Manager of Corporate and Foundation Grants

Brightpoint (formerly known as Children’s Home & Aid) invites you to join our team of mission-driven staff who share a common vision: an equitable world where all children and families thrive in strong communities. As a leader in the human services sector for 140 years, we aim to advance the well-being of children by investing in families and strengthening communities through data-informed, collaborative, and preventative solutions.

The Manager of Corporate and Foundation Grants is responsible for identifying, cultivating, and securing funding from corporate partners and foundations to support organizational initiatives. This role involves managing the full grant lifecycle, including proposal development, submission, and reporting. The Manager will work closely with internal stakeholders to align grant opportunities with the organization’s strategic priorities and ensure compliance with grant requirements. Additionally, this position requires building and maintaining strong relationships with donors and grant-making entities to foster long-term relationships.

The Manager of Corporate and Foundation Grants will supervise, coach, and develop a talented team of Development Associates who oversee all aspects of the grant writing process. This position reports directly to the Director of Institutional Advancement.

Core Responsibilities and Essential Job Functions:

• Manages all aspects of the corporate and foundation grant process in partnership with the Director of Institutional Advancement:
  • Responsible for actively establishing and maintaining personal relationships with corporate and foundation funders, and solely responsible for an assigned portfolio of funders.
  • Manages a comprehensive, proactive foundation and corporate engagement plan focused on expanding and enhancing corporate and foundation grants, which includes assisting in or leading identification of new grant opportunities, concept development,
    planning, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship for all foundation and corporate funders.
  • Responsible for leading and/or attending all site visits and helping leadership staff prepare as needed. 
• Writes, edits, and assembles highly competitive proposals, concept papers, reports, and other materials, persuasively communicating the organization’s mission and programs to potential corporate and foundation funders.
  
• Supervises, manages the workload, and monitors performance of Development Associate II - Grants and other staff as assigned. This includes hiring and training staff, Implementing the organization’s personnel policies and practices, approval of timecards, performance appraisals, performance improvement plans, leaves, promotions, salary changes, terminations, and documentation of all personnel actions.
  
• Assigns a portfolio of accounts for Development Associate II - Grants to manage while providing supervision, support, and guidance.
  
• Achieves specific revenue goals identified within annual budget.
  
• Supports government grants and public funding opportunities as assigned.
• Maintains detailed records of cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship activities along with grant gift coding and records in Raiser’s Edge.
• Increases philanthropic giving from statewide United Ways by submitting competitive applications.
• Attends and works at fundraising events, as assigned.
• Actively builds collaboration between departments and breaks down silos to help identify clear priorities and strengthen grant proposals.
  • Develops strong knowledge and understanding of Brightpoint’s programs through interviews with program staff and site visits to recommend programs for grant seeking in alignment with organizational priorities.
  • Collaborates with program staff and the Quality & Training and Information Systems teams to collect current and accurate program data to inform grant proposals, reports, and other resource development materials.
• Measures and reports on all position performance benchmarks.
  
• Facilitates post-award meetings with program staff to ensure they understand the grant requirements, what information needs be collected for reports, and the reporting timeline.
  
• Coordinates the preparation and submittal of grant reports.

Leadership Responsibilities:

• Develop Staff
  
• Provide a Secure Base
  
• Maintain Program Standards
  
• Facilitate Effective Team Functioning
  
• Lead Program/Unit Forward

Candidate qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in human services, writing or marketing required; Master's degree preferred.
• At least three years of grant writing experience required.
• At least three years of supervisory experience required. 
• Experience with full grantmaking process, including a proven track record of successfully generating commitments from corporations and foundations, preferred.
• Knowledge and understanding of cultivation, solicitation, stewardship strategies and techniques, particularly in the area of corporate and foundation fundraising preferred.
• Understanding of budgets as they relate to proposals and grants preferred.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office required; experience with Raiser's Edge software preferred.

Job details:

• Compensation: Range starts at $68,000; offer is commensurate with experience. 
• Benefits: Medical/dental/vision insurance, 3 weeks paid time off in the first year including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day (PTO increases with tenure); 11 paid holidays, supplemental insurance options, 401(k) with match (more benefits details here).
• Location: Must be within reasonable driving distance to Chicago and available to work from home office at 200 West Monroe Street (downtown Chicago loop) 2x/week.
• Schedule: Full-time, salaried; regular business hours with some flexibility required for evening and or weekend fundraising events. Occasional overnight travel required.
• Student Loan Forgiveness: Brightpoint is an approved agency for Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).

Where you work matters.

We believe that by building diverse and inclusive teams of passionate advocates for youth and families, we can continue to show up for Illinois families, putting those families at the center of every decision, and strengthening the communities where we all work, play, and live together. (More about who we are here.)

We invite you to become an active member of a team that supports, inspires, and challenges each other, and grow your career in an organization that celebrates emerging leaders and provides development and learning opportunities aligned with your individual goals and aspirations. If you are looking for an opportunity to do meaningful work, including raising your unique and authentic voice to disrupt the systemic inequality impacting children and families, we encourage you to apply today.  

Click here to review our agency’s Blueprint for Impact.

Brightpoint is committed to the principles of Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action. All employment activities are conducted in an equal and equitable fashion. The Agency prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, age, religion, disability, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, parental status, veteran status, source of income, and any other legally protected category in the recruitment, selection, hiring, determination of salary level and benefits, promotion, demotion, layoff, termination, and other terms and conditions of employment.

Salary : $68,000