strategy to secure funding (~$1M+ annually) from family, corporate, and private foundations.
- Build and manage a diversified institutional giving pipeline that increases both the number and value of foundation and corporate philanthropic relationships.
- Develop and execute strategies to acquire new institutional funders, renew existing investments, and increase the level of support from qualified prospects and current partners.
- Maintain a qualified pipeline of prospects at various stages of identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship, with clear revenue projections and next steps.
- Represent Family Promise of West Michigan at networking events, foundation meetings, conferences, community events, and site visits.
- Identify new funding opportunities through research and community engagement.
- Monitor philanthropic trends and develop strategies to expand long-term foundation partnerships.
- Lead the development of letters of inquiry, grant proposals, concept papers, budgets, and supporting materials for private foundation opportunities.
- Collaborate with program, finance, and executive leadership to identify funding priorities and develop competitive proposals.
- Manage the proposal pipeline, submission calendar, revenue forecasting, and foundation stewardship activities.
- Maintain accurate records of foundation activity, proposals, awards, and relationship history within the organization's CRM.
- Partner with the finance team to ensure grant reporting, compliance requirements, and award administration are completed accurately and on time.
- Communicate grant expectations, allowable expenses, reporting requirements, and funding opportunities with program and finance staff.
- Track foundation revenue, proposal success rates, and relationship activity while providing regular updates to leadership.
- Additional duties as needed to support the agency.
Benefits
- health, dental, vision, short-term, and long-term insurance, maternity/paternity leave, 401k plan, and paid time off.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Director
