Senior Manager, Corporate Relations

Reports To: Senior Director, Institutional
Partnerships & Philanthropy
Job Type: Full-Time Employment
Region: United States
Location: US Remote, MA Cambridge
Start Date: Immediate
Contact: Please apply by using the company
site

About Root Capital

Agriculture is the key to unlocking a better future for billions
of people. But while rural families sustain the world, they
struggle to sustain themselves. Root Capital is a nonprofit social
impact investor that puts its money where others don’t – in
underserved agricultural businesses.

We provide financing and business training to agricultural
enterprises in the “missing middle” – those that are too big for
microloans but too small for commercial lenders. As these
agricultural businesses succeed and scale, they become engines of
impact that help farming families, communities, and economies to
flourish.

Founded in 1999, we are the largest social investor in
agricultural businesses. As both a lender and a nonprofit, our
unique model allows us to go where other financiers don’t and
support agricultural enterprises so they can succeed and grow. Our
world-class team of experts identifies, partners with, and invests
in exceptional agricultural entrepreneurs in Africa, Asia, and
Latin America.

Over 23 years, Root Capital has invested $1.9 billion in more
than 750 agricultural enterprises, proving these under-served
businesses are bankable and investable. We have shown that access
to finance helps these enterprises succeed and fuels the economy.
Root Capital’s investments and essential business and finance
training have impacted 10 million farming families through job
creation, financial security, and climate resiliency. Headquartered
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, we currently have offices in Costa
Rica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Colombia, Peru, Ghana, and Kenya.

Position Overview

Root Capital’s mission is to transform rural communities by
investing in the capacity and growth of agricultural
businesses.  Working as part of the Institutional Giving team,
the Senior Manager, Corporate Relations will lead Root Capital’s
fundraising efforts with the private sector, building meaningful
and long-lasting relationships with companies and corporate
foundations to support Root Capital’s efforts. This position will
be responsible for leading the identification, cultivation, and
stewardship of private sector partners and play a critical role in
helping the organization meet its fundraising goals.

The Senior Manager, Corporate Relations serves as a conduit
between Root Capital’s programmatic staff and our company and
corporate foundation partners, identifying mutually beneficial
partnerships that further Root Capital’s mission and support the
objectives of our private sector partners. The Senior Manager helps
uncover the goals and interests of corporations, corporate
foundation prospects, and donors and collects and synthesizes
information about Root to establish a compelling case for support
and collaboration.

Responsibilities

Strategy Development and Delivery (20%)

• Develop and implement a comprehensive corporate fundraising
  program which will generate gifts from corporations and corporate
  foundations.
• Design and oversee implementation of strategy to engage current
  and prospective corporate partners.
• Ensure understanding and alignment across Root Capital
  departments and geographies around our corporate strategy,
  priorities, goals, budgets and partner expectations.
• Develop and implement innovative stewardship and engagement
  opportunities for corporate and corporate foundation partners.

Portfolio Management (30%)

• Secure $5M — $10M / year in new commitments from portfolio in
  support of Root Capital’s mission.
• Act as account and/or primary relationship manager for a
  portfolio of 15–25 accounts, including high-level, key accounts for
  the organization, delivering on all aspects of relationship
  management and funder engagement including timely and accurate
  submissions, reporting, and management of proposals and grant
  reports to keep donors engaged in Root Capital’s work and position
  for renewals and expanded partnerships.
• Leverage communication content (client stories, impact studies,
  analyses, etc.) and help to curate communications with partners to
  keep corporate and corporate foundation partners aware and engaged
  in Root Capital’s work.
• Represent Root Capital at key meetings, conferences, events,
  etc. that are relevant to the portfolio.
• Collaborate with colleagues to support the organization’s
  efforts to deliver on grant deliverables.
• In partnership with the writing team, deliver high quality
  funding proposals and reports.
• Ensure targets and performance metrics are SMART, meet donor
  expectations and monitor progress against targets to ensure
  delivery on partnership.
• Manage donor communication and expectations, report on
  activities and progress on goals.
• Document donor communications and account statuses for
  stewardship purposes in institutional systems including, but not
  limited to, Salesforce.
• Utilize best practices for tracking, acknowledgment and
  reporting progress to corporate partners and ensure accurate
  capturing, recording and reporting of foundation relationships and
  grants, including call notes, submission dates, reporting deadlines
  and payment schedules.

Leads Development (30%)

• Proactively identify, cultivate, solicit and build
  relationships with private sector prospects, ensuring a strong
  pipeline of 10-20 prospects.
• Conduct research and analysis on prospect’s interests and
  giving potential for solicitation. Initiate and develop
  communication with prospective funding sources.
• Develop and implement Root Capital’s strategy with key
  prospects, managing engagements and activating individuals
  (internally and externally to EA) to play a key role in cultivating
  relationships (setting up, planning, documenting, and driving
  follow-up on donor engagements).
• Build and maintain relationships with sources of new leads,
  such as peer institutions and other funders.

Organizational, Programmatic & Team Responsibilities
(20%)

• Develop and maintain in-depth knowledge of the organization,
  mission, programs, activities, resources and fundraising
  needs.
• Build the business case and articulate Root Capital’s needs to
  private sector supporters persuasively.
• Supervise Account Manager in successful delivery of expectation
  on PRM’s portfolio.
• Coach Account Manager on development and management of the
  Account Manager’s individual portfolio.
• Participate in organizational strategy development, ensuring
  appropriate integration of corporate trends as well as specific
  donor insights and theories of change.
• Represent the IPP and EA team in engagements with other
  departments to achieve a shared understanding of Root Capital’s
  institutional partners and fundraising priorities.
• Perform other relevant duties as assigned.

Required Skills and Experience

• Proven fundraising ability, with a minimum of 10 years’
  experience engaging private sector entities, including prospecting,
  cultivation, proposal writing, budget experience and
  stewardship.
• Demonstrated knowledge of methods, practices, and procedures
  for obtaining information about the giving programs of companies
  and corporate foundation and demonstrable track record in
  stewarding engagements and bringing transactions to closure.
• Experience and comfort engaging with and soliciting senior
  company executives and board members.
• Excellent interpersonal and verbal communication skills,
  including the ability to effectively communicate to a wide range of
  external and internal constituents on complex, technical
  ideas.
• Strong writing and editing skills, and a proven ability to
  distill challenging technical content into readily accessible
  formats.
• Highly motivated, well-organized and able to thrive in a
  fast-paced and rapidly evolving work environment.
• Experience in international development and time in developing
  countries strongly preferred, and knowledge of and interest in
  financial markets and/or impact investing a plus.
• Strategy driven, entrepreneurial self-starter capable of
  thinking creatively, taking initiative, and working independently,
  while enjoying working collaboratively and knowing when to seek
  support.
• Language skills (Spanish or French) strongly preferred.
• Must be authorized to work in the United States.
• Commitment to Root Capital’s mission.
• Travel expectations: 15-20%

Applications

More information about Root Capital is available
at www.rootcapital.org.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Candidates are
encouraged to apply using the company site as soon as possible,
making sure to include a resume and cover letter that describes
your interest, qualifications, language abilities, salary
requirements, and how you learned of the position. Finalist
candidates will be required to provide at least three work-related
references.

Root Capital provides equal employment opportunities (EEO)
to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to
race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry,
active military or veteran status, age, physical or mental
disability, medical condition, pregnancy (which includes pregnancy,
childbirth, medical conditions related to pregnancy and childbirth,
and breastfeeding and expressing breast milk), sexual orientation,
gender, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, or
any other characteristic protected by law. Root Capital is
committed to creating a dynamic work environment that upholds our
leadership principles of: empowerment, equity, integrity, service,
and transparency.