Director Of Partnerships Jobs in Chicago, IL

About Chicago Scholars

At Chicago Scholars we strive to prepare our Scholars for the world and the world for our Scholars. Our dual focus on Scholars and the world are both essential to our strategy. The first part of our work supports college acceptance, matriculation, persistence, and career access for our Scholars. The second part allows Scholars to go beyond surviving to thriving, from achieving to excelling, from attending and working to belonging and exceeding. The first part of our work allows entry, the second truly opens up opportunity and redistributes power. To achieve these goals we center diversity, equity, inclusion, accessibility, and racial justice so that we can launch and lift our Scholars and enable them to lead and leverage their power wherever they are on their journeys.

Chicago Scholars is transforming the leadership landscape of our city by resolving the fundamental barriers to success for academically driven, first generation college students from under-resourced communities. Through college counseling, mentoring, and by providing a supportive community to our Scholars through each phase of our program: College Access, College Success, and Career and Leadership Development, we ensure that they realize their full potential as students and leaders.

76% of Chicago Scholars graduate college within 6 years. Per the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research, only 49% of their peers earn a degree within 6 years. Upon graduation, our Scholars move into leadership positions across Chicago, helping to drive the economic future of their communities and our thriving city.

READI Commitment

At Chicago Scholars we strive to prepare our Scholars for the world and the world for our Scholars. Our dual focus on Scholars and the world are essential to our strategy. To achieve these goals, we center racial justice, equity, accessibility, diversity, and inclusion (READI) in all that we do.

Chicago Scholars’ commitment to READI encompasses all of our stakeholders—from our staff to our board, from our volunteers to our partnering organizations, and most importantly our Scholars. This holistic approach is necessary for the sustained, long-term, positive impact that we seek for our Scholars, our neighborhoods, our city, and our world.

At Chicago Scholars, we believe that education is social justice. That's why we're empowering Chicago's best and brightest first-generation college students and students from low-income communities with the mentors, resources, and opportunities to go to our nation's best colleges and universities, graduate on time, and become Chicago's next generation of leaders. Since 1996, we've impacted the lives of more than 5,000 young leaders in Chicago.

Our Values

These are a set of guiding principles that apply to all stakeholders within the Chicago Scholars ecosystem. We select and retain stakeholders based on these stated expectations for how we achieve our mission and vision. Each are supported with core competencies and narrative for the sake of clarity.

We Dream Big. We speak up, innovate, push the boundaries and keep the creativity flowing. We don’t accept the status quo because the stakes are too high. We have an incredible belief that growth and change is possible. While we dream big, we are laser focused on our intended goals and outcomes for our Scholars, our city and the world.

We Show Up. We show up every day; not just physically, but with a positive attitude and willingness to work, connect, challenge, engage, solve problems and have fun. We don’t wait for someone to tell us what to do. We take action and get the job done. If we don’t know how, we figure it out through our knowledge, exploration or our network.

We Embrace Our Differences. We represent a multicultural nation and our collective backgrounds, experiences, styles, values, perspectives and beliefs are an asset to the world. We recognize that together we achieve better outcomes more quickly. Justice and equity starts with us using our collective voice.

We Model the Way. We exhibit the behavior that we want to see in others and in the world. Titles are granted, but our behavior is what earns us respect. In order to model the way, we must be clear about our guiding principles, celebrate our accomplishments and learn from our challenges and failures.

We Care For Each Other. We adapt to the needs of the person in front of us. We pause, reflect and listen. We do our best work when we are in good relationship together. We care personally and challenge directly.

We Keep Our Word. When we commit, we are all in. Whether for events, a Scholar, a peer or ourselves. Our words are as powerful as our actions and are the building block of trust, respect, self-worth and integrity.

Position Summary

The Associate Director of Partnerships & Community Engagement develops and manages strategic community relationships that generate resources, opportunities, and long-term value for Chicago Scholars and the Scholars we serve.

Reporting to the Managing Director of Partnerships, this role manages relationships with community-based organizations, nonprofits, advocacy groups, civic and government leaders, coalitions, and other mission-aligned stakeholders. The Associate Director identifies opportunities to translate these relationships into funding, in-kind resources, referrals, collaborative programming, volunteer engagement, advocacy, increased visibility, and expanded opportunities for Scholars.

The Associate Director also strengthens the infrastructure behind Chicago Scholars' partnerships by managing partnership reporting, stewardship systems, agreements and renewals, relationship intelligence, and cross-functional partnership projects.

Key Responsibilities

Community Partnerships & Strategic Growth: 40%

• Build, manage, and grow a portfolio of community, nonprofit, philanthropic, civic, government, and other mission-aligned partners and prospects.
• Identify and cultivate partnerships that generate funding, in-kind resources, referrals, programming, expertise, advocacy, visibility, and opportunities for Scholars.
• Develop customized engagement and stewardship strategies that deepen priority relationships and increase organizational value over time.
• Maintain an active prospective-partner pipeline and conduct research, outreach, discovery conversations, and qualification.
• Develop partnership concepts, proposals, presentations, value propositions, and engagement plans in collaboration with internal stakeholders.
• Collaborate with Development colleagues on aligned funding opportunities, donor cultivation, sponsorship strategies, and proposals.
• Segment and assess the partnership portfolio based on mission alignment, Scholar impact, strategic value, engagement, relationship health, and growth potential.
• Recommend when partnerships should be deepened, maintained, reimagined, transitioned, or concluded.

Partnership Operations, Data & Reporting: 20%

• Maintain accurate and accessible partnership information, including relationship history, commitments, contacts, opportunities, and next steps.
• Partner with Data and Development teams to establish and improve partnership data standards and processes.
• Develop dashboards and reports that provide visibility into partnership engagement, retention, agreements, renewals, opportunities, risks, and relationship health.
• Translate partnership data into actionable insights and recommendations for the Managing Director and organizational leaders.
• Support consistent adoption of partnership processes and documentation across relationship owners.

MOU & Renewal Management: 15%

• Manage partnership agreement and MOU workflows from development and internal review through signature, storage, CRM documentation, and renewal.
• Manage the administrative infrastructure for College Partner agreements while the Managing Director retains strategic relationship ownership.
• Maintain agreement and renewal tracking and proactively flag upcoming renewals, outstanding commitments, risks, and needed decisions.
• Coordinate effective documentation and handoffs across Partnerships, Development, Finance, Operations, and Program teams.
• Strengthen systems that support timely, complete, and well-documented partnership agreements.

Community Engagement & External Representation: 15%

• Represent Chicago Scholars at community events, coalitions, convenings, conferences, public meetings, and other relationship-building opportunities.
• Build relationships across Chicago's nonprofit, education, civic, workforce, government, and philanthropic communities.
• Increase awareness of Chicago Scholars' mission, Scholars, alumni, programs, impact, and partnership opportunities.
• Identify opportunities for Chicago Scholars to serve as a connector, collaborator, and convener within Chicago.
• Partner with Marketing and Communications to elevate partnership impact, community relationships, and organizational expertise.

Cross-Functional Project Management: 10%

• Translate partnership priorities into clear project plans, responsibilities, timelines, deliverables, and follow-through.
• Lead cross-functional partnership projects involving internal teams and external stakeholders.
• Plan and lead the annual Ticket to the Future event celebrating partnership and scholarship recipients.
• Lead Leadership Hub operations at Chicago Scholars' signature annual event.
• Facilitate portfolio, pipeline, agreement, and renewal reviews and track decisions through Chicago Scholars' project-management systems.
• Coordinate handoffs across relevant teams, surface risks early, and recommend practical solutions.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
• Five to seven years of progressive experience in partnerships, community engagement, external affairs, business development, nonprofit leadership, institutional advancement, government relations, higher education, or a related area.
• Ability to participate in occasional evening or weekend events.
• Ability to meet Chicago Scholars’ location and residency expectations.

Core Competencies

• Demonstrated success managing external relationships, particularly community, civic, coalition, government, or nonprofit partnerships.
• Experience leading complex projects with internal and external stakeholders and providing project leadership or coaching without formal supervisory authority.
• Experience developing or improving portfolios, functions, systems, workflows, operating models, and documentation practices, including administering MOUs or institutional partnership agreements.
• Experience using Salesforce or another CRM to maintain records, develop dashboards, pipeline reports, engagement metrics, and portfolio reviews, and translate information into actionable insights and recommendations.
• Strong written, verbal, facilitation, and presentation skills, with the ability to represent Chicago Scholars professionally in community, civic, partner, and executive settings.
• Experience identifying, cultivating, supporting, or generating revenue through partnerships, fundraising, sponsorships, or business development.
• Excellent judgment and attention to detail.
• Knowledge of Chicago’s nonprofit, civic, community, education, workforce, government, or philanthropic landscape, or the ability to develop that knowledge rapidly; established relationships across Chicago preferred.
• Experience in college access, economic mobility, education, career development, workforce development, or youth-serving organizations.