Chief Institutional Giving & Grants Officer (Volunteer)

Chief Institutional Giving & Grants Officer (Volunteer)

PromiseGiving | Institutional Philanthropy, Grants & Strategic Funding

Organization: Mentor A Promise (MAP)

Division: PromiseGiving

Location: Fully Remote — United States, with NYC-based collaboration as needed

Type: Volunteer Executive Leadership

Commitment: Approximately 5–10 hours per week

Minimum Commitment: 6 months

Reports To: Chief Executive Officer

Leads: Institutional Giving & Grants Team

About Mentor A Promise

Mentor A Promise (MAP) is a New York City–based nonprofit serving children and youth ages 5–18 experiencing housing instability through mentorship, education, literacy, social-emotional learning, creative expression, career development, advocacy, and community-centered opportunity.

Our ability to expand opportunity for young people depends on strong programs, strong people, and the resources necessary to sustain the work.

Role Overview

The Chief Institutional Giving & Grants Officer serves as MAP's senior executive responsible for institutional philanthropy, grants, foundation relations, and strategic funding.

Reporting directly to the CEO, the Chief will develop MAP's institutional funding strategy, build relationships with funders, oversee the grants pipeline, lead proposal development, strengthen grant management, and build a high-performing grants team.

The Chief oversees the full funding lifecycle:

Opportunity → Qualification → Relationship → Proposal → Award → Implementation → Reporting → Stewardship → Renewal

This is not simply a senior grant-writing position. It is an executive fundraising role responsible for building the strategy, relationships, systems, and team necessary to make institutional philanthropy a sustainable source of support for MAP.

Institutional Giving Strategy

Develop and lead MAP's institutional funding strategy across:

• Private and family foundations
• Corporate philanthropy
• Community foundations
• Government grants
• Capacity-building opportunities
• Program-specific funding
• General operating support
• Multi-year funding

Build a diversified funding portfolio aligned with MAP's mission, programs, organizational capacity, and long-term priorities.

MAP should not chase every available grant.

The strongest opportunities exist where mission, organizational readiness, and funder priorities genuinely intersect.

Funder Research & Pipeline Development

Build and maintain a qualified institutional funding pipeline.

Use a disciplined process:

Research → Qualification → Cultivation → Solicitation → Award → Stewardship → Renewal

Evaluate opportunities based on mission alignment, eligibility, program fit, award potential, requirements, relationship potential, organizational capacity, and strategic value.

Maintain visibility into prospects, deadlines, application status, awards, reporting requirements, renewals, and next steps.

Funder Relationships

Develop meaningful relationships with foundations, corporations, and other institutional funders.

Coordinate:

• Funder introductions
• Meetings and briefings
• Letters of inquiry
• Site visits where appropriate
• Relationship cultivation
• Progress updates
• Stewardship
• Renewal conversations

A funder should not hear from MAP only when MAP needs money.

Strong institutional giving is built on relationships, credibility, and trust.

Proposal Development

Establish high standards for proposals and institutional communications.

Ensure applications clearly communicate MAP's mission, community need, program model, activities, outcomes, organizational capacity, measurement approach, budget, and sustainability.

Create a consistent proposal process:

Opportunity → Go/No-Go → Internal Kickoff → Program Information → Outcomes → Budget → Draft → Review → Approval → Submission

Proposals should be compelling without exaggeration.

MAP should never make a stronger claim than its evidence supports or make a promise the organization cannot responsibly keep.

Grants Team Leadership

Build and lead MAP's Institutional Giving & Grants Team.

Recruit, mentor, and develop Grant Managers, Grant Writers, Grant Researchers, Coordinators, Assistants, and other institutional fundraising volunteers.

Establish clear responsibilities, deadlines, quality standards, and accountability.

The Chief should not become MAP's only exceptional grant writer.

The Chief should build an exceptional grants function.

Program, Finance & Impact Alignment

Work closely with program leaders to ensure proposals reflect what MAP can realistically deliver.

Partner with PromiseFinance on grant budgets, restricted funding, financial requirements, and reporting.

Partner with PromiseMeasure on outcomes, indicators, evaluation, and impact claims.

Maintain a clear distinction:

Activities → Outputs → Outcomes → Impact

The strongest proposal is not necessarily the one that promises the most.

It is the one a funder can trust.

Grant Management & Compliance

Build systems that continue after an award is received.

Track:

Award → Restrictions → Deliverables → Budget → Program Owner → Outcomes → Reporting → Closeout → Renewal

Ensure grant restrictions, deadlines, deliverables, and reporting requirements are understood by the appropriate teams.

Partner with PromiseFinance and PromiseTrust on financial, contractual, and compliance requirements.

Winning the grant is the beginning of grant management—not the end.

Funder Reporting & Stewardship

Oversee accurate and timely grant reporting.

Coordinate with programs, PromiseMeasure, and PromiseFinance to gather program updates, outcomes, financial information, stories, challenges, and required deliverables.

Reports should communicate accomplishments clearly while remaining transparent about challenges and changes.

Use reporting and stewardship to strengthen relationships and position appropriate grants for renewal or expanded support.

Cross-Divisional Leadership

Collaborate with PromiseFinance on budgets and financial reporting, PromiseMeasure on outcomes and evidence, PromisePrograms and PromiseRise on program commitments, PromiseBridge on institutional relationships, and PromiseTrust on legal and compliance requirements.

Institutional fundraising is inherently cross-functional.

PromiseGiving coordinates the funding process.

It should never invent commitments on behalf of another division.

Executive Leadership Expectations

As a MAP Chief, the Chief Institutional Giving & Grants Officer will:

• Participate consistently in weekly Chiefs meetings.
• Maintain regular communication with the CEO.
• Establish quarterly priorities and measurable commitments.
• Provide leadership visibility into the institutional funding pipeline.
• Recruit, develop, and retain grants team members.
• Identify opportunities and risks early.
• Collaborate effectively across divisions.
• Follow through on commitments.
• Model accuracy, accountability, discretion, and integrity.

First-Year Priorities

The Chief should help MAP establish a comprehensive institutional giving strategy, build a qualified funding pipeline, strengthen foundation and corporate relationships, standardize proposal workflows, develop the grants team, create a centralized grants calendar, strengthen grant management and reporting, and identify opportunities for renewal and multi-year support.

Qualifications

Strong candidates may bring senior experience in institutional giving, foundation relations, grant development, philanthropy, nonprofit development, corporate giving, government grants, or related fields.

Candidates should demonstrate:

• Significant institutional fundraising or grant-development experience.
• Exceptional proposal-writing and editing skills.
• Experience developing funding strategies and pipelines.
• Strong foundation and corporate prospect research skills.
• Understanding of grant budgets and restricted funding.
• Experience managing multiple proposals and deadlines.
• Strong relationship-building and communication skills.
• Experience leading or developing teams.
• Ability to collaborate with program, finance, measurement, legal, and executive leadership.
• Strong judgment regarding funding fit and organizational capacity.
• Commitment to ethical and evidence-informed fundraising.
• Alignment with MAP's mission and values.
• Residence in the United States.

Experience securing foundation, corporate, government, or multi-year institutional funding is strongly valued.

What Success Looks Like

MAP has a clear institutional funding strategy and qualified pipeline.

Institutional relationships deepen.

Proposal quality improves.

The grants team operates with clear leadership and accountability.

Programs understand what has been promised to funders.

Budgets and outcomes receive appropriate review.

Reports are accurate and timely.

Renewal opportunities are identified early.

MAP becomes increasingly competitive for larger, longer-term, and more flexible institutional support.

And the pursuit of funding strengthens the mission rather than reshaping it.

Why This Role Matters

Every grant contains more than money.

It contains trust.

Every proposal contains promises. Every budget contains assumptions. Every award creates responsibilities.

The Chief Institutional Giving & Grants Officer helps MAP build the relationships and resources necessary to grow while ensuring the organization remains responsible for every commitment it makes.

The goal is not simply to win grants.

It is to turn institutional generosity into sustainable opportunities for young people.

Volunteer Commitment

This is an unpaid executive volunteer position requiring approximately 5–10 hours per week with a minimum six-month commitment.

Consistent executive participation, communication with the CEO and grants team, cross-divisional collaboration, and reliable follow-through are essential.

Volunteers should provide at least two weeks' notice when ending their service whenever possible.

How to Apply

Please apply through Idealist only and submit:

• A current résumé
• A cover letter explaining your interest in Mentor A Promise and institutional philanthropy
• Relevant grant-writing samples or examples of institutional funding work, where available

At this time, MAP volunteer opportunities are limited to individuals based in the United States due to legal, safeguarding, data-privacy, compliance, and programmatic requirements.

Find the opportunity. Build the relationship. Know the program. Protect the numbers. Respect the evidence. Make only the promises MAP can keep. Develop the team. Steward the trust. And turn institutional generosity into lasting opportunity for the next generation.