Associate Director of Strategic Partnerships

About This Role

This role involves identifying, building, and growing new corporate and foundation partnerships to support Watson Institute's Fellowship model. The position requires strong writing, sales, and communication skills to secure impactful partnerships.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with the CEO and VP of Strategic Partnerships to expand the Fellowship model through research, outreach, and relationship building with new corporate partners
• Participate in weekly prospecting meetings
• Conduct research and lead outreach to aligned corporate and private foundation partners
• Draft speaking and engagement applications for relevant conferences
• Build strong relationships with conference organizers to strengthen Watson Institute's presence at events
• Help design systems and processes for tracking and growing prospective partnerships
• Write and design compelling, persuasive, tailored, and visual impact updates for top prospects and partners
• Participate and lead prospect and partner meetings, including preparation, talking points, diligent notes, and timely follow-ups
• Develop compelling concept notes, decks, and grant applications demonstrating business and community impact
• Design impactful points of 'business connectivity' to create cross-functional connections within corporate prospects and partners
• Coordinate with leadership for cross-functional input in all proposals
• Collaborate with the Design Team on monitoring, evaluation, and learning to support partner expectations
• Serve as the Strategic Partnerships Lead for special projects critical to corporate partnership strategy and growth

Requirements

• Deep-seated passion for Watson Institute's mission
• Experience in enterprise sales/strategic partnership roles, specifically with corporations, corporate foundations, and corporate CSR teams
• Natural inclination to build and strengthen relationships and partnerships
• Love and talent for persuasive writing, enterprise sales, and communication
• Systems-oriented and highly organized approach to work
• Excel mastery
• Email wizardry
• Rapid follow-up
• Data analysis

Qualifications

• Previous experience should include building and growing impactful corporate partnerships that deliver on business impact and community impact.

Nice to Have

• Experience with Salesforce (or other CRM platforms)
• Experience with Canva (or other graphic design platforms)

Skills

* Required skills

Benefits