Foundation Relations Manager

Foundation Relations Manager (FRM)

Position Summary: The Foundation Relations Manager (FRM) works closely with, and reports to, the Director of Resource Mobilization (DRM) to grow and steward Groundswell’s vibrant and engaged community of foundations, donors, and philanthropic partners. This leader will be the main driver of prospecting, cultivating, securing, and renewing institutional philanthropic support for Groundswell’s strategic vision. The FRM will engage with foundation partners to cultivate, solicit, and steward grants, coordinating appropriate Groundswell program staff involvement at each stage and ensuring full compliance with reports and proposals. This role will help support the long-term sustainable growth of Groundswell and will have a deep personal and professional connection with our core values. 

The ideal candidate for this position is proactive, driven, equal parts relational and detail-oriented, and has the ability to work collaboratively with diverse staff, external partners, and stakeholders in a fast-paced remote environment; is self-motivated and highly organized, with exceptional attention to accuracy; is flexible and can manage multiple deadlines simultaneously; and exercises good judgment in handling confidential information. The candidate will demonstrate their ability to write persuasively and have excellent interpersonal communication skills to engage a wide range of funders.

Our workplace is proudly a unionized environment. The terms of employment are governed by our handbook and the collective bargaining agreement between Groundswell Fund and Groundswell Workers United, Communication Workers of America (CWA) local 9415. This position is a union eligible role, and membership is a condition of employment.

Accountabilities / Job Duties:

Relationship Cultivation & Stewardship

• Spearhead the growth of Groundswell’s approximately $10M portfolio, in consultation with the DRM, including active prospecting, cultivation, and retention of foundation partners.
• Serve as one of the primary Groundswell contacts responsible for stewarding these relationships—directly stewarding a portfolio of funders—and project managing other staff leaders to steward portfolios and relationships. Represent Groundswell in meetings with external funders, partners, and allies.
• Lead the expansion of the pipeline for new funding opportunities that align with Groundswell’s programs by conducting prospect research.
• Set annual revenue goals for institutional giving, in consultation with the DRM. Develop, monitor, and adjust short- and long-range plans, consistent with best practices, that support those goals and increase our portfolio of funders. Drive revenue projections as well as mid-year revenue reforecasting.
• Plan and manage activities to increase revenue and identify new sources of funding, including briefings, events, virtual and in-person meetings, and other donor/funder gatherings, in collaboration with the Communications and Donor Relations teams.
• Conduct and present research on foundation partners, funder networks, and affinity groups, and prepare leadership and colleagues for partner meetings.

Project Management of Proposals & Reports

• Manage the organization’s full grant docket and the calendar of proposal and reporting deadlines, working with grant writing consultants and the Advancement Writer to complete all materials.
• Ensure all foundation materials are submitted with a high degree of excellence.
• Drive process to collect program information to weave compelling proposal narratives, in collaboration with the program team, Communications team, and Advancement Writer.

Data, Grants, and System Management

• Oversee the integrity of foundation data tracked in CRM, ensuring grant compliance and thorough recordkeeping, in collaboration with the Development Operations Manager.
• Monitor and track foundation commitments and deliverables by producing reports and analysis, and communicate these expectations with DRM and program staff. Ensure appropriate tracking of restricted revenue in coordination with Finance staff.
• Establish and track performance measures for evaluating the effectiveness of Groundswell’s institutional giving program.
• Refine and document procedures, processes, and systems to support funder engagement and the full grant life cycle.

The above bulleted job duties are not intended to be an all-inclusive list of duties and standards of the position. Incumbents will follow any other instructions and perform any other related duties, as assigned by their supervisor.

Qualifications:

Essential:

• At least five (5) years of experience in institutional giving, funder organizing and/or fundraising, preferably within nonprofit or philanthropic organizations.
• Proven success in securing 5-to-7 figure gifts/grants and moving a foundation from prospect to supporter.
• Knowledge of prospect research, foundation relations, family foundations, funder communications, and special events.
• Demonstrated experience working managing consultants and high-level deliverables across dotted reporting structure.
• Outstanding organizational and project management skills, including the ability to strategically handle competing priorities and deadlines in a changing environment.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate effectively via phone, video, and email.
• Ability to write clearly and concisely for multiple audiences, as well as edit copy for clarity and grammatical accuracy.
• Demonstrated ability to understand, represent, and contribute effectively to Groundswell’s mission, vision, and values.
• Strong experience, understanding, and skill in applying social lenses of race, class, gender, and decolonization in verbal and written communications.
• To perform this job successfully, the candidate should be independently proficient with Google Suite, web browsers, and conferencing software (Zoom). Experience with database software and CRMs, basic web platforms, Slack, Asana, and other project management tools is also desired.
• Fluent in spoken and written English.

Strongly Preferred:

• Experience working at social justice organizations, with experience with 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) fundraising.
• Familiarity with reproductive and gender justice.
• Experience translating vision into concrete goals with actionable project plans.
• Ability to create powerful, compelling communications and convey complex concepts in an accessible way.
• Detail-oriented without losing sight of the broader vision.
• Familiarity with nonprofit fundraising practices.
• Experience working with CRM’s (Neon strongly preferred).
• Experience working at a fully remote organization.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team with members across several time zones.
• Impeccable judgment and discretion in dealing with sensitive and confidential information.
• Strong public speaking skills and experience serving as an organizational ambassador.

Application Review & Timeline: Applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis beginning Oct 7th and continuing until the position is filled. If selected for consideration, the interview process will entail a phone conversation, then a panel interview. Top candidates will then be advanced and invited to complete a brief exercise, and final panel interview. With this process in mind, we anticipate an early December start date.

Overview of the Organization: Since its inception in 2003, Groundswell Fund has put intersectional grassroots organizing led by women, transgender, and gender-expansive people of color at the center of our giving. It is a channel into which individual donors and foundations pour resources to reach vital work at the grassroots, serving as an irrigation system for growing reproductive, racial, and social justice movements. Our staff are from the very movements we fund, and we deeply understand grassroots impact with long-term investment.

We do this work with our sibling organization, Groundswell Action Fund, founded in response to the first Trump Administration. Groundswell Action Fund was founded on a simple but revolutionary premise: those most excluded from our democracy should be at the center of transforming it. Both organizations work to revolutionize philanthropy through grantmaking, capacity building, and organizing within philanthropy itself to inspire more giving to the types of organizations we support – whether or not those resources come through our doors.

While we fund nearly every major social justice movement in the United States, we are a long-term funder of the U.S. Reproductive Justice (RJ) Movement. Since the start of our grantmaking, we have moved more than $180 million (across both our c3 and c4) to the field in grants and capacity-building support, increased the giving of dozens of national and local foundations, and helped bring thousands of new individual donors into the RJ Movement. Our grantees have been instrumental in the passage of hundreds of pro-RJ policies at the state and local level and in blocking many regressive policies, and they have built a growing grassroots base of support for RJ across the U.S.

Groundswell is a fully remote, highly collaborative, pro-worker, pro-union organization working across the four continental U.S. time zones. We believe that the best ideas emerge when diverse perspectives come together, and are committed to creating an inclusive and flexible work environment where employees can thrive. We’ve embraced remote work as a core aspect of our culture since 2017 and celebrated our first union contract with Groundswell Workers United in 2024.

Fundraising and Organizational Vision: Groundswell is committed to cultivating a vibrant and engaged, multiracial and multigenerational community of donors and funders who connect their values to their resources. We believe generosity and intention go hand in hand with the success of the RJ movement and intersectional grassroots organizing. Giving at every level empowers individuals, families, and entire communities to create a better world. Groundswell’s values around authentic and respectful partnerships undergird our relationships with grantees, donors, and funders. Our mission to support grantee organizations as they build their grassroots power mirrors our fundraising mission, supporting the power of our donors through learning about the issues our grantees face and collaborating for greater collective impact and liberation for all people.

In 2025, Groundswell closed out its 5-year blueprint to move over $100M to the field from 2020–2025, and has been focused on developing our next strategic vision and restructuring the organization to respond to what the reproductive and gender justice movement needs right now. From rising authoritarianism, attacks on our communities and institutions, and a retraction in philanthropy to movements and organizing, we don’t deny this is a challenging moment. We see immense opportunity in launching our new vision and will spend late 2025 and 2026 generating support in our existing funder community, and inspiring new people and institutions to stand with our grantees. This fundraising moment at Groundswell is all about hustle, creativity, new ideas, and experimentation paired with diligence and relationship-driven best practices.

Virtual Organization: Groundswell is a completely virtual organization. We are committed to building a strong identity and thriving culture that is exemplary in the nonprofit world and in the greater landscape of fully remote organizations. To succeed as remote workers, applicants should have a dedicated workspace, a commitment to clear and frequent communication, and comfort utilizing technology to increase collaboration and connection. Those with previous remote work experience are preferred, but we also welcome those who are new to remote work and understand the requirements of working in a thriving virtual organizational culture.

Work Schedule: Groundswell currently operates on a 4 day, 32 hour work week, Monday - Thursday. We are a completely virtual organization, allowing for flexibility in work schedules for our staff across differing U.S. time zones. While work can usually be completed during standard business hours of the applicant's time zone, there may be times where early morning, evening, and weekend work may be needed to ensure organization-wide collaboration, to staff or attend events, and/or to meet organization workload needs during busy times over the year. Staff whose jobs require travel can expect longer hours, as travel may happen outside of business hours and on weekends.

Travel: Must be available to travel up to five times a year for overnight events and donor meetings across the U.S. Travel needs will be evaluated and determined on an ongoing basis with an eye always on staff safety.

Equal Employment Opportunity: Groundswell Fund is looking for talented, experienced individuals eager to join a collaborative team that’s working to organize resources to back up the brilliant leadership of our grantee partners. We encourage applications from all qualified individuals, but without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status.

Fluent in English; speaking, hearing, writing, and reading.