Manager, Foundation Relations

Position Summary:

The Manager, Foundation Relations will serve as a strategic partner to Make-A-Wish America and chapter fundraising teams by identifying, researching, qualifying, and prioritizing foundation opportunities that advance wish granting across the country. This role combines prospect research, fundraising strategy, relationship mapping, data integrity, and pipeline management to expand institutional giving opportunities at the national and local levels.

The Manager will dedicate approximately 50% of their time to researching and qualifying family foundations with national giving interests, 25% of their time developing strategies for engagement with the nation’s largest private and philanthropic foundations, and 25% of their time supporting chapter teams in identifying, pursuing, and securing local or regional foundation funding opportunities.

The Manager will bring strong analytical skills, sound judgment, and knowledge of philanthropy, foundation giving trends, prospect research practices, and ethical research standards.

Knowledge and Abilities:

• Demonstrated experience conducting philanthropic, donor, and institutional prospect research.
• Strong understanding of family foundations, private foundations, and institutional philanthropy.
• Ability to analyze complex foundation giving patterns and identify strategic funding opportunities.
• Exceptional project management and organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present research findings and recommendations clearly.
• Experience using fundraising databases, foundation research tools, and CRM platforms.
• Knowledge of prospect management, moves management, pipeline tracking, and fundraising operations best practices.
• Ability to identify relationship pathways among foundation leaders, trustees, advisors, board members, donors, volunteers, staff, and chapter leaders.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with national and chapter fundraising professionals in a remote environment.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and strategic thinking capabilities.
• Sound judgment and discretion in handling confidential information.
• Commitment to advancing Make-A-Wish’s mission through data-driven fundraising strategies.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Researches, identifies, and qualifies family foundations with national funding priorities that align with the mission and programs of Make-A-Wish.
• Develops and maintains a strategic portfolio of qualified foundation prospects, including detailed profiles, funding histories, leadership information, and philanthropic interests.
• Monitors foundation trends, giving priorities, and emerging opportunities to inform fundraising strategy and pipeline development.
• Conducts landscape analysis to identify new opportunities within priority funding sectors.
• Partners with national fundraising teams to evaluate and prioritize foundation prospects for cultivation and solicitation strategies.
• Maintains accurate and comprehensive prospect records within Salesforce and other research platforms.
• Tracks prospect stages, recommended next steps, and opportunity movement through cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
• Applies qualification criteria to assess foundation fit, capacity, affinity, geography, funding priorities, and likelihood of engagement.
• Develops research briefs, prospect profiles, funding opportunity reports, priority prospect lists, landscape scans, and pipeline dashboards for national and chapter fundraising teams.
• Leads research efforts related to the nation’s largest private and philanthropic foundations, including those with significant endowments and national grantmaking programs.
• Identifies and recommends strategies for engaging top-tier philanthropic institutions whose funding priorities align with Make-A-Wish’s strategic initiatives.
• Conducts relationship mapping to identify potential access points to foundation trustees, staff, advisors, and decision-makers through Make-A-Wish networks.
• Partners with Leadership Gifts team to support development of long-term institutional fundraising strategies.
• Prepares strategic briefing materials and actionable recommendations for frontline fundraisers, chapter leaders, and senior leadership.
• Provides consultative support to chapter fundraising teams by identifying local and regional foundation opportunities.
• Assists chapters in evaluating funding fit, researching foundation priorities, and developing prospect strategies.
• Creates and distributes foundation prospecting resources, training materials, and best practices for chapter teams.
• Collaborates with National and chapter colleagues to strengthen enterprise-wide foundation fundraising efforts.
• Generates routine reports to measure prospect pipeline growth, qualification activity, and funding opportunity outcomes.
• Uses pipeline and qualification data to support forecasting and strategic decision-making.
• Maintains high standards of confidentiality, ethical prospect research, data accuracy, and appropriate use of research tools and information sources.
• Performs other related duties as assigned in support of Foundation relations and broader organizational goals.

Qualifications:

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Nonprofit Management, Philanthropy, Business, Communications, Research, or a related field.
• Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in fundraising, institutional giving, prospect research, foundation relations, or a related discipline.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite.
• Ability to synthesize complex information into actionable fundraising recommendations.
• Commitment to mission-driven fundraising and high-quality research practices.
• Ability to work independently and thrive in a remote-first, collaborative environment.

Preferred

• Experience supporting prospect management, moves management, portfolio review, pipeline reporting, or fundraising strategy.
• Experience preparing prospect profiles, relationship maps, funder briefs, research reports, or strategic recommendations for fundraising teams.
• Experience working with foundation funding opportunities and grantmaking organizations.
• Experience in a nonprofit organization.
• Familiarity with AI tools, including CoPilot
• Experience with Salesforce, Foundation Director, Instrumentl, DonorSearch, iWave, or similar prospect research tools.

Working Environment:

• Ability to thrive in a remote environment.
• Travel may be required for internal and external meetings, up to 10%.
• May require work outside a traditional Monday – Friday work week, and outside normal business hours. This includes weekends and early evening weeknights.