Senior Manager, Corporate and Foundation Partnerships

Position Senior Manager, Corporate and Foundation Partnerships

Status Full-time

Department Development

Location Norwalk, CT

SeriousFun Children’s Network, founded by Paul Newman, is a growing global community of independently managed and financed camps and programs, which have come together with a common purpose – to provide transformative experiences to children with serious illnesses and their families, free of charge. Through our 30 camps and programs around the world, SeriousFun reaches more than 150,000 children and families annually. Learn more at www.seriousfun.org

About us: The SeriousFun Support Center is in East Norwalk CT. Our team of 33 staff members provides support services to SeriousFun camps and partner programs around the world to ensure program and operational excellence, create awareness for the camps worldwide, and foster the continued growth of the Network as a whole.

SeriousFun is committed to fostering and ensuring a culture and environment that values the experiences, knowledge, and voices of all those who work to carry out our mission. We are continually focused on bringing our core principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion to life by embracing individual talents and experiences and encouraging ongoing learning and understanding.

The purpose of our job posting is to provide an overview of the responsibilities and qualifications needed for this role and what it’s like to work with us. If this sounds like the work you would like to do - and if we sound like an organization that you would like to work for - then please apply even if you don’t match 100% of the job description.

Position Summary

The Senior Manager of Corporate and Foundation Partnerships, reporting to the Director of Corporate & Foundation Partnerships, will play a crucial role as a member of the development team and will serve as the lead contact for corporate and foundation partnerships. This position primarily focuses on supporting and nurturing existing partnerships, as well as identifying new donors to secure funding for SeriousFun’s strategic priorities. This role is essential for sustaining and expanding SeriousFun’s funding targets.  

This position requires an individual who is strategic, poised, able to communicate and work effectively with potential donor organizations, comfortable with communicating across a variety of levels in companies, foundations, and at SeriousFun.  

Individuals at the senior manager level are expected to demonstrate strong analytical skills, logical approaches to problem solving, the ability to manage time efficiently and effectively, professional business acumen, communication skills and good judgement, while successfully contributing to a collaborative work environment. 

Essential Responsibilities

Donor Administration and Management  

• Manage a portfolio of 5-10 multi-year corporate and foundation grants and partnerships, including preparing grant proposals and reporting, managing co-marketing requests, and facilitating volunteer engagement activities;  
• Manage donor touchpoints year-round by planning and executing bi-annual face-to-face and virtual meetings, including senior leadership and other stakeholders as appropriate; 
• Prepare interim and final reports for institutional donors; 

Planning  

• Identify potential corporate and foundation prospects through research, cultivation and  

proposal submissions; 

• Manage network peer groups including scheduling monthly calls, preparing agendas, communication minutes and recordings, etc.; 
• Lead the annual network wide Gift-in-Kind program by communicating opportunities and managing the ordering and reporting process;  

Other Development Support  

• Serve as the lead contact with member camps to identify year-round volunteer opportunities with corporate and foundation partners; 
• Conduct regular and detailed analysis of program performance. 

Additional duties as assigned  

Key Competencies

Job-Specific Skills, Knowledge and Ability: Demonstrating the application of job-specific technical skills, general knowledge, and/or abilities to add value.

Authority and Accountability: Providing direction of processes, projects, programs, and people. Delegating responsibilities and decisions appropriately. Being accountable for results.

Critical Thinking and Decision Making: Making decisions and solving problems involving varied levels of complexity, ambiguity, and risk.

Planning and Organizing: Defining tasks and milestones to achieve objectives and ensuring the optimal use of resources to meet those objectives.

Interpersonal Skills: Building and maintaining productive work relationships, collaborating with others to achieve common goals, listening and communicating in a way that is inclusive, respectful, and supportive of others.

Adaptability: Adjusting one’s own behavior to work efficiently and effectively in light of new information, changing situations, and/or different environments.

Leadership: Setting a positive example, encouraging and supporting collaboration and teamwork, exhibiting humility, helping others achieve success, and being honest and trustworthy.

Minimum Qualifications and Job Specific Skills

• Education: Bachelor's Degree (e.g. BA, BS) or equivalent
• Years of Relevant Work Experience: 3-5 years
• Proven skills in:
• Grant writing  
• Corporate stewardship  
• Excellent professional correspondence 
• Experience using industry-based software/client management database (Raisers Edge or equivalent) 
• Microsoft Office suite and various videoconferencing applications 

Preferred Qualifications & Job-Specific Skills

• Experience in working in NGO’s or other non-profit organizations, particularly those with federated/networked structures.  
• Advanced experience working with Raisers Edge. 

Company Culture, Perks, and Benefits – please read more about The Support Center here to get a sense of what’s important to us.

• Fun, respectful, and collaborative environment
• Professional Development opportunities (online and company-facilitated offerings)
• Respect for your non-working time (in Eastern Standard Time) unless under special circumstances, we limit contacting staff on evenings and weekends.
• 30+ days for you to enjoy as you see fit, including vacation days, holidays, and opportunities to volunteer at a SeriousFun camp.
• Paid time off for family, medical, and civic service needs.
• Company-sponsored retirement 403b plan after one year of continued service.
• New office located in a fully renovated mixed-used building with great onsite (free) amenities.
• Steps away from the East Norwalk train station

Benefits are subject to change

We will determine where the salary offer will fall within this range of ($65k-$75k) based upon the evaluation of the qualifications during the recruitment process. Our transparent and equitable pay bands, as well as our salary offer based on the qualifications evaluated in our process, are integral parts of our organizational systems and intentional culture. The salary offer is not negotiated as we know that negotiation is not aligned with equity and best practices for ensuring fair pay for employees of all identities and backgrounds.

To apply for this position, please submit your resume, and cover letter and complete an application here:

SeriousFun Employment Application