IWS Family Health, a community health center providing preventive health care services to children and families, seeks a Fundraising and Communications Manager. This is a crucial role that supervises and executes individual fundraising, communications, volunteer, and outreach activities for the External Relations department to advance its goals of increasing philanthropic support, raising awareness, and strengthening partnerships. The successful candidate will bring polished communication and writing skills, strong interpersonal and fundraising skills, and a commitment to our work helping children and families grow healthy, strong, and confident.
Position Responsibilities
- Ensures activities are executed with kindness and excellence, aligning with organizational goals, brand standards, and department priorities.
- Manages individual fund development efforts, including year-end and mid-year fundraising campaigns, engagement and stewardship activities, special events, grant deliverables and reports, and donor relations, with support from the External Relations Coordinator and in collaboration with the External Relations team.
- Ensures steady growth and development of individual donor portfolios with progress toward additional major and planned gifts.
- Revises and/or utilizes documents such as case statements, solicitation materials, and other relevant documents for targeted, personalized asks.
- Serves as a key relationship manager to the Auxiliary, the organization’s largest donor and volunteer group.
- Executes external communication strategy, including drafting compelling content for monthly email newsletters, printed newsletters, social media, and other communication materials with an emphasis on persuasive story-telling and elevation of brand visibility.
- Tracks key communications analytics to regularly monitor and evaluate performance, recommend strategic improvements, and create reports.
- Collaborates with leadership to identify high-impact moments — including rapid-response opportunities — and responds strategically to increase organizational impact.
- Collaborates with the Fundraising and Communications Committee, Board of Directors, and the Auxiliary on fundraising and communications initiatives and serves as a point of contact to board members on individual fund development and board giving.
- Supervises the External Relations Coordinator and the organization’s volunteer and outreach programs.
- Reports to and provides support to Chief Strategy Officer for other department activities.
- Participates in organization and department meetings and other related duties as assigned.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
- Knowledge of fund development, marketing, and communications strategies, techniques, and best practices
- Must possess excellent written and verbal donor-centric communications skills
- Must be able to manage confidential information
- Excellent user of office technology and information systems (including Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint) and donor databases
- Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to interact with multiple audiences with warmth, kindness, and professionalism
- High level of attention to detail, excellent communication skills, and the ability to work collaboratively with various stakeholders
- Active listening skills
- Ability to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines
- Ability to listen, be flexible, balance both team and individual responsibilities, and contribute to a positive work environment
Education and Experience
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent in fields such as communications, nonprofit management, business, marketing or related field.
- Minimum of 3 years’ experience with fund development and/or communications required
- Demonstrated content creation, copywriting, editing skills, and the ability to tailor messaging for different audiences and platforms
- Experience with visual communications i.e design and photo/video editing, website software (e.g. Adobe Creative Suite, Canva, HTML/WordPress)
Working Conditions
- Various settings in the clinic and other locations within the community and Chicagoland area as needed fundraising and external relations events.
- In-office presence required, at least three days per week. Remote work will be approved when the workflow and calendar allows.
- Must be able to stand for extended periods during events.
- Work on evenings and weekends as needed. Time is compensated with flexibility in scheduling.
Organizational Overview
Driven by purpose and our legacy of over 100 years, we are creating healthier futures. IWS Family Health’s mission is to help children and families grow healthy, strong, and confident by providing trusted, high-quality, coordinated healthcare. Our main location, IWS Family Health – Logan Square, offers full-service care for all ages, including pediatrics, adult health, prenatal care, dental, and more. Our new pediatric site, IWS Family Health – Dunning, is dedicated to care for children. Both locations are committed to providing high-quality, accessible healthcare for Chicago families. IWS Family Health is a Federally Qualified Health Center Look-Alike, a member of the Illinois Primary Healthcare Association (IPHCA) and the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) and receives strong support from the community and local philanthropic leaders.