Director of Communities & Business Relations

Director of Communities & Business Relations

Homegrown National Park

Location: Remote with Occasional Travel (U.S.-based)

Salary Range: $80,000–$100,000

About Homegrown National Park

Homegrown National Park is a national movement working to restore biodiversity by empowering people and communities to plant native and remove invasive species. Our goal is simple but ambitious: make habitat restoration a mainstream, default behavior.

The Role

We’re looking for a relationship-driven leader to expand our work with HOAs, developers, and municipalities.

This role sits at the intersection of partnerships, community activation, and funding. The core responsibility is to build trusted relationships with institutional partners, secure commitments aligned with Homegrown National Park’s mission, and help translate those commitments into meaningful community participation.

You’ll work directly with decision-makers to shape how communities engage residents in habitat restoration—using HNP’s tools, programs, and campaigns to motivate action at scale. As partnerships take hold, you’ll identify and align funding and sponsorship opportunities that support and expand this work.

Success in this role comes from turning relationships into commitments, commitments into community action, and action into a scalable model for growth.

Key Responsibilities

Build & Manage Strategic Partnerships

• Engage leaders across HOAs, real estate development, and local government
• Position Homegrown National Park as a strategic partner that helps communities mobilize residents around habitat restoration
• Secure commitments to adopt native planting, remove invasives, and reduce pesticide use
• Design and pilot partnership approaches that enable broad resident participation and can be replicated across communities

Drive Community Activation and Impact

• Bring HNP tools (Biodiversity Map, educational resources, campaigns) into partner communities to inspire and guide resident action
• Lead onboarding of institutional partners, including setting participation goals and aligning on how communities will engage residents
• Help partners design and execute engagement strategies (e.g., communications, events, model gardens) that motivate individuals to take action
• Track and report on participation metrics (e.g., Map adoption, resident engagement, acres restored) and use insights to strengthen engagement over time

Align Funding with Impact

• Identify and cultivate funding partners, including corporate sponsors, foundations, grants, and public funding sources
• Build and package sponsorship opportunities that support both Homegrown National Park and participating communities
• Match funders with community initiatives, creating clear value for both impact and visibility
• Work with partners to integrate funding into community programs (e.g., underwriting, grants, participation models)
• Collaborate internally to ensure funding strategies support long-term growth and mission alignment

Scale What Works

• Capture and document successful approaches to partnership development, community activation, and funding
• Identify the key drivers that lead to strong community participation and measurable impact
• Translate early partnerships into clear, repeatable frameworks that can be applied across regions and scaled nationally

Qualifications and Experience

• 7–12+ years of experience in partnerships, business development, community engagement, real estate, sustainability, or a related field
• Proven ability to build relationships that lead to commitments, funding, or program adoption
• Strong relationship builder with experience engaging senior stakeholders and navigating complex organizations (e.g., HOAs, municipalities, developers)
• Experience developing solutions or programs and connecting them to funding opportunities (corporate, philanthropic, or public)
• Entrepreneurial mindset with the ability to build structure, test approaches, and refine what works
• Strong communication skills and a demonstrated ability to motivate community-level engagement and action
• Personal or professional experience engaging with nature, environmental stewardship, or native plant habitats (formal or informal)

What Success Looks Like

• Institutional partners (HOAs, developers, municipalities) making clear commitments that align with Homegrown National Park’s recommended actions
• Those commitments translating into active community participation—demonstrated through Biodiversity Map growth, community engagement, and measurable outcomes (e.g., acres restored, pesticides reduced)
• Funding and sponsorships secured in support of committed partners and active community programs
• Clear, repeatable models for securing commitments, activating communities, and scaling impact nationally