Vice President, National Foundation Partnerships
Teach for America
ROLE TITLE: VP, National Foundation Partnerships (NFP)
POSITION REPORTS TO: Chief Revenue and Development Officer
PRIORITY APPLICATION DEADLINE: Thursday, July 17, 2025
LOCATION: Flexible/Remote
WHAT YOU’LL DO
The VP, National Foundation Partnerships is responsible for maximizing the partnership and philanthropic contributions of private institutional foundation donors in order to ensure financial sustainability of the enterprise and to accelerate Teach For America’s progress toward our 10-year goal: By 2030, twice as many children in communities where we work will achieve key educational milestones indicating they are on a path to economic mobility and co-creating a future filled with possibility.
In this role, you would manage a team of 5-7 people, leading the strategy for enterprise-level foundation partnerships. The current annual development goal for this team ranges between $18-20M. This requires the cultivation and stewardship of many of the largest philanthropic foundations across the country, working to engage and grow their investment in K-12 educational excellence. It requires constant learning and knowledge of the programmatic continuum at Teach For America and strong relationships with Teach For America’s local EDs, programmatic teams and enterprise executive leaders (including working directly with our CEO), to communicate and represent our work in a sophisticated and inspiring manner. Finally, the National Foundation Partnerships team works in deep partnership across the full development team (colleagues leading both national and local portfolios) to ensure collective and collaborative development efforts across our enterprise. This role will also serve as a senior leader in continuing to evolve and advance development team culture, strategy, operations and structure to position us to continue to raise 250-300M annually as an enterprise.
WHAT YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR
Teach For America is seeking an exceptional leader to create the vision, develop the team, and build the relationships that will fuel a powerful network of private foundation donors who support our mission of educational excellence. The successful candidate will be a strong partner, connector and mobilizer of ideas, people, and resources to ensure Teach For America has the partnerships that enable it to carry out its work and meet its ambitious goals.
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Setting the vision, direction, and strategy for Teach For America to maximize contributions from private foundations, their principals, and their program staff
Develop overarching team vision and strategy that identifies and responds to trends in the philanthropic field, internal challenges and opportunities, and charts a multi-year course for strong fundraising outcomes and sustainability
Lead TFA’s national foundations team’s efforts to innovate, develop and execute tactics that ensure we continue to expand base of foundation supporters and secure enterprise-wide foundation fundraising revenue
Alongside peers, co-develop, co-lead and support the implementation of TFA’s enterprise-wide development strategy
Stays current with developments in philanthropy, K-12 education, and the movement for educational excellence
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Managing people and processes for success
Achieve foundation team revenue goals through leading, managing, and supporting the growth of direct reports in attaining their portfolio revenue goals
Manage and coaching the national foundations team, supporting them as they build and execute upon their portfolio strategies to ensure we hit our revenue targets
Create and ensure the smooth adoption of team systems, processes, and KPIs in the interest of accountability and efficiency
Build and develop an intentionally diverse, equitable, and inclusive NFP team
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Building exceptionally strong, collaborative, high-stakes relationships
Serve as the primary strategist and serve as one of the external relationship managers for high-stakes donors
Foster strong relationships across the organization that contribute to strong donor-centered strategies and enterprise-focused development mindsets and skills across the organization
Partner closely with senior program and regional leaders across TFA (including our CEO) to 1) deeply understand TFA’s program strategy and operations; 2) enlist leaders’ support and gain buy-in; 3) help influence/advance key development initiatives; 4) support effective donor engagements with staff at all levels and functions across the organization; and 5) provide thought leadership and expertise to support program staff as development partners, as needed.
Build strong networks within the education and philanthropic sectors, leveraging relationships with foundation program officers, regional and national board members and other key influencers and stakeholders to optimize results
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Serving as a leader on the development team and across the organization
Actively participate in special projects (e.g., 35th Anniversary Planning, Campaign Development etc.)
Serve as an active member of development leadership bodies
Support the development of TFA programmatic strategy through sharing key donor insights and leveraging strong donor relationships
Serving as a key external ambassador for the work, mission, and values of Teach For America
A WEEK IN THE LIFE
Over the course of any week, the VP, NFP will spend time:
Working with other senior leaders at the organization to develop, refine, and execute TFA’s enterprise-wide development strategy
Managing and coaching your team to build and execute strategy to ensure we hit our revenue targets
Building and stewarding external relationships with high-stakes donors
Contributing to decision making and enterprise-wide projects as a senior leader on the development team
YOUR EXPERIENCE
Your areas of knowledge and expertise that matter most for this role (minimum qualifications):
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Analytical and technical skills
Exceptional strategic thinking skills
Uses rigorous logic, data, and prior knowledge to perform analyses, identify key trends, develop insightful conclusions, and systematically identify and prioritize work
Thrives in a goal-oriented environment
Able to analyze and break down problems, defining ways forward and investing others in a solution
Demonstrates orientation toward continuous improvement of team operations
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills
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Relational, adaptive, and management skills
Deep commitment to Teach For America’s mission and core values
Adept listener and relationship builder with ability to understand the needs and motivations of others, find common ground and build trust
Stellar ability to lead and manage teams
Knowledge of and ongoing curiosity about educational equity and philanthropy
Understanding of how power and influence flow, and ability to harness them
Ability to build and leverage networks to achieve outcomes
Growth mindset, flexibility, optimism, and sense of possibility
Thrives on leveraging the strengths of divergent perspectives
At least 10+ years of professional experience, including 5+ years of fundraising/partnership/account management experience with a strong record of results
Experience working with senior leaders - internally and externally
Prior management experience required
Knowledge of MS office required, experience with Salesforce a plus
BONUS (preferred qualifications)
Experience with Salesforce
A Bachelor’s degree is great to have, but we are more interested in your total experience and achievements throughout your professional career
YOUR FUTURE TEAM
The Development team builds and strengthens Teach For America’s philanthropic partnerships. Our team inspires donors to invest in the future of our country by investing in TFA’s work with students nationally and regionally. We help educate staff in the knowledge and practices of fundraisers. Our team is responsible for ensuring that our fundraising infrastructure supports and sustains TFA’s ambitious short- and long-term mission.
YOUR COMPENSATION
The applicable salary range for each U.S.-based role is based on where the employee works and is aligned to one of 3 tiers according to a cost of labor index in that geographic area. Starting pay for the successful applicant will depend on a variety of job-related factors, which may include education, training, experience, location, business needs, or market demands. New hires are typically brought into the organization at a salary between the range minimum and the salary range midpoint depending on qualifications, internal equity, and the budgeted amount for the role. The expected salary ranges for this role are set forth below. These ranges may be modified in the future.
Tier A: 130,000 - $167,600
Tier B: $141,700 - $182,700
Tier C: $153,400 - $197,800
You can view which tier applies to where you plan to work here.