Director of Institutional Partnerships

Atlanta Mission; Atlanta (GA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Retirement matching

Medical Insurance

Dental & Vision

PTO 3 weeks

Paid holidays

Mental health day

Life Insurance

Disability

Travel assistance

EAP

Medical concierge

Training & development

Job summary

Atlanta Mission seeks a Director of Institutional Partnerships to lead strategic fundraising across foundation, corporate, and government channels. You will translate organizational needs into a coordinated revenue plan, build a high-performing team, and steward the Mission's top institutional relationships.

You will oversee analytics, forecasting, and cross-department collaborations to align fundraising with program priorities, ensuring sustainable growth toward a $30M+ trajectory by 2030.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree a plus.
• CFRE certification preferred.
• 8–10+ years of progressive institutional fundraising experience across foundation, corporate, and government funding.
• Strong analytical, pipeline forecasting, and relationship-building skills.

Responsibilities

• Maintains strategic oversight of the department and drives revenue strategy.
• Builds annual grant and sponsorship pipeline across foundation, corporate, and government funding.
• Cultivates and steward top-tier institutional relationships with ~100 accounts and 50 active prospects.
• Leads, coaches, and develops the Institutional Partnerships team.
• Forges cross-departmental collaborations to align program priorities with funding.
• Oversees systems, tools, and infrastructure (e.g., Salesforce, proposal database).
• Directs resource allocation and budget within foundation, corporate, and government segments.
• Represents Atlanta Mission to executives, donors, and boards.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Fundraising strategy

Donor relationships

Team leadership

Grant writing

Pipeline development

Salesforce

Data analytics

Budget management

Education

Bachelor's degree

CFRE certification preferred

Tools

Salesforce

Microsoft Office

Job description

Do you feel called to serve in a Christian Ministry? Do you want to serve where you make a difference in the lives of others? Are you looking for a life-changing work experience? If so, consider joining us at the Atlanta Mission, where we provide life-transforming experiences for everyone that joins our team: employees, clients, donors, and volunteers. We serve over 1000 men, women, and children every day by providing food, shelter, clothing, counseling, vocational and spiritual guidance. We get to experience and witness radical life transformations. As the Director of Institutional Partnerships, you will provide strategic leadership over Atlanta Mission's institutional fundraising portfolio — foundation, corporate, and government funding — and the department that pursues it. You will translate the organization's needs and strategic plan into a coordinated revenue strategy, build a high-performing team that operates as one unit rather than three separate lanes, and personally steward the Mission's most strategic institutional relationships.

Essential Duties And Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership & Planning

• Maintains strategic-level oversight of the department, prioritizing strategic altitude over day-to-day execution, which is delegated to the Institutional Partnerships Manager, Government Compliance Officer, and Grant Writer
• Conducts organizational needs assessments in partnership with program and executive leadership to identify funding priorities and ensure the department's strategy directly advances the organization's strategic plan
• Sets the department's annual revenue plan and fundraising goals across foundation, corporate, and government funding streams, and oversees execution of that plan

Pipeline, Prospecting & Grants Strategy

• Builds the annual grant and sponsorship pipeline, sized for the organization's trajectory toward $30M by 2030, and oversees its execution
• Establishes and owns the department's prospecting strategy and go/no-go framework — including targeted prospecting with existing and new funders based on needs identified through organizational needs assessments — setting the process by which opportunities are identified and the criteria by which they are evaluated and pursued
• Owns analytics and forecasting for the department, consolidating pipeline, account, and grant data into a single departmental inventory report and translating performance into the organization's broader financial picture

Portfolio & Relationship Management

• Personally cultivates, solicits, and stewards a caseload of the organization's top-tier accounts (approximately 100 existing relationships, with an active prospecting pipeline of approximately 50 additional opportunities), serving as the lead point of contact while engaging the broader team to build multi-threaded relationships within each account
• Collaborates annually with the organization's donor officers and their Director to align on revenue goals and strategy for institutional accounts they personally hold
• Supports relationships personally held by the CEO and CDO, providing the proposals, briefings, and coordination needed to sustain those partnerships
• Determines which institutional accounts warrant executive-level engagement

Team Leadership & Development

• Manages, coaches, and sets priorities for the Partnerships Manager, Government Compliance Officer, and Grant Writer, nurturing a strong sense of team unity, shared resources, and professional growth

Cross-Departmental Collaboration

• Builds credible, trusted relationships with Program leadership, serving as a reliable strategic partner in identifying and pursuing funding for programmatic priorities
• Builds and maintains strong cross-departmental relationships with Programs, Marketing, In-Kind Donations, Volunteer Engagement, High Engagement, Finance, Human Resources, Facilities, Thrift, and IT, and collaborates regularly with fellow Directors across the organization
• Partners with the Marketing team to develop fundraising materials and shape social media strategy

Systems, Tools & Infrastructure

• Partners with the IT team to strengthen departmental processes and systems, and owns the selection and adoption of tools and technology — including Salesforce for moves management, stewardship, and reporting — that support the department's fundraising, prospecting, and grant management efforts
• Builds and oversees automated donor communication sequences that ensure consistent stewardship across the department's mid- and entry-tier partners
• Determines and directs development of departmental infrastructure, including the proposal database, partner tiering framework, and CRM standards

Financial & Resource Stewardship

• Directs resource allocation across the foundation, corporate, and government segments based on return on investment, using the department's tiering framework to prioritize where the team invests its time and effort, and oversees major vendor and consultant decisions
• Supports organizational leadership in the strategic design and implementation of capital campaigns and special initiatives
• Builds and owns the department's operating budget, maintaining a clear understanding of how departmental performance rolls into the organization's overall financial picture

Organizational Representation

• Increases the visibility of Atlanta Mission throughout the Atlanta metropolitan area and the broader region among major institutions
• Represents departmental strategy and performance to the Chief Development Officer, Chief Executive Officer, and Board of Directors

Qualifications

You will uphold the following Christ-Centered values:

• Humbly Serve: You strive to live, Love and Lead like Jesus
• Faithfully Steward: You honor and wisely use the time, talent and treasures that God has provided
• Courageously Innovate: You are driven towards excellence, you continuously learn, adapt and improve
• Joyfully Celebrate: You intentionally appreciate and recognize all that God is doing in and through all the stakeholders of Atlanta Mission.
• Strength in Unity: You embrace God's desire for oneness and kingdom-focused unity.

Position Requirements

• 8-10+ years of progressive institutional fundraising experience across foundation, corporate, and/or government relations, with demonstrated multi-million-dollar revenue accountability
• Prior people-management experience preferred
• Proven track record in grant writing, proposal development, and complex funder relationship management
• Strong analytical skills, with experience in pipeline forecasting and data-driven decision-making
• Excellent strategic thinking, project management, and organizational skills
• Outstanding relationship-building skills, with the ability to represent the organization credibly to executive-level funders, board members, and community leaders
• Strong computer literacy, including CRM platforms (Salesforce preferred) and Microsoft Office
• Strong desire to work in a Christian ministry and passion for serving those experiencing homelessness

Education

• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree a plus
• CFRE certification preferred

Physical Requirements

• Must have the ability to remain in a stationary position (standing, sitting and/or walking)
• Must have the ability to constantly operate a computer and other office equipment, such as a copy machine, calculator and computer printer
• Must be able to communicate accurate information
• Must be able to occasionally lift up to 25lbs

What We Offer

Employee Benefits

• Retirement Savings with Matching Contribution
• Medical Insurance
• Dental & Vision Insurance

Employer Paid Benefits

• 3 Weeks Paid Time Off accrued during your first year
• 10 Paid Holidays
• 1 Mental Health Day/year
• Life Insurance
• Short-Term Disability
• Travel Assistance Program
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Medical Concierge
• Spiritual & Professional Training & Development