Director of Advancement

Position: Director of Advancement

Organization: Youth Speaks, Inc.

Supervisor: Executive Director

Direct Report(s): 2

Hours per week: 40 hours/week (full-time, exempt)

Compensation: $120K-$130K annually, DOE

Benefits:

• Medical, dental, vision, FSA, life, and long-term disability insurance plans
• Generous time off including 5 accrued vacation days, 5 personal days, 12 sick days, 11 federal holidays, 4 Youth Speaks holidays, 1 floating holiday, org-wide winter closure, and a monthly wellness day

About the Organization:

Youth Speaks is a multi-faceted BIPOC-led and staffed organization that understands that the power, insight, creativity, and passion of young people change the world. Founded in 1996 in San Francisco, Youth Speaks is the leading nonprofit presenter of Spoken Word performance, education, and youth development programs in the world.

Presenters of local and international youth poetry slams, festivals, reading series, and more, Youth Speaks also offers a comprehensive slate of literary arts education programs during the school day, in the out-of-school time, on weekends, and evenings. All told, Youth Speaks provides free arts education to thousands of teens per year in the San Francisco Bay Area, and across the country.

POSITION OVERVIEW: As Director of Advancement (DA), you will play a vital role in setting an ambitious vision and strategy for fundraising at Youth Speaks that supports our innovative arts education, public presentation and narrative change programs. The Director of Advancement is an integral part of our Strategy Team (Executive Team). You will create annual and long-term fundraising goals across revenue streams, with a primary focus on individuals, government grants, and local and national foundations, that advance the organization’s strategic priorities. This position requires visionary leadership, bold fundraising outlook and expertise, and a passion for the transformative power of youth storytelling and the arts.

We are looking for a bold leader who can joyfully secure and sustain deep investments in Youth Speaks’ vision for the next 26 years. The strongest candidates will have a track-record of: managing a portfolio of multi-year, six-figure institutional gifts; identifying and stewarding major donors and audience members; excellent written and conversational communication skills; is a natural relationship builder who enjoys developing authentic rapport with foundation staff and major donors.

The Director of Advancement reports to the Executive Director, and manages three full-time employees, and will have access to resources to hire consulting support as needed.

In the first two years, the Director of Advancement will be responsible for:

• Creating and implementing a strategy to grow and diversify our donor base
• Shaping a culture of philanthropy on our Board and supporting board members to leverage their networks to benefit Youth Speaks’ mission, impact and programs
• Identify and steward donor relationships and growing funding from current donors and new networks
• Communicating about Youth Speaks’ inspiring programming that connects donors to our work
• Achieving the organization’s annual revenue goal (FY24 $3M) and identifying $500k in potential new funding

Define Fundraising Vision & Strategy

• Set an ambitious vision and strategy for fundraising at Youth Speaks, with a primary focus on individuals and foundations, that advance the organization’s strategic priorities
• Partner with the Executive Director, Deputy Director and Director of Narrative Change & Field Building to lead effective pipeline, forecasting and progress to goal conversations
• Support Executive Director, Director of Narrative Change & Field Building with their portfolios
• Ensure that the organization is operating in ways that ensure strong data integrity and accurate impact reporting
• Lead all fundraising execution

Leadership & People Management

• Serve as the Executive Director’s strategic partner
• Supervise, guide, and coach 3 FTE Advancement Team staff (Director of Grants & Foundations, Strategic Partnerships Manager, and Advancement Associate)
• Integrate use of organization-wide systems, processes, and rituals (e.g., annual and quarterly goal setting, employee engagement surveys, All-Staff meetings, retreats)
• Contribute to the development of a growing, fast-paced organization, including hands-on participation in events and programming, as well as database and technology oversight and maintenance (e.g. Mailchimp, LinkedIN, Network for Good, Benevity, Airtable)
• Coordinate, lead and set deliverable for weekly Advancement Team Meetings and 1:1s with director reports
• Anticipate fundraising outcomes and create smart pivots and/or contingency plans to mitigate risk
• Collaborate with Youth Development & Arts Education Director and Director of Narrative Change & Field Building to translate programmatic efforts into creative, impactful appeals to prospective funders
• Communicate organizational decisions and manage Advancement Department to fulfill org-wide revenue goals and staffing needs
• Work to catalyze a culture of deep collaboration and human-centered leadership within the Advancement Department and across the organization
• Partner with the Sr. People & Culture Manager to hire and onboard Advancement staff members, as needed and contingent on budget
• Conduct mid-year and end-of-year performance reviews with direct reports via Culture Amp
• Commit to providing feedback to improve our collective work
• Exceptional ability to lead “courageous conversations” and effectively support direct reports when deliverables and/or performance expectations are not met

Marketing & External Communications

• Work closely with the Communications Director to align donor-facing narratives and general external communications campaigns
• Manage the creation of sponsorship letters, event decks, and reports
• Draft and distribute quarterly donor-facing narratives, yearly appeals, and stewardship e-newsletters
• Translate programmatic impact data into informative and inspirational stories and “beyond the numbers” appeals to donors

Donor Events & Public Talks

• Lead annual fundraising gala goals, program, guest list and post-event debriefs with staff that advances the organization’s collective learning and fundraising efficacy
• Coordinate annual funders’ brief with 20-30 local, regional and national funding partners and field leaders (virtual with potential to become in-person Spring/Summer 2024)
• Develop creative strategies that effectively and ethically monetize Youth Speaks events and thoughtfully cultivate new relationships
• Source 3-5 values-aligned speaking engagements and conference opportunities annually for Executive Director and leadership staff
• Serve as host of Youth Speaks fundraising and special events

Corporate Strategy, Sponsorships and Bookings

• Cultivate and steward corporate supporters through poet booking opportunities, volunteer opportunities, event invitations, and more
• Oversee the creation of sponsorship letters, decks, and reports
• Manage sponsorship benefits

Board Development

• Serve as the board liaison, managing the scheduling, team preparation, and logistics of monthly Development Committee board meetings
• Present reports and progress to goal updates in quarterly board meetings, serving as a staff representative of the Advancement Team
• Help manage and document Board meetings and an annual Board retreat, as requested by the Executive Director
• Help identify/recruit non-board fundraising committee members
• Help create and institute give/gets for each board member
• Coordinate with the Communications Director to gather fundraising assets and materials to support Board Members and other volunteers to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward current and potential donors and funders

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or at least 7 years of experience and passion for and deep fluency in frontline fundraising, preferably in individual and/or foundation giving
• Fundraising expertise that includes leading the entire donor lifecycle with individuals and institutions resulting in 5, 6, and 7-figure gifts
• Experience working with boards of directors to engage the Board’s networks in playing a catalytic role in the organization’s ability to fundraise
• Experience working on a development team that successfully forecasts and conducts regular progress to goal conversations
• Experience coaching full-time staff members toward strong job performance and satisfaction
• Live in the San Francisco Bay Area or willing to relocate
• Experience using fundraising software, grants management systems, and donor databases such as Network for Good and Submittable
• Experience creating and managing departmental budgets of $500k
• Stellar written and oral communication skills
• Stellar interpersonal and people management skills
• Cultural competence and excellent cross-cultural communication skills
• Attend bi-weekly, in-person All-Staff meetings in San Francisco, CA
• Personal qualities of integrity, credibility, intellectual curiosity, creativity, and commitment to and passion for Youth Speaks’ mission

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience raising $5M+
• Experience working in corporate philanthropy
• Experience managing public-private partnerships
• Professional experience working in arts and culture institutions
• Experience with public funding (i.e. San Francisco’s Department of Children, Youth and their Families (DCYF), National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), Governor's Office)
• Experience developing plans for earned income/revenue
• Speaks at least one language in addition to English

General Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Manage a portfolio of 30+ institutional funders with the goal of securing renewals and cultivating new opportunities to raise no less than $3M annually towards current and future operating needs
• Identify and implement strategies overall fundraising strategy for Youth Speaks, with focus on securing multi-year, unrestricted gifts for general operations, organizational capacity-strengthening
• Lead the implementation of a fundraising plan that works closely with Advancement, MarComms and Finance Teams
• Lead prospecting of new institutional, individual, and corporate support with the Advancement Team
• Manage a fundraising department with a strategic eye towards scaling their department as funding also grows
• Work with the Executive Director to refine current earned revenue strategy
• Play a key role in developing and implementing revenue through earned income
• Management and oversight of Individual Giving Program, Institutional Giving Season, Corporate Support (cash & in-kind), Annual Fund, Special Events, Capital Campaign, and Membership
• Management and oversight of grant seeking and grant writing efforts
• Attend and research local and national events to cultivate relationships with stakeholders and community partners, as requested by Executive Director
• Coordinate with Deputy Director and Finance Department on procedures and policies for tracking and reporting grant activities
• Prepare and manage the Advancement Department expense budget
• Track developments in the field of philanthropy; engage with colleagues and senior development professionals across the philanthropic sector to learn about, assess and adopt best practices in financial resource and donor development

OUR FUNDRAISING PHILOSOPHY & READINESS

We recognize that the traditional nonprofit business model has been built and sustained by an inequitable economic system of extractive capitalism. A major focus over the last two years has been to innovate Youth Speaks’ quarter-century of impacts while creating a visionary operating budget that is also sustainable. Youth Speaks works to embed fundamental development and fundraising knowledge as a core part of each team’s workstreams; we integrate a development lens and culture so that our staff can actively seek partnerships, more deeply understanding the inner mechanics of philanthropy, and learn to steward relationships that can lead to deeper engagement and broader support for Youth Speaks’ mission. We are well-positioned to engage an increasingly expansive community of funder-partners that care deeply about racial equity, artistic innovation and authentic youth voice. Given the growing influence and visibility of storytelling, transformative culture and youth power across the country, we believe it is essential to advocate for bold investments that will help set-up and prepare the today’s youngest generation of culture-makers to become the leaders of their greatest imagination.

MISSION & VISION

Youth Speaks creates spaces that challenge young people to develop and amplify their voices as creators of societal change.

Youth Speaks envisions a world in which young people are heard, honored, and connected through creative ecosystems of interdependence and care.

To Apply

Please email your cover letter, resume, and at least 3 professional references to employment@youthspeaks.org with the subject line “Director of Advancement.” This position will remain open until filled.

EEO/AA

Youth Speaks is an equal-opportunity employer. We strongly encourage and seek applications from women, people of color, including bilingual and bicultural individuals, as well as members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities. Job applicants and staff shall not be discriminated against because of race, religion, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, color, marital status, or medical conditions.

Youth Speaks will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of San Francisco’s Fair Chance Ordinance.

• No phone calls, please.

Due to the anticipated volume of applications only candidates for interviews will be contacted.

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