Community Partnerships & Fundraising Officer – Chicago

Sudanese American Physicians Association; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Sudanese American Physicians Association in Chicago seeks a Community Partnerships & Fundraising Officer to lead the Chicago metro fundraising program and cultivate relationships with mosques, Islamic centers, MSAs, and Sudanese community groups.

You will organize Ramadan fundraisers, events, and donor activities, ensuring gifts reach SAPA’s wards and kitchens. You’ll collaborate with SAPA’s Global Communications & Fundraising team to grow the program and impact.

Qualifications

• Minimum two years of fundraising or event planning experience.
• Experience building community relationships in Chicago’s Muslim communities.
• Ability to manage events end-to-end: budget, venue, volunteers, program, follow-up.

Responsibilities

• Map mosques, Islamic centers, MSAs, and community organizations in your market.
• Build relationships with imams, boards, and leaders; secure hosting of SAPA events and appeals.
• Host Ramadan iftar events and coordinate fundraisers across institutions.
• Deliver 3–5 in-person events per year outside Ramadan; own budgets and promos.
• Log donors and partners in Salesforce; coordinate with Donor Relations and Finance.

Skills

Fundraising

Community organizing

Event planning

Job description

THE WORK, AND WHY THIS ROLE EXISTS

In 2025, SAPA's teams treated 750,000 patients and served 3.1 million meals in Sudan, Chad, Uganda and other parts of the world, in the places other organizations have left: the camps around El Fasher and Tawila in North Darfur, where SAPA kitchens were feeding 21,000 people a day as families arrived on foot; Zamzam before it fell; the displacement camps of Gezira and Kordofan; the refugee settlements across the border in eastern Chad and in Uganda; and Khartoum, where SAPA kept clinics open as the city emptied and reopened hospitals as people came back. 397 mobile clinics went where no clinic was left. 283,000 children under five were treated, 103,000 vaccinated. Every one of those sites is run by Sudanese doctors, nurses and volunteers, nearly 2,000 of them, working in their own country under fire.

Almost all of that was paid for by ordinary people. SAPA is funded mostly by individual donors, and the fastest-growing part of that support comes from Muslim communities across the United States and Canada: mosques, Islamic schools, student associations and community groups that have hosted SAPA speakers and raised money for a hospital ward or a kitchen they could name.

Until now that community fundraising has happened wherever a volunteer or board member had a connection. This role makes it a program. As Community Partnerships & Fundraising Officer for Chicago, you own the Chicago metro area: you build the relationships, put on the events and make sure the money raised reaches the wards and kitchens it was raised for. You are part of a growing team of Officers, each covering a major market, working within SAPA's Global Communications & Fundraising team.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

The work is in person: in mosques, community halls, living rooms and school gyms, not online.

Faith-community partnerships

• Map the institutions in your market: mosques and Islamic centres first, then Islamic schools, MSAs, professional associations, Sudanese and East African community organizations, cultural groups and local businesses that back community causes.
• Build working relationships with imams, boards and community leaders; secure agreements to host SAPA appeals, collections and events.
• After Ramadan, widen the base: co-hosted community events, standing partnerships with organizations outside the mosque network, and updates from the field that keep every partner warm between events.

Ramadan fundraising

• Host one major SAPA iftar in your market each Ramadan: the flagship community fundraiser of the year, with a SAPA speaker, field footage and a live appeal.
• Run SAPA appeals and collections in other institutions across the month: pledge nights, Taraweeh appeals, Laylat al-Qadr and Eid collections.
• Book SAPA speakers into mosques for the last ten nights and coordinate on-site collection and follow-up.

Community events

• Deliver three to five in-person events a year outside Ramadan: community dinners, a signature fundraiser, walks or sports events, student-led campaigns.
• Own the budget, venue, volunteers, program and run-of-show for each event, with design and promotion support from SAPA's communications team.
• Own how SAPA shows up in person in your market: banners, tables, collateral, speaker slides and the look of every event, in line with SAPA's branding and visibility guidelines, so that a SAPA event in Houston is recognizably the same organization as one in Chicago.

Speaker and influencer network

• Build a network of local speakers, imams and community figures who can speak for SAPA, fundraise for it and describe its work on the ground in Sudan, Chad, Uganda and beyond; brief and equip them so they can carry the message without SAPA staff in the room.
• Place SAPA physicians, board members and recently returned field staff in khutbahs, panels and community gatherings; make sure every appearance has a way to give and a way to stay in touch.
• Establish a circle of local influencers (imams, physicians, community leaders, content creators) who visit SAPA's projects in Sudan, see the work first-hand and come back to speak about it. You identify and nominate them; SAPA organizes the visits.

Donor follow-through

• Work with the Donor Relations team to record every donor, pledge and partner in Salesforce after each event, so they are thanked and stewarded properly.
• Hand donors who can give at a higher level to SAPA's major gifts lead with a written introduction.
• Work with the Finance team to report monthly on activity, funds raised, partners added and what is planned next.

WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE IN YEAR ONE

Fundraising targets are set with you in the first 30 days, once the market map is done. What we expect to see:

• 30 days: your market is mapped, first meetings are held, and year-one targets are agreed with you.
• Ramadan (Feb 8 to Mar 9, 2027): the flagship SAPA iftar delivered, SAPA present in mosques across the market through the month, and every donor and pledge logged.
• 6 months: Ramadan donors thanked, the first post-Ramadan events delivered, and partnerships forming beyond the mosque network.
• 12 months: a regular calendar of events; an active partner base across mosques and other organizations; a speaker and influencer network that can represent SAPA without you in the room; a donor and volunteer base SAPA can steward going forward.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR

Someone already known in Chicago's Muslim community who has raised money or run events before, and wants to make it their work for Sudan for the long haul.

You must have:

• Standing in the Muslim community of the Chicago area. You will represent SAPA in people's mosques and homes, so your reputation there matters as much as your resume: you can name the imams, board members and organizers you would call in your first week, and they would take the call.
• At least two years of fundraising, community organizing or event experience with results you can describe in numbers.
• The ability to run an event end to end: budget, venue, volunteers, program, follow-up.
• Comfort asking for money in person and on stage.
• Reliable record-keeping; you will learn SAPA's Salesforce system and use it every week.
• Residence in the Chicago metro area, and authorization to work in the United States.

It helps if you have:

• Spoken Arabic, Urdu, Somali or another language widely used in Chicago's Muslim communities.
• Experience raising money for humanitarian or medical causes, and the ability to explain a crisis your audience may know little about.
• Experience with Ramadan fundraising specifically.
• Public speaking experience in mosques or community settings.

HOW YOU WORK WITH THE COMMUNICATIONS TEAM

You are part of SAPA's Global Communications & Fundraising team, not a lone operator. You join the weekly team call, work directly with the communications staff and the agency, and have a standing channel to tell them what your market needs.

• You define the visibility material for your market: which flyers, banners, videos, event pages and donation tools you need, in which languages, for which audiences. The team produces them; you brief them.
• You feed back what lands and what doesn't with your communities, so SAPA's messaging reflects the market rather than head office.
• You advise the communications team on best practices, community trends and what is working on the ground, and help build the playbook the next markets will follow.
• You request speakers, field footage and project updates for your events, and get briefing packs for the imams and community figures in your network.
• You log donors and partners in Salesforce; SAPA's donor care team handles receipts, acknowledgments and ongoing stewardship.
• An event budget for your market is agreed with you each quarter.

TERMS

This is a full-time role and a standing one: we are building a program, not running a project, and we expect to grow it with you.

• Compensation: highly competitive and benchmarked to the market in your city. We will discuss specifics with you directly.
• Flexibility: you set your own hours and work from wherever suits you in your market: home, community spaces, the mosque office. Evenings and weekends come with the territory, especially in Ramadan, and your week flexes around them.
• Local travel is covered; no air travel is required.
• Start: as soon as possible. We are hiring now and want Officers in place by December 2026, well before Ramadan.