Job Description

At TPL, we believe access to the outdoors is a fundamental human need and essential to our health and well-being.  We’re committed to creating more places that bring us outside—parks, trails, playgrounds, and public lands—and making them available and welcoming to everyone, everywhere, regardless of ZIP code.

TPL creates parks and protects land in communities that are urban, rural, and everything in between. We understand that parks and open spaces are critical tools communities can use to advance key priorities including public health, community cohesion, economic development and climate resiliency. These spaces serve as a powerful medium for preserving and amplifying community culture. TPL partners with local leaders to tell these stories through our programs focused on Community Strategies, Black History and Culture, and Tribal and Indigenous Lands.

TPL seeks a Senior Project Manager to re-establish our land protection program throughout Illinois and in the region. TPL has decades of land protection experience, and a team of Project Managers who lead impact across the country. We have a history of meaningful land protection in Illinois, but our local team has most recently focused on park and trail development in Chicago. We look to expand the local team, bringing in new expertise, as we advance our next phase of growth.

You share our belief that access to the outdoors, in both rural and urban areas of our country, is a fundamental human need–not a luxury. When you hear about the outdoor equity gap, you want to roll up your sleeves and fix it. Like us, you’re convinced that creating access to the outdoors improves health, supports climate resilience, and fosters community connection. You believe communities are a critical piece of the puzzle when determining how public land should be used.

Position Summary:  

The Senior Project Manager will work in close collaboration with the Illinois-based team to create a strategy for land protection that aligns with TPL’s national mission and local priorities. This position will also collaborate with experienced land protection colleagues working across the country, and with planners, attorneys, staff experienced with public grant solicitations and management, and finance managers. TPL does not own and maintain land in perpetuity, and instead collaborates with local, state, federal, and nonprofit organizations to accept and steward the assets we protect.

The successful candidate will have experience using a broad spectrum of nonprofit land acquisition techniques and sound business practices that produce tangible results. This person will be equally comfortable in conversation with landowners, community stakeholders, public and elected officials, lawyers, and others involved in complex land negotiations. While part of a dynamic and supportive team both locally and nationally, the Senior Project Manager must be a self-starter who can work independently.

Essential Functions:

• Assumes primary responsibility for prospecting, identifying, negotiating, documenting, financing, closing, and conveying real estate transactions with the assistance of Legal and Finance staff. This includes supervision of appraisers, surveyors, and other consultants, and facilitation of the property’s conveyance to a public agency or non-profit partner.
• Manages relationships with landowners, nonprofit organizations, local elected officials, community leaders and municipal, county, and state and federal public agency staff.
• Identifies areas in which TPL’s interim protection strategy is needed for the preservation of open space lands of critical local, regional, or national importance; develops and maintains portfolio of potential projects; responds to inquiries by individuals, groups, agencies, etc.
• Generates revenues for TPL through transactions and/or fundraising in the private sector.
• Identifies and secures project funding from multiple sources. Good working knowledge of processes for obtaining public, private, foundation, and corporate funding. Captures contacts for TPL database and maintains landowner relationships for fundraising purposes.
• Communicates with colleagues, partners, and community members to help them understand what is often a complicated, opaque process.
• Builds public awareness and understanding of TPL through outreach events, leading meetings, public speaking engagements, fundraising efforts and creating a public presence for TPL.
• Collaborates with national-level Federal Affairs and Conservation Finance teams and local staff and partners to advance policy, funding and other legislative priorities.

Other Responsibilities

• May be involved in programmatic work, such as the coordination of a land acquisition program covering multi-parcel deals.
• Work under the direction of the Illinois State Director to broaden TPL’s visibility in the market by projecting TPL as a vested conservation leader and subject matter expert on conservation real estate transactions.
• Work in partnership with Illinois Philanthropy staff to engage current and emerging donors to generate philanthropic support of TPL’s transactions and broader conservation work, and work with other TPL staff to support fundraising in the public and private sectors.
• Function as a front-facing figure on TPL’s DEI priorities by seeking land conservation projects that represent value impact opportunities to elevate TPL’s national initiatives: Black History and Culture Initiative and Indigenous Communities.
• Other relevant duties as necessary.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree preferred.
• Minimum of 5-7 years land protection project-related or equivalent land trust or non-profit experience. Experience with land acquisition projects preferred.
• This position requires moderate to heavy travel throughout Illinois and into the region. Occasional evening and weekend work should be expected.

Special Knowledge & Skills:

• Superior written and oral communication skills.
• Proficient in computer applications. MSOffice Basics, Internet.
• Demonstrated understanding of real property and tax law, land use planning techniques, environmental assessments, titles and government land acquisition policies/procedures. Politically astute and sensitive.
• Demonstrated success managing key Illinois stakeholder relationships in conservation. Experience with National Park Service, and Illinois Department of Natural Resources a plus.
• Active member in local and statewide professional conservation organizations (preferred).
• Strong, entrepreneurial negotiator, able to secure complicated real estate deals.
• Able to analyze and explain potential tax benefits and financial forecasting. Management of contracts.
• Able to work on complex projects with moderate level of supervision.
• Able to initiate and participate fundraising efforts.

Compensation:

Trust for Public Land is a hybrid work environment, and this role will ideally be located near a Trust for Public Land office. As a full-time employee, you will be eligible for the Trust for Public Land’s comprehensive benefits program which includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, vacation and sick pay plus holidays, a year end office closure, and a 403(b)-retirement plan, currently with up to a 7% company match. We offer competitive salaries commensurate with experience; the anticipated hiring range for this position is $95,000- $115,000.

Trust for Public Land’s active goal is to be an inclusive and equitable place to work and build community. As the organization actively works to eliminate racial and other disparities it welcomes candidates with diverse backgrounds and/or multicultural skillsets. We are open to the possibility that a great candidate for this job may not precisely meet all the above criteria; if you believe you are the right person for this job and can persuasively make that case, we encourage you to apply.

How to Apply

Job Types: Full-Time. Job Tags: land conservation, nonprofit, and real estate. Salaries: 100,000 and above.

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