Director, Partnerships & Engagement

About Cradles to Crayons:

Cradles to Crayons (C2C), founded in 2002, provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive—at home, at school, and at play. We supply clothing, shoes, diapers, school supplies, and more, free of charge. Our vision is that one day all children will have the essentials they need to thrive. 

Two in 5 kids in the United States are currently facing Clothing Insecurity, going without basic essentials like pants, shoes, diapers, and school supplies during their critical development years. Three of the top 10 reasons kids miss school are rooted in Clothing Insecurity—just one example of the significant short- and long-term social and economic costs when these needs go unmet. Cradles to Crayons keeps Clothing Insecurity at the core of our mission and is the only large-scale nonprofit organization to focus on this resource gap. Since its founding, Cradles to Crayons has distributed more than three million customized packages of essentials to children in Massachusetts, Greater Philadelphia, Chicagoland, and nationally, through Giving Factory Direct—a first-in-kind online product donation platform launched in 2021. 

Cradles to Crayons takes a three-pronged approach to mitigating Clothing Insecurity: 

1. In-person Engagement—through tens of thousands of children and adults volunteering at our Giving Factory warehouses to sort and package high volumes of new and like-new donations from our communities for our Service Partners to distribute to the children they serve. 
2. Online Product Donations—Giving Factory Direct matches product donors directly to children who need the items they have to donate. GFD is currently available in a growing number of communities as we expand our reach nationally. 
3. Advocacy and Awareness—Cradles to Crayons is uniquely positioned to raise Clothing Insecurity as a national issue through awareness campaigns, data/evaluation, and legislative outreach. 

Cradles to Crayons has earned the highest possible rating from Charity Navigator for 13 consecutive years. Only 2% of charities nationwide have received this distinction.

POSITION OVERVIEW:

You will be joining a small team working in a start-up environment, but with the added benefits of significant institutional knowledge and shared services, which enables the team to focus on achieving its ambitious goal of scaling to serve 100K children. Reporting to the VP of Giving Factory Direct, the Director of Partnerships & Engagement will play a critical role in ensuring the successful implementation of Giving Factory Direct to develop and implement an omni-channel partnership strategy to secure donors and service partners. 

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

·        Model and lead a positive “One Cradles” culture, underpinned by Cradles’ Cultural Values and related behaviors.

 Giving Factory Direct Implementation:

• Partner with Giving Factory Direct leadership to ensure positive and engaging experience for donors and partners
• Provide timely and on-going feedback to Digital Product Owner to identify gaps and opportunities to improve processes and build new digital capabilities and features
• Work with Giving Factory Direct leadership to create a sustainable revenue stream for the program including, but not limited to fundraising (sponsorships, grants and individual donations) and other monetization opportunities.

Partnership:

• Develop national and local activation strategy to successfully recruit and engage donors (corporate, individuals, groups) and service partners outside of C2Cs existing markets
• Work with existing markets to ensure successful implementation of Giving Factory Direct
• Manage roll-out in new geographies including developing criteria for service partner selection and donor acquisition
• Meet annual revenue goals
• Manage 2 Partnership Coordinators
• Facilitate communication among key stakeholders

Engagement:

• Create annual donor and corporate partnership goals, including but not limited to number of individual and corporate partners.
• Serve as the relationship manager for corporate partners outside of existing markets and work with them to develop annual engagement plans to successfully engage employees
• Develop and execute engaging event experiences for corporate partners and other groups that generate revenue and scales GFD

Evaluation and Metrics

• Partner with Digital Product Director to report on key performance indicators for bi-weekly and quarterly reporting
• Manage all GFD-related data in Salesforce, including reports and dashboards to track real-time data and progress to goals
• Collaborate with Director of Impact and Program Evaluation to conduct feedback interviews with select donors and partners, and analyze feedback survey results
•  Work with Giving Factory Direct leadership to develop annual goals

PERFORMANCE MEASURES:

• Donor NPS
• Partner NPS
• Revenue raised from sponsorships and individual Giving Factory Direct donors
• Successful implementation of Giving Factory Direct in existing markets and new geographies
• Maintain testing and learning cycle, including systems for reporting metrics and data
• Demonstrate ability to work collaboratively and cooperatively with other C2C staff and external consultants.

Required Experience/Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:

• Bachelor’s degree
• 4 to 6 years of professional experience.
• 2-5+ plus years in a supervisory role.
• Passion about the mission and vision of the organization.
• Ability to thrive in a dynamic, entrepreneurial, and collaborative environment.
• Strong organizational skills and experience in managing multiple individuals and projects, with a broad set of goals.
• Strong analytical and research skills with the capacity to create detailed timelines and implementation plans.
• 2-5 years of demonstrated relationship management experience with donors, vendors, partners to identify, cultivate and maintain relationships
• Ability to work well independently and within teams that include managers, peers, donors, and consultants, and prepared to interact with team members on a non-hierarchical basis.
• Excellent ability to prioritize and organize with strong attention to detail.
• Ability to think creatively and strategically as well as adapt to changing circumstances.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite (Including Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel).
• Proficiency in Salesforce.

Working Conditions:

This is an office / work from home remote virtual environment with occasional travel to meet with key partners, provide event support and visit C2C Giving Factories. There are no hazardous or significantly unpleasant conditions.

Accommodation:

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is possible that requirements may be modified to reasonably accommodate disabled individuals. However, no accommodations will be made by Cradles to Crayons which may pose serious health or safety risks to the employee or others, or which impose undue hardships on the organization.

To Apply:

It is the policy of Cradles to Crayons to provide equal employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information and/or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. Please send a cover letter and resume with relevant experience to https://www.cradlestocrayons.org/what-we-do/careers/