Director of Institutional Giving

About the organization

Established in 1968, Person to Person (“P2P” – www.p2phelps.org) P2P is a community-supported agency that supports families and individuals as they move toward stability with healthy food, clothing, housing assistance and a path to economic opportunity. The vision that guides P2P’s work is “thriving, hunger-free homes.” With a financial budget of approximately $6MM, an additional $10MM in annual “in-kind” donations, and over 35,000 volunteer hours donated annually, P2P is a well-established and innovative agency. More than 90% of all donations go directly to programs, which include four full-time food pantries including two mobile food pantries (P2P on Wheels), a Clothing Center, a Financial Opportunity Center™ wraparound casework services, summer camperships for children, and college and vocational scholarship aid to students seeking to change the trajectory of the next generation.

About This Role

Reporting to the Deputy Chief Philanthropy & Strategy Officer, the Director of Institutional Giving leads and executes P2P’s institutional giving strategy with a high degree of autonomy and independence. Responsibilities include directing efforts to secure, grow, and sustain unrestricted and restricted funding from foundations, corporations, and government agencies; managing a robust portfolio of institutional funders and prospects; overseeing pipeline development, grant management, and reporting; and communicating P2P’s goals, mission, and programs to prospective funders in a compelling, strategic manner.

Core duties include researching, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding institutional funders; developing compelling proposals, letters of inquiry, reports, and other funder communications; and collaborating across the organization to translate P2P’s programs, outcomes, financial needs, and strategic priorities into strong cases for investment.

Success requires exceptional writing, disciplined portfolio management, sound judgment, and operational efficiency. Additional responsibilities include establishing effective workflows for prospect research, proposal development, internal review, submission, reporting, and stewardship; maintaining accurate and timely information in Salesforce; monitoring performance against established goals; and using data to continuously improve the effectiveness and efficiency of P2P’s institutional fundraising program.

Core Responsibilities

• Grant Strategy, Systems & Portfolio Management
  • Develop and manage an annual institutional fundraising strategy aligned with P2P’s priorities, programs, budget, and revenue goals.
  • Manage approximately 100 institutional funders and prospects to meet or exceed the annual $1.2M–$1.5M revenue goal.
  • Maintain a grants calendar and pipeline tracking prospects, renewals, deadlines, requests, projected revenue, probability, reporting requirements, and next steps.
  • Build efficient workflows for prospecting, proposal development, review, submission, award management, reporting, and stewardship.
  • Set internal deadlines and coordinate cross-functional input to deliver high-quality, on-time submissions.
  • Maintain a forward-looking revenue forecast and regularly reconcile projections with actual results.
  • Analyze the portfolio to identify gaps and opportunities, strengthen diversification and renewals, increase grant size and return on effort, and improve revenue performance.
  • Prioritize opportunities by strategic fit, funding potential, likelihood of success, relationship value, and organizational capacity.
  • Keep institutional funder records accurate and current in Salesforce as the authoritative source for grant activity and performance.
  • Prepare and present periodic performance reports to the Deputy Chief Philanthropy & Strategy Officer, CEO, and Board of Directors.
• Grant Writing, Reporting & Funder Engagement
  • Research, write, edit, and submit persuasive letters of inquiry, grant proposals, acknowledgments, and reports for programs, general operations, and special projects.
  • Ensure proposals and reports accurately reflect programmatic, financial, demographic, evaluation, and impact data through close collaboration with Programs, Finance, Data Management, Stewardship, and organizational leadership.
  • Monitor all submitted requests and coordinate appropriate follow-up, including funder meetings, site visits, interviews, recognition, stewardship, and reporting.
  • Proactively cultivate relationships with current and prospective institutional funders and identify opportunities to renew, upgrade, and expand support.
  • Represent P2P at funder meetings, site visits, conferences, and other external engagements as appropriate.
  • Support grant-based event sponsorship opportunities when aligned with institutional fundraising priorities.
  • Develop and maintain reusable proposal language, cases for support, need statements, theory of change and other organizational data, outcomes, program descriptions, budgets, and other core materials to increase efficiency while maintaining appropriate customization for individual funders.

P2P reserves the right to make changes to the job responsibilities at any time. This document is representative of responsibilities. Other duties may be assigned as needed.

Required Qualifications

• A minimum of five (5) years of direct grant writing, prospect research and grants management experience;
• Proven track record in the following:
  • Success in writing and submitting grant applications, particularly for 5 and 6-figure grants;
  • Developing compelling proposals and reports for foundations, corporations, government agencies, and other institutional funders;
  • Managing a significant institutional portfolio of 80-100 funders and achieving annual revenue goals over $1.2M-$1.5M.
  • Strong knowledge of Connecticut social service resources, data, impact and trends, including issues related to economic stability, equity and diversity, food security, education, and related issues;

Desired Competencies

• Commitment to the Mission and Vision of P2P and to the community being served;
• Belief that a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion will provide the best environment, experience and services for everyone, and especially the P2P community;
• Outstanding editing, writing, and oral communication skills; ability to craft clear, lively, engaging and compelling copy in a variety of styles appropriate to target audiences and broader public;
• Thorough knowledge of the fundamentals of writing, grammar, syntax, style, and punctuation;
• Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills, ability to conduct research and synthesize impact data;
• Strong project management and organizational skills, with thorough attention to detail and ability to manage multiple concurrent timelines and projects;
• Proficient technology skills, including internet and AI research, MS Office and image handling products; knowledge of Salesforce or ability to quickly learn;
• Experience with budget management and preparation of financial reports;
• Responsible and accountable, ability to work unsupervised and also collaboratively within a diverse and multi-disciplinary team;
• High ethical standards, comfort dealing with confidential information;
• Willingness to learn new skills and work on different and evolving projects;
• Solid educational background; bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required;
• Possess warmth, sense of humor, honesty and compassion.

P2P offers competitive compensation, excellent benefits, generous paid time off and a supportive workplace culture. Benefits include health, dental, vision, 403(b) retirement, life and disability insurance, FSA, and supplemental insurance.