Associate Director for Institutional Partnerships

Acumen is hiring  an Associate Director to join our Development and Partnerships team to play a leadership role on our institutional fundraising team, focusing on corporations and foundations. We are seeking someone who is passionate about building funding partnerships for lasting impact, who can bring their knowledge,  focus, drive, and excitement to program design and strategy development. We’re looking for someone who is committed to solving problems of global poverty, has a minimum of 10 years of experience in institutional fundraising and relationship management, with an understanding of what it takes to build programs from the ground up and deliver activities at a global scale. This role is based in New York, with expectations to be in the office three days a week (e.g., Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays). 

Acumen
We’re investors. A different kind of investor. We invest in people and companies working to solve problems faced by people living in poverty, investing in essential products and services that bring more opportunities and more choices to millions. To date, Acumen has positively impacted 648 million lives by investing ~$200M in 215 innovative, early-stage companies in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and the United States. But investing clearly isn’t just about capital. It’s about investing in people. We’ve been investing in people for years. Identifying and supporting over 1,650 emerging leaders in their own countries and engaging them in capacity building, moral inquiry, and collective action.

About Development & Partnerships
Acumen partners with leading global institutions - corporations, corporate foundations,  foundations, bilaterals and multilaterals to advance our mission to change the way the world tackles poverty. The Development & Partnerships team leads this effort, working with companies like IKEA Foundation, SAP, Barclays, EY, Reckitt, Target Foundation, Autodesk Foundation, Mitsubishi Corporation, Rockefeller Foundation and others to help support social enterprises and develop more inclusive and sustainable business models. The Development & Partnerships team engages with institutions via co-created, grant-funded programs, research, monitoring and evaluation, convenings, and learning and influence which drive meaningful impact in the lives of the poor.

About the role
The Associate Director for Institutional Partnerships will join the Development & Partnerships team to support, cultivate and close their own relationships with corporations and foundations that are working to drive impact and sustainability through their core business and/or corporate philanthropy. The Associate Director will act as a center of excellence in program design, fundraising, partner engagement, sharing best practices and support to other senior Acumen leaders in the cultivation and engagement of institutional partners.  The role will require creativity in seeking out new relationships, skill in developing meaningful partnerships, and a willingness to collaborate across multiple functions and geographies to hit global fundraising targets and position Acumen as a leader in this space.

The Associate Director will support the engagement of Acumen’s current institutional partnerships, create opportunities for learning and thought leadership, and explore ways to bolster proximity and engagement between funders and social enterprises. Each of our partnerships involve a range of engagement activities that include fundraising, account management, project management, communications, event planning, reporting, and facilitation of relationships with our portfolio companies and other colleagues across Acumen.

As an immediate priority, the Associate Director will work directly with the Chief of Development and Partnerships and the Acumen Academy team on fundraising for the program. Prior experience developing and implementing programs at a global scale is highly preferred. The Associate Director will work closely with the Acumen Academy team throughout each stage of the proposal development process - formalizing ideas and taking them through the concept note and formal proposal stages into final negotiations and close. Strong collaboration and budgeting skills are a must.
The Associate Director will be accountable for:

• Working across the Development & Partnerships team and Acumen globally in the US, Europe, East and West Africa, Latin America and South Asia to develop a funding pipeline for priority initiatives, like Acumen Academy, lead  ideation and pitch meetings, lead concept note and proposal writing, and formalize our best practices for developing partnerships for major initiatives across donor types.
• Independently identifying and developing new institutional partnerships for Acumen, in collaboration with other functions as needed.
• Helping to manage internal processes related to partner evaluation, internal communication, support for account managers, and tracking metrics around our institutional partnerships.  
• Conducting annual assessment of institutional partnerships; Assessing strengths and areas of opportunity, providing recommendations for engagement with institutional partners, and internal synergies for effective engagement.
• Identifying and cultivating opportunities at events, conferences and forums for Acumen to share its work in front of corporate audiences, along with learning and influencing opportunities for our corporate partners.
• Seeking out and joining/contributing to alliances within the social impact sector focused on corporate - social enterprise partnership. 
• Developing and updating marketing assets, as needed, to incorporate new messaging for corporate audiences.

Qualifications and skills

• Minimum of 10 years of work experience in fundraising and relationship management.
• Experience with program development and implementation; working across teams and creating budgets.
• A strategic view and ability to work through complexity: an ability to grasp the entirety of the Acumen ecosystem – its purpose, its history, the myriad of stakeholders, its emerging direction and the goals that support that direction.
• Experience designing strategies to cultivate new prospects are a must; experience with the corporate donor community and or working in developing countries / impact investing are a plus.
• A track record of building and maintaining strategic funding relationships with Corporations.
• Ability to bridge the gap between the nonprofit and for-profit worlds.
• Exceptional interpersonal skills and demonstrated success in building collaborative relationships with both external and internal stakeholders.
• Effective storyteller who consistently communicates (verbally and in writing) in a clear and compelling manner.
• A willingness to take risks and ability to address complex issues creatively and effectively.
• Effectively collaborates with and across teams, seeks, and provides constructive feedback.
• Self reflective and aligned with Acumen values.
  
• Must have permanent authorization to work in the US.

Location
New York, USA 

Deadline
Apply as soon as you are able, as applications will be reviewed and interviews scheduled on a rolling basis.

The salary range for this role in NY is $100,000 - $120,000 USD plus an annual performance-based bonus. This range represents the present low and high end of pay range for this role. Actual compensation will vary based on various factors including but not limited to experience. Acumen has equal pay, so pay is determined through comparison to a cohort of employees in the market at the same level of accountability. A full detail of compensation and benefits will be available through the first screening.

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