About Evergreen
Evergreen Climate Innovations delivers positive climate impact and inclusive opportunity by helping high-potential climate tech startups and innovators from the Greater Midwest region succeed. Since 2010 we’ve been providing catalytic capital and venture development support to climate entrepreneurs while cultivating a thriving ecosystem in the Greater Midwest that is composed of investors, corporate partners, donors, and collaborators.
As a nonprofit that invests philanthropic capital, Evergreen can take on more risk, be more patient, and engage more deeply over longer periods of time than our for-profit peers. Combined with startup support and ecosystem programming, we foster the scale and success of climate entrepreneurs in the Greater Midwest. This success begets more success, attracting more capital, talent, and resources to the region in support of climate innovation.
The Opportunity
Partnerships with philanthropic donors, private and corporate foundations, and government agencies are critical to our work and that of the broader innovation ecosystem. These partnerships ensure that Evergreen has the financial resources to execute on our mission.
To further strengthen our network, Evergreen is recruiting a Strategic Partnerships Associate. Reporting to Evergreen’s Director of Strategic Partnerships (DSP) and working closely with the CEO, this role will support all aspects of Evergreen’s fundraising. As outlined below, this will include: managing relationships with existing partners, preparing and submitting proposals, supporting solicitations of individuals and corporations for philanthropic contributions, planning and executing engagement activities, and supporting other stakeholder engagement events and initiatives.
Key Responsibilities
- Relationship Management – Support stewardship of funder relationships through consistent communication and active engagement; research and identify new prospect relationships.
- Stakeholder Engagement – Collaborate on event promotions, planning, logistics, and implementation to ensure stakeholder engagement; monitor individual outreach to high-priority guests.
- Content Creation – Create engaging content that’s guided by Evergreen’s content strategy, aligned with communications plans, and tailored to various donor and stakeholder audiences (examples include Impact Report, grant proposals, email appeals).
- Database Management – Own data maintenance and hygiene efforts; regularly update stakeholder information; maintain audience segmentation within existing CRM.
- Grant & Donation Processing – Document and track philanthropic and corporate pledges; process incoming contributions and outgoing acknowledgements; support ongoing gift and grant reporting requirements.
- Executive Support – Support CEO fundraising and stakeholder engagement activities.
Candidate Profile
The ideal candidate will:
- Have a passion for Evergreen’s mission and a commitment to supporting innovation, entrepreneurs and the world’s transition to a low-carbon and resource efficient economy.
- Be an articulate spokesperson, with the ability to build rapport and promote Evergreen with all stakeholders.
- Demonstrate drive and creativity in identifying new opportunities for potential partnerships and funders.
- Have comfort exploring, testing, proposing, and implementing operational improvements to gain efficiencies and effectiveness.
- Be entrepreneurial, self-starting, detail-oriented and able to function independently in a complex and sometimes ambiguous environment.
- Be intellectually curious, able to listen to and learn from multiple voices, comfortable asking questions when needing clarity.
The ideal candidate’s qualifications include:
- Professional experience in relationship management, demonstrating progressive advancement and increasing responsibilities.
- Demonstrated success working with external stakeholders such as donors, clients, customers.
- Project and / or program management experience preferred.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills.
- Mastery of Microsoft products (specifically Word, PowerPoint and Excel) and Google Workspace (specifically Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides).
- Experience with HubSpot is preferred; experience with other CRM platforms and / or donor databases is encouraged.
- Bachelor’s degree.
Other Details
- This role will be based out of Evergreen’s Chicago office, with an average of 3 days / week in-office expectation
- Periodically might include limited evening or weekend work based on event and programming requirements
- Nominal travel (an average of 1 – 3 trips / year) may be required
- FLSA exempt
- Ideal start date: April 2025
Job Title: Strategic Partnerships Associate
Reports to: Director of Strategic Partnerships
Location: Chicago, IL (West Loop)
Compensation: Evergreen Climate Innovations offers a competitive compensation and benefits package. The salary for this position is in the range of $60,000 – $70,000. Salary will be commensurate with qualifications, skills, and experience. Employee benefits include health insurance, three weeks PTO, and eligibility from starting date to participate in the 403B match program.
Please email hr@evergreeninno.org with any immediate questions.
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Strategic Partnerships Associate