Foundation Relations Manager

Position Location: Brooklyn, NY

About the Position:

The Center for Popular Democracy/CPD Action (CPD/A) is seeking a full-time Foundation Relations Manager who will be a key part of the Development Team ensuring that CPD/A is stewarding and significantly building its portfolio of institutional donors and foundations.  This position works closely with our Development and all program teams to build new foundation relationships and cultivate existing ones. The person in this position will work with program staff to enhance their fundraising acumen, awareness of the funding environment, and help to craft outstanding proposals and reports; liaise with foundation staff along with our program and senior leadership teams; connect with finance staff to ensure thorough communications and feedback loops; and help build and maintain our system of tracking and metrics. The candidate will be able to work across diverse teams and workstyles, and will be excited to help the organization identify, design, implement and administer systems that make our work flow more efficient. An ideal candidate will care deeply about the mission, have experience working in the progressive funding world, be an excellent writer, and enjoy strategy and systems.  This is a newly-created position, and we are looking for someone who is eager to jump in, learn quickly, and take initiative.

Primary Responsibilities

The Foundation Relations Manager will:

• Work with program staff and management to ensure that funding is matched with institutional priorities and plans for growth;

• Work closely with senior staff to create and realize a thoughtful approach to potential new sources of institutional funding and coordinate efforts and tracking in those areas,

• Find new opportunities for CPD’s frontline program and general operations work;

• Work closely with program teams and senior leadership to develop strategies and current, compelling written materials about our fields of work and program plans, successes and metrics;

• Help build and edit proposals and reports with program leads and senior CPD staff;

• Support the Development Manager to record all foundation efforts in Salesforce, build and report on budgets for funders and ensure the highest standards of tracking all grants; coordinate regular reports for management and Board on potential, anticipated and existing revenue sources; ensure transparency at all levels; lead troubleshooting for systems and workflow as necessary;

• Coordinate foundation staff outreach, along with senior leadership team, development team, and program leads;

• Support Development Manager on trainings for program team around fundraising communications; and

• Be willing to take on other special projects & responsibilities as needed.

Job Requirements

Applicants for the Foundation Relations Manager position should:

• Possess at least 6 years of fundraising experience and a strong familiarity with the progressive funding universe and experience with progressive foundations,

• Show flexibility, a positive attitude, and an ability to deal with many tasks and prioritize while being on top of details, reflecting the fact that CPD and CPDA are large, complex, multi-faceted organizations,

• Work effectively on a tight schedule and be able to set and meet realistic deadlines,

• Have excellent communication skills and experience working directly with funders,

• Be a highly professional, a team player, and a self-starter with extremely strong organizational skills,

• Show a passion for excellence and eagerness to help the department meet our goals,

• Possess the ability to organize, plan, prioritize, and perform assigned duties with modest supervision in a fast-paced environment,

• Show ability to work across multiple infrastructure and programmatic teams, with staff spread across the country, to meet goals,

• Demonstrate a sense of humor and ability to work under pressure,

• Have facility with spreadsheets, Microsoft Office suite, database management (ideally Salesforce) to run reports and deep knowledge of finance and budgeting,

• Have experience working closely with senior management and Boards, and ideally in a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic work environment, and

• Possess a commitment to racial equity, social justice, and community organizing and see how development work is a core piece of furthering this mission-driven work.

CPD is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and actively recruits people of color, women, individuals with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ community.