Reports to: GLSEN Deputy Executive Director of Development

Location: Primarily remote with up to 10-15% travel time within the 48 continental states. Candidates must be located within the US.

Annual Salary: $125,000 (plus benefits)

Our Mission:

GLSEN is a multi-racial intergenerational LGBTQI and Two Spirit organization working nationally and locally to transform K-12 educational systems and democracy in the United States. Our vision is for students to be able to learn and for teachers to be able to teach, schools must be at a minimum safe from harm. Schools must be places of liberation where young people thrive and reach their full potential and every student completes their education ready to build a multi-racial democracy.

Research is the language of education systems. We conduct research and analyze data and advocate nationally and locally for systems to apply our research on the experience of LGBTQI and Two Spirit young people in schools and educational practices. Public policies are the upstream supports and ground rules that must empower local communities to implement the four core supports: GSAs and youth leadership, supportive educators and adult allies, inclusive curriculum, and comprehensive policies that prohibit victimization. We educate and influence decision-makers to adopt our policy recommendations that research shows make schools safer and more inclusive. We build power with advocates, educators and students to advance our mission through local and national mobilization.

Through trust and relationships, we increase the capacity of our constituents to be catalysts for change by providing the training, resources, and strategic support they need to achieve our vision of positive school transformation in communities across the country.

The Opportunity:

GLSEN seeks a highly capable Director of Institutional Partnerships to lead the growth and management of a new organization-wide grants program.

Over its 30-plus year history, GLSEN has secured several significant, multi-year grants, from community and family foundations. However, in terms of annual revenue, the organization is not fully realizing the potential of grant funding to advance its mission. In addition to securing funding, well aligned partnerships with foundations can provide new avenues for GLSEN to deepen its impact. Growing a more systematic approach to grant acquisition and management is a strategic priority for the organization. The Director of Institutional Partnerships will help drive that process.

As an organization that works in the landscape of education, racial justice, gender justice and disability justice for LGBTQ youth, we believe there is significant alignment between foundation giving priorities and what we offer. We are seeking a Director of Institutional Partnerships to help identify grant opportunities that advance our mission, prepare competitive grant applications, and shepherd grants from proposal to final grant reporting.

This is a meaningful opportunity to help GLSEN expand and deepen its impact. The person in this role will be a key member of the development team, working closely with colleagues throughout the organization to build and shape this new grants program.

Primary Function

The Director of Institutional Partnerships will work collaboratively across multiple programs, demonstrating a deep understanding of programmatic content and impact. The ideal candidate will be experienced in leading successful grant programs and will possess strong network-building skills to establish and sustain relationships with foundation program officers. The Director of Institutional Partnerships will have outstanding organizational skills and excellent budgeting and monitoring skills.

Responsibilities:

Develop, grow, and sustain a grants program at GLSEN (30%)

• Identify funding opportunities with foundations, governmental agencies, corporate, and community-based funding organizations to meet financial and operational goals of GLSEN.
• Cultivate and manage relationships with foundations and funder stakeholders through targeted and strategic outreach and stewardship.
• Partner with Program and Power Building staff in identifying projects eligible for grant funding and strategize on how to develop project and program work plans that are funder ready.
• Develop strategy based on analysis of grant trends to identify growing programs and opportunities for increased funding; establish and execute strong, expanding pipelines of foundations for GLSENs programs.
• Develop and own a grants development calendar.

Responsible for submission of all grant applications and grant reports (30%):

• Develop grant opportunities and proposals in collaboration with GLSEN program, policy, research and/or development staff.
• Prepare and submit grant applications and grant reports in accordance with funder requirements and deadlines, ensuring quality, integrity, and timeliness throughout the process.
• Own the process of writing grant proposals, letters of interest/inquiry, concept papers, and related materials for proposal submissions that align with funder interests.
• Manage progress of all grant-funded programs and broker communication between funders and GLSEN staff; consult with funder program officers as needed.

Monitor, evaluation, and record keeping (20%):

• Provide guidance to GLSEN staff on necessary and/or useful evaluation strategies to grow reporting capacity and improve outcomes-based proposal writing.
• Inform staff of the requirements of grant contracts and assist in advising on how best to navigate any necessary changes with funders.
• Maintain records and files related to past, present, and prospective grant engagements, including proposal information, contracts, paperwork, and key documentation.

Financials and Budgets (20%):

• Prepare program and project budgets in collaboration with partnering departments.
• Track and monitor annual grant revenue goals to provide financial updates and recommendations for annual budget development.

Required Skills:

The ideal candidate should meet the following criteria:

• Minimum seven years’ experience in a nonprofit or foundation environment.
• Minimum five years’ experience in grants administration/management.
• The intellectual depth, entrepreneurial drive, maturity, self-confidence, interpersonal skills, and warmth to build and maintain relationships with people at all levels of the organization, across a diverse range of educational and social backgrounds.
• Strong cross-functional contributor within team environments and a driver of organizational culture; leverages input of stakeholders in order to move work forward.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills; superlative writing and editing skills.
• Ability to build out the institutional partnerships function within the organization, including the ability to asses, hire, and manage direct reports to continue, advance, and expand the work year over year.
• Ability to prioritize work, meet deadlines, and produce quality results on time.
• Experience with managing budgets and financial reporting.
• Ability to work collaboratively yet also work independently with little direct supervision.
• Experience facilitating group meetings for purposes of developing projects or initiatives.
• Ability to exercise professional judgment to make sound recommendations.
• Able to understand and use on-line grants submission web-sites and modules.
• Ability to effectively interact with all levels of stakeholders within a large institution to ensure successful grant program implementation and subsequent reporting.
• Proficiency with office applications and online collaboration tools, such as Microsoft Suite, Google suite, Zoom, Adobe, DocuSign, Dropbox, Monday.com, Asana, Salesforce, etc.
• Schedule includes some occasional evening and weekend work.
• Ability to travel up to 10-15% of the time, including overnight travel and occasional weekends for National and Chapter meetings.
• An appreciation for the mission and growth aspirations of GLSEN.
• You care about LGBTQ youth. You care about changing and saving lives. You want to come to work (physically and virtually) and feel inspired every day and you want to inspire others. You want to change the world for all youth in our K-12 education system.
• You like to have fun. The work we do is very serious and extremely impactful, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have fun. We know how to have a good time and you should too.

Benefits:

GLSEN offers a generous benefits package, including: paid time off, paid holidays, medical, vision, and dental insurance; short-term and long-term disability; life insurance; employee assistance program; and a 401k plan with increasing employer contributions based on staff tenure.

GLSEN seeks to facilitate a healthy and safe work life balance and offers flexible work schedule hours and locations that align with the demands of job responsibilities and employee needs.

To apply, qualified candidates should submit their resume and letter of interest to careers@glsen.org.

GLSEN is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We strongly encourage people of color, of diverse gender identities, women and non-LGBTQ persons to apply.