Director of Institutional Relationships

Salary Range: $70,000.00 To $80,000.00 Annually

Family Promise of West Michigan strives to give parents the hope and encouragement they need to create a better future for their children and end the cycle of homelessness. Through our diversion services, emergency shelters, housing programs, home ownership initiatives, family stabilization, and early childhood services, we have helped more than 2,500 families overcome homelessness and achieve lasting stability.

At Family Promise, our culture is centered on compassion, collaboration, and commitment to families. We value teamwork, integrity, and a solutions-focused approach as we work together to serve our community with excellence and care.

We are seeking a Director of Institutional Relationships to join our team. This role is responsible for securing and growing philanthropic support from family foundations, corporations, and private foundations. This highly external-facing, revenue-generating role serves as the organization’s primary relationship manager for institutional partners by cultivating and stewarding long-term relationships that result in increased philanthropic investment.

This position reports to the Vice President of Strategic Growth.

• Has Passion for Mission
• Prioritizes Accessibility, Belonging and Community
• Is Dedicated to Hospitality
• Collaborates Intentionally
• Is Hungry, Humble, and Smart
• Assumes Good Intent
• Strives for Excellence and Sustained Impact

• Develop and execute a comprehensive strategy to secure funding ( ~$1M+ annually) from family, corporate, and private foundations.
• Build and manage a diversified institutional giving pipeline that increases both the number and value of foundation and corporate philanthropic relationships.
• Develop and execute strategies to acquire new institutional funders, renew existing investments, and increase the level of support from qualified prospects and current partners.
• Maintain a qualified pipeline of prospects at various stages of identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship, with clear revenue projections and next steps.
• Represent Family Promise of West Michigan at networking events, foundation meetings, conferences, community events, and site visits.
• Identify new funding opportunities through research and community engagement.
• Monitor philanthropic trends and develop strategies to expand long-term foundation partnerships.
• Lead the development of letters of inquiry, grant proposals, concept papers, budgets, and supporting materials for private foundation opportunities.
• Collaborate with program, finance, and executive leadership to identify funding priorities and develop competitive proposals.
• Manage the proposal pipeline, submission calendar, revenue forecasting, and foundation stewardship activities.
• Maintain accurate records of foundation activity, proposals, awards, and relationship history within the organization's CRM.
• Partner with the finance team to ensure grant reporting, compliance requirements, and award administration are completed accurately and on time.
• Communicate grant expectations, allowable expenses, reporting requirements, and funding opportunities with program and finance staff.
• Track foundation revenue, proposal success rates, and relationship activity while providing regular updates to leadership.
• Additional duties as needed to support the agency.

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional experience.
• 3+ years of successful experience securing funding from family, corporate, and private foundations.
• Demonstrated success cultivating philanthropic relationships resulting in significant institutional investments.
• Exceptional interpersonal, networking, presentation, and written communication skills.
• Strong project management and organizational abilities with the capacity to manage multiple priorities.
• Experience collaborating across departments and working with CRM and grant management systems.
• Comfortable working in a multi-faith based, mission-driven environment.
• Proficiency in Google Workspace, donor management tools, and digital platforms.
• Documented valid driver’s license.

This position is in-person with remote options, with work performed at the Family Promise administrative office. The Director of Institutional Relationships must be available to work full-time hours, with potential evening/weekend availability, if necessary.

Family Promise of West Michigan offers a robust employee benefit package…