Development Director

ABOUT CHILDREN’S ALLIANCE

Children’s Alliance is Washington’s statewide children’s advocacy organization. Our 42-year-old organization works to place racial justice at the heart of Washington’s laws and budget priorities so that every child can thrive. From our offices in the SoDo neighborhood in Seattle, we rally a small but mighty team of staff, a committed board and more than 7,000 members across the state to advocate passionately on issues affecting children and their families.

The Development Director plays a key role in accomplishing this ambitious goal by leading efforts to secure financial support. Through a strategic focus on donor acquisition, personalized stewardship, grant seeking, and events, they create meaningful opportunities for individuals, foundations, and corporations to invest in our mission and ensure every child in Washington can thrive.

DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

The Development Director provides strategic leadership and oversight of Children’s Alliance’s statewide network of supporters and fundraising portfolio, advancing our mission to drive racially equitable state and federal policy change. Our funders include statewide and national organizations.

This role will hire and supervise the Donor Relations Manager. With support from this position, the Development Director leads all fundraising activities, including identifying prospects, cultivating relationships, and stewarding individual, corporate, and foundation donors. They also plan and execute annual fundraising campaigns, special initiatives, and events.

The ideal candidate will demonstrate strong strategic thinking, the ability to design and implement effective donor acquisition strategies, and a talent for leading personalized donor engagement efforts. The Development Director is a key member of the Children’s Alliance Leadership Team, which advises on operational decisions and contributes to financial and governance strategies.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND CORE FUNCTIONS

Donor Relations (60%)

• Design and implement targeted donor acquisition strategies, including one-on-one meetings, outreach campaigns, and digital fundraising initiatives to expand our community of supporters.
• Develop and execute personalized stewardship plans for major donors, ensuring timely recognition, impact reporting, and engagement opportunities.
• Lead personalized donor engagement efforts by serving as the primary ambassador for the organization’s fundraising initiatives—building and nurturing one-on-one relationships with prospective and current donors to inspire investment and long-term support.
• Collaborate with the senior leadership team and others to identify and cultivate prospective funders, as well as steward current funders.

Strategic Fundraising Efforts (20%)

• Establish, track, and evaluate key metrics for fundraising programs using meaningful data to continually improve practices and inform future revenue goals.
• Manage organization’s fundraising campaigns, including annual fundraising events, year-end campaign, organizational membership campaign, GiveBIG and other donation campaigns.
• Collaborate with the Communications Director to develop and implement effective donor communications and marketing materials. This includes crafting compelling messaging that resonates with potential donors, creating donor recognition programs, and designing targeted appeals that inspire giving.
• Work in partnership with the Board of Directors, Resource Development Committee and Executive Director to grow the Board’s fundraising capacity.

Organizational Leadership (15%)

• As a member of Children’s Alliance’s Leadership Team, participate in strategic discussions regarding Children’s Alliance’s direction and tactics and work with other members of the management team to ensure timely implementation, efficient communication and coordination of decisions.
• Champion a culture of philanthropy that is consistent with and enhances the organization’s antiracist values.
• Develop and manage the annual income and expense budgets for the department; approve all departmental expenditures; and contribute to the development of Children’s Alliance overall annual budget.

Supervision (10%)

• Directly supervise and support the Donor Relations Manager (to be hired).
• In collaboration with Children’s Alliance’s Administrative Manager, oversee staff supervision and development efforts, including drafting and refining job descriptions, hiring and supervising existing staff, and supporting professional development.

Qualifications

• Minimum of five years of relevant fundraising work experience ideally in a nonprofit setting.
• Minimum of three years of experience in prospecting, cultivating and managing relationships with non-profit donors to meet fundraising goals.
• Proven ability to attract and retain donors through strategic fundraising approaches, including the use of customer relationship management (CRM) systems to track engagement and apply data insights to improve donor outreach, giving patterns, and long-term support.
• Experience supporting an Executive Director and Board of Directors in efforts to reach fundraising goals.
• Demonstrated success applying racial equity practices in your work.
• Excellent verbal and written skills, creativity, independent judgment, attention to detail, accuracy and strong editing skills.
• Possess intellectual curiosity about the effects of public policy on Washington’s families.
• Be prepared for guidance, evaluation, and high performance in a hybrid office setting.
• Demonstrate proficiency in Microsoft Office, CRM systems such as Bonterra/EveryAction, and other standard PC applications.

Children’s Alliance offers a flexible hybrid work environment, 12 days of paid vacation in the first year with incremental increases in subsequent years, 14 paid holidays, monthly cellphone stipend, retirement plan with matching contributions, life and disability insurance. Children’s Alliance heavily subsidizes employees and dependent health and dental coverage