Director, Institutional Giving

Department:

Philanthropy

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Reports To:

Chief Philanthropy Officer

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Location:

Remote

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FLSA Category:

Exempt

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Posted On:

August 30, 2024

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Application Deadline:

October 11, 2024

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Candidates Selected for Interviews Will Be Notified:

The week of October 14, 2024

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ABOUT US

American Forests is a national non-profit organization committed to creating healthy and resilient forests from cities to wilderness, that deliver essential benefits for climate, people, water, and wildlife. We advance our mission through forestry innovation, place-based partnerships to plant and restore forests, and movement building. We envision a world in which the significant environmental, societal, and economic benefits of forests are fully realized and equitably available to all people. Established in 1875, American Forests is the oldest national non-profit conservation organization in the U.S. working to restoring urban forests and forested landscapes for nearly 150 years.

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American Forests is proud to be a diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible workplace. These are our shared values. We welcome individuals who bring a variety of backgrounds and experiences to be a part of our team to help make a difference individually and collectively as we work toward achieving our mission. We are committed to fostering an environment that is welcoming and respectful and provides opportunities for advancement and professional growth for every team member.

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POSITION SUMMARY

The Director, Institutional Giving has lead responsibility for maximizing American Forests’ institutional giving relationships to ensure their success and longevity. Reporting to the Chief Philanthropy Officer, the Director will develop and execute strategies to grow this important revenue stream while ensuring that funding aligns with the overall mission and supports strategic program initiatives. The donor portfolio includes foundations currently giving or capable of giving gifts ranging from $50,000 - $1,000,000+ and increasing this gift range and portfolio over time.

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Responsibilities include the following: identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding foundation donors and prospects; managing a donor portfolio; conducting donor visits; organizing engagement opportunities; prospect tracking; proposal and report writing and donor stewardship.

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SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

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Relationship Management (70%)

• Secure major and principal gift commitments from private grant-making foundations per the following metric expectations:
• Manage and grow a portfolio of 60 to 85 donors and donor prospects with the capacity to make philanthropic gifts of $50,000 to $1M+.
• Conduct donor visits regularly and often with a goal of 45-60+ meaningful visits per year, including qualifying at least 24 prospects a year through discovery outreach and cultivation.
• Solicit at least 1 gift commitment proposal of $1M+, 3 gift commitment proposals of $500,000+, and 25 solicitations of $50,000+ each year.
• Visit with institutional prospects to establish contacts, gather information, qualify prospects, present ideas, develop networks, promote understanding of American Forests’ initiatives, request invitations for proposals, and conduct stewardship. Strategically partner with American Forests’ Leadership, volunteers, and staff on such visits and prepare with pre-meeting planning and post-meeting debriefing and follow up.
• Develop, write and carry out prospect engagement strategies by identifying, qualifying, and cultivating prospects; determining amount and timing of requests; write and oversee the creation of proposals; solicit prospects via proposals and in face-to-face meetings; provide verbal and written communication necessary to secure gifts, and deliver appropriate stewardship and report on gifts made to the organization.
• Execute thorough, creative, impactful, and ambitious funding proposals through purposeful meetings, volunteer leads, presentations, grant letters, and applications, as determined by the funder.

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Management of Institutional Giving Program (25%)

• Oversee, direct, manage, and execute American Forests’ institutional giving program, working closely with Program and Finance teams and tools like ClickUp to develop, improve, and streamline the templates, systems, and processes of complex grant applications to diverse funders and management of internal review/approval process.
• Determine an effective sequence of work, including planning and monitoring activity timelines for each donor or prospect including proposal due dates, reporting dates, cultivation, and stewardship activities, and managing simultaneous proposals and strategies while meeting required deadlines.
• Identify new prospective institutional funders through research and peer-to-peer networks, serving as the strategic lead to align American Forests’ organizational priorities with the defined priorities and interests of institutional partners.
• Coordinate with Programs, Finance, Marketing & Communications, and Philanthropy colleagues to develop proposal budgets, deliver engagement opportunities, and monitor deliverables for grant contracts.
• Track all institutional prospects and submitted proposals in fundraising database; produce regular reports on institutional giving pipeline.
• Manage grant writing consultants to optimally utilize retained services.

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Other Duties (5%)

• Contributes to Philanthropy team’s overall success and supports Philanthropy with other duties as assigned.

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QUALIFICATIONS

• 7+ years of relevant philanthropic experience in the nonprofit sector, including securing funding from and stewarding 6 and 7-figure+ institutional partners.
• Bachelor’s degree required; equivalent experience considered in lieu of.
• Proven ability to meet or exceed fundraising goals. Proven record of developing and sustaining productive relationships with foundation staff.
• Skilled relationship builder, both internally with program staff and externally with funders.
• Expert communicator, with a demonstrated ability to translate technical program details into compelling and cogent cases for funding.
• Strategic, hardworking, and able to work with a degree of flexibility in a highly collaborative, fast-paced, goal-oriented environment.
• Ensures ethical compliance with fundraising best practices, as defined by the Association for Fundraising Professionals.
• Computer proficiency with various Microsoft Office applications (Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint), project management software (ClickUp) and with CRM systems (Raiser’s Edge).
• Passion and commitment to the mission, vision, and culture of American Forests.
• A genuine and proven commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility and to the principles of community-centric fundraising.
• Willingness to work flexible hours and available for donor related travel locally, regionally, and nationally.

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AMERICAN FORESTS’ CORE COMPETENCIES:

• Attitude: Brings a positive outlook to the work and helps inspire others to achieve excellence.
• Communication: Produces strong written documents, edits documents effectively, engages in effective verbal communication—1-on-1 and small group—and conducts effective large group presentations.
• Organization: Prioritizes tasks effectively, accomplishes tasks efficiently, follows through on all commitments, breaks down large projects to make them manageable, and effectively manages complex projects involving multiple actors.
• Problem-Solving & Creativity: Identifies issues, effectively structures problems, analyzes data to produce insights, and generates wise, actionable recommendations. Understands the limited resources available and produces creative solutions.
• Representing the Organization: Serves as an effective ambassador, builds connections, and maintains relationships with outside partners, vendors and donors. Brings credibility to the organization in how they present themselves.

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LOCATION & WORKING CONDITIONS

This is a remote position. Up to 20% of travel to American Forests’ headquarters in Washington D.C. or throughout the U.S. for key donor meetings, events and projects may be required.

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Subject to applicable laws, American Forests requires all employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment. We will consider requests for accommodation to this vaccination requirement during the recruiting process. Any requested accommodations must be reviewed and approved (if applicable) in advance of your start date.

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PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

The individual must be comfortable with prolonged periods of sitting and/or standing at a desk and working on a computer. Reasonable accommodations may be made to provide access to all individuals along the continuum of human ability and experience.

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SUPERVISORY REQUIREMENTS

This role provides dotted-line supervision to the New Partnerships Manager and may include supervision of future members of the Institutional Giving team.

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BENEFITS

American Forests offers a competitive benefits package including medical, dental and vision; disability and life insurance; 401(k) retirement plan with a 6% employer match; paid leave including 16 holidays, vacation, sick, parental leave, FMLA, bereavement and military leave; pet benefits and employee assistance programs.