Development Director

Resources Legacy Fund•Sacramento, CA

16h•Remote

About The Position

The Development Director drives and coordinates fundraising activities across the organization. They provide direction and leadership to RLF’s development team, supporting RLF’s principal fundraisers (staff and board) in improving and expanding our partnerships with foundations and family offices. This position is full-time, exempt, and reports to the Executive Vice President. This is a remote position, within the U.S., that requires regular travel for meetings, conferences, and staff retreats.

Requirements

10+ years of progressive experience in nonprofit fundraising with increasing responsibility for the creation and execution of development strategy, planning, management, systems, and coordination.
Broad knowledge of fundraising approaches for multiple donor audiences, with specific experience with philanthropic foundations and family offices.
Experience in supporting a president, executive leadership team, and program staff with effective cultivation, engagement, reporting, and acknowledgement of funders.
Experience designing fundraising operations, systems, and teams.
Experience leveraging modern data management practices and technology for relationship management, prospecting, and streamlining development processes.
Ability to collaboratively develop effective technology solutions, build new processes where there are gaps.
Knowledge of and fundamental adherence to the principles, ethics, compliance, and best practices of modern fundraising.
Exceptional composition, editing, and spoken communication skills.
Capacity to manage and coordinate simultaneous projects, and to respond rapidly and appropriately to changing priorities and situations; ability to adhere to numerous deadlines, conflicting priorities and handle multiple tasks efficiently.
Flexibility in working style, marked by an ability to work closely with a wide range of personality and organization types.
Ability to perform tasks with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail, as well as anticipate informational needs as situations and projects develop.
Commitment to building and supporting a positive and inclusive work environment.
Commitment to Nondiscrimination: We are committed to providing a work environment free from discrimination, where all team members feel valued, respected, and included. We know that our work is enriched by the varied voices and perspectives of every staff and board member, so we are committed to making an earnest effort to recruit, welcome, train, develop, and retain talented individuals from all backgrounds. We believe that a welcoming culture expands our creative capacity to do our work and achieve greater outcomes for people and the natural world.

Nice To Haves

Previous experience in climate and environmental organizations

Responsibilities

Lead RLF’s overall team strategy for development and fundraising with the goal of building and managing an effective philanthropic program.
Work with the executive and program teams to set annual and multi-year fundraising/campaign goals to meet organization revenue targets.
Support the organizations’ fundraisers in their external relationships and communications with foundations, family offices, and other donors.
Provide research, materials, talking points and other support to best “set the table” for successful donor prospecting, cultivation and asks by RLF board and leadership staff.
Maintain organizational knowledge of key donors and prospects to ensure an effective and coordinated program of communications, stewardship, development, and leveraging of opportunities.
Directly supervise the development team (currently a team of one development coordinator).
Manage, mentor, recruit, and retain talented staff; foster a culture of learning.
Develop internal systems, policies and processes for effective philanthropy with a focus on incoming grants, contracts, and gifts, as well as on coordinating fundraising activities.
In collaboration with the Operations and Grants Management Teams, build and manage the technology infrastructure and related processes to support donor engagement, including expanding the usage of our CRM/database (Salesforce) to better track donor prospecting and incoming funds.
Prepare analyses/dashboards on fundraising activities; ensure that efficient processes and data guides decisions.
Partner with Operations, Grants Management, and other teams involved with donor and financial systems.
Develop systems and processes for coordinating development activities across teams including stewardship and prospecting.
Strengthen RLF’s fundraising performance with current donors and partner with RLF’s fundraisers to expand the diversity of RLF’s donor pool.
Research and evaluate new potential funders/philanthropic investors.
Work with the RLF team to expand and diversify the donor pool; strengthen the fundraising performance of donors, including size and number of gifts.
Develop and maintain an active list of donor prospects and an action plan for these prospects.
Maintain knowledge of regional and national funding environments as they relate to RLF and its funding opportunities.
Model effective development strategy, approaches, and techniques.
Support an organization-wide culture of philanthropy, as well as fundraising capacity among members of the RLF executive team and across all program staff.
Provide coaching and training opportunities to staff and board.
Collaborate with colleagues to understand the breadth of RLF’s work and seek opportunities for synergy of programs and/or projects.
Serve as a member of the organization’s leadership team.
As needed, serve as a representative and contact person at donor events, meetings, conferences, and other conversations.
Perform other duties and special projects as needed.