About Chicago Public Media
Chicago Public Media is one of the nation’s largest local nonprofit news organizations. Home to WBEZ 91.5FM, the Chicago Sun-Times, and Vocalo. Chicago Public Media reaches more than 3.3 million people weekly across broadcast, print, and digital platforms. As a mission-driven organization, we aspire to be the most trusted news source Chicagoans turn to for understanding the people, events, and ideas shaping our community.
Chicago Public Media is a 100% community-funded newsroom powered by nearly 97,000 members whose support makes our journalism possible. This sustained community investment helped drive nationally recognized work in 2025, including 29 awards from esteemed organizations, including the Public Media Journalists Association, the Edward R. Murrow Awards, and the National Association of Black Journalists.
We believe independent journalism is essential to a healthy democracy and that access to objective, fact-based news is a right for every citizen. We serve the public interest by creating diverse content that informs and enriches our community, supported by a dedicated staff of approximately 250 professionals.
For more information, please see the Chicago Public Media Annual Report.
The Opportunity
The Director of Institutional Giving is responsible for the management and performance of the institutional giving team. The Director strategizes and implements revenue initiatives, serves as a frontline fundraiser, and coaches the Manager of Institutional Giving to provide strategic guidance and accountability. Reporting to the Vice President of Development, the Director works collaboratively across the Development team and other departments to strengthen donor pipeline development, improve fundraising effectiveness, and support a high-performing culture of philanthropy.
General Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain strategy for institutional revenue that supports organizational needs. Requires the ability to benchmark, strategize, and build a pipeline through sophisticated prospect research.
- Supervise and support the Institutional Giving team, including onboarding, day-to-day management, goal setting, and performance management.
- Conduct portfolio and moves management reviews to ensure timely donor engagement, solicitation activity, proposal tracking, and stewardship.
- Support the development of donor strategies, cultivation plans, solicitation approaches, and stewardship opportunities for institutional donors and prospects.
- Set and track on ambitious individual goals for direct reports, with the aim of advancing donor relationships, upgrading support, and maintaining a high standard across the team.
- Manage an active portfolio of 50-80 foundations and corporations with increases year over year.
- Identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward institutional donors.
- Prepare written solicitations, proposals, and donor reports
- Manage the responsible stewardship of gifts, including the interpretation of terms in collaboration with finance colleagues
- Maintain data for the institutional giving portfolio in the database, including contact reports, proposals, and other stewardship activities
- Proactively identify and approach potential institutional funders to establish new relationships and strengthen CPM’s connections within the institutional funding community.
- Monitor and keep leadership apprised of team fundraising performance, portfolio health, and activity metrics.
Qualifications
- Seven-plus years progressive frontline fundraising experience with demonstrated expertise interacting with executive-level foundation and corporate representatives
- In-depth knowledge of corporate/foundation philanthropy process
- Successful experience in developing multi-year gift strategies
- Management experience, with the ability to lead, coach, and motivate a talented team of fundraising professionals
- Comfortable using both quantitative and qualitative data to inform strategy and create a culture of excellence, accountability, and support
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Experience developing case statements and donor proposals
- Superior interpersonal skills required with donors and prospects as well as internal leadership, peers, colleagues, and direct reports. Must be a team player with high emotional intelligence who values collaboration and partnerships and treats everyone with respect
- Proactive nature with strong planning and attention to detail. Ability to be strategic, collaborative, and results-oriented. Ability to take initiative and manage complex projects and work effectively from conception to completion in a timely manner
- Possess an understanding of fundraising industry standards, especially regarding the legal and ethical aspects of donor solicitation, confidentiality, gift crediting, stewardship, and financial principles that shape the work of fundraising professionals
- Proficiency with Google Suites and constituent management and fundraising software
- Ability to work with a variety of people in multiple departments for the benefit of the organization; desire to collaborate across departments
- Ability to think strategically and possess thorough understanding of strategic development
Compensation
The expected pay range for this position is $104,000 to $129,000 per ANNUM.
Chicago Public Media provides pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of what the organization reasonably expects to pay for a position. The pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as (but not limited to the scope and responsibilities of the position, the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal equity, geographical location, and external market pay for comparable jobs.
Working at Chicago Public Media
At Chicago Public Media, we care deeply about our employees as we know attracting, developing, and growing talent is key to our success and enhancing our impact.
Our culture is one where collaboration, diversity of ideas, and innovation are encouraged. We value colleagues who will enhance our culture by bringing new ideas, divergent experiences, and talents to our dynamic workplace.
At Chicago Public Media we believe dedication to a great workplace includes supporting our employees and their families. As a result, we provide a broad and generous benefits package for employees at hire and in the years to come.
Our benefits include a competitive salary and benefits package which includes medical, dental, vision, vacation, holidays, life insurance, disability coverage, retirement savings, and a commuter benefits plan.
Chicago Public Media is an Equal Opportunity Employer and we actively seek and welcome people from all backgrounds, orientations, and life experiences to join our team.
The essential functions described above are not all-inclusive and are not intended to create any contractual or other legal commitment. Chicago Public Media may change the content or format of this job at any time in its sole and exclusive discretion without notice.
Skills Required
- Seven-plus years progressive frontline fundraising experience interacting with executive-level foundation and corporate representatives
- In-depth knowledge of corporate and foundation philanthropy processes
- Successful experience developing multi-year gift strategies
- Management experience with ability to lead, coach, and motivate fundraising staff
- Ability to use quantitative and qualitative data to inform strategy and create accountability
- Excellent written and verbal communication, including developing case statements and donor proposals
- Superior interpersonal skills, high emotional intelligence, and ability to collaborate across teams
- Proactive planning, strong attention to detail, and ability to manage complex projects to completion
- Understanding of fundraising industry legal and ethical standards, gift crediting, stewardship, and financial principles
- Proficiency with Google Suites and constituent management and fundraising software
- Ability to work with multiple departments and stakeholders to advance organizational objectives
- Strategic thinking and thorough understanding of strategic development for fundraising
What We Do
We are Chicago’s NPR news station, one of the largest and most respected public media stations in the country. Our mission is at the heart of WBEZ Chicago. We fulfill our mission at WBEZ by serving as a cornerstone of the public conversation; as a central pillar of our civic community; and by reasserting ourselves as the heart of innovation within public media. We amplify the public conversation by telling the stories that matter; stories that provoke thought, entertain, capture emotion and inspire action. We are a trusted source of news and information in the Chicago region. People turn to WBEZ for our high-quality, fact-based journalism; engaging, entertaining programs on 91.5FM; original podcasts; and digital content
