Director of Development

The Merrimack River Watershed Council (MRWC) seeks a full-time Director of Development.

About MRWC: MRWC is a nonprofit environmental organization that engages in water quality assessment and ecological restoration. We work with diverse stakeholders, decision makers and communities to address threats including water pollution, habitat loss, aging infrastructure, and climate change. MRWC has a main office in Lawrence,Massachusetts and a secondary office in Concord, New Hampshire. However, MRWC works throughout the entire 5,000 square mile watershed, which begins in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and flows out to the ocean at Newburyport and Salisbury, Massachusetts.

About the Position: The Director of Development (DD) will serve as a key senior leadership team member and operate a one-person development shop. The DD will create and implement a long-term strategy to solidify and diversify MRWC’s funding base and build its constituency of committed and informed supporters. Primary fundraising efforts to include individual giving, peer-to-peer fundraising events, corporate giving and special events. The DD will report directly to the Executive Director.

Key Responsibilities:

• Leadership and Strategy
  • Design and implement a comprehensive development plan with measurable revenue and non-revenue goals related to cultivating individual, corporate, foundation, event and volunteer philanthropic support.
  • Strategically prioritize and pursue new funding streams.
• Individual Giving
  • Expand and diversify MRWC’s donor base.
  • Manage a portfolio of medium-to-high priority prospects and donors to deepen their connection to MRWC and increase multi-year support.
  • Cultivate and solicit major gifts and grants and steward high priority donor relationships.
  • Work closely with and assist the Board of Directors on Board-led fundraising efforts.
  • Create and facilitate distribution (mail and social media) for annual appeals.
• Events
  • Manage and grow MRWC’s current annual events.
  • Identify, create and execute new events
  • Develop relationships with and steward businesses to maintain a robust pool of corporate sponsors for events.
• Administration
  • Oversee all development department functions and procedures, including timely and accurate donation processing.
  • Develop written and electronic communications for all development activities, appeals and events.
  • Assure sound fiscal operation of the development department, including the creation of budgets and reporting on activities.
  • Oversee the effective utilization of MRWC’s donor database (Little Green Light), including cleaning data and re-organizing database structure.
  • Review use of PayPal as fundraising tool for peer-to-peer activities and determine optimum platform for growing peer-to-peer fundraising.

Qualifications:

Above all, we seek an individual who is motivatedto take on new challenges and believes in the revenue-generating work needed for MRWC to be sustainable in delivering on its mission. The ideal candidate is a collaborative self-starter with drive and enthusiasm.

• Experience in creating, presenting and implementing fundraising strategic plans.
• Demonstrated success in a development leadership role.
• Experience creating and managing events.
• Experience supporting peer-to-peer fundraising.
• Excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication skills.
• Experience leveraging social media for fundraising.
• Experience working with a fundraising database.
• Ability to manage and prioritize a wide range of projects.
• Familiarity and community connections within the Merrimack River watershed is not required but is a plus.
• Multilingualism is not required but is a plus

Location: This position is based out of our Lawrence, MA office. Regular travel should be expected for donor visits and events throughout both Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

Schedule: Full-time exempt with optionsfor flexible scheduling. This position requires occasional early morning or evening meetings, and occasional weekend events.

Salary and Benefits:

Starting salaryis dependent on experience with a starting range of $85,000-$95,000. Benefits package includes health/dental insurance (90% employer contribution) and an SIMPLE IRA with company match.

To Apply:

Send a cover letter and resume to careers@merrimack.org with the subject line “Director of Development.” Applications without a cover letter will not be reviewed. No calls, please.

MRWC is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer.