Director of Development

Santa Barbara Education Foundation•Santa Barbara, CA

1d•$110,000 - $125,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Director of Development plays a critical role in expanding the philanthropic investment that makes that work possible. By building long-term relationships with individuals, foundations, businesses, and community partners, this position helps create sustainable support for students and educators and strengthens SBEF’s long-term impact in Santa Barbara. SBEF is seeking a strategic, relationship-driven Director of Development to lead and grow the Foundation’s fundraising and donor engagement efforts. The Director will build and manage a comprehensive, year-round development program designed to increase philanthropic investment in Santa Barbara’s public schools and strengthen long-term relationships with individuals, foundations, businesses, and community partners. This is an opportunity to help shape the next chapter of SBEF’s growth by moving beyond primarily event- and campaign-driven fundraising toward a disciplined development program built around donor identification, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, retention, and increased giving. The ideal candidate is both strategic and hands-on, energized by building relationships and creating systems that support sustainable fundraising growth. This is a full-time, exempt position reporting to the Executive Director. The position is based onsite at SBEF’s office in the heart of Santa Barbara, with regular in-person work required for engagement with donors, community partners, Board members, and SBEF events.

Requirements

Strong fundraising strategy and development-planning skills, including goal setting, pipeline development, revenue forecasting, budgeting, and performance measurement.
Demonstrated major-gift cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, and relationship-management skills with individual donors and prospects.
Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, including the ability to develop compelling donor communications, cases for support, proposals, and grant materials.
Strong relationship-building skills with executive leadership, Board members, donors, institutional funders, corporate partners, educators, community leaders, and volunteers.
Strong project-management and organizational skills, with the discipline to manage multiple priorities, deadlines, donor relationships, and development initiatives effectively.
Experience establishing and managing donor database/CRM standards, pipeline practices, reporting, segmentation, and data integrity.
Builds and grows a comprehensive, year-round development program while balancing long-term strategy with hands-on execution.
Cultivates trusted donor relationships and conducts donor meetings and solicitations with confidence, professionalism, and sound judgment.
Moves multiple fundraising priorities forward independently while maintaining strong organization, initiative, adaptability, and follow-through.
Analyzes fundraising performance, donor pipelines, and revenue trends and translates insights into practical strategies and next steps.
Collaborates effectively across functions and with the Executive Director, Board members, donors, Programs, Events & Marketing, Operations, finance resources, and external partners.
Exercises strong judgment, discretion, and confidentiality when handling donor information, gift matters, organizational priorities, and sensitive relationships.
Leads and coordinates contractors, consultants, grant-writing resources, volunteers, and future Development staff as organizational capacity grows.
Maintains regular onsite presence in Santa Barbara, participates in donor and community meetings, and supports occasional evening and weekend events and cultivation activities.
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and professional experience.
Ten (10) or more years of progressively responsible nonprofit development, fundraising, advancement, or related experience.
Demonstrated success cultivating and soliciting individual donors.
Experience with major gifts, institutional giving, corporate partnerships, sponsorships, or annual giving.
Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States.
This position is subject to a California Department of Justice/FBI Live Scan background check following a conditional offer of employment.

Nice To Haves

Experience within education, youth-serving organizations, foundations, or the Santa Barbara philanthropic community is highly desirable.
Familiarity with the Santa Barbara community and a demonstrated interest in contributing to its educational and civic well-being is highly desirable.
Experience leading staff, contractors, consultants, volunteers, or cross-functional fundraising initiatives is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

Develop and implement SBEF’s annual fundraising and development plan in partnership with the Executive Director.
Establish annual fundraising goals, revenue targets, development budget priorities, strategies, timelines, and performance measures.
Build a diversified fundraising program that includes individual giving, major gifts, corporate partnerships, foundation and institutional grants, annual giving, sponsorships, planned and legacy giving, and multi-year commitments.
Develop a multi-year donor pipeline to strengthen the Foundation’s long-term financial sustainability.
Identify opportunities to increase unrestricted and flexible philanthropic support.
Regularly evaluate fundraising performance and adjust strategies based on results.
Provide development reports and dashboards for the Executive Director and Board of Directors.
Provide regular revenue forecasts and manage the development budget in partnership with the Executive Director, with financial data and controls supported by finance and accounting resources.
Build and manage a qualified portfolio of prospective and existing major donors, generally including gifts of $10,000 or more, with clear relationship ownership and next-step strategies.
Develop individualized cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies for priority donors and prospects.
Conduct donor meetings and participate in solicitations with the Executive Director, Board members, and other organizational leaders as appropriate.
Research and identify prospective donors with an interest in public education, youth, literacy, arts, educational equity, and other SBEF priorities.
Develop strategies to move donors toward increased and multi-year giving.
Create meaningful opportunities for donors to understand and experience SBEF’s impact.
Develop strong donor stewardship and recognition practices.
Strengthen donor retention and re-engage lapsed donors.
Develop and implement a planned and legacy giving strategy appropriate to SBEF’s donor base, including identification, cultivation, stewardship, and long-term relationship building.
Develop and manage a pipeline of foundation and institutional funding opportunities.
Research prospective grantmakers and assess alignment with SBEF priorities.
Manage grant calendars, proposals, letters of inquiry, reporting requirements, and deadlines.
Collaborate with the Executive Director and Programs Manager to develop compelling proposals supported by strong program data and outcomes.
Maintain relationships with foundation representatives and institutional funders.
Develop a comprehensive corporate engagement strategy.
Identify and cultivate relationships with Santa Barbara-area businesses and corporate partners.
Develop sponsorship opportunities that align corporate investment with SBEF’s mission and programs.
Create opportunities for businesses to engage through philanthropy, sponsorship, employee involvement, and other partnerships.
Steward corporate partners throughout the year rather than limiting relationships to individual events.
Develop donor cultivation and engagement opportunities throughout the year.
Lead the fundraising strategy for SBEF signature events and campaigns.
Own the fundraising purpose, revenue goals, donor strategy, and sponsorship strategy for fundraising events; partner with the Events & Marketing Manager on event project management and logistics, promotion, collateral, external communications, and sponsorship fulfillment.
Ensure events support SBEF’s broader donor acquisition and cultivation strategy.
Develop strong post-event follow-up processes designed to convert attendees and prospects into ongoing supporters.
Evaluate events based on donor acquisition, engagement, retention, and long-term fundraising value in addition to immediate revenue.
Own the fundraising case for support, donor audience and segmentation strategy, solicitation strategy, and fundraising message priorities; partner with the Events & Marketing Manager on creative development, production, channel execution, and brand consistency.
Ensure fundraising messages clearly connect philanthropic investment with student and educator impact.
Support the development of SBEF’s annual impact reporting and donor communications.
Help maintain consistent messaging across fundraising and community engagement efforts.
Own DonorPerfect/CRM governance, including data standards, coding structure, portfolio and pipeline requirements, donor segmentation, reporting expectations, and data integrity.
Establish and oversee consistent processes for gift acknowledgment, donor recognition, prospect tracking, stewardship, and reporting, with transactional support assigned to administrative resources as capacity allows.
Ensure appropriate donor-data confidentiality, access standards, and quality controls; establish clear ownership for routine entry, cleanup, and maintenance.
Track fundraising activity and performance against established goals.
Develop systems to track the donor pipeline from identification through solicitation and stewardship.
Coordinate cross-functionally on gift processing, reconciliation, restrictions, designation, and financial reporting, while retaining Development accountability for donor intent and CRM records.
Ensure compliance with applicable charitable solicitation requirements and SBEF gift acceptance policies.
Partner with the Executive Director to meaningfully engage the Board of Directors in fundraising.
Help Board members identify ways they can contribute to donor cultivation, introductions, stewardship, and community engagement.
Provide Board members with appropriate tools, messaging, and preparation for donor outreach.
Support the Development Committee or other fundraising-related Board committees as appropriate.
Lead and coordinate development contractors, consultants, grant-writing resources, volunteers, and future Development staff as SBEF’s fundraising capacity grows.