Chief Advancement Officer

Open Door Legal • San Francisco, CA

3h • $135,500 - $155,500 • Hybrid

About The Position

Delivering on the promise of making San Francisco the first city in the US with universal access to legal services requires matching our fast-paced growth with equally paced revenue. The Chief Advancement Officer (CAO) will develop and drive fundraising and marketing strategy to build up, maintain, and grow our sustainable private and public revenue. Our revenue has doubled year-over-year since 2024, and you would be joining and leading the high-performing team that got us here. The CAO will play a critical role in cultivating a culture of fundraising across the organization, both among staff and the Board of Directors, meaningfully engaging staff and Board members in fundraising activity and dialogue, including offering coaching and guidance to increase individuals’ confidence and impact in fundraising conversations with prospects and donors. San Francisco City/County has been Open Door Legal’s biggest champion, and the CAO will continue to engage heavily in public affairs and advocate for further partnership. The CAO is also responsible for overseeing our annual gala and all donor-facing events as part of our prospecting and retention strategy. A successful candidate must be almost single-mindedly focused on enthusiastically getting Open Door Legal’s mission before as many eyes as possible and able to manage multiple complex grants and funding processes autonomously while leading through influence and inclusivity. Note: This role will require occasional work on nights and weekends. Success in this role requires grit, dynamism, teamwork, care, and passion (our five values as an organization). You will report directly to our Executive Director.

Requirements

• Passion for the mission of Open Door Legal
• Bachelor’s Degree and at least ten (10) years of work experience
• Proven track record in fundraising from diverse sources, including experience applying moves management and facilitating leadership gift conversations with individual, corporate, and/or foundation donors
• Demonstrated experience with and knowledge of the grant application process, including grant writing, submission, and reporting; a record of successful grant awards from major national and/or international foundations preferred
• Proven track record of leading people and processes within complex organizations, including coaching and motivating teams to successfully reach and/or exceed fundraising goals.
• High ability to effectively manage processes and projects for multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively, iteratively, and creatively with a diverse set of stakeholders, including scientists and researchers, to co-create processes and solutions that meet the needs of the organization as well as donors and funders.
• Excellent interpersonal communication skills, energy, and enthusiasm with the ability to build long-term relationships and represent the organization to external audiences.
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to write and present fundraising materials to a diverse set of audiences.
• Ability to engage and support volunteer leadership with their efforts in fundraising, consultation, and advocacy.
• Demonstrated flexibility, self-awareness, professional integrity, and cultural competence – including commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• A high degree of character and integrity.
• Strong problem-solving skills.
• Demonstrated prior experience working with a high degree of autonomy.
• Meticulous attention to detail, with the ability to prioritize, flexibly switch gears, and multitask in a fast-paced environment
• Must live within San Francisco, or be willing to commute regularly to and between our four offices (Bayview, Excelsior, Western Addition, and Sunset), and occasionally to events on nights and weekends.

Nice To Haves

• At least six (6) years of relevant nonprofit experience in fundraising, donor relations, philanthropy, or marketing
• Experience working with low-income and vulnerable populations
• Experience working in a human services or legal nonprofit
• Having lived a significant period of your life in San Francisco proper

Responsibilities

• Portfolio management
• Effectively manage and coach relationship managers to grow their portfolios over time and maintain exceptional donor retention.
• Personally manage a major gifts portfolio.
• Development operations
• Ensure qualification, prospect research, portfolio assignment, thank you, and financial reconciliation processes happen on a timely basis and with minimal error.
• Create and maintain standardized documentation for development operations.
• Board activation
• Liaison with the board’s development committee, up-skilling them as strategic partners in developing our fundraising strategy and activating the board.
• Prospecting
• Energetically source new private funders, including individuals, foundations, corporations, and religious institutions, through an intentional prospecting strategy.
• Grant management
• Ensure all grants are sourced and applied for.
• Develop a unique voice and positioning for ODL to be competitive in grant applications and amongst peer organizations.
• Gala & donor events
• Oversee the production of our gala and donor-facing events as part of the overall prospecting and retention strategy.
• Marketing & communications
• Manage communication efforts, including content production, our website, and social channels.
• Iterate marketing efforts that drive visitors towards conversion.
• Media relations
• Manage press engagement and public relations efforts that build public awareness of our work and of access to justice issues.
• Public affairs
• Help develop and execute a public affairs strategy to advocate for continued or additional public funding.
• Attend meetings with stakeholders to build public support for our work.
• Team management
• Utilize our management best practices to manage a team of staff and volunteers to execute all of the above.
• Executive leadership
• Attend and prepare all relevant materials for all board meetings, retreats, and development committee meetings.
• Lead the expansion team, an internal alignment team, to engage our staff in fundraising and advocacy efforts.
• Make strategic decisions in partnership with the Executive Team, especially representing the interests of current and potential funders in decision-making.
• Embrace and embody our values of teamwork, grit, caring, passion, and dynamism.

Benefits

• Loan Repayment Assistance - for staff pursuing 10-year public interest debt forgiveness, we will pay the minimum payment on all qualifying loans so that you don’t need to worry about student loan debt (this is a conditional benefit).
• Medical/Dental/Vision Plan offerings at 100% coverage
• Generous paid time off (four weeks vacation and two weeks sick/care)
• Flexible work hours
• Generous paid parental leave
• 401K/Retirement Account
• Strong organizational culture
• We believe everyone is always learning. We financially invest in individual professional development for each staff member and provide many internal and external mentorships, coaching, and learning opportunities (conferences, workshops, etc.).
• We are a fun and hard-working office with best-in-class technology solutions for anyone who’s passionate about making a meaningful and measurable difference.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Executive