Senior Director, Partner Strategy and Development

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Position Title: Senior Director, Partner Strategy and Development

Reporting to: Senior Director of Strategy, Finance, and Operations

Location: Bentonville, AR

Salary Range: $150K-$225K

Art Bridges Foundation is the vision of philanthropist and arts patron Alice Walton. The mission of Art Bridges is to expand access to American art in all regions across the nation. Since 2017, Art Bridges has been creating and supporting programs that bring outstanding works of American art out of storage and into communities. Art Bridges partners with a growing network of nearly 220 museums of all sizes and locations to provide financial and strategic support for exhibition development, loans from the Art Bridges Collection, and programs designed to educate, inspire, and deepen engagement with local audiences. The Art Bridges Collection represents an expanding vision of American art from the 19th century to present day and encompasses multiple media and voices.

The Senior Director of Partner Strategy Development will join a dynamic and growing team who are focused on serving Art Bridges partner institutions across the country. This role will report to the Senior Director of Strategy, Operations, and Finance and work closely with the CEO and other senior staff to develop and implement plans for museum partnership growth consistent with Art Bridges strategic vision. The Senior Director will lead and help build a new functional department tasked with expanding organizational awareness, pipeline tracking, prospecting, and overall fueling museum partner growth. The successful candidate will be a strategic thinker who can proactively foresee potential roadblocks, design and maintain efficient workflows, and support the team in outreach activities.

• Develop, implement, and monitor a comprehensive museum partnership growth plan to expand our impact and philanthropic efforts.
• Collaborate with Senior Director of Partner Engagement, leadership team, and other cross-functional team members across the organization to support museum partnership growth and ensure collaboration.
• Building on the strong foundation of existing custom Salesforce instance, develop and maintain automated systems for lead generation and museum partner stewardship in collaboration with the Senior Director of Partnership Engagement and Marketing team.
• Build awardee/museum partner journey maps though data analysis, workflow design, and metric driven accountability.
• Identify and strengthen relationships with key stakeholders, actively pursue and manage new leads, and foster strong museum partner stewardship.
• Establish and evolve museum partnership strategies and workflows in support of building a more collaborative, impactful, and data-driven organization.
• Work closely with the internal and external technology teams to expand and evolve CRM and other tech stack adoption, reporting, and workflows.
• Directly supervise the Partner Museum Relations and Development Manager.
• 10%+ travel including weekend overnights, otherwise based in Bentonville Arkansas.

• Experience in a museum and/or nonprofit related setting.
• Eagerness to join a new and growing organization and the dynamism that involves.
• Ability and interest in working with people from diverse backgrounds including age, race, ethnicity, gender identity, and lived experiences.
• Positive attitude, collaborative spirit, and sense of humor.
• High degrees of initiative and discretion.
• Tech savvy with familiarity across platforms such as Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Salesforce, Slack, and others.

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in relevant field.
• 15+ years’ experience in philanthropy, fundraising/prospecting, and/or business development.
• Significant experience in systems development.
• Excellent project management and structured thinking skills.
• Supervisory experience of teams with 5+ direct reports.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Attention to detail with a high degree of accuracy.
• Strong organizational skills that reflect the ability to perform and prioritize multiple tasks seamlessly with excellent attention to detail.
• Highly resourceful team-player, solution-oriented, and comfortable operating with incomplete information.

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Physical demands: This position requires using a computer and telephone for prolonged periods of time, good eye/hand coordination, verbal and written conversation with others, and lifting/carrying up to 30-40lbs. Vision abilities required of the job include close vision.

Work environment: Work will be performed in an office environment full-time (Monday-Friday, 8am-5pm.) The noise level in the work environment is usually low to moderate.

At Art Bridges, diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion are central to all work and decisions made within our organization. We support our colleagues and partners in learning and growing together to make this important work part of our daily lives.

Art Bridges is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to building and maintaining a culturally diverse workplace that is free of discrimination and harassment of any kind. We encourage all qualified applicants including women, minorities, individuals with disabilities, and veterans to apply. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, veteran status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate.

All offers of employment are contingent on your successful completion (where permitted by state law) of a confidentiality agreement, background check, and verification of being fully vaccinated for COVID-19. In addition, you will need to provide proper identification verifying your eligibility to work in the United States on your first day of work.