Position: Managing Director of External Affairs – New York
Position Type: Internal-External
FLSA Classification: Exempt
Reports to: Alaina Harper – Executive Director
Start Date: July 2025
Location: New York, NY | Please Note: this role is part of the OneGoal team in New York and the person in this position will be required to work in-person from 3 – 8 times per month, must be located within 50 miles of our office by the start date, and have the ability to be in-person as needed (in office and at stakeholder engagements).
Application Deadline: May 30, 2025
Salary Range: $135,000 – $137,759 is the hiring salary range (i.e. the range a candidate would be offered to start)
About OneGoal
OneGoal transforms postsecondary advising and support so that every student can define their own future. Together with our partners, we’re building a movement to close the opportunity gap. We work side-by-side with partner schools and districts to build their knowledge and capacity. The result is more effective support for all students. Our unique approach, honed over 15 years, prioritizes strong human relationships. And it’s proven to deliver real student impact: An independent study by the University of Chicago found that OneGoal students are about 40% more likely to earn their postsecondary degrees than students from similar backgrounds. At OneGoal you’ll be immersed in a culture of collaboration, shared purpose, and collective impact.
The Person
You believe – and your work has demonstrated your belief – that all students can earn a degree and the life that comes with it. As Managing Director of External Affairs, you will be responsible for setting vision, direction, and strategy for the New York Development Team in order to ensure financial sustainability for the region as well as promoting our thought leadership and brand in the market. You’re chiefly responsible for engaging the internal-facing development team and external-facing constituents (board, donor base, potential prospects) to meet and exceed our annual Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) while contributing to a strong internal culture that fosters a high level of understanding and investment in development and outreach work.
You will do this by:
Setting Strategic Vision and Direction (30%)
- Designing equitable and innovative strategies to influence and motivate new and existing external constituents to invest in our work, at $2.3M (philanthropic) in this fiscal year and growing steadily over the next few years while effectively tracking progress-to-goal
- Building goals, strategies, and campaigns across foundation, corporate, individual and public funding streams
- Supporting the Executive Director to influence and motivate new and existing external constituents to invest in our work
- Using New York landscape data (donor market, postsecondary landscape, education landscape, economic, philanthropic market) to inform vision and direction to meet all development KPIs.
- Partnering with MD, Partnerships & Growth and MD, Program to ensure our philanthropic goals and strategies are in conversation with our FFS pipeline
Donor Engagement and Brand Awareness (30%)
- Developing and executing a strong plan to engage prospects and donors, while amplifying the New York region’s brand through external events, media, and networking
- Leading development team to excel in the execution of annual external communication plan and regional marketing efforts
- Serving as an ambassador for OneGoal, when needed, in major gift prospect/donor meetings, conferences, or other public-speaking engagements
- Creating the conditions for the development team to partner effectively with other NY regional functions to engage all external stakeholders through in-person, virtual, or written formats, in alignment with priorities for FY26
Portfolio Management and Execution (20%)
- Managing a portfolio of donors by reviewing and analyzing progress to goal, making strategic decisions to inform actions and campaigns, and executing on cultivation plans to drive toward revenue growth
- Collaborating with the Executive Director to set board vision, and engagement strategies and manage communication including monthly board updates and all board meeting materials
- Building and retaining investor pipeline by managing team effectively in the sourcing, prospecting and engagement of donors for FY26 and beyond
- Serving as a key role model for others in your reporting line on best practice actions for portfolio managers, including strong use of Salesforce data and other analytics, expert external communications including tee-ups, and strong pitch language and materials
Regional Leadership Team, Functional Team Lead, OneGoal People Manager and Member of OneGoal Community: (20%)
- Effectively builds strong relationships with New York team members and models for all staff what it means to be a culture leader, embody our core values, and remain committed to our DEI and Liberatory Consciousness work
- Serving with the Executive Director and other regional Managing Directors as a member of the New York Leadership Team (NYLT) to inform regional vision, priorities, and expectations for future fiscal years
- Models practices of strong management, achieving results through supportive accountability, and building the capabilities of team members
- Collaborate with NYLT and org-wide to identify interdependencies and ensure strong execution of cross-team efforts
The Managing Director of External Affairs is likely to see himself/herself/themselves in the following examples, which are designed to help you determine if this opportunity aligns with your passion, purpose, skills, and experiences.
You are a strategist/synthesizer.
- You like to explore and build innovative approaches and have designed new ways of doing things. You make connections, determine fits, and build plans that are responsive to interlocking and evolving challenges and opportunities.
- Contingency planning and problem-solving excite you, and working to streamline and improve systems gives you energy.
You are a leader and collaborator.
- You connect your success to the success of those you work with, and believe in both shared responsibility and mutual accountability.
- You believe that clear expectations and regular, honest feedback are the cornerstones of growth.
- As a manager, you believe in the inherent potential and capacity of people. You seek to empower your team to become leaders and agents of change, to grow and thrive and ultimately to share in building OneGoal New York.
- You are a strong coach and can work with direct reports to build upon their strengths and grow their skills and competencies.
You excitedly identify and confront challenges and opportunities.
- You see challenges as opportunities to take your critical thinking skills and impact to the next level. You operate with a strong sense of personal responsibility when it comes to solving challenges.
- You analyze data and marshal resources to ensure our students and school partners have what they need to make postsecondary access possible.
You are a compelling and inspiring communicator and it is rooted in your beliefs.
- You’ve developed materials and talking points that have resulted in impact and building champions in your work because you understand others’ perspectives and motivations and adjust your messages, approach and design based on your audience.
- You get energy from meeting others and they are inspired when they meet you. When you meet someone, you are able to understand what motivates them, communicate why our work matters, and connect their interests to investing in OneGoal.
- You are an exceptional communicator with experience winning people over. It’s energizing to “close the deal,” and you will not give up easily when you have identified someone who is a strong fit.
- Your written and verbal communication shines whether meant for a new intern or a founding Board member.
Additional Qualifications:
- 3-5 years development experience (Required)
- Previous experience managing teams (Required)
- Demonstrated experience managing fundraising targets of $2M and above (Highly Preferred)
- Understanding of the New York philanthropic and education landscape (Preferred)
- Willingness to travel to external stakeholders across New York (Required)
Thinking Of Applying?
If you are excited about the role and see connection with what we are looking for, but don’t meet every single requirement, we’d encourage you to apply anyway.
Our Team
Guided by a clear set of core values and beliefs, you will join an impressive group of more than 200 OneGoal staff across the country who believe in the untapped potential within students. The OneGoal team challenges themselves and others to regularly ask, “Is there a better way?” We believe that in order to create the change we seek, each person we hire brings a remarkable and diverse set of experiences, skills and characteristics that individually and collectively, will contribute to the radical change needed to move us towards a more equitable and just nation.
The Tangible Good
OneGoal offers competitive compensation based on the market for nonprofits our size. Our benefits package* includes: over eight weeks of paid time off (or 43 business days), between vacation days, wellness time, and holidays; paid medical or parental leaves should you have need; medical, dental, vision, short-term and long-term disability, and life insurance; as well as a 401(k) with a 3% match.
We believe in compensating staff members fairly in relation to each other, their qualifications, and their impact on behalf of the organization, and take internal and external fairness seriously. OneGoal does not negotiate salary offers; instead each salary offer is determined carefully using external and internal benchmarking. You will have an opportunity to discuss salary in more detail after you begin the hiring process.
*OneGoal reserves the right to change benefits at any time according to business need.
If you require a reasonable accommodation to submit an application or to participate in the application or interview process, please reach out to our Human Assets Team to request an accommodation. Our Human Assets Team can be contacted at 773-321-2630 or [email protected].
OneGoal does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of actual or perceived sex, race, color, ancestry, citizenship, ethnicity, national origin, religion, age, disability (mental or physical), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, pregnancy, breastfeeding or related medical condition, parenthood, genetic characteristic or information, military or veteran status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected under federal, state, or local law.