About ProLiteracy
Working for more than 60 years, ProLiteracy has become the worlds’ leader in adult education practice, innovating and building the capacity of literacy programs everywhere– from small community-based organizations to large adult education programs and institutions. By providing comprehensive training and professional learning, accessible research, grant funding, and leading-edge digital and print learning resources through New Readers Press, we advocate for and unleash the power of literacy to transform lives.
Making America’s communities stronger through the advancement of adult literacy, ProLiteracy provides the best literacy resources to support programs across the US. With 59 million adults unable to read at a functioning level, low literacy burdens every community in the US with lower wages, lost taxes, higher health care costs, and increased incarceration rates. Our leading resources, materials, and grant opportunities give adult literacy programs in all 50 states the ability to create change. As a respected voice in the field, our influence on local, state, and national policymakers helps raise awareness and increase funding for adult literacy.
Globally, 780 million people cannot read. We work with partners in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to increase literacy everywhere. Through innovative instruction, we promote fundamental literacy skills, critical thinking, cultural expression, and learner-initiated action in the context of solving local economic, human rights, health, and environmental issues. We work with 32 partners around the world to develop teacher training and literacy lessons contextualized to the needs of the community. By educating communities, we are able to create sustainable solutions to some of the most serious social and economic problems facing our world.
To make that vision a reality:
- Since launching ProLiteracy’s one-on-one digital tutor-training program, ProLiteracy has been able to onboard 10,000+ users.
- We advocate for awareness, funding, and support to increase access to educational resources for adults who want/need to improve their literacy.
- We provide professional development to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of adult literacy programs.
- Our digital resource center features over 1,000 instructional tools and trainings, and their national voice guides advocacy efforts, helping thousands of adult literacy providers advance their missions and serve more adults in their communities.
- We utilize a self-sustaining model that includes significant earned revenue from publishing and membership fees, allowing the organization to maximize the impact of philanthropy.
ProLiteracy is proud to be a member of the newly established Adult Literacy and Learning Impact Network, or ALL IN. ALL IN was created as a collective effort of highly regarded representatives of the adult literacy, corporate, and philanthropic sectors who will work to implement the National Action Plan for Adult Literacy, which was conceived by the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. The goal of the ALL IN initiative is to ensure any adult struggling with literacy has unrestricted access to high-quality and effective support to improve their reading, writing, and numeracy skills.
Improving the literacy levels of the 59 million of Americans who cannot read above a third-grade level would have profound social impacts that would ripple through future generations and communities in the form of higher literacy rates, upward job mobility, increased income, and better health outcomes.
Learn more about ProLiteracy at https://www.proliteracy.org/. Read their annual report here.
The Opportunity
Serving as a key strategic partner to the Vice President of Development, the Sr. Principal Partnerships Officer will focus primarily on prospecting and expanding the donor base for ProLiteracy. This is a key role during a time of growth for the organization where the successful candidate will be expected to identify, cultivate, and solicit new funders. This is an exciting opportunity to work collaboratively with a talented and engaged team to activate a national and global audience.
The Sr. Officer will be a well-versed and flexible fundraiser with an entrepreneurial spirit. They will offer a proven track record of proactively prospecting and securing gifts, with a particular focus on high-capacity partners, investors, corporations, and foundations. They will lead their own fundraising efforts, building and executing a pipeline for new revenue streams, and ultimately growing ProLiteracy's impact.
Fundraising responsibilities include but are not limited to:
- Create a strategic plan to identify and aggressively pursue new donors, with a primary focus on foundations and corporations and gifts of $10K and greater.
- Prospecting with the purpose of developing new and sustainable corporate and foundation pipelines.
- Serve as a dynamic external representative for the organization with partners, funders, donors, and others.
- Respond to inquiries and communicate with donors, advisory organization members, and staff.
- Travel as needed to meet with potential donors throughout the United States.
- Ensure ProLiteracy’s brand is upheld and remains in good standing in all business practices and communications adhering to ProLiteracy’s goals and values.
- Report monthly on status of goals set for renewal and new business.
ProLiteracy’s headquarters is based in Syracuse, New York. We are open to remote candidates with the ability to travel.
Candidate Profile
The ideal candidate will have the following professional and personal qualities, skills, and characteristics:
- Entrepreneurial self-starter with a proven ability to self-motivate to reach ambitious goals in a high-growth environment.
- Demonstrated ability to build a portfolio of donors through active research and prospecting.
- A proven track record of delivering philanthropic growth for a mission-based organization.
- Demonstrated success with aligning organizational needs with funder interests and executing strategic innovative fundraising plans to grow philanthropy and exceed goals.
- Strong relationship-building skills with an ability to leverage own networks to broaden ProLiteracy’s base of support.
- The ability to use data to drive results, inform decision making, and build revenue plans for short-term and long-term strategic growth within their portfolio.
- Significant experience with CRM software applications (Salesforce a plus). Ability to maintain accurate and up-to-date donor records (Salesforce, DonorPerfect, or any CRM).
- Innovative strategic thinking and problem-solving skills with the ability to plan and implement in a demanding, fast-paced, ever-changing environment.
- Experience performing fundraising, marketing, and/or sales work is required, with major gift, corporate, or foundation relations fundraising experience preferred.
- Ability to research, solicit, and secure funds from corporations, foundations, and government agencies.
- Experience developing relationships with the expressed purpose of causing a prescribed actionable outcome.
- Ability to navigate geographically diverse philanthropic markets.
- Strong communication skills, including written, public-speaking, and presentation skills.
- Ability and willingness to travel as needed to meet with prospects, donors, and others who are positioned to help advance the organization, to manage the lifecycle of the gift.
- Preference for 7 to 12 years of direct or combined relevant experience in philanthropy and/or sales.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. The salary range for this role is $85,000 - $100,000 with a generous benefits package. The exact salary that will be offered to the Sr. Principal Partnerships Officer will be determined based on a consideration of the successful candidate’s skills, experience, and geography and aligned with ProLiteracy’s compensation policies.
Contact
Koya Partners l Diversified Search Group has been exclusively retained for this engagement, which is being led by Erin Reedy and Shannon O’Neill. Submit a compelling cover letter and resume by filling out our Talent Profile. All inquiries are strictly confidential.
ProLiteracy believes every adult has the right to literacy. Our mission is to help adults gain reading, writing, math, and digital skills, with the intent of giving them the power to impact major social issues and change the world around them. We believe education leads to equal opportunities, liberties, and protection under the law, and that we must stand up against bigotry, racism, and hatred. ProLiteracy is an equal opportunity employer and strongly encourages applications from people of color, persons with disabilities, women, and LGBTQ+ applicants.