Director, Development & Strategic Relationship Support

This is a full-time position located from a remote office anywhere in the country with a requirement of up to 25% national travel in accordance with public health guidelines.

What You’ll Do:

The Director of Development is a highly motivated team player who is detail-oriented, a strong project manager, and an excellent writer. We are looking for someone with excellent professional writing experience about education and strong stakeholder management capabilities.  We are explicitly open to people who have not worked in development before but bring these skill sets. 

This person works closely with the CEO, CFO, and the leadership team to ensure alignment and clarity in proposals for new funding. This person loves spending their days writing and project-managing grant requests. Our CEO provides the vision for the development strategy, in line with our strategic plan, and serves as the primary point person for most of our funders, with the Director driving the work plan, working closely with the CEO to ensure clarity of next steps for each funder, ensuring execution, and drafting key assets to support strong relationships. Your passion for our mission drives you to steward relationships with donors, both new and old, and ensure we reach our philanthropic goals each year. You are a strong project manager, understand the value of relationships, and, ideally, have an understanding of the non-profit education funding space. You are curious and proactive, unafraid to think outside of the box, and constantly on the lookout for new development opportunities and relationships. You are excited by the prospect of working closely with our CEO and highly networked leadership teams to help them forge new connections, and you are comfortable with playing an essential, though often background role in that network building. You are dedicated to the mission of Instruction Partners, and you understand how to collaborate with, influence, and sometimes manage up to senior leaders. You are willing to roll up your sleeves and both manage and execute work. You have a learner orientation and a collaborative spirit.  

Responsibilities:

 

Project  Execution

• Collaborate on the organization's development strategy and project manage execution of that strategy by helping others, especially our CEO, develop and steward relationships
  • Written with more ownership - Project manages the execution of the organization's comprehensive development strategy, collaborating with the CEO and team leaders to ensure alignment, track progress, and achieve fundraising goals. This includes managing timelines, resources, and communication across multiple stakeholders.
• Collaborate with our team and CEO in stewarding relationships with existing funders, build a deep understanding of their respective foundations and interests
• In collaboration with CEO and CFO, drive processes to ensure clarity and alignment about funding asks from teams across the organization
• Develop a nuanced understanding of Instruction Partners’ mission, work, and impact to inform the development of compelling communications for potential funders
• Think outside of the box and proactively bring ideas to the table

Grants Management & Reporting

• Oversees the entire grant lifecycle, from identifying funding opportunities and developing compelling proposals to managing grant agreements, tracking reporting requirements, and ensuring timely submissions.
• Prepare, write, and submit compelling grant proposals and applications, ensuring internal processes allow for cross-team alignment.
• Collaborate with internal teams to gather data and information required for applications and reports.
• Maintain a comprehensive calendar of grant deadlines and reporting requirements.
• Track and report on the status of submitted proposals and funding outcomes.
• Project manage Instruction Partners’ grant process, from initial proposal to final reporting and renewal
• Develop clear project plans for managing each grant and collaborating with team members to complete grant deliverables and meet grant deadlines.
• Provide regular reports and updates to the CEO/CFOO
• Ensure all development materials and collateral has language that is clear, concise and has a thoughtful story line
• Oversee the development, maintenance, and improvement of systems (including Salesforce) and processes to support fundraising, grant reporting, stewardship, and other revenue-generating initiatives (in collaboration with our Business Systems team)
• Research and identify grant opportunities aligned to Instruction Partners vision, mission, learning agenda, and strategic initiatives.

Strategic Relationship Management

• Responsible for supporting our team in relationship mapping as relates to development and identifying new prospective supporters in order to continue to expand our network
  • Leads relationship mapping efforts to identify and cultivate new prospective supporters, leveraging the CEO's network and collaborating with team members to steward existing funder relationships. Manages the process of tracking interactions, documenting progress, and ensuring consistent communication with donors.
• Attend district and state engagement meetings to catch connections and opportunities for relationship 
• In addition to development relationships, support stewardship planning for the CEO and President on the strategic relationships "keep in touch" lists 
• Ghost writing comms for CEO across stakeholder audiences
• Network mapping for new members of the leadership team 

Management & Collaboration

• Authentically develop meaningful relationships across the organization
• Exhibit thoughtfulness about the role of each Instruction Partners team member in the development process and how they may be most effectively leveraged and engaged 
• Foster strong relationships with members of the executive leadership team members 
• Coach and tee up the CEO and other senior leaders on pitches and next steps for development relationships
• Work with ED of Engagement to see across revenue and manage strategy
• Work with SD of Marketing & Communications to sync strategies in order to promote the organization’s work in ways that will generate interest in the funding community
• Effectively collaborates with internal teams (finance, programs, marketing/communications) to ensure seamless execution of development initiatives. This includes coordinating data collection for grant applications and reports, aligning communication strategies, and facilitating cross-departmental project planning.
• Develop collaborative relationships with fundraising staff in other peer orgs.

Team Management

• Directly manages the Development Lead, providing regular feedback, mentorship, and professional development opportunities to foster growth and maximize individual and team performance.
• Fosters a positive and productive team environment aligned to our core values by building trust, recognizing achievements, and motivating team members to achieve shared goals. 
• Sets clear performance expectations, provides regular feedback and coaching, and conducts performance reviews to support individual growth and development. Addresses performance issues constructively and proactively.
• Establishes clear communication channels and fosters open communication within the team. Encourages collaboration and knowledge sharing among team members to maximize team effectiveness.

Candidate Qualifications and Traits:
 

• 8+ years professional experience ( ideally, a K–12 education nonprofit) in a role that required strong project management across teams and significant professional writing. 
• Excellent in communications and collateral development (making PowerPoints, creating documents, drafting and editing talking points, etc.)
• Proven experience in writing grant proposals or RFPs, preferred.
• Highly organized with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Experience working with Salesforce a plus
• Experience managing others and/or a team
• Flexible; able to work in a fluid/fast moving/sometimes ambiguous environment; can turn around on tight deadlines
• Team player
• Comfortable working in a remote environment
• Ability to travel occasionally for team meetings and events

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Hiring

At Instruction Partners, we know that difference enhances, transforms and strengthens our ability to serve students and schools. We invite and celebrate diversity of all perspectives, and we are deeply committed to ensuring equitable access and voice throughout our organization. Instruction Partners is proudly an equal opportunity workplace, and we value the inclusion of persons who have experienced poverty and/or for whom English is not their first language, and every race, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, culture, ancestry, religion, national orientation, age, marital status or Veteran status. Join us, and let's work together to support great teaching and accelerate learning for every student.

Compensation:

The salary for this role is $120,000. Detailed information about the organizational compensation philosophy can be found here. Competitive benefits and private retirement investment options are available, as well as a generous vacation policy. See our detailed benefits package here: 2023-2024 Benefits in Brief Overview.

Our Vision

All students experience an excellent education that prepares them to contribute to their community, achieve economic security, and pursue their dreams.

Our Mission

We strengthen instructional leadership in schools, school systems, and states to ensure teachers have the support they need to improve learning experiences and learning outcomes for students - with attention to students of color, students experiencing poverty, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities.

How We Work

Instruction Partners is a nonprofit organization dedicated to excellent instruction for all students, with a focus on students in poverty, students with disabilities, students learning English, and students of color. We keep one foot in practicality and the other in evidence-based best practices, because we believe that leveraging high-quality, grade-level content and providing just-in-time supports will accelerate learning for all students.

Instruction Partners spends time getting to know the needs of the educators, leaders, and systems it serves, allowing the team to custom-build service plans to support partner goals. Partnerships include on-the-ground support, and partnership team members serve as thought partners to the school systems they serve, a team educators can reach out to and feel supported by.

Instruction Partners provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Instruction Partners complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.

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