Career Center

Manager, Institutional Giving

About Bank Street

Bank Street College of Education is a private, nonprofit educational institution founded in 1916 and located in New York City. Bank Street is considered to be one of the leading institutions in the area of progressive education and has grown over the years into an internationally recognized leader in early childhood education, a pioneer in improving the quality of classroom environments and teacher preparation, and a national advocate for children and families. The College includes a Graduate School, an on-site independent School for Children, professional development and social programs, and partnerships with school districts, colleges, museums, and cultural institutions, hospitals, community service organizations, and educational media corporations.

The mission of Bank Street College is to improve the education of children and their teachers by applying to the education process all available knowledge about learning and growth, and by connecting teaching and learning meaningfully to the outside world. In so doing, we seek to strengthen not only individuals, but the community as well, including family, school, and the larger society in which adults and children, in all their diversity, interact and learn. We see in education the opportunity to build a better society.

Summary

Reporting to the Senior Director of Institutional Giving and working with both internal partners across the institution and external funding and programmatic partners, the Manager, Institutional Giving is responsible for owning the full lifecycle of fundraising for a portfolio of current and prospective institutional funders, inclusive of foundations, corporations, and government agencies. Duties include developing fundraising strategy for various Bank Street projects and teams, and aligned with that strategy, identifying, qualifying, and managing institutional donors as well as creating and stewarding grants and subgrants. This position requires a systems thinker with an eye for strategy, the ability to manage multiple complex projects simultaneously, and excellent writing, project management, and interpersonal skills.

Responsibilities

As part of the Institutional Giving Team, the Manager, Institutional Giving oversees a portfolio of up to 50 foundations, corporations, and government prospects and funders throughout all stages of the donor cycle, e.g., prospect identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. The Manager additionally partners with the Senior Director to drive enterprise-level institutional giving strategy, including supporting Bank Street teams in fundraising vision-setting, landscape analysis, readiness assessment, and aligning team and project fundraising needs to overall organizational strategy. Responsibilities will include:

• Develops and sets fundraising strategy in consultation with program and faculty colleagues
• Manages the cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship processes for funders in their portfolio, including identifying areas of alignment, supporting outreach and communication with donors, briefing the President and program leadership on strategy in advance of donor meetings, and joining or leading meetings with donors when appropriate
• Analyzes new grant opportunities (RFPs, grant competitions) and research on new leads/prospects and presents them to teams, faculty, or project leaders with whom there is alignment, providing context and potential next steps for program leaders to move forward with said opportunities
• Oversees preparation for monthly programmatic pipeline meetings and supports Senior Director in preparing for and leading weekly Development Advisory meetings with College leadership
• Conducts prospect profiles and landscape analyses, in partnership with prospect researcher(s), to assess opportunity and establish a cultivation plan
• Writes proposals, reports, letters of inquiry, and other formal funder communications, as well as supporting program leaders as needed with informal communications such as email outreach, one-pagers, project briefs, etc.
• Develops and deploys systems and processes to streamline and improve institutional giving at Bank Street, e.g., project plans for cross-divisional grants, federal and state grants guidance, and other tools as the need arises
• Manages Grants Development Officer
• Maintains Bank Street’s Raiser’s Edge system for organizations in their portfolio to ensure donor data integrity
• Works with supervisor and data operations staff to retrieve and present grant, project, and/or other donor and fundraising data for purposes of planning and assessment
• Represents Bank Street in meetings and at industry events, conferences, and panels to make connections with potential funders and partners
• Routinely engages with senior leadership and program teams on program progress, updates on proposed outcomes, and key events or activities;
• Other related duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Skilled Communicator: Able to communicate clearly and compellingly on Bank Street’s mission, vision, and work, verbally and in writing
• Extremely Organized: Able to prioritize tasks, work within strict deadlines, and manage multiple projects at the same time
• Strategic and Strong Judgment: Able to assess competing priorities, understand enterprise-level needs, determine projects’ and programs’ strengths and growth areas, and generally support complex, multi-input assessments and decision-making to drive a coherent strategy for institutional fundraising
• Proactive, Independent Operator: Comfortable taking on projects with limited supervision, identifying areas of need or opportunity and designing a scope of work in response, leading meetings or projects with cross-divisional partners, and gracefully receiving and integrating feedback from multiple reviewers
• Positive and Professional Attitude: Patient, people-first, and able to work well under pressure and with others to meet frequent and changing deadlines in a fast-paced environment
• Eye for Detail: Able to prepare and proofread materials, correspondence, proposals, and other communications for internal and external audiences
• Curious: Interested and able to learn new skills and develop new areas of expertise by asking questions, participating in professional development opportunities, and taking initiative to acquire new knowledge
• Sense of Responsibility: Able and willing to collaborate with others and to see projects through to completion as a team member or team leader
• Tech Savvy: Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and the use of Google Docs; Familiar and experienced with relational databases, preferably Raiser’s Edge, as well as online research databases for funding opportunities, such as the Foundation Center’s Foundation Directory and/or the Federal Government’s gov website

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in education, training, and experience required.
• (Preferred majors: English, education, history, communications, expository writing, journalism)
• 3-5 years of work experience in a similar fundraising role
• Familiarity with and interest in education policy, pedagogy, progressive education, and Bank Street’s mission preferred

Notice to Applicant:  COVID-19 Vaccination Policy

We appreciate your interest in employment at Bank Street College of Education.  We would like to note that the College has a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, which requires all faculty and staff to be fully vaccinated and provide proof of vaccination.  

For additional information regarding our policy on the COVID-19 vaccination, click here.

About Bank Street College of Education

The mission of Bank Street College is to improve the education of children and their teachers by applying to the educational process all available knowledge about learning and growth, and by connecting teaching and learning meaningfully to the outside world. In so doing, we seek to strengthen not only individuals, but the community as well, including family, school, and the larger society in which adults and children, in all their diversity, interact and learn. We see in education the opportunity to build a better society.

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