New York, NY

The Organization
The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF) seeks to transform the life trajectories of vulnerable and economically disadvantaged youth. We make large, long-term investments, frequently partnering with other funders, and promote effective public and private support of nonprofits with a potential for growth and compelling evidence that they can help more young people become successful, productive adults.

Foundation staff members work as a team to help youth-serving organizations build their organizational capacity and evidence of effectiveness so they can expand and sustain at greater scale programs that make a real and enduring difference in young people’s lives. This work includes actively searching for prospective grantees; conducting rigorous due diligence assessments of organizations’ strengths, weaknesses, and capacity for and commitment to growth; supporting the development and implementation of grantee business and evaluation plans, and performance measurement and management systems; managing highly engaged relationships with grantees and providing them with additional support; and reporting on our investments in organizations.As they perform these and other tasks, the Foundation expects employees to uphold its core values of humility, belief in people, pragmatism, trust, and high standards.

Position Overview
Position Profile

Reporting to the Managing Director, with guidance and direction from the Director of Communications, the Partner Relations Director is responsible for the strengthening and upkeep of co-investment partner and other relevant relationships by leading the coordination and management of communications for the Foundation’s new initiative, and by supporting the Managing Director and President with partner relationship management as needed.

Largely an internally-facing, exempt-level role, he/she is responsible for creating and implementing a relationship building and management strategy, focused on directing and managing the creation and flow of communications and other engagement opportunities with current and prospective partners. He/she works closely with the Managing Director, Director of Communications and President to ensure his/her work aligns with and carries out the initiative’s overall strategy.

Primary Responsibilities

The director develops and implements a comprehensive strategy for building and maintaining stronger relationships with prospective and current partners. This includes directing and managing the scheduling, tracking, forecasting and initiating of communications-related needs for the initiative, and maintaining a shared calendar to keep others informed and ensure coordination with other plans. It also includes developing, managing and tracking initiative related documents, written communications and other forms of current and prospective partner engagement. The director writes and tracks correspondence, proactively drafts memos, board meeting agendas, meeting minutes and other communications in anticipation of or follow up to meetings and calls. He/she also drafts, updates and maintains investment recommendations, memos, pipeline summaries and other documents developed by the initiative’s senior managers, and collaborates with EMCF’s grants manager on grants management documents and communications, such as grant award letters, etc.

The director oversees and coordinates the initiative’s quarterly board meeting materials development, and board book production. He/she monitors and tracks the progress of board book components and proactively engages others to ensure accurate and timely completion. The director ensures materials are well-written and without error, developing them as needed, and working with the Senior Editor to ensure high quality and accurate documents and consistency across the book. He/she manages the assembly and distribution of the board book to partners in print and electronic formats.

In support of the Managing Director and President, the director, attends and contributes to partner and initiative-related internal meetings, developing rapport and acumen in order to communicate more independently with partnership stakeholders going forward. He/she also leads research on prospective partners, and other initiative related matters, making recommendations to the Managing Director, Director of Communications and the President as appropriate.

The director manages and coordinates the initiative’s quarterly and annual performance report development, production and distribution. He/she also manages marketing/collateral materials that support ongoing partner recruitment, making recommendations and executing updates to the writing and design. He/she contributes to the development of a robust private online partners’ portal, manages the portal operations, including posting new content, managing user permissions, etc., with the position possibly evolving to oversee public-facing web properties representing the initiative.

Qualifications

The Partner Relations Director must have excellent interpersonal skills and be able to represent the Foundation in alignment with its core values and culture. He/she should be passionately driven by issues affecting young people and social justice, and have the capacity to work with diverse peers, trustees, consultants, advisers, grantees and communities. As a member of the partnership team, the director will find him/herself in an environment of ambiguity and discovery as the new initiative is explored and developed, but also of highly structured processes drawn from the Foundation’s work and experience.

Ideally he/she will have an undergraduate or graduate degree with at least 10 years of hands-on management and professional experience in the field of communications and/or client relations management (such as with donors or investors). This should include developing and implementing communications plans, creating, and implementing online portals and websites, producing publications and reports, and interacting directly with clients. Familiarity with nonprofit/business strategy and management is desired.

The director will have a strategic and highly rigorous professional approach, balanced by a flexible, empathetic and genial demeanor that is responsive to the needs of partners, teammates and grantees. Experienced in a client-facing role, he/she must be able to plan and predict how best to engage current and prospective partners. With exceptional oral and written communications skills, and significant experience in the field of communications, he/she will contribute and present in group settings that may include Partners, senior executives and boards of directors.

He/she must have excellent organizational and project management skills, including a very strong attention to detail and the ability to manage and prioritize multiple tasks in a fluid, dynamic environment while continuing to meet deadlines. Experience in managing projects through time sensitive and at times short deadlines while maintaining a strong attention to detail, a positive attitude and producing effective, professional and timely results is required.

A hands-on self-starting performer with a high energy level, the director must be able to get work started and move it forward though information, details and decisions may still be in process or incomplete. He/she will be skillful at thinking independently while understanding the need for collaboration and leadership’s endorsement of final results. Using sound judgment and discretion, s/he will seek and carefully consider input and feedback from others, listen well and make sometimes difficult decisions independently, while relying on his/her collaborative leadership ability and aptitude to contribute as needed either individually, as a team leader or a participant.

The director will have strong computer skills with extensive knowledge of Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, the ability to master new software quickly and familiarity with online content management systems (CMS). Experience with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SharePoint is a plus. He/she will also be skilled at drafting agendas, letters and memoranda, creating clear, succinct documents and report content, as well as proofreading materials.

Salary & Benefits

Salary is commensurate with knowledge, skill and experience and is expected to fall in the $110k to $125k range with the potential for an annual incentive award. The Foundation offers an exceptional benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, 403b retirement plans and generous time off.