Director of Development, Washington DC

Director of Development, Washington, D.C.

Reports to: Executive Director, Washington, D.C.

Functional Responsibilities: Fundraising & Development

Position Overview:

The Director of Development will manage all internal development planning and will serve as one of the external faces of the New Leaders DC program. The Director of Development is responsible for meeting our growing annual fundraising goal of $1.29M by securing revenue from private and public sources in the local community. They will need to significantly increase and diversify support from the local private philanthropic community and public funding streams to ensure a sustainable local funding base, which is necessary to support our DC program. He/She will manage up to the Executive Director to engage existing and new funders as champions of New Leaders' mission. This individual must be comfortable in an entrepreneurial environment, possess an exceptionally high level of personal responsibility, and be equally comfortable managing back-end processes, engaging with donors, and creating strategy. The Director of Development must be extremely goal-oriented, a strong project manager, a detail-oriented executor and communicator, and possess good relationship instincts.

The Director of Development will know the DC funding landscape, and increase their knowledge through self discovery and information gathering so that he/she can hone in, with focus and strategic insight, on the biggest opportunities and challenges in development in the DC area. Then, the Director of Development pushes forward on those opportunities and challenges by:

I. Creating the long range city development vision and annual strategic and operating plans

• Partner with the Executive Director to create a compelling three-year strategic development plan
• Set ambitious revenue goals, as well as various benchmarks ensuring a diversified and sustainable funding base to achieve both immediate and long term development goals
• Assess progress to goals during regularly conversations and quarterly reviews with national development staff, identify what is propelling and impeding progress, create and suggest solutions to improve performance, and adjust course as necessary

II. Cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding donors

• Research and qualify current and prospective donor base to identify opportunities to increase and diversify revenue
• Attend networking events to meet prospects and cultivate relationships, individually and with other staff
• Build and execute a strong portfolio management system to help grow and diversify the DC team's funding base
• Initiate contact with corporate and foundation prospects and cultivate relationships;
• Prepare Executive Director for donor interactions and communications and own follow-up
• Design and present presentations and attend meetings with prospects and donors, alone or with other staff
• Write and prepare all funder communications, ensuring alignment with national messaging
  • Develop high-quality grants and reports
  • Develop sponsorship requests and acknowledgements
  • Develop presentations for meetings and presentations
  • Engage funders and prospects to secure, steward and grow gifts and grants; cultivate current donors and prospects via phone, written communications and in-person interactions
  • Plan various events, including school visits, to engage and cultivate prospective and existing funders
  • Act as the liaison with the national marketing team in developing high-quality collateral

III. Managing execution effectively

• Ensure timely collection of pledges while providing excellent customer service to donors
• Support the executive director in local advisory board management by developing the local board, preparing for board meetings and corresponding with board members
• Create, improve, and manage tracking, reporting and administrative processes for proposals, gifts and acknowledgements, documenting in SalesForce
• Collaborate with ED, city program team and national staff to manage existing district relationships and to capture additional public funding opportunities
• Develop a deep understanding of the budget and coordinate with national staff to develop budgets and fulfill other reporting requirements

• Leverage national resources and support to execute all of the above efficiently and excellently

Skills, Experiences & Competencies:

• Belief that every student, in every circumstance can achieve the highest levels of academic excellence
• A minimum of seven to ten years of professional experience strongly preferred
• Previous experience with development, fundraising or track record of revenue generation preferred
• Uncommon level of personal responsibility with exceptional goal orientation and a proven track record of success
• Operates with and values a strong customer service approach to our funding community
• Experience executing projects to reach and exceed ambitious goals
• Critical thinker with an ability to think strategically, drive analysis, and solve problems creatively and effectively
• Strong storyteller who is able to articulate in a compelling manner what is inspiring about our work and why our work is critical to the broader education reform movement
• Superb interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to motivate superiors, peers, and external audiences to concrete results
• Exceptional communication skills (oral and written)
• Exceptional organizational skills, with an ability to manage multiple tasks and projects simultaneously and thrive in an entrepreneurial, fast-paced environment.
• Must be proficient in MS Word, Excel, and Powerpoint
• Previous experience working with SalesForce preferred

Important Application Notes:

If you are planning to apply for more than one position, please specifically address each position you are applying for in your cover letter.

If after submitting materials you decide to apply for an additional position, please re-write your cover letter to reflect this and resubmit. If you do not indicate your interest in a position, you will not be considered for it.

Although we encourage you to apply for any positions you are both interested in and consider yourself qualified for, we ask you to be careful when attaching yourself to more than one requisition.

Your cover letter should include:

• An explanation of your interest in the New Leaders mission
• An explanation of your interest in the position for which you are applying
• An explanation of anything unusual in your resume (more than one year employment lapse or a major shift in your career interest)

New Leaders is an equal opportunity employer. New Leaders evaluates applicants for employment on the basis of qualifications, merit and work-related criteria without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, mental or physical disabilities, pregnancy, childbirth, medical condition, marital status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Please note all offers of employment are subject to and contingent upon the successful completion of a background check.