Director of Corporate Relations

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Full-Time Year-Round Salary Ravinia Park, Highland Park, IL, US

Salary Range: $ To $ Annually

At Ravinia, we believe in the transformative power of shared, live-music moments and their ability to inspire individuals, strengthen communities, and foster a more connected world.

Beyond presenting outstanding performances by the world’s greatest musicians, our mission as a not-for-profit organization is to develop broader, more diverse audiences and performers in the music industry with our Reach Teach Play® community engagement and education programs, our Steans Institute’s collaborative and experiential artistic training programs, and more. Together, Ravinia’s initiatives serve tens of thousands of students, families, and emerging professional musicians.

Our 36-acre park is home to North America’s longest-running outdoor music festival and its most artistically diverse. Over 100 different events, featuring a mix of classical, rock, pop, jazz, R&B, indie, and country performers, make up a typical summer season across our open-air and indoor stages, including the annual residency of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The Director of Corporate Relations is a senior fundraising leader responsible for developing and leading the organization's corporate fundraising strategy, driving sustainable corporate revenue growth, and overseeing corporate donors to generate upwards of $3 million annually.

Reporting to the Chief Development Officer, the Director owns the strategy, priorities, performance, and effectiveness of the Corporate Relations function. The Director leads two Corporate Managers directly and is responsible for maximizing the team's capacity through thoughtful portfolio management, resource allocation, coaching, and accountability. While the Director personally manages a focused portfolio of 10+ existing Corporate Sponsors at the $100,000+ level, the two direct reports manage an additional 80+ corporate relationships tiered between $5,000 and $99,999.

The Director is expected to be an active fundraiser and relationship leader while operating at a strategic level. The role balances three interconnected priorities: retaining existing corporate revenue, growing current partnerships, and developing new corporate business. The Director determines the appropriate balance based on revenue opportunity, relationship health, strategic value, organizational capacity, and expected return.

The Director independently identifies and develops corporate opportunities, creates partnership strategies and proposals, leads high-value solicitations, and brings well-developed recommendations to the CDO for final approval. Additionally, the Director oversees external specialized resources, serving as the key point of contact and primary liaison for external luxury partnership and brand activation consultants. The CDO provides executive oversight and counsel; the Director is expected to own the underlying strategy and day-to-day execution.

The Director also serves as a strategic partner to Marketing and other organizational leaders when their expertise can strengthen the value, positioning, or competitiveness of a corporate opportunity. The Director remains accountable for the corporate relationship, fundraising strategy, revenue opportunity, and overall partnership proposition.

This is a role for a fundraiser who can create strategy, generate revenue, deepen relationships, develop people, and turn organizational resources into compelling corporate partnerships.

• Develop and lead a comprehensive corporate fundraising strategy that advances organizational priorities and drives corporate fundraising efforts to hit an explicit target of $3 million annually. Identify market opportunities, establish priorities, set revenue goals, assess portfolio performance, and personally lead high-value opportunities and solicitations.
• The Director is responsible for creating a corporate portfolio strategy…