Institutional Giving Manager

The People’s Music School; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 60,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance

Generous Paid Time Off and Holidays

403(b) Retirement Plan with Employer/

Pre-Tax Flexible Spending Account (HSA

Job summary

The People’s Music School in Chicago seeks an Institutional Giving Manager to advance fundraising through grants from foundations, corporations, and government partners. This full-time role reports to the Chief Development Officer and oversees grant development, tracking, and timely submissions.

The ideal candidate will bring 3–4 years of institutional fundraising and grant writing experience, strong writing skills, and familiarity with Salesforce Nonprofit CRM. Hybrid work policy applies.

Qualifications

• 3-4 years experience in institutional fundraising and grant writing with demonstrated success in obtaining 5- and 6-figure gifts.
• Bachelor's degree required.
• Strong written communication to convey TPMS's impact to institutional audiences.
• Familiarity with Salesforce Nonprofit CRM is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Manage grant calendar and coordinate submission timelines.
• Write grants and funding proposals, letters of inquiry, and grant reports.
• Develop and implement an institutional giving strategy to meet revenue goals.
• Manage funder relationships and support leadership in cultivation.
• Maintain fundraising data and generate reports in Salesforce; track pipeline and trends.
• Conduct prospect research for new foundation, corporate, and government funding opportunities.
• Collaborate with the Development team and other departments; support events as needed.
• Handle additional duties as assigned.

Skills

Grant writing

Fundraising strategy

Nonprofit sector knowledge

Google Suite

Microsoft Office

Project management

Collaboration

Salesforce familiarity

Mission-driven

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Salesforce Nonprofit CRM

Job description

Job Title: Institutional Giving Manager

Location: Uptown Academy (931 W. Eastwood, Chicago, IL 60640)

Start date: ASAP

Reports to: Chief Development Officer

Organizational Overview

The People's Music School is Chicago's oldest and largest completely free nonprofit music school, providing transformational music instruction to over 800 K-12 students in Chicago. The school has a straightforward mission: to provide access to the transformational benefits of high-quality music instruction to youth who otherwise would not be able to afford it. We focus our work in communities that have been systematically excluded and marginalized from receiving a high quality music education.

Through intensive instruction and performance, The People's Music School's students grow not only musically, but also socially, emotionally, and academically, developing a foundation of responsibility, self-esteem, resilience, and purpose. From putting an instrument in an aspiring young musician's hand for the first time, to teaching students how to read and write music and perform in an ensemble, The People's Music School provides opportunity and instruction at sites located in four Chicago communities: Uptown, Albany Park, Back of the Yards, and the Greater South Side. Students receive an average of four hours of instruction per week, at absolutely no cost, delivered by world-class teaching artists.

Job Summary

The Institutional Giving Manager is a full-time position that advances TPMS's fundraising strategy; secures, stewards, and actively develops a pipeline of institutional support from corporate, foundation, and government partners. The role manages a portfolio of current and prospective funders and leads grant development and management—including prospecting, proposal development, budgeting in collaboration with Finance, compliance with funder requirements, deliverables tracking, and mid-term/final reporting. The position also strengthens relationships through thoughtful cultivation, acknowledgements, and site visits, and serves as an internal project manager and cross-functional liaison to ensure timely, high-quality submissions and fulfillment of programmatic and financial obligations

Fundraising is critical to our success, and we are looking for fundraising leaders who are excited to strategize and execute against a $1.9M Institutional Giving goal.The ideal candidate will have direct experience in fundraising with a focus on institutional giving. They will be entrepreneurial and ownership-minded, working with the team to make our work maximally efficient. They will be adept at using both data and stories to write compelling funding requests, working across departments to gather information, and managing many funder deadlines simultaneously. Past experience in education or arts nonprofits is not a necessity, but interest in learning about and then becoming a champion for The People's Music School's mission is a must. Familiarity with the local foundation community is a priority. Familiarity with Salesforce's nonprofit CRM platform is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Manage grant calendar: Manage the calendar of grant submissions, assuring sufficient time to gather information, facilitate program design, write a high-quality product, and integrate feedback from relevant staff.
• Write grants and cases for support: Write all communications to foundations (including family foundations) and corporate giving programs as well as government funding proposals, ranging from meeting request inquiries, letters of intent, proposals, grant reports, acknowledgements and funder stewardship communications.
• Build the institutional giving strategy: In partnership with the Chief Development Officer, develop fundraising strategies to meet TPMS's goals for revenue from foundations, government revenue, corporate giving programs, and the public sector, to meet a FY27 revenue target for institutional giving of $1.9M.
• Manage funder relationships: Manage a portfolio of funder relationships, support the Leadership Team to help them cultivate new funder relationships, and represent TPMS with funders and potential collaborative partners.
• Maintain records and manage data: Maintain our fundraising reporting records in Salesforce: Track all information in the database, create and maintain the institutional funding pipeline, build queries, run reports, analyze data, and assess funding trends.
• Prospect research: Proactively perform prospect research for new funding opportunities from foundations, corporations and public government support; conduct outreach to new prospects and manage all site visits for institutional funders.
• Help the team: Contribute broadly to the Development team’s objectives, leaning in on broader fundraising efforts, including individual fundraising efforts and gala, as needed
• Other duties as may be assigned from time to time

Qualifications

• Highly effective written communication; able to compellingly convey TPMS's impact and case for support to a wide variety of institutional audiences
• Entrepreneurial; excited to take end-to-end ownership of our institutional giving execution in partnership with the Chief Development Officer
• 3-4 years experience in institutional fundraising and grant writing, with demonstrated success in obtaining 5 and 6-figure institutional gifts
• Bachelor's degree
• Deep understanding of nonprofit and philanthropic sectors
• Computer skills required include Google Suite and Microsoft Office products
• Exemplary organizational skills; ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously and complete at a high level
• Proven ability to collaborate and work with people from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds
• Belief in our transformative mission is a must
• Familiarity with Salesforce Nonprofit CRM platform a plus
• Demonstrate a commitment to TPMS core values.

Physical Demands

• Local travel required
• Tolerance of prolonged and continuous stationary periods at a desk/computer
• Occasionally required to push, pull, lift and/or move up to 20 pounds

Development Team hybrid work policy

• TPMS is a hybrid work environment with an expected full-time commitment of 40 hours per week. In-person collaboration and connection with the Development team is critical. Development team members are expected to work in-person 3 days a week from 9am-5pm, and may work remotely two days a week.

Compensation and Benefits

• Full Time
• Salary range is commensurate with experience:$60,000 - $65,000
• Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Generous Paid Time Off, Paid Sick Leave, and Paid Holidays
• 403(b) Retirement Plan with Employer Match
• Pre-Tax Flexible Spending Account (Health, Dependent Care, Commuter)

Technology in Hiring: Every application and hiring decision is reviewed and made entirely by human hands and minds.

For more information about The People's Music School, please visit: www.peoplesmusicschool.org.

The People's Music School does not discriminate on the basis of race, creed, color, religious belief, gender, sexual orientation, age, national origin, ancestry, veteran status, physical or mental disability or any other protected status in admission or access to, or employment in its programs and activities.