Job Description
POSITION OVERVIEW
Rare’s culture is results-oriented and entrepreneurial. We are working toward ambitious goals in creating measurable social and environmental impacts. We appreciate and respect the donors who support Rare’s work and do our best to maximize the value and potential of these partnerships.
This position will work primarily with one of Rare’s largest donors, Bloomberg Philanthropies, to steward the relationship, promote our shared aims, leverage each organization’s resources for greatest impact, and manage the grant and all related partnership communications. This position will work closely with Rare Leadership, other staff working on the Vibrant Oceans Initiative (VOI), and key contacts at Bloomberg Philanthropies and partner organizations.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
The Relationship Manager will coordinate across Rare as well as exercise independent judgment regarding the following workstreams:
Relationship Management, Communications and Marketing
Relationship Management
- Serve as Rare’s main point of contact for Bloomberg Philanthropies, ensuring and streamlining coordination of Bloomberg’s strategic discussions with the Heads of Fish Forever, Development and Communications.
- Partner with Rare Senior Leadership and Bloomberg Philanthropies to develop a partnership strategy, vision, and strategic plan that guides the Phase II relationship.
- Cultivate and coordinate with ongoing VOI partners to extend Rare and VOI’s thought leadership, reputation, reach and awareness
- Explore relationships with new partners, such as Vital Strategies, which align with the Vibrant Oceans Initiative strategy and messaging.
- Facilitate Bloomberg’s participation in Rare-led and/or partner activities and events.
Communications and Marketing
- In partnership with Rare’s Communications Team:
- Regularly communicate with Bloomberg Philanthropies Communications Team to identify and execute opportunities for collaboration and leverage.
- Promote the VOI and ensure effective cross-partnership communication and coordination with the other VOI partners.
- Create Rare and Bloomberg communications/marketing strategies and plans as needed.
- Represent Rare at donor events and meetings and communicate the vision for long-term partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and the VOI.
- Ensure that all internal stakeholders understand the Rare/VOI partnership and their role in carrying out the relationship’s goals.
- Learn the program content such that s/he can represent Rare to external and internal stakeholders.
Project Management
- Manage the partnership’s multiple and simultaneous work streams, collaborating with Rare team leads to ensure timeliness and high-quality project management.
- Develop on-time and compelling donor reports.
- Send regular internal updates on the grant’s progress.
- Develop clear and concise materials for partnership meetings.
- Build knowledge of the grant budget and spending to answer basic financial questions.
- Partner with the Fish Forever and country teams to ensure alignment and understanding of donor needs/priorities so that they can provide donor-centric information.
- Ensure Salesforce is up to date.
Relationship Management for Complementary Funding
- Coordinate efforts to leverage Bloomberg Philanthropies’ grant to Rare with complementary funding from other individual, foundation and public donors.
- Identify opportunities to share highlights of the VOI partnership in fora with prospective donors.
REQUIRED EXPERIENCE
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience required. Master’s degree preferred;
- Three to five years of relationship management experience (preferably with foundations), or demonstrated equivalent and transferable skills in a sales and/or business development role;
- Exceptional written, oral, interpersonal, and presentation skills and the ability to effectively communicate across all levels within a culturally diverse organization;
- Excellent planning, organization, and management skills, particularly as related to relationship-building, event planning, and project and budget management;
- Excellent judgment and creative problem-solving skills including negotiation and conflict resolution skills;
- Demonstrated ability to understand and communicate complex program content, a plus if in the conservation field;
- Strong leadership skills; ability to influence and engage senior leaders, partners, and peers;
- Proven experience in fundraising, and grant writing;
- Energetic, flexible, collaborative, and proactive; a team leader and strategic thinker who can positively and productively impact both strategic and tactical initiatives and operate at both levels;
- A commitment to Rare’s mission and values, i.e., a passion for environmental conservation and social well-being in the developing world; ability to thrive in cross-functional team environments to build relationships across geographical distances, cultural communities, and throughout the organization;
- Working knowledge of conservation policy desirable; and
- Written and spoken fluency in English required; proficiency in other languages a plus, especially Tagalog, Bahasa, and/or Portuguese.
Rare is an equal opportunity employer and welcomes all to apply; EOE/M/F/D/V
About the Organization
Rare inspires change so people and nature thrive.
Rare believes that conservation is about people. True, most environmental problems stem from human activity, but people also wield the solutions. Rare concentrates on finding and replicating proven solutions to many of the world’s biggest environmental challenges. Rare’s mantra is to find what works and then repeat.
Core to that approach is Rare’s insight that individuals and communities are motivated as much by emotion as by reason. Thus conservationists must become as skilled in social science as biological science. This is the rationale behind Rare’s signature Pride campaigns.
Rare trains local leaders to run Pride campaigns that employ proven social science methods typically reserved for the marketing and advertising industries to inspire change people to adopt conservation solutions and empower them to make those solutions their own. By appealing to both hearts and minds, Rare’s prove approach accelerates the adoption and increases the sustainability of the solutions. Rare and its partners have conducted over 250 Pride campaigns in more than 50 countries, empowering local communities to become natural asset managers across Latin America, Asia and Africa.
