We’re Looking for Someone Who Knows How West Michigan Gives

There are people in West Michigan who know our philanthropic community incredibly well.

They know the foundations investing in housing, children, education, health and strong neighborhoods. They know when letters of inquiry are due, when boards tend to meet, when decisions are made and when awards arrive.

More importantly, they know the people.

They understand that the best institutional fundraising starts long before someone opens a grant application.

Family Promise of West Michigan is looking for one of those people.

We are hiring a Director of Institutional Relationships.

Yes, this person needs to be an excellent grant writer. There will be proposals to write, budgets to build, deadlines to manage and reports to complete. We need someone who can take the incredible work happening throughout Family Promise and translate it into a compelling case for investment.

But we are looking for much more than a great grant writer.

We want someone who understands how West Michigan works.

We are looking for someone who knows the annual rhythms of our corporate, family and private foundations. Someone who knows which community events matter and which conversations we should be part of. Someone who knows when an email will do and when it is time to grab a cup of coffee.

The right person understands that relationships cannot be manufactured three weeks before a grant deadline.

They can sit across from a program officer and listen. They can walk through one of our shelters with a corporate leader and help them understand what they are seeing. They can introduce our work to someone who has never heard of Family Promise and build a relationship that lasts for years.

They know when it is time to ask and when it is time to listen. They know when the most important thing we can do is simply show up. They understand that every community has unwritten rules and that successful relationship building requires knowing those too.

Those instincts come from experience.

The exciting part is that this person will not be doing any of it alone.

There is an incredible Advancement Team already in place at Family Promise, and we are ready to welcome another teammate.

The Director of Institutional Relationships will report directly to our Vice President of Strategic Growth and work closely with our Director of Advancement, Community Engagement and Events Manager, Database and Annual Fund Coordinator, CEO and colleagues throughout the organization.

Our program leaders know this work and the families we serve. Our finance team knows the numbers and takes stewardship seriously. Our business intelligence team helps us understand our data and tell the stories hidden inside it. Our Advancement Team is building relationships with donors, businesses, congregations, volunteers and community partners every day.

Nobody is getting handed a laptop and a revenue goal and being told good luck.

We are building something together.

Our goal is ambitious. We want to build and sustain more than $1 million in annual support from family, corporate and private foundations. We believe the work happening at Family Promise deserves that kind of investment, and we believe there are partners throughout West Michigan and beyond who will want to be part of it.

We need someone who can help us find them, know them, and build relationships with them.

Family Promise has an incredible story to tell. We walk alongside families with children from the moment a housing crisis begins through emergency shelter, housing, stabilization and, for some families, even homeownership.

There is already a team here ready to tell that story.

Now we are looking for the person who can help us build the institutional relationships that will allow even more families to find their way home.

Maybe that person is you.

Or maybe you knew exactly who we were talking about before you even finished reading this.

Either way, we hope you’ll help us find them.

Jim Davis