Director, Partnerships & Sponsorships

This is a full-time remote position but we are looking for a teammate located in any of these locations in the US: San Francisco, CA, Portland, OR Midwest: Chicago, IL, East: Washington, DC, NYC, NY.  This person should be willing to accommodate global hours across multiple time zones periodically but a majority of the work is US-focused.

SecondMuse champions and supports the growth of future economies by designing and leading programs that involve workshops, events, mentorship networks, curriculum, and other efforts to build and grow community ecosystems. At the core of our community-sourced approach is a dedication to creating and fostering cohesive narratives and deep relationships throughout the ecosystem. We have organized innovation programs in over 100 countries and 250 cities, sourcing solutions from every corner of the world. Each program has challenged our teams to develop targeted approaches to find, and then support, visionary leaders with a diverse range of experiences, motivations, and cultures. We invite you to  build with us--leverage our proven strategies to build strong communities and influence local, regional and global networks, and add your own contribution to our growing team and portfolio of programs.

The Opportunity

The North America Business Unit (NA BU) is a dynamic team spanning North America and delivering a suite of thriving, long-standing impactful bodies of work while also building new program offerings to support innovators across a variety of industries. The NA BU’s current areas of work range from NASA’s Space Apps Challenge and NASA Space Apps Collective in our Program InfrastructureInfastructure Group to a Wellbeing Economy Building Group anchored by the Headstream program to the Climate Economy Building Group anchored by the For Climate Tech programs. The NA BU also has a Consulting Group where we connect with new clients, explore new problems, and build community and / or capacity as part of our work to build economies that are good for people and the planet. This dynamic work offers a lot of potential value to corporate partners and sponsors and this role would oversee the creation and execution of a North America corporate partner and sponsorship strategy.

Essential Functions

This role is responsible for helping the NA BU diversify its revenue through developing and leading our corporate engagement strategy and work for North America. This role will report to the Senior Director of Programs and work with senior leaders and program teams to build compelling and impactful corporate engagements. The Director of Partnerships and Sponsorships will be responsible for contributing to, achieving and growing annual revenue goals through corporate engagement. This includes strategy, relationship building, and solicitation of a range from small to large dollars and multi-year engagements as well as in kind contributions such as subject-matter-expert and volunteer recruitment. In this new role, the Director will establish our first ever North America-focused corporate engagement strategy along with its execution and growth year to year. 

Core Responsibilities

• Develop and manage a compelling corporate engagement strategy for the NA BU in collaboration with NA BU senior leadership and program teams that provides value to our work and to the corporations we engage with.
• Create  funding opportunities and creative proposals aligning with the mission to drive revenue. Ensure that each proposal aligns with the priorities of both the corporate partner/ corporate sponsor and the organization while staying true to the SecondMuse mission.
• Build and maintain a pipeline of prospective corporate sponsors by conducting research that matches the campaign goals of NA BU programs and strategic priorities. Solicit inputs from the broader NA BU to ensure alignment with program and strategic objectives.
• Actively cultivate and steward funding relationships. Proficiently navigate funder meetings, acting as a fundraiser both independently and alongside leadership and program teams.
• Secure in kind and financial contributions from corporations that strengthen the impact and reach of our work in climate, wellbeing, entrepreneurship and inclusion.
• Manage and cultivate new and existing relationships and programming that continually grows these relationships with corporate entities.
• Recruit and manage Global and Amplification Collaborator relationships and secure in-kind services for the NASA Space Apps Challenge and NASA Space Apps Collective, two of SecondMuse’s programs.
• Provide monthly and quarterly updates on effectiveness of the strategy, trends, and approaches to growing our corporate engagement approach.
• Collaborate with the marketing and communications team to optimize corporate partnerships by implementing recognition and storytelling strategies.
• Work closely with SecondMuse marketing and communications team to create compelling collateral that showcases our offerings and that raises the brand awareness of our programs and corporate partners and sponsors.
• Support in identifying, cultivating and developing opportunities with corporations in the areas of discovery, design and strategy consulting.