Business Development Manager (Volunteer)

Business Development Manager (Volunteer)
PromiseBrands | Business Development, Brand Partnerships & Commercial Growth
Organization: Mentor A Promise (MAP)
Division: PromiseBrands
Location: Fully Remote — United States, with NYC collaboration as needed
Type: Volunteer Management Role
Commitment: Approximately 5–10 hours per week
Minimum Commitment: 6 months
Reports To: Chief of Brands / PromiseBrands Leadership
Works Closely With: Creative Director, PromiseBrands; PromiseGiving; PromiseBridge; PromiseVoice; PromiseStudios; PromisePages; PromiseFinance; PromiseTrust; PromiseMeasure; and Executive Leadership
About Mentor A Promise
Mentor A Promise (MAP) is a New York City–based nonprofit supporting children and youth ages 5–18 experiencing housing instability through mentorship, education, enrichment, creative expression, career development, advocacy, and community-centered opportunity.
MAP is also building creative brands, products, stories, experiences, and intellectual property capable of extending the mission into new audiences and responsible sources of organizational sustainability.
PromiseBrands is where brand strategy, creative expression, product development, and business opportunity come together.
About PromiseBrands
PromiseBrands leads MAP's brand strategy, brand expression, fashion and apparel, products and merchandise, creative campaigns, branded experiences, and related commercial opportunities.
Business Development within PromiseBrands focuses on identifying how MAP's creative assets and brands can responsibly create economic and strategic value.
The central question is:
How can MAP turn strong ideas, brands, products, creative assets, and audiences into responsible opportunities that strengthen the mission?
Role Overview
MAP is seeking a Business Development Manager to help identify, evaluate, develop, and advance business opportunities connected to PromiseBrands.
This role will explore opportunities involving products, licensing, collaborations, retail, e-commerce, brand partnerships, sponsorship opportunities, intellectual property, creative ventures, and other mission-aligned revenue opportunities.
The Manager will help move opportunities from idea to evaluation to execution.
Opportunity → Research → Qualification → Business Case → Internal Review → Development → Approval → Launch → Measurement → Learning
Business development at MAP should not mean pursuing every opportunity capable of generating revenue.
It means determining which opportunities make strategic, financial, creative, legal, and mission sense.
Business Opportunity Development
Identify and develop opportunities involving:
Products and merchandise
Fashion and apparel
Brand collaborations
Licensing
Intellectual property
Retail opportunities
E-commerce
Creative products
Publishing-related opportunities
Media and content opportunities
Branded experiences
Cause-related collaborations
Sponsorship opportunities
Corporate brand collaborations
Limited-edition products
Creative campaigns
Social-enterprise concepts
New distribution channels
Evaluate each opportunity beyond its immediate revenue potential.
Ask:
Does this fit the brand?
Does it fit the mission?
Is there an audience?
Is there a viable business model?
What will it cost?
What resources will it require?
What risks exist?
What could MAP realistically earn?
Is the opportunity sustainable?
Does it deserve to exist?
Business Development Pipeline
Build and manage a structured opportunity pipeline.
Use a framework such as:
Opportunity → Qualification → Research → Business Case → Feasibility → Internal Review → Negotiation → Approval → Activation → Performance → Renewal / Expansion / Exit
Maintain visibility into:
Prospects
Opportunities
Status
Potential value
Internal owners
Dependencies
Required approvals
Next actions
Deadlines
Risks
Outcomes
A promising conversation is not yet a business opportunity.
An opportunity becomes meaningful when there is a credible path from idea to value.
Brand Collaborations
Identify organizations, creators, designers, businesses, manufacturers, retailers, platforms, and other entities that may be appropriate for PromiseBrands collaborations.
Help develop opportunities such as:
MAP × Artist
MAP × Designer
MAP × Business
MAP × Creative Studio
MAP × Retailer
MAP × Community Brand
MAP × Mission-Aligned Company
Collaborations should create mutual value while protecting MAP's identity and mission.
A recognizable company name alone is not a reason to collaborate.
Products & Commerce
Work with PromiseBrands creative leadership to explore commercially viable products.
Support business planning around:
Product concepts
Target audiences
Pricing
Costs
Production quantities
Distribution
Inventory
Margins
Packaging
Fulfillment
Customer experience
Market positioning
Sales performance
Creative teams determine what is worth creating.
Business development helps determine whether there is a responsible way to bring it to market.
E-Commerce Growth
Support the responsible development of MAP's e-commerce activities.
Help evaluate:
Product assortment
Customer journey
Conversion
Pricing
Bundles
Limited releases
Seasonal opportunities
Distribution
Customer retention
Market demand
Sales performance
Opportunities for experimentation
Revenue should never be confused with profit.
The Manager should work with PromiseFinance to understand the actual economics behind opportunities.
Licensing & Intellectual Property Opportunities
Work with PromiseBrands, PromisePages, PromiseStudios, PromiseTrust, and other appropriate teams to identify potential opportunities involving MAP-owned creative assets and intellectual property.
Potential areas may include:
Characters
Stories
Illustrations
Designs
Artwork
Educational concepts
Media properties
Publications
Branded assets
Original creative projects
The Manager may help research and develop opportunities but should not independently authorize licensing or intellectual-property agreements.
PromiseTrust must be involved where appropriate.
Business Cases & Feasibility
Before significant opportunities move forward, develop a practical business case.
Consider:
Market Opportunity → Audience → Value Proposition → Revenue Model → Costs → Resources → Risks → Mission Alignment → Financial Potential → Recommendation
The strongest creative idea is not automatically a viable business.
The strongest business opportunity is not automatically right for MAP.
Both questions matter.
Revenue & Financial Analysis
Partner with PromiseFinance to understand the economics of proposed opportunities.
Evaluate areas such as:
Revenue potential
Direct costs
Margins
Production costs
Fulfillment costs
Inventory exposure
Upfront investment
Break-even considerations
Financial risk
Revenue sharing
Royalty structures
The Manager should not independently make accounting, tax, charitable-deduction, or financial-compliance determinations.
Financial enthusiasm should never replace financial discipline.
Market & Audience Research
Research:
Consumer trends
Comparable products
Pricing
Competitors
Audience interests
Market gaps
Distribution channels
Creative trends
Retail opportunities
Potential collaborators
Business development should begin with understanding the opportunity—not assuming an audience exists because MAP likes the idea.
Negotiation & Opportunity Development
Support discussions with prospective collaborators and commercial partners.
Help clarify:
Purpose → Mutual Value → Scope → Responsibilities → Economics → Rights → Deliverables → Timeline → Approval → Activation
Coordinate appropriate internal review before commitments are made.
The Manager should understand the difference between exploring an opportunity and committing MAP to one.
Business Development vs. PromiseBridge
Maintain a clear organizational distinction.
PromiseBridge develops institutional partnerships that expand MAP's programs, opportunities, expertise, resources, and external relationships.
PromiseBrands Business Development develops commercial and brand-driven opportunities connected to products, creative assets, audiences, intellectual property, and earned revenue.
Some opportunities may involve both.
In those situations, PromiseBridge and PromiseBrands should collaborate rather than compete for ownership.
Business Development vs. PromiseGiving
PromiseGiving leads charitable fundraising, philanthropy, donor relationships, and contributed revenue.
PromiseBrands Business Development focuses primarily on earned-revenue and commercial opportunities.
A donation is not a sale.
A sponsorship may contain elements of both and should be structured with the appropriate internal teams.
Clear classification matters.
Performance & Learning
Track business-development performance through appropriate indicators such as:
Qualified opportunities
Business cases developed
Opportunities advanced
Collaborations launched
Revenue generated
Margin where appropriate
Customer participation
Product performance
Renewal or repeat opportunities
Opportunities declined
Lessons learned
Not every successful business-development decision results in a launch.
Sometimes the strongest decision is determining that an opportunity should not move forward.
Team Development
Help build PromiseBrands' business-development capacity.
Recruit and support appropriate volunteers, analysts, coordinators, or specialists as the function grows.
Create systems, templates, pipelines, and documentation so business-development knowledge remains with MAP.
The Manager should not become MAP's only person capable of developing a business opportunity.
The goal is to build a function.
Qualifications
Strong candidates may come from backgrounds in business development, brand partnerships, licensing, retail, e-commerce, consumer products, fashion, media, entertainment, sales, entrepreneurship, strategy, marketing, social enterprise, or commercial partnerships.
Candidates should demonstrate strong business judgment, relationship-building, research, communication, opportunity evaluation, negotiation, organization, and follow-through.
Experience with financial modeling, licensing, e-commerce, product development, consumer brands, or social enterprise is helpful but not required.
What Success Looks Like
PromiseBrands develops a visible pipeline of credible business opportunities.
Ideas are evaluated before significant resources are committed.
Creative teams understand the commercial context of products.
MAP better understands the economics of its products and ventures.
Potential collaborators receive professional follow-through.
Commercial opportunities have clear owners.
PromiseFinance and PromiseTrust are engaged at the appropriate stages.
MAP learns from opportunities it launches and those it declines.
And PromiseBrands increasingly develops responsible earned-revenue opportunities capable of strengthening MAP's long-term sustainability.
Why This Role Matters
Mission and sustainability do not have to exist on opposite sides of the organization.
A powerful design can become a product.
A story can become intellectual property.
A creative project can reach an audience.
A collaboration can open a market.
And an idea can become a responsible source of revenue that helps sustain the mission that created it.
But possibility alone is not a business model.
PromiseBrands needs people capable of asking both:
What could this become?
And:
Does it make sense for MAP to build it?
That is the responsibility of Business Development.
Commitment
Approximately 5–10 hours per week with a minimum six-month commitment.
The Manager will maintain consistent communication with PromiseBrands leadership, participate in relevant meetings, manage assigned opportunities, maintain the business-development pipeline, and collaborate across MAP.
How to Apply
Interested candidates must apply directly through Idealist and submit:
Resume or CV
Cover letter
This is an unpaid volunteer role requiring approximately 5–10 hours per week and a minimum six-month commitment.
At this time, MAP volunteer opportunities are limited to individuals based in the United States due to legal, safeguarding, data-privacy, compliance, and programmatic requirements.
Find the opportunity. Understand the market. Build the business case. Protect the brand. Know when to move forward—and when not to. Turn creative possibility into responsible growth that helps sustain the promise.