Manager, Food Donor Partnerships

Last Mile Food Rescue, Inc.; Cincinnati (OH); On-site; USD 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Mentorship from Director of Food Donor

Clear advancement path

Measurable impact on meals served

Collaborative team culture

Job summary

Last Mile Food Rescue, Inc. is seeking a donor relations professional in Cincinnati to grow a portfolio of food donors from outreach through onboarding and ongoing stewardship.

You will own relationships, tailor onboarding, and partner with dispatch to ensure timely pickups, contributing to the nonprofit’s mission of rescuing pounds of food and serving neighbors in need.

Qualifications

• Experience in relationship-based sales or donor development.
• Ability to manage a multi-step pipeline and close commitments.
• Strong communication and trust-building across audiences.
• Mission-driven with interest in food insecurity.

Responsibilities

• Identify and reach out to prospective food donors within assigned categories.
• Apply onboarding approach to fit donor categories and schedule first rescues.
• Represent Last Mile Food Rescue as a trusted contact in communities served.
• Own an assigned portfolio of donor accounts with reliable rescue activity.
• Coordinate with dispatch and operations to ensure on-time pickups.
• Collaborate with leadership to shape category strategy and growth.

Skills

Relationship-based sales

Business development

Account management

Hospitality

Nonprofit donor development

Job description

Full-Time|Cincinnati, Ohio|Reports to: Director of Food Donations|Multiple Positions Available

About Last Mile Food Rescue

Last Mile Food Rescue is a Cincinnati-based nonprofit built on a single thesis: hunger is a logistics problem. Since November 2020, we have rescued nearly 19 million pounds of food — almost 16 million meals — across a tri-state Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana service territory, powered by a network of 250+ nonprofit agency partners, a dedicated volunteer corps, and a growing fleet operation.

We are scaling rapidly toward 15 million pounds rescued annually by 2030. Getting there starts with food donors — and this role is central to that growth.

The Opportunity

Every pound we rescue starts with a relationship — a business, venue, or organization that decides to donate surplus food instead of discarding it. As Last Mile grows, we need more of those relationships, across a wider range of donor types, cultivated and managed well. Every relationship with a food donor that you build makes a direct connection between food that would otherwise be wasted and a neighbor who needs it.

We're expanding our Food Donations team to build that capacity. This role owns a defined portfolio of food donor relationships — from outreach through onboarding and ongoing stewardship — and plays a direct role in shaping which donor categories Last Mile is best positioned to serve. We're hiring for strength and fit, not a fixed assignment: the specific categories you'll own will be shaped by your background and what you bring to the team.

What You Will Own

• Identify and reach out to prospective food donors within your assigned categories, building relationships from a first introduction through to a signed, recurring rescue partnership
• Apply and customize Last Mile's proven onboarding approach to fit each new donor category — explaining our model, setting expectations, and getting a new partner's first rescue scheduled
• Represent Last Mile Food Rescue as a trusted, professional point of contact in the communities and sectors you serve
• Own an assigned portfolio of food donor accounts, ensuring consistent, reliable rescue activity and a strong donor experience over time
• Serve as the primary point of contact for your donors, building the kind of trust that keeps relationships durable through staffing changes, seasonal shifts, and operational hiccups
• Coordinate closely with dispatch and operations to make sure donor commitments translate into smooth, on-time pickups

New Category & Pipeline Development

• Proactively identify and test donor categories where Last Mile does not yet have an established presence, building the case for where to invest cultivation effort next
• Support event-based and recurring rescue opportunities as they arise within your portfolio
• Contribute what you learn back to the broader Food Donations team — turning a one-off success into a playbook others can use

Cross-Functional Collaboration & Reporting

• Work with the Director of Food Donations on department strategy, prioritization, and goal-setting
• Partner with the Food Donor Relationship Manager and dispatch team to ensure a consistent donor experience across the full Last Mile network
• Track and report on your portfolio's performance against pound and partnership goals

Who You Are

You're a relationship-builder who's comfortable moving between very different kinds of conversations — a quick, friendly check-in with a longtime partner one day, a first pitch to a brand-new prospect the next. You take initiative, but you're also a team player: you'll take our proven approach and adapt it to fit each donor's needs, rather than reinventing it from scratch on your own.

• You're persistent and organized — you can manage a multi-step pipeline of prospects and partners without letting anything fall through the cracks
• You communicate clearly and build trust quickly, whether you're talking with a small business owner or a regional operations director
• You're comfortable with ambiguity — this role, and the team around it, is still being defined, and you'll help shape it
• You're genuinely motivated by the mission — you see every donor relationship as part of closing the gap between food going to waste and neighbors facing food insecurity, not just a number on a report

There is no single background that defines this role, but we're looking for candidates who bring real experience in this kind of work — and we'll compensate based on the experience you bring. This is mission-driven work, not commission-based: there's no bonus tied to hitting a target. What matters most is genuine motivation — a real drive to help us find and redirect a share of the 15 million pounds of food going to waste each year toward neighbors facing food insecurity.

• Meaningful experience in relationship-based sales, business development, account management, hospitality, food service, or nonprofit donor development
• Comfort with a sales-style pipeline — prospecting, follow-up, and closing a commitment — driven by mission, not a bonus structure
• Strong communication skills across a range of audiences and settings
• A genuine passion for the work: you're motivated by what every new relationship means in pounds rescued and meals delivered

What We Offer

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience
• A growing department with a clear path for advancement as Last Mile scales toward 15 million pounds
• Direct mentorship from our Director of Food Donations, who is building this team intentionally around the strengths each new hire brings
• A mission that is measurable: every donor relationship you build directly increases the number of meals reaching our neighbors in need
• A collaborative, values‑driven culture where your contributions are visible from day one