Manager, Advocacy & Public Partnerships – DonorsChoose

DonorsChoose engages the public in public schools by giving people a simple, accountable, and personal way to address educational inequity. In this clip, board member Stephen Colbert tells our story.

To date, teachers at 83% of all the public schools in America have posted classroom project requests on our site. Projects range from paper and markers for a poetry writing unit to violins for a school recital. More than 4 million “citizen philanthropists” have supported such projects, channeling books, field trips, technology, and other resources to more than 40 million students nationwide. In all, we’ve generated $1 billion for learning experiences designed by our country’s most dedicated public school teachers.

GOOD Magazine highlighted us as one of 30 Places We Want to Work, while Fast Company named DonorsChoose one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World—the first time a charity has made this list. Through its dedicated team and culture, DonorsChoose earned recognition as the #1 “Best Nonprofit to Work For” by the Nonprofit Times.

Team Overview

Teachers at more than 85% of all the public schools in the U.S. have created classroom project requests on DonorsChoose. The Advocacy and Public Partnerships Team works to establish deep and mutually beneficial relationships with school districts and state departments of education across the country. We’re a close-knit, collaborative group, working to ensure that district administrators and state leaders have the information they need to help teachers secure classroom resources through DonorsChoose.

Position Overview 

The Manager, Advocacy & Public Partnerships will manage the structures and processes that drive our district and state relationships and scale our partnerships, as well as interface directly with state and school district administrators and external parties, as follows:

Manage processes:

• Improve operational management systems, processes and best practices
• Develop pitch materials for garnering school district participation in the District Partnership Program
• Work with our Salesforce administrator, and create systems to support the development of documentation, tools, and systems to scalably manage our district and state partnership pipelines
• Manage how we leverage Business Intelligence data for our team’s internal use, and for sharing data insights with district and state partners externally
• Facilitate the tracking and communication of district and state trends to help inform our team’s partnership strategies
• Create and help execute email strategy for regular, relevant, and personalized communications with school districts and states
• Represent school district and state stakeholders in collaborations with teams across DonorsChoose
• Manage a part-time coordinator and the processes that drive their work

Build relationships:

• Support the growth and participation in our District Program Program, from inviting new districts to join to engaging our existing districts
• Work with national education associations with K-12 district administrator members
• Engage with government leaders

This position is right for you if:

• You’re committed to our mission to support public school teachers and students, and energized by sharing that passion with others. You’re eager to drive racial equity in education and have comfort speaking about race personally and/or professionally
• You have a passion for building relationships and people note your strengths in communication and collaboration
• You’re a strategic planner and proven project manager who can zoom in and out in a matter of seconds
• You’re highly technical, comfortable learning a new technology quickly (we use Looker, Simon Data, and the Salesforce, to name a few)
• You love designing experiments and have a proven track record of learning and iterating quickly to drive results
• You’re autonomous, able to organize and prioritize multiple projects and deadlines with minimal oversight
• You enjoy working in a fast paced environment
• You have 3-6 years of work experience in an operational or relationship-building role

Compensation and Benefits

Compensation for this role is competitive with equivalent roles at other nonprofits of our size. In addition, we offer full-time staff 25 paid vacation days per year and 11 paid holidays, a rich employer-paid individual and family health plan, a matching 401(k) plan (up to 5% of base salary), annual professional development stipend, and casual and flexible work environment. To learn more about what it is like to work for DonorsChoose, visit our careers page.

Hybrid Workplace and Other Details

In this role, you’ll have the option to work a flexible hybrid schedule in our NYC office, or to work fully remotely from CA, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OR, PA, TX, or WI.

DonorsChoose is a fully vaccinated workplace and all new employees, regardless of their work location, will be asked to share proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 within two weeks of their hire date or request an exemption from this policy due to a disability or sincerely held religious belief or practice.

To Apply

Apply online by submitting your resume and answering the application questions. A cover letter is optional and may be addressed to Jinan O’Connor, VP, Advocacy & Public Partnerships.

A Final Note

The DonorsChoose team works toward a nation where students in every community have the resources needed for an excellent education. To do this we hire and support a diverse team of the best and the brightest talent available.

We are an organization increasingly representative of the varied races and ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations, religious and political beliefs, and abilities that comprise our nation. DonorsChoose focuses on attracting, retaining, and advancing diverse talent because it makes us more effective, high-performing, creative, and resilient.

If you are passionate about our mission, highly skilled in your field, and looking for a place where you can bring all of yourself to work, we want you.