Fast Facts

Join DonorsChoose as a Partnerships Manager, working remotely or in a hybrid capacity to cultivate relationships and secure funding from corporate and foundation partners to support public school classrooms.

Responsibilities: Manage a portfolio of corporate and foundation partners, develop tailored strategies to drive fundraising efforts, and lead partner campaigns while ensuring excellent partner experiences.

Skills: Strong relationship-building, fundraising/sales skills, excellent project management and organizational capabilities, and proficiency in Google Docs, project planning tools, and Salesforce.

Qualifications: Experience in managing relationships and securing commitments, a passion for equity and education, and the ability to analyze and present data effectively.

Location: Remote or Hybrid in New York, with potential travel approximately 8-10 times per year based on business needs.

Compensation: $66000 - $83500 / Annually

Partnerships Manager 

^{Location: Remote | Department: Community Growth & Impact | Type: Full Time} 

DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help a teacher in need, moving us closer to a nation where students in every community have the tools and experiences they need for a great education.

Since 2000, more than 5 million people and partners have contributed $1 billion to support 2 million teacher requests for classroom resources and experiences. Projects range from art supplies to build the set for a school musical, to books and puzzles that affirm students’ identities, to bird seed for an at-home science project. We proudly serve all US public schools, public charter schools, and Head Start centers, and we combat systemic inequity by driving a majority of donations to schools that have been historically underfunded.

DonorsChoose has been recognized as a best place to work by GOOD Magazine and the Nonprofit Times, while Fast Company named DonorsChoose one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World—the first time a charity has made this list. Our dedicated team works from across the United States to bring classroom dreams to life.

About the Partnership Management Team

Our team raises funds for classrooms by building and executing philanthropic partnerships with corporations and foundations, and renewing and growing those partnerships over time. This year, we aim to raise $40M for public school classrooms through creative, collaborative partnerships with our institutional funders that address inequity in education. (More about our partnerships.)

About the Role

As a Partnerships Manager, you’ll steward a portfolio of multiple corporate and foundation partners who contribute $250K+ annually. You’ll be the expert on your portfolio; you’ll develop tailored strategies to drive meaningful business and impact outcomes, execute on best-in-class campaigns, and grow classroom support.

Our team operates like a customer success team, delivering an excellent experience to our partners and using B2B consultative sales techniques to renew and grow partner donations. We drive the DonorsChoose mission by unlocking partner support to address educational inequity.

In this role you will...

• Grow and sustain partner support
• Contribute to our revenue goal by securing fundraising from your portfolio of partners
• Cultivate deep relationships with your partners. Become the expert on what motivates them, what constraints they might face, how their organizations are structured, and what may be on the horizon. 
• Identify opportunities to meet additional business or impact goals for your partners and craft customized pitch ideas to engage each partner and inspire them to join our equity focus.
• Write and compile compelling emails and proposals.
• Develop and present discovery, pitch, and reporting decks regularly for partner meetings.
• Manage and execute best-in-class partner campaigns
• Lead cross-functional internal project teams to meet partner goals, impact milestones, and organizational priorities.
• Deliver excellent operational outcomes and develop creative solutions to meet partner goals (including complex deliverables such as partner school visits, employee engagement, media storytelling, and funding logistics.)
• Analyze and present data and stories to illustrate partners’ impact.
• Own and maintain partnership records, continuously updating key details and logging emails, calls, and meeting notes.
• Contribute to team 
• All team members share sales and partnership strategies, support teammates when needed, and identify other opportunities to contribute to the team and organizational culture.  
• You’ll also play a key role in our evolution to more directly address racial inequity in education through our partnerships. 

Who You Are

• You’re committed to our mission to support public school teachers and students and energized by sharing that passion with others. You’re passionate about equity and excited to learn more and engage partners with our equity focus. 
• You’ve thrived in a role where you built relationships in the past and can point to examples of professional relationships you’ve deepened over time. 
• You have experience with fundraising or sales, or you’re hungry to learn how to manage an effective sales process and secure partnership commitments using B2B consultative sales tactics. 
• You have excellent project management and organizational skills and a history of leading projects or campaigns that involved multiple stakeholders and lots of moving pieces. You’re not afraid to set deadlines and follow up to ensure that they’re being met. A robust Google doc, project planning tools, and Salesforce tasks/reports make you want to jump for joy. 
• You enjoy making someone’s day. It could be exceeding their expectations on a business commitment. Or it might be something minor, like sending them an article you read that made you think of them. You ask great questions and are a close listener because you care what people think and like learning from them. 
• You’re an inventive problem-solver. You love finding solutions to challenges and identifying opportunities to grow and improve.
• You’re receptive to feedback and love growing/improving your current skills and developing new ones.  
• You embrace flexibility, ingenuity, teamwork, humility, and transparency and are curious and excited to learn.

Compensation & Benefits

Our compensation philosophy ensures that we are both externally competitive with tech-forward nonprofits of a similar size and internally fair in our pay practices. The following ranges represent the target offer range, given the scope and experience expectations for this role.

• The hiring salary range for this role is $66,000 - $83,500
• We have a hiring salary range of $73,000 - $92,500 for specific higher cost of labor locations, which include New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, and Washington, D.C.

Once employees are hired, the salary range for their role increases to ensure that employees are able to receive performance-based raises and grow in their role. We are open to a variety of experiences, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced or more senior than this job description as posted. If that’s the case, an updated salary range will be shared with candidates if they move forward in our hiring process.

In addition, we offer full-time staff 25 paid vacation days per year and 11 paid holidays, a rich employer-paid individual and family health plan, a matching 401(k) plan (up to 5% of base salary), annual professional development stipend, and casual and flexible work environment. To learn more about what it is like to work for DonorsChoose, visit our careers page.

Hybrid Workplace and Other Details

In this role, you’ll have the option to work a flexible hybrid schedule in our NYC office, or to work fully remotely from CA, CO, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, MD, MI, MN, NJ, NY, OR, PA, TN, TX, or WI.

DonorsChoose is a fully vaccinated workplace and all new employees, regardless of their work location, will be asked to share proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 within two weeks of their hire date or request an exemption from this policy due to a disability or sincerely held religious belief or practice.

Candidates should expect to travel approximately 8-10 times per year, based on business need. Travel based on business need includes, but is not limited to, internal events such as all staff gatherings (IRL, Assembly) and Partner Summits, as well as external events such as partner meetings, conferences, and other events as necessary. All work-related travel expenses will be covered by the organization.

To Apply

Please submit your application online and address your cover letter to Alex Constas, Partnerships Director.

A Final Note

The DonorsChoose.org team works toward a nation where students in every community have the resources needed for an excellent education. To do this, we hire and support a diverse team of the best and the brightest talent available.

We are an organization increasingly representative of the varied races and ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations, religious and political beliefs, and abilities that comprise our nation. DonorsChoose.org focuses on attracting, retaining, and advancing diverse talent because it makes us more effective, high-performing, creative, and resilient.

If you are passionate about our mission, highly skilled in your field, and looking for a place where you can bring all of yourself to work, we want you.