Specialist, Private and Corporate Foundations

Ocean Wise; Canada; Remote; CAD 64,000 - 72,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Specialist in Private and Corporate Foundations to drive fundraising efforts for ocean conservation. This role involves crafting compelling proposals, building relationships with foundations, and collaborating with a passionate team. You will play a vital role in securing donations that support critical conservation initiatives. With a competitive salary and a remote-first work environment, this position offers a unique opportunity to contribute to meaningful change while working alongside dedicated professionals committed to sustainability. Join a mission-driven organization and help make a difference for our oceans!

Benefits

Extended Health Coverage

Dental Coverage

Vision Coverage

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

RRSP Matching

Paid Vacation Days

Wellness Days

Paid Statutory Holidays

Annual Staff Retreat

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in proposal writing or fund development.
• Proven success in securing significant donations from foundations.
• Experience with fundraising databases and tracking systems.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement cultivation plans for prospective foundation donors.
• Write proposals and maintain records of donor interactions.
• Collaborate with colleagues to secure funding for conservation activities.

Skills

Proposal Writing

Relationship Building

Fund Development

Project Management

Communication Skills

Database Management

Research Skills

Education

Post-secondary Education

Tools

Salesforce

Raiser’s Edge/NXT

MS Office

Job description

Specialist, Private and Corporate Foundations

As the Specialist, Private and Corporate Foundations, your main purpose will be to solicit donations from corporate, family, and institutional foundations to help Ocean Wise achieve its annual fundraising and revenue goals. You will achieve this by identifying, researching, and cultivating relationships with key foundation contacts, and writing proposals and reports that support Ocean Wise’s conservation activities.

*Please note this role may be offered at the Senior Specialist level, dependent on qualifications and experience*

Who You Are

You are a not-for-profit professional, experienced with identifying and researching foundations, preparing proposals, and presenting to corporate, family, and institutional foundations in order to secure donations and revenue. You are relationship focused while still able to complete the details of tracking your efforts and results in databases and dashboards. You are passionate about sustainability and feel called to the urgent mission to help save the ocean.

What You Will Be Doing

• Develop and implement personalized cultivation and solicitation plans for prospective foundation donors
• Engage in face-to-face meetings and personalized contact activities
• Write and prepare letters of intent and proposals to foundations for funding
• Work in collaboration with colleagues in Conservation to engage potential donors and
• develop proposals for submission
• Maintain and properly record information about prospects and donors, utilizing centralized electronic system and database
• Using funder databases and other resources, identify and qualify potential funders for Ocean Wise’s conservation activities.
• Work with colleagues across the organization to develop the tools and processes to cultivate and solicit transformational foundation gifts.

Project Management

• Work with colleagues in Conservation and Finance, as well as with the Stewardship Specialist, to ensure funders receive updates and reporting details by required deadlines
• Communicate with funders on changes to project deliverables and negotiate revisions to the originally funded projects as necessary, in consultation with Conservation colleagues
• Monitor fundraising productivity and identify issues that require additional support to advance fundraising success and/or areas where course correction is required.
• Participate in regular prospect/pipeline management and strategy meetings and develop prospect lists for foundations
• Update Salesforce in a timely fashion to reflect all fundraising activity including Call Report outcomes, actions, notes, intelligence, and relationships connections and create new Salesforce opportunities as required.
• Monitor and proactively follow up on Salesforce Open Actions Report items.
• Manage pipeline and forecast, updating proposal details whenever new intelligence is obtained.
• Identify professional development requirements and participate in external professional development opportunities
• Participate in Foundation events

What You Bring

• Post-secondary education or an equivalent combination of education, training and experience
• 3+ years’ experience in proposal writing or in fund development
• Proven success in securing 5- and 6-figure gifts from foundations and other nongovernment organizations
• Experience in translating program ideas into project descriptions, budgets and timelines
• Experience with a fundraising database, particularly Raiser’s Edge/NXT or Salesforce
• Excellent communication and relationship building skills, with an ability to prioritize, negotiate, and work with a variety of internal and external stakeholders
• Ability to work independently and on multiple tasks simultaneously with varying deadlines
• Strong tact and diplomacy to professionally interact with funders, project partners, donors, and colleagues across the organization
• Proficient in MS Office (Outlook/Word/Excel/PowerPoint)
• Project management and administrative skills
• Flexibility to work evenings and weekends on occasion and as required
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, including grammar, spelling, proofreading and composition skills

How You Will Be Measured

• You will have identified and researched a list of potential corporate, family, and individual foundations
• You will have cultivated positive relationships with current and potential foundations
• You will have worked with others within the Philanthropy and Partnership team to secure 5- and 6-digit donations from at least 2 new foundation partners each year
• You will use Raiser’s Edge/NXT, Salesforce, our internal Dashboard, and other systems accurately and effectively to track progress within your portfolio
• You will work according to Ocean Wise’s values of Knowledge, Integrity, Extreme Collaboration, Impact, Optimism

What We Offer

This full-time, benefits-eligible position offers:

• A remote working environment, with the option to work in person in our beautiful downtown Vancouver head office
• A competitive base salary, $64,350 - 71,250, in line with market data for not-for-profit organizations
• Benefits coverage on a premium cost-shared basis, including
• Extended health and dental coverage
  • Vision coverage
  • Group term and supplemental life insurance
  • Short-term disability
  • Long-term disability
• RRSP matching of up to 6% after one year of service
• 15 paid vacation days to start
• 2 wellness days
• 12 paid Statutory and General Holidays each calendar year
• An annual all-staff retreat to allow in-person connections and team building
• The opportunity to be part of a team that’s helping to save the ocean!

Where and How You’ll Work

This is a remote-first position with the possibility to work at our headquarters in downtown Vancouver, if desired. The standard work week for this role is 37.5 hours, Monday through Friday. This role requires some flexibility to travel on occasion for meetings with prospects and donors across North America regularly and to work occasional weekends and evenings to attend events and conferences.

Who We Are

Ocean Wise is a global conversation organization on a mission to build communities that take meaningful action to protect and restore our ocean. Learn more about us at ocean.org.

Inclusion and Diversity

At Ocean Wise, we believe that a welcoming and diverse workplace fosters the inclusion of voices that have been historically underrepresented. We encourage applications from individuals belonging to equity-deserving groups and will work with applicants requesting accommodations at any stage of the hiring process.