Director, Institutional Giving
Description
General Summary
The Director of Institutional Giving is a critical member of the Institutional Giving Department, which raises approximately 60% of Oceana’s annual revenue. The Director will cultivate, secure and steward relationships with foundations, including private, family, corporate, and operating institutions. This role will support a portfolio of institutional and foundations supporting Oceana priorities, including, but not limited to campaigns in Brazil, Chile, Peru, and other Oceana countries and our global habitat campaigns. The Director will emphasize prospect identification and cultivation, expanding Oceana’s portfolio of institutional funders and securing support from foundations and other entities not currently funding Oceana. The Director will collaborate extensively with campaign teams, Finance & Accounting, and Marketing & Communications, as well as colleagues across Oceana’s international offices. This position will manage all aspects of the fund development process. This position may supervise one or more Institutional Giving staff members, depending on departmental needs and staffing.
The position reports to the Senior Director of Institutional Giving and is part of a broader development team working across multiple Oceana countries.
Principal Duties and Responsibilities
Essential Functions:
- Work with the Senior Director for Institutional Giving to set annual and multi-year goals for fundraising, and to develop and implement strategies for achieving these goals.
- Build and steward a pipeline of institutional prospects for Oceana’s campaigns in Brazil, Chile, and Peru – as well as other countries as assigned – across priority areas including habitat protection, illegal fishing, overfishing, transparency, ocean pollution, climate change, and food security to meet annual fundraising goals. In addition to country assignments, the Director will lead fundraising efforts for our global habitat work.
- Support the stewardship of existing Oceana general support funders and the development of proposals for general support grants and contribute to cultivating new general support funders over time.
- Serve as the relationship manager for specific funders, including:
- Understanding the funder’s history, financial capacity, funding strategies and issue priorities, governance structure and membership, and staff leadership.
- Maintaining awareness of the funder’s major grant investments and funding process.
- Keeping current with developments in the areas funded by or of interest to the funder.
- Maintaining ongoing communication with the funder, including utilizing Oceana program staff to share updates, victories, setbacks and other news on a regular basis.
- Ensuring that all proposals are clear, compelling, realistic and tailored to the funder’s needs and interests.
- Managing grant reporting and compliance for the assigned portfolio, tracking all requirements and deadlines and coordinating with campaign and Finance & Accounting staff to submit accurate and complete reports, budgets, and supporting materials.
- Partner with campaign, science, and communications colleagues to develop compelling funding narratives, measurable impact summaries, and other materials supporting global campaigns and general operating support.
- Schedule and support Oceana Senior Executives and campaign staff in their outreach with prospects and funders, through research, meeting preparation, meeting attendance, and follow-up activities.
- Work with campaign staff to develop proposals and reports to support their campaigns and achieve targeted budget goals.
- Maintain awareness of campaign goals, progress, and challenges.
- Provide relevant and timely information to support internal reporting and management tools for the Institutional Giving team, the Executive Committee, and the Board of Directors.
- Manage funder-related communications and documents using Oceana’s Salesforce platform and grants management resources.
- May supervise, coach, and support Institutional Giving staff, including setting priorities, monitoring progress, and supporting professional development.
- Other projects and duties as assigned.
Job Requirements
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of 10 years of relevant professional experience, including at least 5 years in fundraising and development focused on foundation relations. An equivalent combination of education and experience will be considered.
- A demonstrated record of securing foundation grant awards.
Preferred Qualifications:
- A record of securing six- and seven-figure foundation grants, including multi-year awards.
- Experience working in an environmental, conservation or climate focused organization.
- Portuguese and/or Spanish language skills are a plus.
- Experience supervising or mentoring staff is a plus.
Skills and knowledge:
- Exceptional written and oral communication skills, with a proven ability to translate complex information into clear, compelling narratives and develop persuasive, highly structured grant proposals and reports for diverse audiences.
- Ability to assess funder interests and analyze prior grantmaking and identify those with a strong potential for foundation funding.
- Strong relationship-building, collaboration, and interpersonal skills, with experience partnering effectively across teams and engaging senior executives and other key stakeholders.
- Highly organized with excellent research, time-management, and project management skills, including the ability to manage multiple competing priorities and consistently meet deadlines.
- Critical thinking and initiative.
- Demonstrated success in prospecting, grant writing, grants management and relationship stewardship.
- Ability to independently drive deadline-sensitive projects involving multiple stakeholders.
- Ability to maintain the confidentiality of donor and organizational information.
Required Competencies:
Action Oriented: Makes things happen. Takes on new opportunities and tough challenges with a sense of urgency, high energy, and enthusiasm.
Instills Trust: Is able to gain the confidence and trust of others by demonstrating honesty and authenticity, acting with integrity, being consistent and credible.
Values Differences: Is skilled at promoting a team environment that values, encourages and supports differences. Helps create a climate where different experiences, styles, backgrounds and perspectives are leveraged appropriately; and where a variety of cultures and viewpoints can be heard.
The compensation for this position is $145,000 – $155,000 annually.
Oceana's U.S. offices operate on a hybrid schedule. Staff are required to work from their assigned office on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. With agreement between the employee and their supervisor, the employee may work remotely on Monday and Friday.
Oceana values a diverse workforce and welcomes people different from each other in many ways, including characteristics such as race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity and national origin. Oceana considers all qualified candidates and seeks to recruit from a diverse candidate pool.
Applicants must submit a resume and cover letter. For best consideration, please apply by December 3, 2026.
Skills
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