Director of Corporate Partnerships

Position: Director of Corporate Partnerships

Department: Development

FLSA Status: Full-time, Exempt

Reports to: Chief Development Officer

Direct Reports: Corporate Engagement and Training Manager

Date Issued: March 16, 2018

Date Revised: April 21, 2020

About Polaris

Named after the North Star, an historical symbol of freedom, Polaris works to reshape the systems that make sex and labor trafficking possible and profitable in North America. For more than a decade, Polaris has assisted thousands of victims and survivors through the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline and built the largest known U.S. data set on the crime. With the guidance of survivors, and working with public and private-sector partners, we use that data to understand and improve the way trafficking is identified, how victims and survivors are assisted, and how we can prevent this abuse at the scale of the problem - 25 million people worldwide robbed of the basic right to choose how they live and work.

About Opportunity

Under the direction of Chief Development Officer and in close collaboration with program leaders, the Director of Corporate Partnerships will strategically create and implement high impact, revenue producing partnerships that support Polaris’s mission. The ideal candidate will develop a clear understanding of and passion for the organization’s long term program strategy and be able to build, oversee and execute impactful funding opportunities rooted in our theory of change. The Director will coordinate with Polaris colleagues across multi disciplines to advance partnerships, communicate the goals and strategies to end sex and labor trafficking, and connect strategies to corporate engagement opportunities. S/he will also manage a portfolio of new and existing corporate partners and oversee the creation of partnership materials including proposals and impact reports. The expected outcomes for this position include securing high value corporate partnerships that align with our mission and program strategy that result in financial and in kind resources.

The successful candidate will be a highly collaborative, confident, and skillful leader who can effectively mobilize internal resources and strategies and manage complex partner relationships. Demonstrated ability to serve mission-driven organizations in the human rights or social justice space is highly preferred.

Responsibilities

Strategy and Leadership

• In collaboration with the Chief Development Officer and the Executive Team, develop, implement, and assess a high impact strategy that aligns a wide array of partnerships opportunities with Polaris’s mission, organizational strategy, and programmatic goals;
• Identify the interests and needs of multiple targeted industries and develop customized partnership opportunities in support of the organizational priorities and goals;
• Collaborate with the program team to co-create a menu of high impact offerings that leverage the organization’s model for change, staff expertise, insights on sex and labor trafficking, and knowledge base;
• Adapt and communicate strategies for engaging different corporate sectors; and
• Meet revenue corporate revenue goals and project growth from corporate partnerships in future years.

Collaboration

• Mentor and support the growth of the Corporate Engagement and Training Manager;
• Integrate corporate partnership strategies and opportunities with the long term program strategy;
• Engage the Executive Team and lead internal cross functional program teams to identify partnership opportunities, support relationship building efforts with partners, and ensure partnership deliverables are met;
• Co-create and execute corporate recognition and stewardship program in coordination with the Chief Development Officer; and
• With input from the Communications and Development team members, oversee the creation of collateral including decks, toolkits, templates and other marketing materials to promote partnerships.

Relationship management

• Pursue transformative corporate relationships that result in not only philanthropic support but are also mission aligned to combat traffickers and restore freedom to survivors;
• Expertly articulate Polaris’s value proposition to new and existing corporate partners;
• Develop and drive a systemic approach to expanding a national portfolio of new and existing corporate partners, including identification, cultivation and solicitation;
• Ensure and oversee communication with partners, including the creation of reports, proposals, and memos as well as participate in email, phone and personal meetings to ensure partners are updated, engaged and stewarded; and
• Represent Polaris at relevant industry conferences, events, and seminars where partnership opportunities can be formed and advanced.

This job description provides a summary of the major duties and responsibilities performed by individuals in this position.  Incumbents may be asked to perform other tasks not specifically written in this job.

Required Qualifications

• Deep passion! Mad skills! Low ego!
• Ability to effectively lead, influence, motivate and collaborate with others;
• Comprehensive knowledge of concepts, practices, and procedures with establishing strategic relationships;
• Demonstrated experience developing new relationships with private sector funders and socially responsible actors across multiple human development sectors nationally and internationally;
• Strong business acumen and ability to understand the needs and interests of corporations as they relate to Polaris;
• Willingness and ability to adapt and be flexible. Ability to innovate and deftly apply negotiation skills;
• Demonstrates and applies sound judgment with managing internal and external stakeholders.
• Excellent oral and written communications skills;
• Ability to establish and manage trusted relationships with internal and external senior business leaders; and
• Ability to travel up to 25% of time.
• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent combination of education and/or experience;
• Minimum seven years of professional work experience in a nonprofit fundraising capacity or equivalent in a mission-driven setting along with supervisory experience;

• Mission-driven and self-motivated, resourceful team player with strong project management, critical thinking and time management skills, planning and administrative abilities.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ability to represent Polaris publicity and speak at conferences, events, and other meetings;
• Experience with Salesforce or similar Customer Relationship Management software;
• Project management experience with strength in multi tasking, goal setting and prioritization of work flow.

Communication

• Internal: Ability to communicate with supervisors and peers;
• External: Frequent contact with corporations and individuals with connections to companies

Working Conditions:

• Typical office setting
• Prolonged sitting, chiefly at a computer terminal

Physical Requirements:

• Occasional bending, stooping and stretching;
• Occasional lifting up to 25 pounds.

Value Statement

The work of Polaris is grounded in a set of values and organizational beliefs that provide a common starting point for all of our activities. At Polaris, we look for talented individuals who are passionate about combating all forms of human trafficking and who will strive to embody and model these values within the Polaris community and in the anti-trafficking field. Please take a moment to make yourself familiar with these values and our mission statement before submitting your application. You can find a full description of our values here.

Diversity Statement

Polaris designs and implements data-driven strategies to prevent and disrupt human trafficking, and to restore freedom to survivors. Achieving this ambitious goal requires both trafficking-specific systemic interventions and broader cultural and structural shifts that reduce the inequities that lead to human trafficking. While Polaris alone cannot build a more diverse, just, equitable, and inclusive society, both the success of its work and its organizational values require modeling in the workplace the change we want to see in the world. This means cultivating a workforce, organizational culture, and priorities that respect and celebrate a dynamic, multi-disciplinary team made up of individuals with different identities, lived experiences, and backgrounds. Within both its team and across every part of its work, Polaris strives to integrate and elevate the full range of survivor voices. This is a living commitment. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are values to be manifested daily, in the work Polaris does, the decisions it makes, and the way staff treat each other and the people they seek to serve. This means creating space where staff can be included, heard, valued, and set up for success, and where everyone feels empowered to bring their full, best selves to work. Polaris will not check boxes and consider it done. The organization will push new innovations and different ways of thinking, and treasure the community built and strengthened by each individual contribution.