Foundation Relations Manager

Job Description

Position Title: Foundation Relations Manager

Our (Awesome) Team

We are a fast-paced, high-performance team that is ambitious in our pursuits, passionate about our mission, and creative in our execution. We encourage professional development by exposing team members to all aspects of our organization.

Think you want to join our team? We are actively seeking a Foundation Relations Manager to join our team in our Santa Barbara, CA office. Details on the specific responsibilities and minimum qualifications are provided below, but before reading on please ask yourself the following questions:

1. Am I a self-starter and do I thrive in an entrepreneurial environment where I’m responsible for all aspects of my role, doing my part to help run an efficient business, and assist in the development of long-term goals and the strategies to reach them?
2. Do I have the ability to relate closely to colleagues as internal customers and to help remove roadblocks so others can shine in their roles?
3. Am I passionate about contributing to continued dynamic improvements in the global humanitarian aid arena?

If you’ve answered “yes” to each question, please read on!

The Position

ShelterBox USA is looking for a dynamic and strategy-minded Foundation Relations Manager who will partner with SBUSA’s Director of Foundation Relations. This position is responsible for growing and sustaining funding from foundations to support the global mission of providing emergency shelter and essential supplies to communities devastated by disaster or conflict situations.

The Manager is responsible for facilitating the entire fundraising cycle including identifying, soliciting, stewarding, growing and renewing foundation gifts to support ShelterBox USA’s mission. This includes but is not limited to prospect, donor, grant, and report research; foundation grant and report writing, foundation data management and analysis, and strategic planning.

Additional critical tasks include

• Fundraising (30%): Work with Director of Foundation Relations to establish short and long-range goals, objectives, and tactics for the Foundation Relations Manager within the Foundation Relations Department.
  • Grant and Report Writing: Write proposals and reports.
  • Cultivate and Steward: Steward relationships with assigned prospects and donors.
• Research (30%): Identifying and researching foundation prospects, donors, and grant opportunities to inform foundation relations fundraising tactics. Researching countries, humanitarian crisis, and disasters to inform proposals and reports to foundations, which will also be used to inform and educate the broader ShelterBox USA team and assist other areas of fundraising at ShelterBox.
• Database and Records Management (30%):
  • Maintenance: Maintain up-to-date foundation accounts and correspondence within Raiser’s Edge database and SharePoint/Teams files. Utilize and leverage Raiser’s Edge to ensure timeliness of grant solicitations and reports.
  • Track, Analyze, and Report: Maintain accurate accounting of all foundation income and its sources. Interface with finance team to fulfill information requests and maintain reporting accuracy. Utilize and leverage Raiser’s Edge as an analysis tool to track donors, identify trends, and improve overall work of department including generating queries, reports, exports and other collection data as needed.
• Other Duties as Assigned (10%): The Foundation Relations Manager will occasionally be asked to take on other projects or partner with other members of the fundraising team to support campaign appeals and events.

Position Status and Location

This position is an exempt, full-time role and is located at ShelterBox USA’s fundraising headquarters in Santa Barbara, California.

The Person We’re Looking For

The person we are looking for is dynamic, full of energy and focused on our goal of establishing and building deeper relationship to secure foundation gifts. The Foundation Relations Manager is responsible for supporting the foundation fundraising activities of ShelterBox USA.

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree and/or equivalent prior experience in international development, global studies, nonprofit management, global economics, disaster management, or a similar area.
• Qualified candidates should possess excellent writing and computer skills (Microsoft Office Word, SharePoint, PowerPoint, and Excel), and database management skills.
• High interest in global humanitarian work, familiarity with global news, human rights, development issues, and crisis/disaster issues.
• Excellent research, organizational, and communications skills with demonstrated ability to write clearly and persuasively.
• 2-4 years of experience in research, grant and report writing, donor stewardship.
• Attention to detail with a high degree of initiative.
• Approaches mistakes and challenges with a lesson-learned, problem-solving attitude.
• Proven track record of achieving goals.
• Exceptional team player with a proactive, “can-do” attitude, and the ability to work flexibly and problem-solve within a team and individually.

Preferred:

• Experience working with a database, Raiser’s Edge.
• Adobe InDesign experience a plus, but not required.

We offer a progressive benefits package including health insurance, paid time off, and professional growth opportunities

Due to the nature of a disaster relief organization, employees may be asked to work extended hours or on holidays without much advance notice.

At ShelterBox, successful leaders are engaged, lifelong learners who are excellent listeners and coaches, and value deep, authentic collaboration in a cross-functional team. Most importantly, at ShelterBox, success is measured in the “we” and not the “me.” Our leaders believe that their own success is measured not by personal accomplishment, but by how their team is growing and contributing, both as individuals and as a whole.

Instructions on How to Apply

To apply for this position, submit your resume and cover letter to careers@shelterboxusa.org . Resumes with accompanying cover letters will be considered more carefully than those without. Please include salary expectations. No phones calls please.

About the Organization

ShelterBox is a leading global nonprofit organization whose mission is to deliver humanitarian aid in the form of shelter and lifesaving supplies when natural disaster or political conflict devastates a region. From Syria, to Somaliland, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Lake Chad Basin, and beyond, in 2019 ShelterBox provided shelter to more than 145,000 people who were left homeless from disaster and conflict situations. ShelterBox has a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, a platinum status in GuideStar, was nominated for the 2018 and 2019 Nobel Peace Prize and is the official project partner of Rotary International in disaster relief.