Managing Dir, Grants and Foundations

The Managing Director of Grants & Foundation Partnerships provides strategic leadership for Dogs Incs institutional giving program, with responsibility for growing and sustaining philanthropic support from foundations and other institutional funders.

This position develops and executes strategies to retain and grow existing foundation partnerships while building a strong pipeline of new funding opportunities. This position leads the Grants team and oversees foundation relationships, prospect and portfolio strategy, proposal development, reporting, stewardship, and cultivation. The Managing Director personally manages key institutional relationships and major funding opportunities while ensuring the team has the strategy, resources, and support necessary to achieve institutional revenue goals.

Essential Responsibilities

Institutional Giving Strategy & Revenue Leadership

- Develop and lead the annual institutional giving strategy in alignment with Dogs Incs organizational priorities and philanthropic revenue goals.

- Establish and monitor goals for foundation retention, increased support, new funder acquisition, pipeline development, and engagement.

- Develop strategies to retain and grow existing institutional funders while building a sustainable pipeline of qualified prospects.

- Monitor institutional giving performance, pipeline activity, proposal activity, and revenue projections and communicate progress to Philanthropy leadership.

- Remain informed about philanthropic trends and changes in the funding environment that may create opportunities or risks for Dogs Inc.

Foundation Relationships, Cultivation & Pipeline Development

- Manage a portfolio of key foundation and institutional relationships and develop individualized cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, renewal, and upgrade strategies.

- Build meaningful relationships with foundation representatives and identify opportunities to deepen engagement through meetings, campus visits, program experiences, impact updates, and other appropriate touchpoints.

- Direct foundation prospect research, qualification, prioritization, and assignment.

- Conduct regular portfolio and pipeline reviews to ensure qualified prospects advance toward cultivation and solicitation.

- Identify high-potential opportunities requiring Director- or executive-level engagement.

- Partner with Philanthropy leadership and other Dogs Inc leaders on significant institutional relationships and funding opportunities.

Proposal Development & Grant Management

- Lead or personally develop major, strategic, and complex proposals, letters of inquiry, reports, and other institutional funding requests.

- Oversee the quality, accuracy, consistency, and strategic positioning of proposals and reports produced by the Grants team.

- Review and edit significant submissions to ensure they compellingly communicate Dogs Incs mission, impact, funding needs, and alignment with funder priorities.

- Ensure proposals and reports meet funder requirements, deadlines, and organizational standards.

- Maintain oversight of the departments grant calendar, reporting obligations, and portfolio activity.

Team Leadership & Development

- Lead, coach, and develop the Grants team, establishing clear roles, responsibilities, goals, and performance expectations.

- Conduct regular individual, portfolio, pipeline, and team strategy meetings.

- Assign portfolios and projects based on organizational priorities, staff capacity, experience, and professional development opportunities.

- Provide individualized coaching to strengthen proposal development, funder strategy, stewardship, and relationship-management skills.

- Foster collaboration, accountability, professional growth, and shared ownership of departmental goals.

- Evaluate workload and departmental capacity and recommend staffing, systems, processes, and resources necessary to achieve institutional giving objectives.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

- Partner with Finance, program leaders, executive leadership, Marketing and Communications, and other departments to develop accurate and compelling institutional funding requests.

- Establish effective processes for gathering program information, outcomes, financial data, stories, and other materials required for proposals and reports.

- Represent institutional giving priorities and funding opportunities in appropriate organizational planning discussions.

- Collaborate with Marketing and Communications as needed to ensure consistency of organizational messaging related to institutional fundraising.

Qualifications

- Bachelors degree or equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.

- Minimum of five years of progressively responsible experience in institutional fundraising, foundation relations, grant development, nonprofit development, or a related field; seven or more years preferred.

- Demonstrated success developing compelling proposals, reports, and institutional fundraising materials.

- Experience cultivating, stewarding, retaining, and growing institutional funder relationships.

- Experience supervising, coaching, or developing professional staff.

- Strong understanding of prospect research, qualification, pipeline development, and portfolio management.

- Exceptional written and verbal communication, editing, and quality-control skills.

- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, relationships, and funding opportunities.

- Strong strategic planning, analytical, judgment, and problem-solving skills.

- Ability to collaborate effectively with executive leadership and colleagues across departments.

- Experience with fundraising databases, prospect research tools, and grant-management systems preferred. Examples include: Raisers Edge, Airtable, Instrumentl, Microsoft Teams.

- Commitment to Dogs Incs mission and ethical, donor-centered fundraising practices.