Director of Development

The Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) Society is a small 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to building a world without NEC, a devastating neonatal intestinal disease. The NEC Society cultivates a collaborative culture where staff work together to produce high-quality, impactful work. All team members contribute to upholding and advancing the organization’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

You can learn more about the NEC Society’s work to advance NEC research, education, and advocacy by visiting NECsociety.org/faq/.

Position Overview:

The NEC Society is in search of a Development Director. This position will report to the Executive Director, and work closely with all members of the NEC Society team. The Development Director will be responsible for implementing the NEC Society’s comprehensive development plan.

This position is both strategic and tactical, as it is responsible for updating and managing the NEC Society’s annual development plan, as well as executing that plan. The ideal candidate is a development generalist with a clear grasp of all core components of non-profit development, with particularly strong experience in individual giving, including annual and online giving campaigns, peer-to-peer fundraising, major gifts, monthly giving, and individual stewardship. The candidate must be familiar with corporate partnerships and grant writing. This role requires experience managing development operations, ranging from data management in the CRM to gift-processing, to financial projection and reconciliation, as well as building trust and authentic relationships with the Board of Directors, patient-families, clinicians, and donors who care deeply about the organization’s mission.

This position requires effective leadership skills to collaborate as a team player with donors and partners, as well as internally as a member of the NEC Society team. Excellent written and oral communication is essential, along with development operations, and donor relationship management. This individual is motivated to deepen connections with current donors and engage new ones.

The NEC Society team works remotely and can be based anywhere in the continental US. Team members collaborate across time zones ranging from EST to PST and are available for occasional night and weekend community events, some of which require travel. In addition to our national team, NEC impacts babies around the world, so we occasionally adjust our workdays to accommodate our community members in other countries. The NEC Society is a small but mighty team that relies on each other’s flexibility and responsiveness to propel their life-saving mission.

The Development Director is a full-time, salaried, and exempt position, and the compensation is $83,000 - $104,000 per year, depending on experience. All full-time, salaried, and exempt positions are eligible for participation in NEC Society’s Retirement Savings Account.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Leadership and Development Strategy (25%)

• Manage and implement NEC Society’s development and stewardship plans to achieve annual revenue goals.
• Track and measure success of development strategies against annual goals and provide progress reports to leadership, at least on a quarterly basis.
• Update existing development and stewardship plans annually with new ideas, industry best practices, and data-driven analysis.
• Ensure a robust gift pipeline that is substantial enough to achieve annual revenue goals by actively managing relationships with prospective and current donors and funders.
• Participate in strategic planning for NEC Society to ensure development plans align with and are in service of evolving organizational goals and programmatic outcomes.
• Collaborate with the Executive Director and staff team to deepen engagement and expand the Board of Directors to ensure Board duties are fulfilled and advance the organization’s vision.

Individual Giving (35%)

• Lead the strategy for major gifts, including identifying prospects and managing a portfolio of major donors to cultivate and solicit for major gifts.
• Collaborate with the Executive Director to be the primary point of contact for all individual donors, of all sizes.
• Project manage the ED’s fundraising work, directing her where and how best to spend her time and efforts on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis.
• Conduct prospect research on new and existing donors in order to set goals and relationship plans for donors accordingly.
• Lead strategy, execution, and evaluation of all annual direct response campaigns focused on developing new donors and retaining existing mid-level and smaller dollar donors.
• Recruit, manage, and support peer-to-peer fundraisers to support the NEC Society’s two largest annual appeals, NEC Awareness Month and End-of-Year, where results are largely driven by family fundraising teams and individual donors.
• Manage, authentically engage, and grow the community of monthly donors.
• Provide support and guidance to all community members who host their own fundraising events to support the NEC Society (3rd party fundraising) throughout the year.
• Manage the execution of the NEC Society’s donor stewardship plan and update it annually with new and meaningful ways to connect donors and foster a sense of community.

Institutional Funding (10%)

• Expand on and optimize the NEC Society’s Champions program by organizing and refining benefits and ensuring the NEC Society’s Champions are actively engaged.
• Identify and pursue relationships with potential corporate partners (NEC Society Champions) and foundation partners.
• Manage relationships with existing NEC Society Champions, including ensuring that all promised benefits and expectations are coordinated with the Communications Manager and delivered as promised.
• Lead the process of writing and submitting compelling grant proposals and ensure adherence to reporting deadlines for active grants.

NEC Symposium Fundraising (10%)

• Collaborate with the planning and leadership team to spearhead all sponsorship outreach and management for the NEC Symposium, which occurs every two years.
• Create and execute pre- and post-event constituent and sponsor cultivation plans.

Communications (10%)

• Work closely with the Executive Director and Communications Manager to ensure the annual communications plan is coordinated with the annual development strategies.
• Work with the Communications Manager to develop creative and mission-focused fundraising messaging that effectively articulates the special role and impact of NEC Society’s work.
• Manage segmentation of donor audience and collaborate with Communications Manager and Executive Director on targeted donor communications.
• Serve as a collaborator and editor for regular communications and marketing materials.

Fundraising Planning, Tracking and Operations (10%)

• In partnership with the ED, establish and monitor annual and long-term revenue goals and budgets. Design and update regular progress-to-goal reports and the development dashboard.
• Ensure high-quality donor data tracking, to ensure accurate and thorough documentation of all development activities.
• Design, update, and maintain donor reports to evaluate fundraising progress and planning efforts.
• Use the CRM to enter and track relevant information to build engaging donor relationships, build contact lists, and produce and evaluate progress.
• Partner with ED and the NEC Society’s external contracted accountant, working together to ensure accurate reporting and coding of all revenue.
• Conduct weekly gift processing and donor acknowledgments, including preparing and sending thank-you letters and other donor stewardship material.

Qualifications

We encourage applications from strong, mission-driven candidates. We are looking for someone with relevant skills and experience, not a checklist that exactly matches the job description. We want to help you grow, and in return, you help us grow into a stronger, more inclusive, and effective organization. Attributes of a strong candidate are:

• Commitment to building a world without NEC and dedication to our babies and families
• At least 5 years of nonprofit development experience or other directly relevant expertise
• Experience in building and implementing a development plan
• Demonstrable experience as a fundraising generalist, with hands-on practice in major gifts, annual individual giving, relationship building, corporate outreach and partnerships, and online giving campaigns
• Outstanding verbal and written communication
• Committed to prioritizing DEI and eagerness to safeguard our community and organization from current threats to research, science, health, and DEI
• Uphold and advance our organizational values:
  • Center the needs of patient-families
  • Advance research and science
  • Build an ever-more inclusive community
  • Collaboration
  • Leadership
• Enthusiasm to propose fresh ideas without prompting from leadership, acceptance of constructive feedback, and persistence to bring effective ideas to life
• Experience managing and improving development operations, ranging from CRM management to budget monitoring to gift processing
• Skilled in developing and maintaining thoughtful personal relationships with donors, patient-families, clinicians, and industry stakeholders
• Masterful project management skills utilized to work on multiple simultaneous projects with different deadlines, with a sharp eye on details, quality, and accuracy
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced environment with little oversight to execute the approved development plan
• Must pass pre-employment background check

Compensation and Benefits

• Salary range $83,000-$104,000, commensurate with experience
• Seven observed national holidays and 80 hours of paid time off each year
• Optional participation in NEC Society’s Retirement Savings Account
• Flexible hours
• Uplifting team culture
• Remote work environment
• Healthcare coverage

NEC Society’s Inclusivity Statement

The Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) Society is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan organization that deliberately prioritizes diversity. We are committed to building an inclusive community where all individuals and groups belong. The NEC Society intentionally supports the empowerment of women, people from diverse backgrounds, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, and groups that have been historically marginalized. We are stronger together. Together, we are better equipped to build a more just, equitable world without this devastating disease. Join the global NEC community that’s bringing together families, healthcare providers, and diverse stakeholders to prevent NEC. We encourage all qualified candidates to apply for this position.

To Apply

Interested applicants should send an email to Hiring@NECsociety.org with “Development Director” in the subject line and include:

• A cover letter to introduce yourself that answers the following questions:
  • Why is a world without NEC important to you?
  • Why do you want to work for the NEC Society?
  • What experience do you have working with small nonprofit organizations?
  • What are your salary requirements?
• Your resume
• An individual-giving focused writing sample, such as an appeal or acknowledgment letter