Senior Director - Corporate Philanthropy & Sponsorships

Morehouse School of Medicine is seeking a talented and experienced advancement professional for the position of Senior Director, Corporate Philanthropy & Sponsorships. This role will facilitate corporate support to advance health equity and health justice. The successful candidate will join our growing team of Institutional Advancement professionals. The Office of Institutional Advancement is leading a historic $500 million comprehensive campaign to support campus expansion, new and existing degree programs, educational scholarships, research innovation, and regional medical campuses and collaborations globally.

This public-facing role is key in building relationships with business owners and corporate leaders to advance a strategic corporate giving and engagement program for MSM. The ideal candidate must embody our core values of collaboration and strategy . They should have a solid understanding of fundraising principles, strong project and time management skills, and excellent interpersonal, written, and professional communication skills. As a relatively new role focused on corporate philanthropic support, the Senior Director must be comfortable building and growing a strategic outreach and engagement plan.

The Senior Director must have an established network of business affiliations and corporate donors locally, regionally, and nationally. They will lead corporate philanthropy efforts, coordinating activities, developing strategies, building relationships, and raising funds from businesses and corporations. This includes securing corporate capital investments, multi-year partnerships, and sponsorships to support events, projects, special initiatives, as well as partnerships to enhance departments across MSM’s education, research, and medical enterprise. This position currently reports to the VP of Philanthropy & Comprehensive Campaign but will work closely with and, may ultimately report to, the AVP as the team structure evolves.

Specifically, the Senior Director Corporate Philanthropy will:

• Oversee corporate philanthropic fundraising to support health equity, community healthcare outreach, biomedical research, scholarships, interdisciplinary education, sponsorships, and community engagement.
• Lead, in collaboration with the SVP and VP of Philanthropy & Comprehensive Campaign , the development of a comprehensive corporate donor and employee engagement strategy for the overall Corporate Giving Portfolio.
• Design and execute a corporate engagement program for small businesses and corporations and corporate foundations.
• Directly manage a portfolio of 100+ corporate prospects, executing a strategy for first-time gifts to major initiatives and multi-year investments – Renew, Recapture Lapsed Donors and Create a pipeline of new Corporate Prospects.
• Serve as a thought partner to faculty, staff, and researchers, translating complex program ideas into compelling proposals for corporate investment.
• Engage corporate donors to sponsor MSM’s signature fundraising events (currently Women With Heart, Men’s Breakfast, Gloster) and in FY25 major secure support for MSM’s 50th anniversary in 2025.
• Create and manage an employee engagement program for corporate donors.
• Research and leverage employer-based matching gift programs.
• Collaborate and support the professional development of the MSM Philanthropy team
• Represent the Advancement Office at cultivation and fundraising events.
• Ensure adherence to MSM Advancement protocols for gift processing, acknowledgment, prospecting, soliciting, and stewarding.
• Create reports for foundations and updates for faculty, and respond to requests from faculty, donors, and colleagues.
• Track opportunities, contacts, actions, next steps, progress and results in the donor database in real time and produce related tracking reports (weekly, monthly, quarterly).
• Collaborate enthusiastically and professionally with peers in OIA (i.e. Individual Giving, Foundation Giving, etc.).

 
Required Competencies:

• Fundraising Expertise: Strong understanding of fundraising principles and techniques, with experience in major campaign, corporate donor/sponsorship management, and designing innovative programs
• Relationship Management: Exceptional interpersonal skills and ability to build and maintain relationships
• with corporate leaders, donors, faculty, and community influencers
• Communication: Superior written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate MSM programs and initiatives for fundraising purposes
• Project Management: Proven ability to manage multiple priorities, projects, and deadlines in a fast-paced environment
• Leadership: Demonstrated leadership and consensus-building skills, with experience managing and developing a team
• Strategic Thinking: Entrepreneurial thinker with strong problem-solving skills and the ability to execute strategic moves management
• Integrity and Discretion: High level of professionalism, integrity, and discretion in handling confidential
• information
• Creative Problem Solving: Agile thinking to build out a viable corporate engagement plan for short-term and long-term support.

Working Conditions:

• Must be able to travel up to 40% as needed, depending on location of corporate donor locations.
• Frequent sitting, occasional standing and walking.
• Occasional reaching, bending, twisting, or climbing.
• Moderate mental effort and concentration required.
• Noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.
• Morehouse School of Medicine offers reasonable accommodations to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this position.

Minimum Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university
• 5-7 years of experience in major campaigns, fundraising, and corporate donor/sponsorship portfolio management
• 5 years of experience managing a team of volunteers and employees
• Strong time management, organizational skills, and detail orientation
• Experience in a dynamic environment with a commitment to meeting deadlines
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite and fundraising-related software (e.g., Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge)

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Masters degree in related field.
• 10 years of experience in major campaigns, fundraising, or leadership roles in corporate giving programs.
• Experience in higher education, particularly in academic medicine, or healthcare philanthropy.
• Extensive network of corporate contacts and a successful track record in corporate philanthropy.
• Experience in a high-growth organization, scaling teams and departments.
• Experience building systems and processes.