Donor Relations & Partnerships Manager

MDI; Fort Snelling Unorganized Territory (MN); Hybrid; USD 75,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical and Dental: Company-paid

Vision: Voluntary vision

HSA: Available for eligible employees

FSA: Includes healthcare & dependent

401(k) with Match

Disability Insurance

Life Insurance

PTO

Paid Holidays

Job summary

MDI in Minneapolis, MN is seeking a driven fundraiser to build and manage a diverse portfolio of donors, foundations, and corporate partners. You will lead donor cultivation, stewardship, and reporting while coordinating grant activities across departments.

The role emphasizes relationship building, data management, and strategic fundraising to support youth workforce development initiatives and sustainable revenue growth.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and professional experience.
• Three to five years of experience in fundraising, development, nonprofit advancement, grant management, relationship management, sales, business development, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience managing donor relationships, fundraising initiatives, grants, sponsorships, partnerships, or business development activities.
• Experience coordinating fundraising campaigns, donor stewardship, community partnerships, and revenue-generating initiatives.
• Experience utilizing CRM systems, fundraising databases, or relationship management platforms.
• Proven ability to manage multiple projects, priorities, stakeholders, and deadlines simultaneously.
• Strong organizational skills with exceptional attention to detail and follow-through.
• Excellent written, verbal, interpersonal, and presentation communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Manage and grow a portfolio of individual donors and philanthropic supporters.
• Cultivate, steward, solicit, and retain donor relationships through meaningful engagement and personalized outreach.
• Coordinate donor communications, recognition, stewardship plans, and impact reporting.
• Identify opportunities to deepen donor investment and long-term support.
• Maintain accurate donor records, engagement activities, and fundraising data within the CRM.
• Develop and execute donor cultivation strategies that support annual fundraising goals.
• Track and monitor donor pipeline activity, giving trends, and retention metrics.
• Manage relationships with corporate partners, business supporters, and sponsorship stakeholders.
• Coordinate sponsorship opportunities, employee engagement initiatives, volunteer experiences, and partnership activities.
• Develop proposals, presentations, and partnership materials that communicate organizational impact and funding opportunities.
• Track partnership commitments, deliverables, sponsorship benefits, and stewardship activities.
• Identify and cultivate new partnership opportunities that advance organizational goals and sustainable revenue growth.
• Manage a portfolio of foundation grants, government grants, and third-party funding partnerships.
• Coordinate grant application, reporting, compliance, and stewardship activities across departments.
• Monitor grant timelines, deliverables, outcomes, and reporting requirements to ensure successful partnership implementation.
• Track grant performance, funding results, pipeline activity, renewal opportunities, and overall grant revenue forecasts.
• Collaborate with program, finance, and leadership teams to collect outcomes, data, and impact measures required by funders.
• Develop and maintain a healthy grant pipeline that supports organizational growth and sustainability.
• Build strong relationships with grant partners, consultants, funding organizations, and collaborative stakeholders through proactive communication and stewardship.
• Oversee third-party funding partnerships and collaborative initiatives to ensure mission alignment, accountability, measurable outcomes, and community impact.
• Support development of grant narratives, budgets, proposals, impact reports, and funder communications.
• Support planning, execution, and follow-up activities related to fundraising events and donor engagement opportunities.
• Coordinate sponsor engagement, donor participation, volunteer involvement, and stewardship activities connected to events.
• Partner with staff and volunteers to ensure successful event execution and relationship-building opportunities.
• Utilize events as a strategy to strengthen donor engagement, expand community visibility, and support fundraising goals.
• Support organizational fundraising priorities through effective planning, implementation, and relationship management.
• Collaborate with leadership and staff to align fundraising activities with organizational goals and annual objectives.
• Manage fundraising projects, timelines, and initiatives while maintaining strong attention to detail and follow-through.
• Provide fundraising reports, portfolio updates, grant activity summaries, forecasts, and performance metrics to leadership as requested.
• Maintain accurate donor records, grant tracking systems, and fundraising databases.
• Utilize CRM and reporting tools to support pipeline management, forecasting, donor stewardship, and revenue tracking.
• Assist with fundraising budget tracking and performance monitoring.
• Identify opportunities to improve fundraising systems, donor experiences, stewardship practices, and operational efficiencies.
• Stay informed on fundraising trends, community partnerships, grant opportunities, and emerging funding sources.

Job description

MDI in Minneapolis, MN is seeking a driven fundraiser to build and manage a diverse portfolio of donors, foundations, and corporate partners. You will lead donor cultivation, stewardship, and reporting while coordinating grant activities across departments.

The role emphasizes relationship building, data management, and strategic fundraising to support youth workforce development initiatives and sustainable revenue growth.