The Organization
For nearly 200 years, Boston’s Museum of Science has been the iconic cultural institution of New England. However, the scope and brand extend beyond a local, fun museum for a day, as the Museum is also a global STEM content provider: the reach of MOS’ Engineering is Elementary curricula surpasses annual Museum attendance and exhibits like The Science Behind Pixar add to its global impact. With a growing digital footprint and partners like Roblox, the Museum is positioned to reach 100 million people a year by its bicentennial in 2030.
As science and technology continue to shape and reshape our lives, the Museum of Science, Boston (MOS), is transforming to meet challenges and expand opportunities. Among the world’s largest science centers and New England’s most attended cultural institution, the Museum of Science engages approximately 1.5 million visitors a year in Boston through science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) interactive exhibits and programs. Nearly an additional 2 million people experience the Museum annually through touring exhibitions, traveling programs, planetarium productions, and Pre-K to 8 curricula through the William and Charlotte Bloomberg Science Education Center. And roughly 30 million people so far this year have engaged with the Museum through its digital offerings, as the Museum looks to grow its scale and reach to 100 million people annually by 2030. Many look to the Museum as the leader in best practices of informal and formal STEM education and universal design.
Located at the center of Boston’s innovation hub and surrounded by high-tech companies, cutting-edge research organizations, and world-renowned universities and healthcare institutions, the Museum is uniquely positioned to create experiences for all ages to imagine a better world and to inspire people to explore and develop their interests. It offers programs and exhibits addressing science and technology that invite, engage, excite, and empower all generations to ask questions, imagine what’s possible, and design solutions to shape the future.
In November 2021, the Board of Trustees and Museum Advisors approved a capital campaign called The Boston Science Common that will raise $225 million over the next 5 years for the Museum. BSciC builds a new capacity that will allow MOS to bring science to everyone at the pace of change, with content generated by the region’s leading scientists, made engaging, accessible, and fun by the Museum, and delivered out to the world through a three-channel approach. Content will focus on the most important and exciting STEM topics, including climate response, life sciences, and data science/AI.
Position Overview
The Senior Director of Corporate & Foundation Relations will be joining the Museum at an exciting new phase of growth and development designed to broaden the participation of visitors of all ages, expand the Museum’s reach, and leverage the Museum’s position as the leader in Pre-K to 8 engineering and computer science curricula. This seasoned professional will be central to advancing a robust corporate and foundation relations program as part of a long-range vision in support of the Museum’s capital campaign The Boston Science Common, as well as other transformations across the campus footprint. The Boston Science Common will completely transform the Museum into a future-facing, three-channel organization that helps decode the science of today and tomorrow for an inclusive and broad array of visitors. The new Senior Director will be mission-driven with a view of people as born problem solvers. This person will have a demonstrated track record of servant leadership that persuades and inspires individuals to give, and will possess a conviction for diversity, equity, and belonging that promotes access for all.
Reporting directly to the Chief Advancement Officer and working in collaboration with senior leaders from across the Museum, the Senior Director will drive the Museum’s foundation and corporate funding strategies and relationships. The Senior Director will be responsible for leading a six-person team in the identification, research, cultivation, and successful solicitation of grants and sponsorships, particularly from top-tier national corporations and foundations. As a member of the Advancement division’s leadership team and several high-level Museum committees, the Senior Director will play a key role in achieving fundraising goals, managing high-level internal and external relationships, building the division, and growing a culture of philanthropy throughout the organization and its constituencies. The Senior Director will also oversee grant stewardship, ensuring compliance with funding guidelines and accurate, timely reporting.
While the Museum of Science will consider a broad range of backgrounds, the ideal candidate will have the following qualifications/experience:
- Deep appreciation for the Museum’s mission: to inspire a lifelong love of science in everyone. A commitment to advancing human dignity and an understanding of its relationship to high-quality science learning.
- Eight or more years of progressive experience in fundraising from corporate and/or foundation constituencies and sophisticated understanding of corresponding best practices. Experience in or exposure to the for-profit corporate community is important, as is experience in navigating a complex institutional environment.
- Demonstrated success in goal setting and motivating, leading, and managing a team of corporate and foundation fundraisers to achieve objectives. A track record of empowering others and increasing staff effectiveness through coaching, professional development, metrics, and shared accountability.
- Demonstrated commitment to and understanding of how to build justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in the development function; culturally competent with respect to issues such as racial, cultural, religious, sexual, and gender identity.
- Creative advancement professional with the demonstrated ability to strategically link and articulate institutional/programmatic initiatives with funding opportunities.
- Demonstrated success with corporations and foundations on gift cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship, including six and seven-figure gifts.
- Ability to align with and collaborate with Museum leadership in setting priorities, vision, and goals.
- Demonstrated experience cultivating, training, building relationships with, and working in collaboration with executives, senior staff, and volunteer leaders on development-related activities, providing them with quality support and intelligence and increasing their comfort with and success in fundraising.
- Ability to integrate data into decision-making and to create and implement strategic plans in order to reach desired goals and objectives.
- Demonstrated experience in effectively using donor databases.
Download the full position description via the following link: https://diversifiedsearchgroup.com/search/19638-mos-corporate-foundation-relations
Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer
The Museum of Science is an EEO/AA employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, protected veteran status, disability, or protected group status. Federal and State law prohibit employment discrimination.
It is the Museum of Science’s policy when recruiting, hiring, training, promoting, and terminating employees to comply with those laws which prohibit discrimination as to race, color, religion, creed, gender, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, citizenship status, genetic predisposition or carrier status, disability, military status, status as a disabled, recently separated veteran, Armed Forces service medal veteran, or other covered veteran or any other protected status under applicable law. We are dedicated to providing a work environment free from discrimination and harassment, and where employees, interns, and volunteers are treated with respect and dignity.
Equal Opportunity Employer/Females/Minorities/Veterans/Disabilities
Vaccination Policy
Staff, interns, and volunteers will be required to show proof that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment. The Museum will consider an exemption from the vaccine requirement if they are unable to get vaccinated due to a qualifying medical disability or a sincerely held religious objection. The Museum is not required to provide an accommodation or exemption from the vaccine requirement if doing so would pose a direct threat to others in the workplace or would create an undue hardship for the Museum.
How To Apply
The Museum of Science has retained the DSG Fundraising & Advancement Practice of the Diversified Search Group to assist in this confidential search process. Inquiries, nominations, and applications (current resumes and cover letters) may be submitted at https://talent-profile.diversifiedsearchgroup.com/search/v2/19638 or directed to:
Gerard F. Cattie, Jr.
Managing Director and DSG Fundraising & Advancement Practice Leader
Diversified Search Group
The Chrysler Building, 405 Lexington Avenue, 49th Floor, New York, New York 10174
gerard.cattie@divsearch.com | 212.542.2587