Title: Institutional Giving Manager
Reports To: VP of Development
Classification: Full-Time (Exempt)
Salary Range: $60,000 - $70,000
La Casa Norte’s mission is to empower youth and families facing homelessness with the tools to achieve lasting independence and stability.
Position Summary
Reporting to the Vice President of Development, the Institutional Giving Manager leads La Casa Norte’s institutional fundraising efforts by managing a diverse portfolio of foundation and corporate grants and supporting the development of government grant applications. The position is responsible for identifying funding opportunities, developing compelling proposals and reports, stewarding institutional funders, and collaborating across departments to secure and sustain philanthropic support.
The Institutional Giving Manager serves as La Casa Norte’s primary grant writer for foundation and corporate funding and works closely with program, finance, development, and executive leadership to communicate organizational impact, ensure compliance with funding requirements, and strengthen institutional partnerships. The position also supports the narrative development of government grant applications and supervises a part-time contractual grant writer.
A central expectation of this role is to strengthen the systems, knowledge resources, and AI-supported workflows La Casa Norte uses to pursue and manage institutional funding. The Institutional Giving Manager will use approved artificial intelligence, automation, and other digital tools and will help train, test, supervise, and continuously improve AI agents supporting grant research, proposal development, reporting, and administration.
The Institutional Giving Manager remains accountable for professional judgment and for the accuracy, quality, confidentiality, and final approval of all work products, including those developed with AI assistance.
This is a full-time, exempt position working Monday through Friday, with occasional evening and weekend responsibilities.
Principal job responsibilities:
Institutional Fundraising
- Manage La Casa Norte’s portfolio of foundation and corporate grants in support of the organization’s strategic plan and annual fundraising goals.
- Manage La Casa Norte's portfolio of foundation and corporate grants to support the organization's strategic priorities and annual fundraising goals by identifying, researching, qualifying, and pursuing funding opportunities.
- Identify, research, qualify, and prioritize foundation and corporate funding opportunities while supporting organizational leadership in identifying appropriate government funding opportunities.
- Develop compelling grant proposals, letters of inquiry, concept papers, reports, and other funder communications that clearly convey La Casa Norte’s programs, outcomes, and impact.
- Coordinate proposal development with program, finance, development, and executive leadership, including narrative content and supporting documentation for government grant applications.
- Maintain a comprehensive grants calendar and ensure the timely submission of proposals, reports, renewals, and other grant-related deliverables.
- Ensure compliance with grant requirements, funding guidelines, reporting obligations, and internal approval processes.
- Maintain accurate grant records, correspondence, application materials, reports, and supporting documentation in Raiser’s Edge NXT and other approved systems.
Grant Administration, Data, and Evaluation
- Partner with program leadership to collect, review, and interpret program outcomes, evaluation measures, service data, and client-impact information for proposals and reports.
- Collaborate with the Finance Department to prepare grant budgets, financial reports, revenue projections, and other required financial documentation.
- Monitor grant expenditures and collaborate with finance and program leadership to support alignment with approved budgets, funding restrictions, and grant commitments.
- Partner with program and organizational leadership to define measurable outcomes, benchmarks, and evaluation approaches for existing and proposed programs.
- Maintain systems for tracking grant deadlines, deliverables, outcomes, funder communications, pipeline activity, revenue projections, and funding risks.
- Prepare internal reports for leadership regarding institutional fundraising performance, funding trends, upcoming opportunities, and potential challenges.
AI-Enabled Grant Operations
- Leverage approved AI, automation, and digital tools to support institutional fundraising activities, including prospect research, grant proposal development, reporting, data analysis, deadline tracking, and knowledge management.
- Work with AI tools and agents by providing clear instructions, examples, and feedback, while reviewing and validating AI-generated research, drafts, summaries, and recommendations to ensure accuracy, quality, reliability, and alignment with La Casa Norte's mission and funding priorities.
- Identify and implement opportunities to streamline grant processes through responsible automation, documenting effective workflows, prompts, and best practices while maintaining appropriate human oversight, professional judgment, and internal approvals.
- Ensure responsible and compliant use of AI technologies by adhering to organizational policies related to confidentiality, data privacy, information security, and ethical AI use, and promptly identifying and reporting potential risks or concerns.
Team Leadership
- Supervise and coordinate the work of the part-time contractual grant writer, including assigning projects, setting expectations, reviewing work products, providing feedback, and monitoring deadlines.
- Develop and maintain an organized institutional fundraising knowledge base, including grant templates, funder profiles, program descriptions, organizational language, outcomes, proposal examples, and writing resources.
- Collaborate with program, finance, development, and executive leadership to ensure grant-related information and source materials remain accurate and current.
- Support staff in understanding grant-development requirements, documentation needs, and approved AI-supported fundraising processes.
Funder Relations and Stewardship
- Build and maintain strong relationships with foundation, corporate, and government funders, prospective funding partners, and community stakeholders.
- Coordinate funder meetings, site visits, presentations, and stewardship activities, including preparing participating staff with relevant background information and talking points.
- Represent La Casa Norte as an organizational ambassador at funder meetings, community events, conferences, networking opportunities, and other external engagements.
- Monitor philanthropic trends, government funding developments, and funder priorities to identify new opportunities and strengthen long-term institutional partnerships.
Education and experience Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree preferred.
- Minimum of five (5) years of experience in institutional fundraising, grant writing, or nonprofit development.
- Demonstrated success securing foundation and corporate grants.
- Experience collaborating on government grant applications preferred.
- Experience managing multiple concurrent deadlines and complex grant portfolios.
Skills and Qualifications:
- Exceptional writing, editing, and verbal communication skills.
- Strong relationship-building and interpersonal skills.
- Excellent project management and organizational abilities with exceptional attention to detail.
- Ability to analyze program data and translate outcomes into compelling funding narratives.
- Ability and willingness to learn and effectively use AI, automation, and emerging technology to improve institutional fundraising operations.
- Experience developing grant budgets in collaboration with finance staff.
- Experience with Raiser's Edge NXT or comparable donor database preferred.
- Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively across departments.
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities and consistently meet deadlines.
- Previous experience working in multicultural environments and collaborating with community-based organizations.
- Commitment to equity, inclusion, and serving diverse communities.
In addition to the responsibilities listed above, all La Casa Norte employees are responsible for contributing to the overall success of La Casa Norte by:
- Attending monthly staff meetings.
- Participating in on- and off-site staff trainings and workshops as needed
- Participating in La Casa Norte’s fundraising events.
- Performing other duties as needed.
Compensation and Benefits Package Includes:
- Paid Time Off: 14 vacation days per year.
- Personal Days: 7 personal days per year (may be carried over into the following year but must be used by December 31 of that year).
- Holidays: 10 paid holidays annually.
- Sick Leave: 6 sick days per year (up to 20 hours of unused sick time may be carried over year to year).
- Health Insurance: Medical coverage through Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (HMO or PPO options available).
- Dental and Vision Insurance: Comprehensive coverage options available.
- Retirement Savings: 403(b) retirement savings plan.
- Life Insurance: $25,000 in basic term life insurance (provided at no cost to the employee).
- Disability Insurance: Long-term disability insurance (provided at no cost to the employee).
- Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA): Options for pre-tax savings on eligible healthcare, transit, and dependent care expenses.
- Employee Assistance Program (EAP): Confidential support and resources for employees.
Supervisory and Non-Union Classification Justification:
This position is classified as Non-Union based on the following exemptions under applicable labor law:
- Managerial Exclusion: The Programs Manager has hiring, supervision, evaluation, and discipline authority over multiple staff roles and provides strategic direction in operational planning.
- Supervisory Exclusion: The position includes direct supervision of staff and vendors, assignment of work, and oversight of work quality and performance.
- Confidentiality Exclusion: The Programs Manager has access to sensitive personnel, financial, and vendor information, including emergency preparedness plans and contract negotiations, which require discretion and confidentiality in decision-making.
La Casa Norte is an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, national origin, pregnancy or related conditions, or disability. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to communicate effectively, sit for long periods of time, reach, move about the office, lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.
La Casa Norte will consider requests or exceptions based on legally protected religious observances, as reasonable accommodations to an employee’s disability, or as otherwise required by law.
