Director of Corporate Relations

Association of Fundraising Professionals; Highland Park (IL); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Retirement plan

Parental leave

Concert passes

Job summary

Ravinia seeks a Director of Corporate Relations to lead the organization’s corporate fundraising strategy, drive revenue growth, and oversee a portfolio of corporate sponsors. Reporting to the Chief Development Officer, the Director will mentor two Corporate Managers and own high-value opportunities.

The role balances maintaining key partnerships with developing new opportunities, coordinating with Marketing, Programs, and Events, and ensuring strategic alignment to reach an annual $3 million

Qualifications

• 8+ years in corporate relations, sponsorship, or related field.
• Demonstrated success building corporate fundraising strategy.
• Experience growing corporate revenue.
• Experience cultivating senior corporate decision-makers.
• Experience developing customized proposals and sponsorships.
• Experience supervising staff.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and allocate resources.
• Strong business development and relationship management.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication.
• Commitment to the organization's mission and arts & culture.

Responsibilities

• Lead corporate fundraising strategy and hit $3M annual target.
• Manage a portfolio of 10+ $100K+ sponsors and supervise two Managers.
• Develop customized partnership proposals and negotiate deals.
• Coordinate with Marketing, Programs, and Events to maximize value.
• Oversee hospitality, events, and sponsor stewardship.
• Serve as a senior leader within Development and represent Ravinia publicly.

Skills

Corporate fundraising

Portfolio management

Executive relationships

Team leadership

Proposal development

Negotiation

Cross-functional collaboration

Job description

Company Description

At Ravinia, we believe in the transformative power of shared, live-music moments and their ability to inspire individuals, strengthen communities, and foster a more connected world.

Beyond presenting outstanding performances by the world’s greatest musicians, our mission as a not-for-profit organization is to develop broader, more diverse audiences and performers in the music industry with our Reach Teach Play® community engagement and education programs, our Steans Institute’s collaborative and experiential artistic training programs, and more. Together, Ravinia’s initiatives serve tens of thousands of students, families, and emerging professional musicians.

Our 36-acre park is home to North America’s longest-running outdoor music festival and its most artistically diverse. Over 100 different events, featuring a mix of classical, rock, pop, jazz, R&B, indie, and country performers, make up a typical summer season across our open-air and indoor stages, including the annual residency of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Position Summary

The Director of Corporate Relations is a senior fundraising leader responsible for developing and leading the organization's corporate fundraising strategy, driving sustainable corporate revenue growth, and overseeing corporate donors to generate upwards of $3 million annually.

Reporting to the Chief Development Officer, the Director owns the strategy, priorities, performance, and effectiveness of the Corporate Relations function. The Director leads two Corporate Managers directly and is responsible for maximizing the team's capacity through thoughtful portfolio management, resource allocation, coaching, and accountability. While the Director personally manages a focused portfolio of 10+ existing Corporate Sponsors at the $100,000+ level, the two direct reports manage an additional 80+ corporate relationships tiered between $5,000 and $99,999.

The Director is expected to be an active fundraiser and relationship leader while operating at a strategic level. The role balances three interconnected priorities: retaining existing corporate revenue, growing current partnerships, and developing new corporate business. The Director determines the appropriate balance based on revenue opportunity, relationship health, strategic value, organizational capacity, and expected return.

The Director independently identifies and develops corporate opportunities, creates partnership strategies and proposals, leads high-value solicitations, and brings well-developed recommendations to the CDO for final approval. Additionally, the Director oversees external specialized resources, serving as the key point of contact and primary liaison for external luxury partnership and brand activation consultants. The CDO provides executive oversight and counsel; the Director is expected to own the underlying strategy and day-to-day execution.

The Director also serves as a strategic partner to Marketing and other organizational leaders when their expertise can strengthen the value, positioning, or competitiveness of a corporate opportunity. The Director remains accountable for the corporate relationship, fundraising strategy, revenue opportunity, and overall partnership proposition.

This is a role for a fundraiser who can create strategy, generate revenue, deepen relationships, develop people, and turn organizational resources into compelling corporate partnerships.

Key Responsibilities

1. Corporate Strategy & Revenue Leadership

• Develop and lead a comprehensive corporate fundraising strategy that advances organizational priorities and drives corporate fundraising efforts to hit an explicit target of $3 million annually. Identify market opportunities, establish priorities, set revenue goals, assess portfolio performance, and personally lead high-value opportunities and solicitations.
• The Director is responsible for creating a corporate portfolio strategy that balances:
  • Retention of important existing partnerships.
  • Growth and expansion of current relationships.
  • Development of qualified new corporate prospects.
  • Conversion of prospects into long-term partners.
• Implement a B2B2C strategy to engage corporate employees in Ravinia's individual giving pipeline, with a focus on corporate matching opportunities.
• Allocation of staff time and organizational resources based on opportunity and expected return.
• The Director regularly evaluates the corporate portfolio and adjusts priorities based on revenue potential, renewal risk, relationship strength, strategic alignment, pipeline health, and team capacity.

Success Factor: Corporate Relations achieves or exceeds the $3 million annual target through a clear, focused strategy that produces measurable revenue growth while protecting and deepening high-value relationships.

2. Corporate Relationships, Solicitation & Business Development

Build, cultivate, negotiate, solicit, and steward relationships with corporations and senior corporate decision-makers.

• Direct Portfolio Ownership: Personally manage a dedicated portfolio of 10+ existing Corporate Sponsors at the $100,000+ level, leading sophisticated solicitations, multi-year negotiations, and high-touch executive engagement.
• Tiered Management Oversight: Provide strategic oversight while the two Corporate Managers directly manage an additional 80+ corporate relationships, tiered between $5,000 and $99,999, ensuring appropriate coverage, touchpoints, and renewal strategies across all tiers.
• External Consultant Coordination: Serve as the primary manager and operational lead, coordinating with external luxury partnership and brand activation consultants, ensuring their external insights and activations seamlessly align with organizational goals and partner expectations.

Success Factor: The Director maintains a strong and growing corporate portfolio, personally advances $100K+ partnerships, optimizes the direct reports' $5K–$99K portfolio performance, and effectively leverages luxury/activation consultants to maximize partnership value.

3. Partnership & Proposal Development

• Develop compelling, customized corporate partnership strategies and proposals that connect corporate objectives with the organization's mission, programs, audiences, brand, and community impact.
• Translate corporate interests into mutually valuable partnership opportunities above relying on standardized sponsorship packages. Lead proposal strategy, negotiation, pricing/value discussions, and internal coordination required to move opportunities from concept through close.
• Engage Marketing, Communications, Programs, or other internal expertise when their involvement can materially increase the value, competitiveness, or effectiveness of a corporate opportunity.
• The Director maintains ownership of the corporate relationship and partnership strategy while ensuring internal partners are engaged at the appropriate point.

Success Factor: Proposals are strategically differentiated, financially meaningful, operationally realistic, and aligned with both corporate objectives and organizational priorities.

4. Team Leadership & Resource Optimization

• Lead, coach, develop, and hold two Corporate Managers accountable for portfolio performance, revenue generation, relationship management, and professional growth.
• Establish clear expectations, goals, priorities, and measures of success. Allocate portfolios and responsibilities based on organizational priorities, individual strengths, relationship opportunities, and revenue potential.
• Create a team structure that enables the Director to operate at the appropriate strategic level while remaining actively engaged in high-value fundraising.
• The Director should continually assess:
  • Which relationships require high-touch leadership?
  • Which relationships can be effectively managed by a Corporate Manager?
  • Which existing partnerships have significant growth potential?
  • Which prospects warrant investment?
  • Where are additional organizational resources justified?
  • Where should team capacity be redirected?
• Develop the Managers' ability to independently cultivate, solicit, steward, and grow corporate relationships.

Success Factor: The two Corporate Managers operate with clear ownership and accountability, while the Director's leadership enhances the Corporate Relations function's overall capacity, effectiveness, and revenue performance.

5. Corporate Stewardship, Hospitality & Events

Lead and oversee the execution of corporate donor stewardship activities, hospitality experiences, and high-touch sponsor engagements.

• Event Activation & Execution: Direct the planning and activation of corporate donor events, including Corporate Reception, sponsor-hosted dinners, and customized corporate hospitality experiences.
• On-Site Host & Sponsorship Concierge: Greet corporate sponsors, attend performance evenings and special events to ensure sponsor satisfaction, and proactively troubleshoot operational or hosting needs in real time.
• Cross-Departmental Operational Coordination: Collaborate closely with operational and venue teams—including Marketing & Communications, Park Operations, Guest Services, Ticket Services, Artistic, and Production—to ensure seamless execution and delivery of corporate sponsor benefits and event logistics.

Success Factor: Corporate partners experience exceptional hospitality and seamless event execution on performance nights and during dedicated corporate events, strengthening sponsor retention and satisfaction.

6. Departmental Leadership & Organizational Partnership

• Serve as a senior leader within the Development department, driving collaboration across functional areas and representing the organization in the broader community.
• Development Leadership: Participate actively in Development leadership meetings and collaborate with peer directors to build a cohesive team environment and advance overall department goals.
• Networking & Prospect Identification: Leverage personal contacts and continuously expand professional networks to identify new corporate partnerships, sponsorship, and funding opportunities.
• Community & Festival Representation: Represent the organization professionally at social, cultural, civic, and industry engagements as requested to elevate brand visibility and deepen community ties.
• Strategic Alignment with Leadership: Bring well-developed strategic recommendations to the CDO for final approval, exercising sound judgment on executive involvement and cross-functional dependencies.

Success Factor: The Director fosters strong peer collaboration across all Development functions, expands the organization's corporate network, and represents the Festival with high executive presence.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressively responsible experience in corporate relations, corporate philanthropy, sponsorship, fundraising, business development, or a related field. Candidates whose combination of education, experience, and demonstrated capabilities provides an equivalent level of preparation may also be considered.
• Demonstrated success developing or significantly shaping corporate fundraising or partnership strategy.
• Demonstrated experience generating, growing, or securing meaningful corporate revenue.
• Experience cultivating, soliciting, negotiating with, and stewarding senior corporate decision-makers.
• Demonstrated experience developing customized corporate proposals, pitch decks, sponsorships, partnerships, or comparable revenue opportunities.
• Experience directly supervising, coaching, or developing professional staff.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities and allocate resources based on opportunity and organizational impact.
• Strong understanding of business development, corporate philanthropy, sponsorship, and relationship management.
• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, negotiation, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively across functions while maintaining clear ownership and accountability.
• Commitment to the organization's mission and the role of arts and culture in the community.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a large, complex mission-driven environment.
• Established relationships with Chicago-area and/or national corporate leaders.
• Experience developing multi-year corporate partnerships.
• Experience integrating corporate partnerships with brand, audience engagement, employee engagement, community impact, or marketing objectives.
• Experience managing a corporate fundraising portfolio through periods of growth or organizational change.
• Familiarity with AudienceView, monday.com, Ramp, and DAM

Work Environment

• Primarily in-person, office-based professional work.
• Regular interaction with employees, corporate partners, donors, board members, community partners, and members of the public.
• Regular external meetings and organizational events.
• Evening and weekend work associated with fundraising events, performances, corporate engagements, and organizational priorities.
• Periodic local travel and occasional travel outside the Chicago area may be required.
• Work may involve periods of high activity and competing deadlines, particularly around fundraising campaigns, major solicitations, events, and fiscal-year deadlines.

Benefits

Ravinia offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support the well-being and future of our employees. Highlights include:

• Health & Wellness: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage, along with an employee well-being program, flexible spending plans, and telehealth options.
• Financial Future: A generous employer-sponsored 401(a) retirement plan and employee-elected 403(b) and Roth options.
• Work-Life Balance: Comprehensive time-off plans, including holidays, vacation, sick days, and 4 weeks of paid parental leave.
• Perks: Employee season passes for two lawn admissions to most concerts (except the Gala concert).

Ravinia is an Equal Opportunity Employer

As an equal opportunity employer, Ravinia strongly believes that diversity of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives is essential to our success, and we strive to create and sustain an equitable and inclusive environment for all our employees. Ravinia does not discriminate on the basis of any protected status under federal, state, or local law. We encourage individuals of all identities and abilities to apply.