About ChildFund
ChildFund is a child-focused international development organization that works in 23 countries to connect children with the people, resources and institutions they need to grow up healthy, educated, skilled and safe, no matter where they are.
ChildFund’s Values
We aspire for every person in our organization—program participants, supporters, staff alike—to feel free, safe, and confident to be themselves. In our culture of connection, you will have ample opportunity to grow, learn, and lead while contributing your talents and innovations to our inspiring mission.
ChildFund’s Commitment
ChildFund International has a zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEAH) and all other forms of harm by its staff, partners, and other representatives in the delivery of its mission and services for children. ChildFund is committed to creating a safe environment in the workplace as well as in the communities where it delivers programs and services. ChildFund expects every staff member, partner, and representative to adhere to this commitment and to ensure all organizational policies and standards are followed. This position is subject to a range of vetting checks, including a criminal records check and/or disclosure to ensure program participants are safeguarded.
About This Role
ChildFund International has an ambitious goal to double its grant revenue over the next five years. The Director of Foundations will play a key role in enabling ChildFund to grow revenue by expanding partnerships with large, professional foundations. This role blends external relationship building with internal collaborative leadership: building and executing a robust foundation engagement strategy, strengthening current donor engagement, expanding new donor strategies, and strengthening internal systems and capacity. The Director will leverage organizational strengths, global presence, and 85+ years of delivering impactful work for children to grow grant revenue for ChildFund.
The Director of Foundations is responsible for developing and executing a comprehensive strategy to identify, cultivate, and steward relationships with professional foundations to secure significant funding for ChildFund International. This role will drive engagement with foundation partners to advance ChildFund’s mission, ensuring alignment with donor interests and organizational priorities. The Director will collaborate across internal teams, including programming, policy, finance, M&E, grants, business development and communications, to develop
compelling proposals and impact reports. The Foundations Director will collaborate with the matrixed team of technical and Business Development professionals across the organization.
This is a full-time, fixed term position with funding through June 30, 2027. This is a remote position with preference for candidates located in the Washington, DC metro area.

Required Experience and Education

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in nonprofit management, international development, business administration, or a related field.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in foundation fundraising, grant writing, and donor relationship management within the nonprofit or international development sector.
• Proven track record of securing six- and seven-figure grants from professional foundations.

Primary Responsibilities
Key Responsibilities:
Strategic Leadership & Donor Engagement:

• Lead the development and implementation of ChildFund’s Foundations engagement strategy to raise new revenue, submit multiple invited proposals each year and expand our partnerships and revenue.
• Identify, cultivate, and manage strong relationships with foundation donors and partners, positioning ChildFund as a trusted and capable implementing agency.
• Represent ChildFund at donor meetings, industry events, and strategic forums to raise visibility and build long-term partnerships.
• Collaborate with senior leaders and technical experts across the organization to refine ChildFund’s value proposition and align offerings with donor trends and funding priorities.
• Work as part of a matrixed new business development team, to strategically cultivate and manage ChildFunds grant donor relationships around the world.

Relationship Management & Influencing:

• Develop and execute high-impact engagement strategies to strengthen ChildFund’s visibility and credibility among key foundation donors.
• Orchestrate and support thought leadership and advise senior leaders on participation in panels, working groups, and advisory committees relevant to foundation donors.
• Facilitate leadership in coalitions and partnerships with peer organizations, networks, and philanthropic collaboratives to enhance ChildFund’s influence in the funding landscape.
• Proactively monitor donor priorities and emerging philanthropy and social entrepreneurship trends, ensuring ChildFund is well-positioned to respond to emerging opportunities such as trust-based philanthropy, funding compacts, collaboratives, innovative financing models, impact investing, and participatory grantmaking.
• Act as a convener of various internal foundations account management teams.

Pipeline Development & Opportunity Management:

• Build and manage a dynamic, forward-looking pipeline of foundation and social enterprise funding opportunities aligned with ChildFund’s strategic priorities and capacities.
• Lead the full opportunity lifecycle—from donor intelligence gathering and pre-positioning to bid/no-bid decisions and final submissions.
• Coordinate closely on technical approaches, policy advocacy strategies, programmatic vision, and ensuring high-quality program design inputs for each opportunity.
• Guide the formation of competitive partnerships and consortia and manage partner negotiations during opportunity development.
• Ensure that proposals reflect ChildFund’s comparative advantage, core models, and donor requirements.

Matrix Team & Capacity Strengthening:

• Work in a matrix team alongside other donor leads such as the Institutional and Corporate Partnerships Director, Director of Grants, Director of USG New Business and with a global team of business development experts and technical specialists.
• Provide strategic oversight of the Foundation engagement function, including pursuit management, resource allocation, and internal business development systems.
• Ensure that proposal design and technical input are aligned with donor expectations and invitations to apply.
• Drive cross-organizational learning and capacity building by developing tools, templates, and guidance to improve readiness for complex bids.
• Champion internal change efforts to strengthen ChildFund’s business development culture, systems, and organizational effectiveness.

Collaboration & Internal Alignment:

• Collaborate closely with colleagues across the President’s Office, Global Impact Division, External Affairs and Partnerships, Fundraising & Engagement, Finance, HR, and Communications to ensure ChildFund is positioned to pursue and win priority funding opportunities.
• Facilitate collaboration between US, global, regional, and country-level teams to improve competitiveness, efficiency, and coherence in proposal development.
• Ensure business development efforts are aligned with ChildFund’s technical strengths, sponsorship commitment, and locally led solutions.
• Proactively lead and engage with executives and CEO to cultivate and drive long-term partnerships with donors.
• Ensure all fundraising activities comply with applicable laws and regulations.

Others:

• Remain alert and responsive to any child safeguarding risks, acquire relevant knowledge and skills that will enable you to promote strong safeguarding practices, understand the child safeguarding policy and procedures, and conduct yourself in a manner consistent with the Child Safeguarding Policy.
• Travel domestically and internationally, up to 25%.

Required Competencies
ChildFund’s Core Competencies

• Teamwork: the ability to work effectively and collaborate with others; values and respects individual differences.
• Communication: demonstrates empathy and tact when communicating with others and uses a storytelling approach when appropriate.
• Results orientation: gets things done; takes proactive steps to achieve organizational goals and quality standards.
• Decision making: uses good judgement, critical thinking, and non-traditional ways to evaluate problems and opportunities; reflects and innovates to improve decisions and outcomes.
• Resilience: thrives and grows in rapidly changing, demanding, and complex environments.
• Digital literacy: adopts and champions new technology to relevant contexts, stays aware of technological trends and embraces technological solutions to business challenges.

Other Required Competencies

• Strong knowledge of foundation fundraising trends, grant compliance, and impact reporting.
• Excellent interpersonal communication and negotiation skills with the ability to build and maintain relationships with diverse stakeholders.
• Experience working in a global nonprofit or international development organization is highly preferred.
• Ability to manage multiple projects, meet deadlines, and work collaboratively in a matrixed, technology-enabled environment.
• Proficiency in CRM systems and donor databases.
• Proficiency with Microsoft 365 applications.
• The ability to read, speak, and write fluently in English; fluency in another language (e.g., Spanish or French) is beneficial.
• Strong writing skills.
• Knowledge of technology for good partnerships is a plus.
• The ability to effectively articulate and champion the business need for change.
• Excellent strategic planning skills; anticipates obstacles and effectively allocates resources to projects in a matrixed setting.
• Curious and innovative mindset; an orientation towards design-thinking and a willingness to apply design-thinking concepts when innovating.