Senior Development Officer

Vision to Learn•Los Angeles, CA

7d•Remote

About The Position

Vision To Learn (VTL) is a nonprofit organization that provides vision screenings, eye exams, and glasses to children in low-income communities using mobile vision clinics. The organization is funded by private philanthropy and public funding. Vision To Learn is the largest school-based vision care provider in the country, having served millions of children since 2012. The Senior Development Officer will strengthen VTL's fundraising program by leading donor stewardship, donor communications, and moves management for individual and institutional supporters. This role focuses on creating a disciplined, donor-centered experience with thoughtful strategies, timely actions, compelling communications, and consistent follow-through. The officer will manage a portfolio, assist in advancing priority donor relationships, translate program impact into engagement, coordinate leadership touchpoints, maintain data, and utilize moves-management practices. The role also involves direct donor cultivation and solicitation, and support for grant and fundraising activities. The ideal candidate is an exceptional writer, a proactive relationship builder, and a highly organized portfolio manager with strong judgment and warm, personalized donor engagement.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required.
Minimum of 5 years of fundraising and development experience, including direct responsibility for donor stewardship, portfolio management, and donor communications.
Demonstrated ability to apply moves-management practices and advance individual and institutional donor relationships through multiple stages of engagement.
Excellent writing and editing skills, with the ability to translate complex program information into clear, compelling, and donor-centered communications.
Experience cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding donors and funders.
Strong relationship-management skills and sound judgment when working with donors, executives, board members, and colleagues across functions.
Exceptional organization, project management, attention to detail, and follow-through across multiple relationships and deadlines.
Ability to use data and portfolio insights to prioritize activity, evaluate progress, and improve donor engagement.
Proficiency with development CRM systems.
Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a geographically distributed organization.
Passion for Vision To Learn’s mission.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree or relevant professional credential in nonprofit management, fundraising, communications, business, or a related field preferred.
Experience with major gifts, foundations, or corporate philanthropy strongly preferred.
Salesforce experience preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead stewardship planning for an assigned portfolio of individual donors, foundations, and corporate partners, focusing on retention, renewal, and increased engagement.
Develop tailored stewardship plans reflecting each donor’s interests, giving history, relationship stage, and preferred engagement channels.
Ensure donors receive timely acknowledgments, impact updates, reports, recognition, and other meaningful touchpoints.
Coordinate donor meetings, briefings, site visits, events, and other engagement opportunities, including preparation, staffing, and follow-up.
Partner with the Chief Growth Officer, President and CEO, board members, and other organizational leaders to plan and execute high-value donor engagement.
Track stewardship commitments and donor preferences to ensure a thoughtful, accurate, and responsive donor experience.
Manage donors and prospects through the full relationship cycle: identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, renewal, and upgrade.
Create and maintain clear relationship strategies, next actions, target asks, timelines, and ownership for each assigned donor or prospect.
Facilitate regular portfolio and pipeline reviews with the Chief Growth Officer and colleagues, identifying stalled relationships, opportunities, risks, and needed decisions.
Coordinate moves for priority relationships managed by senior leaders, preparing briefings and ensuring prompt follow-up.
Use portfolio data and donor behavior to segment outreach, prioritize effort, and recommend strategies for increasing retention, engagement, and giving.
Maintain complete, current, and accurate donor, prospect, gift, contact, and activity records in Salesforce or the organization’s designated development CRM.
Develop and manage a coordinated donor communications and stewardship calendar in partnership with the Chief Growth Officer and Communications colleagues.
Draft and edit high-quality donor-facing materials, including personalized outreach, acknowledgments, thank-you letters, impact updates, meeting briefings, proposals, reports, and renewal communications.
Translate program activity, data, and stories into clear and compelling messages tailored to different donor audiences and relationship stages.
Maintain consistency in voice, messaging, facts, and recognition across donor communications while preserving personalization.
Identify opportunities to improve donor communications, templates, workflows, and content based on portfolio insights and donor feedback.
Cultivate, solicit, and steward an assigned portfolio of individual and institutional donors and prospects, working towards agreed-upon relationship and revenue goals.
Build and deepen relationships with foundations, corporations, individuals, and other philanthropic partners.
Prepare tailored funding opportunities and asks that align donor interests with Vision To Learn’s mission, programs, and priorities.
Support selected grant proposals, reports, renewals, and funder communications, coordinating inputs from various departments.
Represent Vision To Learn in donor and funder meetings, regional events, site visits, and other external engagements.
Work closely with Communications, Operations, Finance, Human Resources, and program teams to gather accurate information and deliver coordinated donor engagement.
Help establish and monitor practical measures of portfolio health, including meaningful contacts, completed next steps, retention, renewals, upgrades, pipeline movement, and data quality.
Provide the Chief Growth Officer with clear, timely updates on portfolio progress, opportunities, risks, and resource needs.
Contribute to a collaborative, accountable development culture and undertake other fundraising and donor-engagement priorities as needed.