Corporate and Foundations Relationship Manager

Sasha Bruce Youthwork is the leading provider of homeless youth services in the DC region. Founded in 1974, Sasha Bruce Youthwork (SBY) works to improve the lives of runaway, homeless, abused, and neglected youth and their families in the DC region. We achieve this by providing shelter, counseling, life skills training, and positive youth development activities to approximately 1,500 youth and 5,000 family members each year. With 45 years of experience meeting the growing needs of DC’s youth and families with innovative programs, SBY is committed to ending youth homelessness once and for all. 

About this Position

Sasha Bruce Youthwork seeks a motivated and Corporate and Foundation Relations Manager to oversee and further develop the organization’s foundation and corporate relations program, with a primary responsibility of cultivating fruitful, long-term relationships with private foundations and corporate partners.

The successful candidate will be capable of mastering and articulating complex programmatic work to funders, and have prior experience working with foundations or corporations to secure five to six figure grants.

Working in partnership with the Director of Development & External Affairs, the Manager will be responsible for developing strategies for strengthening partnerships with corporations and foundations and securing grants. The position will report to the Director of Development & External Affairs and will work closely with the Executive Director, program staff, and Board members. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Personally manage engagement with a portfolio of active and prospective private foundations and corporate partners. In collaboration with program staff and the Senior Management Team engagement will include: phone/video conversations, in-person visits, and written communications, including letters of inquiry, proposals, reports, and informal updates.
• Provides guidance on how to expand the universe of foundations that fund Sasha Bruce Youthwork. A key activity will be preparing briefings for program staff and senior leadership on: emerging giving trends; positioning Sasha Bruce and key programs to match the giving priorities of foundations and corporations; establishing on-going conversations about youth issues of concern to foundations and to Sasha Bruce; and, articulating emerging issues and programs and how foundations and corporations can partner with Sasha Bruce to build new capacity.
• Develops strong and productive working relationships with leadership and program staff in order to advance fundraising and programmatic goals.
• Collaborates with the Development Director to determine annual income budget goals from corporations and foundations.
• Assists in developing a process that provides as much lead time as possible to allow program staff to discuss and formulate objectives and deliverables. Provide guidance to program staff and senior management on how to effectively communicate the match between Sasha Bruce activities and foundation/corporate giving interests.
• Provide guidance on presenting financial data to private foundations/corporations, including refining templates for proposal budgets and expenditure reports, assisting financial staff in completing complex budget and expenditure forms required by foundations, and helping revise policies and practices around developing project budgets.
• As needed, assist the Development Director in facilitating program planning, providing guidance on how to describe campaign activities to foundations/corporations.
• Mentor junior development staff and campaign experts on how to engage with foundations and corporate partners.
• Ensure that all appropriate information about cultivation activities, solicitations, and donations is entered into CRM database (Salesforce).
• Perform other job-related duties as requested or assigned by the Development Director or Executive Director.

Qualifications:

• At least 3 years of proven success in corporate and foundations fundraising for runaway and homeless youth programs or similar issues.
• Must demonstrate an in-depth knowledge of the conceptual terminology used by foundations to describe multi-faceted programs, including: theory of change, goals, objectives, benchmarks, inputs, outputs, outcomes, and indicators of success
• Experience in personally soliciting and obtaining five- and six-figure grants and working with senior management and program staff is a must.
• Familiarity with relational databases or donor CRMs required.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, strong interpersonal skills
• Strong organizational and project management skills and team-building skills
• Must be creative, flexible, responsible, and able to balance a variety of activities.
• Ability to set priorities and work within deadlines.
• Ability to come up with creative ideas to fundraise collaboratively and build strategic relationships.
• Must have a commitment to ending youth homelessness, racial equity, and issues central to Sasha Bruce Youthwork’s mission. 

Sasha Bruce Youthwork is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran or disability status.