Founding Board Member For Survivor-Led Nonprofit: Early Fundraising Strategy

About Women’s Survivors Network

Women’s Survivors Network is a survivor-led nonprofit building a trusted ecosystem of support, resources, education, and leadership pathways for women affected by abuse.

WSN supports survivors across the longer journey of understanding abuse, escaping harm, stabilizing, healing, rebuilding, and eventually leading. Our work is trauma-informed, survivor-centered, culturally responsive, systems-aware, and grounded in dignity, agency, clarity, and care.

As a founding-stage organization, WSN is building the financial, governance, programmatic, and relational foundation needed for responsible, sustainable growth.

Position Summary

WSN is seeking a strategic, values-aligned board member who can help shape the organization's early fundraising direction and build a realistic foundation for long-term financial sustainability.

The Founding Working Board Member – Early Fundraising Strategy Steward contributes through a governance and light system-building lens. This person helps the Board understand fundraising pathways, donor readiness, revenue opportunities, funding risks, sequencing, and organizational capacity.

This role is not expected to personally raise all of WSN's funding or function as a full-time development professional. Instead, it helps WSN build a thoughtful early fundraising strategy, identify appropriate pathways, strengthen readiness, and ensure fundraising practices remain aligned with survivor dignity, confidentiality, mission integrity, and organizational sustainability.

Because WSN is a survivor-led organization, fundraising decisions must be informed by a meaningful understanding of abuse, trauma, coercive control, and the ethical responsibilities involved in supporting survivors. This understanding may come through lived experience, professional work, advocacy, research, volunteer service, or other sustained engagement. Applicants are never expected to disclose personal experiences of abuse.

A Shared Expectation for All WSN Board Members

At WSN, professional expertise alone is not sufficient for board service.

We seek board members who combine their professional skills with a meaningful understanding of abuse—whether familial, relational, workplace, institutional, or other forms of abuse—and a commitment to survivor-centered learning.

This understanding may be rooted in lived experience, professional work, advocacy, research, education, volunteer service, or sustained community engagement. Some board members arrive with deep subject-matter expertise. Others arrive with lived experience and continue building their understanding through shared learning. Both perspectives strengthen WSN's governance.

Applicants are never expected to disclose personal experiences of abuse.

Core Responsibilities

Early Fundraising Strategy

• Help WSN develop a realistic, phased fundraising strategy for its early stage.
• Support identification of appropriate funding pathways, such as individual giving, grants, philanthropic relationships, sponsorships, institutional support, in-kind support, or mission-aligned partnerships.
• Help the board distinguish between immediate opportunities, longer-term opportunities, and opportunities WSN is not yet ready to pursue.
• Advise on fundraising sequencing, capacity, goals, and readiness.
• Help connect fundraising priorities to WSN’s strategic plan, program development, Pilot Zero learning, and future sustainability needs.

Fundraising Readiness

• Help identify what WSN needs before approaching donors or funders.
• Contribute to development of foundational materials such as:
  • case for support,
  • fundraising narrative,
  • donor-facing overview,
  • funding priorities,
  • basic prospect categories,
  • early donor stewardship practices,
  • grant-readiness checklist,
  • fundraising policies or ethical guidelines.
• Help ensure public fundraising language is accurate and does not overstate WSN’s current capacity, programs, reach, or outcomes.
• Support realistic alignment among fundraising promises, program readiness, operations, and governance.

Funding Research and Opportunity Assessment

• Help identify potential funders, donor communities, philanthropic networks, grant programs, or aligned funding opportunities.
• Support evaluation of funding opportunities for:
  • mission alignment,
  • restrictions,
  • reporting requirements,
  • organizational burden,
  • reputational considerations,
  • sustainability,
  • survivor confidentiality and dignity,
  • risk of mission drift.
• Help WSN determine when funding is worth pursuing and when the cost, pressure, restrictions, or misalignment may be too high.
• Encourage thoughtful due diligence before WSN accepts significant or highly visible support.

Donor and Funder Relationships

• Help identify appropriate relationship-building strategies for prospective donors and funders.
• Make warm introductions when appropriate and mutually agreed upon.
• Participate selectively in donor or funder conversations when helpful.
• Help WSN think about donor stewardship, transparency, communication, and trust.
• Encourage clear boundaries so donors do not receive inappropriate access to survivors, confidential information, program influence, or governance authority.

Finance Committee Participation

• Participate actively in the Finance Committee.
• Help connect fundraising strategy with budgeting, cash needs, sustainability, reserves, program timing, and financial risk.
• Collaborate with the Treasurer, Finance Board Members, Executive Director, and other committee members.
• Bring fundraising opportunities and concerns into committee discussions without becoming solely responsible for financial oversight.
• Help the committee consider both revenue opportunities and the organizational cost of pursuing them.
• Support committee recommendations for the full board when fundraising decisions require board approval.

Ethical and Survivor-Centered Fundraising

• Help develop fundraising practices that protect survivor dignity and agency.
• Support boundaries around storytelling, testimonials, imagery, and personal information.
• Ensure survivor stories, names, quotes, identifying details, or confidential pilot information are not used without separate and specific permission.
• Encourage fundraising communications that avoid exploitation, sensationalism, savior narratives, or pressure-based storytelling.
• Help ensure donors understand that financial support does not create access to survivors or control over WSN’s mission.

Bring a Survivor-Centered Lens to Fundraising

• Help ensure fundraising strategies reflect survivor dignity, agency, and long-term trust.
• Consider how fundraising decisions, messaging, donor expectations, and funding relationships may affect survivors and WSN's mission.
• Support ethical fundraising practices that avoid exploitation, sensationalism, or pressure-based storytelling.
• Encourage funding strategies that strengthen survivor services while preserving organizational independence and integrity.

Ideal Background

Strong candidates may bring experience in one or more of the following:

• nonprofit fundraising,
• development strategy,
• individual giving,
• major gifts,
• institutional philanthropy,
• foundation relations,
• grant strategy,
• donor stewardship,
• fundraising communications,
• corporate philanthropy,
• nonprofit finance,
• startup or early-stage nonprofit development,
• social-impact strategy,
• board fundraising,
• community-based fundraising,
• philanthropic advising,
• campaign planning.

A candidate does not need experience in every fundraising area.

Prior nonprofit board experience is helpful but not required.

Strong candidates will also demonstrate a meaningful understanding of abuse and its long-term impacts.

This understanding may come through lived experience, advocacy, professional work, philanthropy, research, education, volunteer service, nonprofit leadership, or sustained engagement with survivor-serving communities.

Applicants are never expected to disclose personal experiences of abuse.

The ideal candidate understands that fundraising for a survivor-led organization requires balancing financial sustainability with ethics, survivor dignity, confidentiality, and long-term organizational trust.

Values and Leadership Fit

WSN is especially interested in someone who:

• Understands that sustainable fundraising is relational and strategic, not simply transactional.
• Can help a young organization prioritize rather than chase every opportunity.
• Balances ambition with realism, capacity, and ethical responsibility.
• Respects survivor confidentiality and dignity.
• Rejects exploitative storytelling and understands that trauma should not become fundraising currency.
• Can talk about money clearly and without shame, pressure, or unnecessary urgency.
• Understands the difference between fundraising strategy, financial oversight, and day-to-day development work.
• Is comfortable building early systems without overengineering them.
• Communicates clearly, directly, and compassionately.
• Collaborates well with finance, programs, partnerships, and executive leadership.
• Can identify both promising opportunities and hidden costs.
• Supports WSN’s survivor-led, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive approach.

Time Commitment

Approximately 4–6 hours per month, including:

• board meetings,
• Finance Committee meetings,
• meeting preparation,
• fundraising strategy development,
• occasional funding research,
• selected donor or funder conversations,
• light system-building support.

There may be occasional periods of increased involvement during fundraising planning, grant-readiness work, budgeting, major funding opportunities, or annual planning.

The role is intended to be active but sustainable.

Additional Leadership Opportunities

As WSN grows, board members may be invited to take on additional leadership responsibilities, such as serving as committee Co-Leads or supporting special governance initiatives.

These opportunities are based on organizational needs, demonstrated collaboration, board development, capacity, and mutual interest. They are not automatic components of any board role.

Inclusive Recruitment

WSN welcomes applicants across race, ethnicity, nationality, immigration experience, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, faith, socioeconomic background, professional pathway, and lived experience.

Survivors and people from communities historically excluded from nonprofit leadership and philanthropy are strongly encouraged to apply.

Lived experience is valued, but no applicant is expected to disclose personal trauma or survivor history.