Chief Partnership & Growth Officer

GHJ Search and Staffing has partnered with the LA84 Foundation to identify an exceptional Chief Partnership & Growth Officer.

As a legacy of the 1984 Olympic Games, the LA84 Foundation continues to be a nationally recognized leader in support of youth sport programs and elevating the importance of sports in positive youth development. LA84 seeks to provide an opportunity for every child to participate in sports and experience the wide range of positive outcomes associated with youth sport participation. Since its launch in 1985, LA84 has invested millions in the communities that supported the Games, reaching more than 3 million youth throughout Southern California, from Santa Barbara to San Diego County. The LA84 Foundation continues to promote the spirit of the 1984 Olympic Games by convening and engaging local, national and international audiences about the role of sport in society, and the impact of the Olympic Games on host cities, especially as we look ahead to the 2028 Games. LA84’s headquarters is located in the historic Britt House near downtown Los Angeles, where it houses meeting facilities and the world’s premier sports library. For more information, please visit www.la84.org .   The Play Equity Fund, established by the LA84 Foundation as its 501(c)3 public charity partner, is focused on bringing the transformational power of sport and play to all children, regardless of their race, gender, zip code or socioeconomic status. The Play Equity Fund supports the sports-based youth development ecosystem, raises awareness of inequities, and develops partnerships to advocate for sustainable solutions to ensure children from all backgrounds have pathways to lifelong well-being and success. By creating social impact programs with its partners that focus on community and young people, the Play Equity Fund shows access to sport is not a privilege for the few but a fundamental right for all.  

Position Summary:  Lead the Play Equity Fund’s strategy to build, nurture, align and expand relationships, capital, influence, and institutional assets around the Play Equity Fund mission.

The leader will serve as the organization’s chief relationship architect, managing a team of three 3 (Senior Development Manager, Development Associate, Development Analyst) – connecting philanthropy, corporations, government, sports institutions, and civic leaders around a shared vision, but also identifying emerging opportunities, expanding the organization’s partnership ecosystem, and cultivating new sources of revenue, influence, and mission advancement; ensuring that every child has access to the benefits of sports, play and movement.

The role will oversee strategic partnership and resource development while working closely with the President and CEO to translate the Play Equity Fund’s initiatives, policy agenda, research, coalitions, and national support into compelling opportunities for investment and collaboration. The successful candidate is a highly collaborative leader who builds trusted relationships both internally and externally, excels at communicating across diverse stakeholder groups, and is able to align organizational priorities, resources, and partners around a shared vision for Play Equity.

A passion for youth development, sport, education, philanthropy, or community impact is highly desirable.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develop and execute an organization-wide partnership strategy to secure financial and non-financial resources for the Play Equity Fund.
•  Build, maintain, and continuously expand robust pipeline across philanthropy, corporate social impact, professional sports, government, health, education, media, and civic institutions.
• Identify, evaluate, and develop new partnership markets and sectors that have not historically engaged in youth sports, Play Equity, or related social impact investments.
• Structure multiyear partnerships that may combine grants, sponsorships, program investments, research, communications, advocacy, employee engagement or in-kind support.
• Monitor trends across philanthropy, sports, business, healthcare, education, government, technology, media, and public policy to identify new partnership opportunities that advance Play Equity.
• Achieving annual and multiyear development goals while protecting mission alignment and organizational capacity.

 

REQUIREMENTS:

• Senior experience in partnerships, business development, institutional advancement, corporate social impact, sports philanthropy, or external affairs.
• Demonstrated success in developing and closing complex, multiyear partnerships.
• Experience working within and alongside professional sports league, team, governing body, major sporting event, media company, or sport agency.
• Ability to translate organizational assets into customized partnership platforms
• Demonstrated success identifying, cultivating, and converting previously untapped partnership opportunities into sustainable organizational relationships and partnerships.
• Experience managing major corporate or institutional accounts from cultivation to renewal.
• Familiarity with philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, community impact, public policy and systems change work.
• Evidence building partnerships that generated both financial resources and measurable social value.
• Experience navigating brand, legal, reputational and mission aligned considerations.
• Strong relationships across sports, business and philanthropy, government and civic institutions.
• Ability to operate in a highly dynamic and visible environment while maintaining trust with community-based partners.
• Partner closely with executive leadership and department teams to ensure partnership strategies align with organizational priorities, program capacity, policy objectives, research initiatives, and community impact goals.
• Serve as a bridge across departments, translating organizational priorities into partnership opportunities while ensuring internal stakeholders remain informed, engaged and aligned.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment characterized by evolving priorities, ambiguity, and frequent change.
• Resilient, adaptable, and composed under pressure, with a solutions-oriented mindset and a "find a way forward" approach.
• Mission-driven and aligned with LA84 Foundation's commitment to youth development, sport, education, equity, and community impact.

 

SKILLS

• Strong executive presence
  • Engaging CEOs, chief marketing officers, foundation executives, commissioners, athletes, public officials
• Consultative partnership development
  • Ability to diagnose what a partner is trying to accomplish and build a tailored solution that aligns with the Play Equity work
• Commercial discipline
  • Pipeline development, planning, forecasting, negations, and closing
• Packaging Ability
  • Turning a broad collection of programs and assets into a coherent partnership proposition
• Brand Fluency
  • Understanding how reputation, visibility, storytelling, and association creates value
• Activation thinking
  • Moving from ‘the partner gave us money’ to ‘how will the partner meaningfully participate and advance our mission
• Renewal orientation
  • Treating stewardship as an ongoing strategy rather than a reporting obligation
• Category development
  • Seeing opportunities in sectors that have not historically funded youth sports
• Cross-Functional Leadership
  • Ability to convene diverse internal stakeholders around partnership opportunities, balancing organizational needs, timelines, resources, and partner expectations.
• Team Development
  • Recruit, coach, mentor, and develop a high-performing partnership and development team, fostering collaboration, accountability, communication, and continuous learning.
  • Demonstrated success leading, developing and motivating high-performing teams.

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