Associate Director – Impact Partnerships

IRC Background

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 20 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure.

Its External Relations (ER) department was created in early 2020 and is comprised of three complementary functional areas: Private Fundraising, Communications and Advocacy – functions that work together to enhance IRC’s ability to ‘punch above its weight’ in private income, advocacy, and brand awareness.

The International Philanthropy and Partnerships (IPP) team, which sits within the External Relations Department, leads on the Organization’s engagement with corporations, foundations, international philanthropists globally, as well as IRC’s efforts in new funding streams (Faith-based; Donor-Advised Funds; Innovative Financing et al). The IPP team maintains a growing portfolio of strategic partnerships in the U.S. and other markets, primarily in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Latin America, & Africa, and matches funder interests with IRC’s extensive programs globally.

Job Overview

The IRC is looking for a front-line partnerships lead to capitalize on its winning record of large-scale, big-bet philanthropy and impact partnerships. This position will successfully steward and manage select big-bet opportunities within the IPP team and contribute cross functional expertise on influential foundation partnerships.

The right candidate will support and deepen engagement with impact partners through strategic management and leadership across external donors and internal high-level partners, thereby continuing IRC’s position as a go-to partner in the humanitarian sector, particularly in regards to winning large-scale awards from the global private sector.

This position provides dedicated strategic oversight to prime private-sector foundation partnerships, working closely with donors to build proactive, durable and impactful long-term partnership strategies. Simultaneously, this position ensures success of internal cross-team management of concurrent large-scale grants, leading collaborative engagement with a diverse spectrum of internationally-based colleagues and leaders.

The Associate Director, Foundations – Impact Partnerships serves a meaningful role in leading and modeling development of impact partnerships, supporting IRC’s global new business strategy as well as supporting the formalization of processes and procedures. They will understand the needs and performance of donors and prospects, communicate and collaborate superbly with colleagues, business partners and supporters, think strategically, make recommendations, offer creative solutions and manage systems to continually grow and improve the IRC’s donor relationships and influencing the organization’s strategy for engagement in new and existing markets.

This role will manage one Officer, guiding them to support the advancement of select large-scale partnerships while encouraging a productive learning environment.

Major Responsibilities:

• Provide practical support and thought leadership in identifying, carrying out and monitoring strategies for private sector partnerships that contribute to IPP’s revenue target;
• Lead existing partnerships, including direct strategic, long-term planning with the donor, as well as collaboration with internal partners for effective grants management;
• Design and implement creative and comprehensive outreach, solicitation and management strategies for partners within the portfolio, leading on partnership discussions, proposal submissions, and pitches;
• Engage with project and organizational leadership to ensure shared vision and strategy for partnership management;
• Monitor and analyze foundation partnership trends as they relate to Impact Partnership and big-bet opportunities, ensuring that the IRC’s partnership proposition remains compelling and competitive;
• Ensure open and relevant communication is maintained between the IRC and our private sector partners while serving as a respected authority internally and externally on the management and strategic development of select partnership engagement strategies;
• Represent IPP effectively in related fora;
• Line manage one Officer, including performance monitoring and mentoring, performance appraisals and professional development plan oversight
• In partnership with the Director, Foundations – Impact Partnerships, contribute to a growing knowledge base of resources, processes, lessons learned and workflow for the organization to respond to big-bet opportunities;
• Synthesize the IRC’s programs into clear, compelling presentations, proposals, and reports for private sector audiences which position IRC as the go-to partner in the humanitarian sector; and
• Maintain clear CRM records for the portfolio that contribute to comprehensive tracking/reporting on IPP’s client universe.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Director, Foundations – Impact Partnerships

Position supervises: Officer, Foundations – Impact Partnerships

Job Requirements:

Work Experience: 6-8 years of non-profit fundraising experience and demonstrated experience in leadership gifts, big-bet fundraising.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills including: speaking to and writing for donors; crafting compelling partnership proposals and pitch materials;
• Proven knowledge of foundation/private sector philanthropy planning processes, and the particular issues affecting the field;
• Experience of working to, and meeting, ambitious revenue goals and performance indicators, as well as participating in financial projections, reporting, and scenario planning;
• Demonstrated ability to maintain positive, collaborative, productive relationships with staff at all levels, particularly senior leaders;
• Good judgment in maintaining confidentiality of donor information;
• Ability to translate an organization’s strategy and objectives into operational delivery and, at times, respond quickly to changes in short-term priorities;
• Understanding of the critical support processes required to deliver effective institutional funder relationships;
• Well-developed analytical and problem-solving skills, with an ability to devise creative solutions to sophisticated problems and issues;
• CRM experience – Salesforce preferred;
• Ability to analyze and interpret financial data with the facility to understand budget models;
• Ability to identify and build processes required to support effective partnerships;
• Passion for the IRC’s mission and dedication to private sector partnerships; and
• Dedication to fundraising for international development, human rights, social justice and U.S. refugee and immigrant communities.
• Proficiency in another of the working languages of the IRC (Spanish, French and/or Arabic)

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Equality, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

IRC et les employés de IRC doivent adhérer aux valeurs et principes contenus dans le IRC WAY (normes de conduite professionnelle). Ce sont l’Intégrité, Egalite, le Service, et la Responsabilité. En conformité avec ces valeurs, IRC opère et fait respecter les politiques sur la protection des bénéficiaires contre l’exploitation et les abus, la protection de l’enfant, le harcèlement sur les lieux de travail, l’intégrité financière, et les représailles.