Business Development Manager (Volunteer)

Business Development Manager (Volunteer)

PromiseBrands | Business Development, Brand Partnerships & Commercial Growth

Organization: Mentor A Promise (MAP)

Division: PromiseBrands

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

Type: Volunteer Management Role

Commitment: Approximately 5–10 hours per week

Minimum Commitment: 6 months

Reports To: Chief of Brands / PromiseBrands Leadership

Works Closely With: Creative Director, PromiseBrands; PromiseGiving; PromiseBridge; PromiseVoice; PromiseStudios; PromisePages; PromiseFinance; PromiseTrust; PromiseMeasure; and Executive Leadership

About Mentor A Promise

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

MAP is also building creative brands, products, stories, experiences, and intellectual property capable of extending the mission into new audiences and responsible sources of organizational sustainability.

PromiseBrands is where brand strategy, creative expression, product development, and business opportunity come together.

About PromiseBrands

PromiseBrands leads MAP's brand strategy, brand expression, fashion and apparel, products and merchandise, creative campaigns, branded experiences, and related commercial opportunities.

Business Development within PromiseBrands focuses on identifying how MAP's creative assets and brands can responsibly create economic and strategic value.

The central question is:

How can MAP turn strong ideas, brands, products, creative assets, and audiences into responsible opportunities that strengthen the mission?

Role Overview

MAP is seeking a Business Development Manager to help identify, evaluate, develop, and advance business opportunities connected to PromiseBrands.

This role will explore opportunities involving products, licensing, collaborations, retail, e-commerce, brand partnerships, sponsorship opportunities, intellectual property, creative ventures, and other mission-aligned revenue opportunities.

The Manager will help move opportunities from idea to evaluation to execution.

Opportunity → Research → Qualification → Business Case → Internal Review → Development → Approval → Launch → Measurement → Learning

Business development at MAP should not mean pursuing every opportunity capable of generating revenue.

It means determining which opportunities make strategic, financial, creative, legal, and mission sense.

Business Opportunity Development

Identify and develop opportunities involving:

• Products and merchandise
• Fashion and apparel
• Brand collaborations
• Licensing
• Intellectual property
• Retail opportunities
• E-commerce
• Creative products
• Publishing-related opportunities
• Media and content opportunities
• Branded experiences
• Cause-related collaborations
• Sponsorship opportunities
• Corporate brand collaborations
• Limited-edition products
• Creative campaigns
• Social-enterprise concepts
• New distribution channels

Evaluate each opportunity beyond its immediate revenue potential.

Ask:

Does this fit the brand?

Does it fit the mission?

Is there an audience?

Is there a viable business model?

What will it cost?

What resources will it require?

What risks exist?

What could MAP realistically earn?

Is the opportunity sustainable?

Does it deserve to exist?

Business Development Pipeline

Build and manage a structured opportunity pipeline.

Use a framework such as:

Opportunity → Qualification → Research → Business Case → Feasibility → Internal Review → Negotiation → Approval → Activation → Performance → Renewal / Expansion / Exit

Maintain visibility into:

• Prospects
• Opportunities
• Status
• Potential value
• Internal owners
• Dependencies
• Required approvals
• Next actions
• Deadlines
• Risks
• Outcomes

A promising conversation is not yet a business opportunity.

An opportunity becomes meaningful when there is a credible path from idea to value.

Brand Collaborations

Identify organizations, creators, designers, businesses, manufacturers, retailers, platforms, and other entities that may be appropriate for PromiseBrands collaborations.

Help develop opportunities such as:

MAP × Artist

MAP × Designer

MAP × Business

MAP × Creative Studio

MAP × Retailer

MAP × Community Brand

MAP × Mission-Aligned Company

Collaborations should create mutual value while protecting MAP's identity and mission.

A recognizable company name alone is not a reason to collaborate.

Products & Commerce

Work with PromiseBrands creative leadership to explore commercially viable products.

Support business planning around:

• Product concepts
• Target audiences
• Pricing
• Costs
• Production quantities
• Distribution
• Inventory
• Margins
• Packaging
• Fulfillment
• Customer experience
• Market positioning
• Sales performance

Creative teams determine what is worth creating.

Business development helps determine whether there is a responsible way to bring it to market.

E-Commerce Growth

Support the responsible development of MAP's e-commerce activities.

Help evaluate:

• Product assortment
• Customer journey
• Conversion
• Pricing
• Bundles
• Limited releases
• Seasonal opportunities
• Distribution
• Customer retention
• Market demand
• Sales performance
• Opportunities for experimentation

Revenue should never be confused with profit.

The Manager should work with PromiseFinance to understand the actual economics behind opportunities.

Licensing & Intellectual Property Opportunities

Work with PromiseBrands, PromisePages, PromiseStudios, PromiseTrust, and other appropriate teams to identify potential opportunities involving MAP-owned creative assets and intellectual property.

Potential areas may include:

• Characters
• Stories
• Illustrations
• Designs
• Artwork
• Educational concepts
• Media properties
• Publications
• Branded assets
• Original creative projects

The Manager may help research and develop opportunities but should not independently authorize licensing or intellectual-property agreements.

PromiseTrust must be involved where appropriate.

Business Cases & Feasibility

Before significant opportunities move forward, develop a practical business case.

Consider:

Market Opportunity → Audience → Value Proposition → Revenue Model → Costs → Resources → Risks → Mission Alignment → Financial Potential → Recommendation

The strongest creative idea is not automatically a viable business.

The strongest business opportunity is not automatically right for MAP.

Both questions matter.

Revenue & Financial Analysis

Partner with PromiseFinance to understand the economics of proposed opportunities.

Evaluate areas such as:

• Revenue potential
• Direct costs
• Margins
• Production costs
• Fulfillment costs
• Inventory exposure
• Upfront investment
• Break-even considerations
• Financial risk
• Revenue sharing
• Royalty structures

The Manager should not independently make accounting, tax, charitable-deduction, or financial-compliance determinations.

Financial enthusiasm should never replace financial discipline.

Market & Audience Research

Research:

• Consumer trends
• Comparable products
• Pricing
• Competitors
• Audience interests
• Market gaps
• Distribution channels
• Creative trends
• Retail opportunities
• Potential collaborators

Business development should begin with understanding the opportunity—not assuming an audience exists because MAP likes the idea.

Negotiation & Opportunity Development

Support discussions with prospective collaborators and commercial partners.

Help clarify:

Purpose → Mutual Value → Scope → Responsibilities → Economics → Rights → Deliverables → Timeline → Approval → Activation

Coordinate appropriate internal review before commitments are made.

The Manager should understand the difference between exploring an opportunity and committing MAP to one.

Business Development vs. PromiseBridge

Maintain a clear organizational distinction.

PromiseBridge develops institutional partnerships that expand MAP's programs, opportunities, expertise, resources, and external relationships.

PromiseBrands Business Development develops commercial and brand-driven opportunities connected to products, creative assets, audiences, intellectual property, and earned revenue.

Some opportunities may involve both.

In those situations, PromiseBridge and PromiseBrands should collaborate rather than compete for ownership.

Business Development vs. PromiseGiving

PromiseGiving leads charitable fundraising, philanthropy, donor relationships, and contributed revenue.

PromiseBrands Business Development focuses primarily on earned-revenue and commercial opportunities.

A donation is not a sale.

A sponsorship may contain elements of both and should be structured with the appropriate internal teams.

Clear classification matters.

Performance & Learning

Track business-development performance through appropriate indicators such as:

• Qualified opportunities
• Business cases developed
• Opportunities advanced
• Collaborations launched
• Revenue generated
• Margin where appropriate
• Customer participation
• Product performance
• Renewal or repeat opportunities
• Opportunities declined
• Lessons learned

Not every successful business-development decision results in a launch.

Sometimes the strongest decision is determining that an opportunity should not move forward.

Team Development

Help build PromiseBrands' business-development capacity.

Recruit and support appropriate volunteers, analysts, coordinators, or specialists as the function grows.

Create systems, templates, pipelines, and documentation so business-development knowledge remains with MAP.

The Manager should not become MAP's only person capable of developing a business opportunity.

The goal is to build a function.

Qualifications

Strong candidates may come from backgrounds in business development, brand partnerships, licensing, retail, e-commerce, consumer products, fashion, media, entertainment, sales, entrepreneurship, strategy, marketing, social enterprise, or commercial partnerships.

Candidates should demonstrate strong business judgment, relationship-building, research, communication, opportunity evaluation, negotiation, organization, and follow-through.

Experience with financial modeling, licensing, e-commerce, product development, consumer brands, or social enterprise is helpful but not required.

What Success Looks Like

PromiseBrands develops a visible pipeline of credible business opportunities.

Ideas are evaluated before significant resources are committed.

Creative teams understand the commercial context of products.

MAP better understands the economics of its products and ventures.

Potential collaborators receive professional follow-through.

Commercial opportunities have clear owners.

PromiseFinance and PromiseTrust are engaged at the appropriate stages.

MAP learns from opportunities it launches and those it declines.

And PromiseBrands increasingly develops responsible earned-revenue opportunities capable of strengthening MAP's long-term sustainability.

Why This Role Matters

Mission and sustainability do not have to exist on opposite sides of the organization.

A powerful design can become a product.

A story can become intellectual property.

A creative project can reach an audience.

A collaboration can open a market.

And an idea can become a responsible source of revenue that helps sustain the mission that created it.

But possibility alone is not a business model.

PromiseBrands needs people capable of asking both:

What could this become?

And:

Does it make sense for MAP to build it?

That is the responsibility of Business Development.

Commitment

Approximately 5–10 hours per week with a minimum six-month commitment.

The Manager will maintain consistent communication with PromiseBrands leadership, participate in relevant meetings, manage assigned opportunities, maintain the business-development pipeline, and collaborate across MAP.

How to Apply

Interested candidates must apply directly through Idealist and submit:

• Resume or CV
• Cover letter

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

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. Understand the market. Build the business case. Protect the brand. Know when to move forward—and when not to. Turn creative possibility into responsible growth that helps sustain the promise.