Director of Development

Tzedek DC is a public interest center headquartered at the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law with a second office in ward 8. Found in 2016, Tzedek DC’s mission is to safeguard the legal rights of DC residents with low incomes dealing with often unjust, abusive, and illegal debt collection practices, as well as other consumer protection problems like credit reporting issues, identity theft, and predatory lending. Tzedek DC provides direct legal services for DC residents with debt issues, advocates for fairer policies nationally and in the District of Columbia, and conducts community-based financial empowerment programs. Tzedek DC has been recognized as “one of the best” nonprofits in the Greater Washington region.

We value diversity and strongly encourage applications from people of color, people with disabilities, bilingual and bicultural people, people from immigrant communities, people of all genders, veterans, and LGBTQ community members. For further details, see www.tzedekdc.org.

About the Role

Tzedek DC is seeking our first Director of Development. This is an ideal opportunity for an entrepreneurial, proven development leader to join an impactful organization focused on both direct and systemic change at a critical moment of growth.

Reporting to the Executive Director, this newly created position will be the lead strategist and project manager focused on growing Tzedek DC’s roughly $3 million (excluding in-kind) revenue portfolio. The Director of Development will lead, manage, and coordinate all fundraising efforts to increase the organization's support from individuals, law firms, other corporations, foundations, and government. The successful candidate will also identify, cultivate, and solicit major donors and execute major fundraising events annually. The Director of Development will also supervise staff responsible for Tzedek DC’s communications and will be expected to actively engage in shaping donor-facing messaging and outreach strategies.

The Director of Development’s work may include:

Leadership and Development Strategy

• Foster an intentional and coordinated culture of philanthropy across Tzedek DC.
• Develop, manage, execute, and update Tzedek DC’s development and stewardship plans to achieve annual revenue goals.
• Ensure a robust gift pipeline big enough to hit annual revenue goals.
• Participate in strategic planning for Tzedek DC to ensure development plans align with and are in service of evolving organizational goals.
• Collaborate with board members to create individual development goals, based on their unique networks, to support the organization’s mission.
• Work with cross-functional departments to determine funding priorities and asks and ensure coordination among teams engaging in external-facing efforts to leverage fundraising opportunities.

Fundraising and Donor Relations

• Research, design, and lead the moves management plans for major individual donors and corporate partners.
• Manage and develop initiatives, appeals, and campaigns focused on targeting new and stewarding existing individual donors, including the annual fund, recurring giving, and planned giving.
• Project manage the executive director’s fundraising work, directing him where and how best to spend his time and efforts on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis.
• Identify and articulate priorities for new foundation prospect research and review grant proposals and reports.
• Oversee and actively participate in the full lifecycle of government grant processes, including prospect identification, proposal development, reporting, and renewal strategies to ensure alignment with organizational goals and funding requirements.
• Lead the development and refinement of donor communications to ensure messaging is compelling, consistent, and aligned with Tzedek DC’s mission, values, and fundraising goals.

Fundraising Event Management

• Determine best combination of events to support program and organizational goals, developing new and engaging events as necessary.
• Collaborate with the Tzedek DC team in the development and implementation of concepts, themes, and formats for the organization’s signature event, Eat Well Do Justice (EWDJ), in order to engage supporters and grow revenue.
• Steward host committee members to secure members, sponsorships, in-kind gifts, and other event-based revenue.
• Oversee all aspects of EWDJ, including budgets, program, revenue strategy and solicitations, vendor management, and volunteer coordination prior to, during, and after events to ensure flawless efficiency and optimal attendee and sponsor experience.
• Collaborate with the assistant director of development on all event communications.
• Create and execute pre- and post-event constituent plans to recognize key supporters and utilize the event to further relationship building strategy.
• Evaluate event effectiveness and oversee financial reporting and data transfer.

Development Operations and Revenue Tracking

• Establish and monitor annual and long-term revenue goals and budgets.
• Design and update a regular progress-to-goal report and development dashboard for the leadership team.
• Provide financial reports and advice to the board.
• Maintain the quality of development-focused data by ensuring all staff are consistently using Salesforce and adhering to a common logic as detailed in an SOP manual.

Staff Supervision

• Manage two full-time staff members (assistant director of development and development associate) including supervision, training, and coaching
• Oversee an event consultant and possible other consultants

About You

To be maximally successful in this role, you need to be:

• A born project manager with a knack for working backwards from a deadline to create a plan
• A team player with a sense of humor
• Accustomed to working on multiple projects with different deadlines simultaneously
• A natural people person who appreciates that everyone has an important story to tell
• A dynamic, professional, and poised brand ambassador for Tzedek DC
• A reliable and friendly communicator who reaches out and follows up
• A practiced public speaker who can think on your toes
• A stickler for details and quality
• A caretaker of sensitive information about donors and others in the organization’s community
• A strong self-motivator
• A creative thinker willing to test out new ideas

You need to have:

• A minimum of 7 years of nonprofit development experience
• A minimum of 3 years of nonprofit leadership experience
• Demonstrable experience as a fundraising generalist, with hands-on practice at major gifts, annual giving, special events, online giving campaigns, recurring and planned giving, institutional giving/grant writing, and corporate partnership building
• In-depth experience working in close partnership with senior management and board members on major philanthropic initiatives and campaigns
• Enthusiasm to propose fresh ideas without prompting by leadership, openness to feedback on those ideas, and a persistence to bring those ideas to life
• An excellent working knowledge of CRM systems for donor and revenue management; Salesforce experience preferred
• Experience with and knowledge of the Washington, DC funder community is preferred
• Communications experience is a bonus

About Location, Compensation and Benefits

• Hybrid: One to two days per week in one of our Washington, DC offices and in-person development meetings in DMV area
• Health, group life, and dental insurance. Monthly wellness reimbursement.
• 403B plan after year of service
• Paid time off
• Professional development provided
• The salary for this role is $120,000-$150,000