Posted: 05-Mar-24
Location: Washington, D.C.
Type: Full Time
Salary: $130,000 to $160,000
Salary Details:
Preferred Education:
Additional Information:
Director of Development
Title: Director of Development
Classification: Full-time Salaried, Exempt Position
Salary: $130,000 to $160,000, negotiable based on experience
Reports to: President/CEO (with Executive Vice President/CFO)
Location: Remote
The Director of Development will lead fundraising for the organization and play a key role in coordinating grant development and other fundraising efforts with internal partners throughout the organization. They will develop and drive a multi-year strategy to mobilize resources for and expand the fundraising capacity of the organization. This is a unique opportunity to join an organization about to undergo a bold, new strategic planning process with a new leader who is both passionate and deliberate about CSSP’s commitment to racial justice and vision of being an anti-racist intersectional organization. This is a new position that will report directly to the President/CEO and also work closely with the Executive Vice President/CFO and be a member of the executive leadership team. The successful candidate will have not only a strong fundraising track record, but also a deep commitment to social justice and exceptional team-building skills. Candidates also should be able to demonstrate an ability to build and maintain effective fundraising processes, to set priorities (personally and organizationally), and to identify new funding opportunities. Experience developing or managing a CRM system is highly desirable.
During fall 2023, with the help of a development consultant, we identified opportunities to better leverage staff talent and to strengthen internal collaboration to improve organizational performance. This work provides a menu of strategies that will be shared with the Director of Development to build out CSSP’s capacity, close gaps to elevate fundraising results and diversify funding. The Director of Development will work closely with CSSP policy leaders and members of the Executive Leadership Team, including the Director of Communications, the CFO, and the CEO. This position also will work directly with the Board of Directors on fundraising.
Your Scope of Work
In this role, you will lead the development and execution of CSSP’s fundraising strategy, including revenue goals and the approaches to fulfil them. This will be a distributed exercise including multiple project teams. You will have the opportunity to contribute to the strategic planning process before devising and driving the resource mobilization strategy that will bring it to life. This position will report directly to the President and CEO but will also work closely with the Executive Vice President and CFO. Once the fundraising capacity is established and in place with financial results, you will be supported by a development manager, who you will help hire and will help with report writing, internal coordination, grants management, and donor outreach, among other tasks.
In alignment with identified key priorities, we anticipate your initial focus will be on the following areas:
Relationship Development and Short-Term Planning
- Rapidly build relationships and rapport with CSSP staff, especially fundraising leads
- Learn about and meet CSSP’s major funders; map out systems to centrally track and collaboratively cultivate CSSP donor relationships; and support CSSP CEO donor outreach.
- Develop a six-month fundraising plan to drive priorities and strategies during the strategic planning process, prior to creating a multi-year funding plan.
- Research and begin outreach on new donor opportunities for unrestricted and high priority program funding.
- Contingent on funding, participate in hiring CSSP development manager in 2025
Strategic Planning
- Participate in strategic planning process and Executive Leadership Team discussions about strategy.
- Develop a resource mobilization plan for the strategic plan that is ready soon after the strategic plan is complete. Work with the Executive Leadership Team on an implementation plan with revenue targets and benchmarks.
- Identify priority funding streams for fundraising team expansion (e.g. corporate or major gifts).
- Contribute ideas to leadership and strategic planning teams about how to leverage the 50th anniversary of CSSP to build CSSP’s brand and donor support.
- Help identify innovative board engagement strategies to be incorporated into the strategic plan or organizational practices.
Technology and Tools
- Explore and help procure optimal fundraising platforms for CSSP (e.g. prospect research, wealth screening, database software, industry publications, etc.); consolidate existing tools internally.
- Leverage new tools to create timely prospect research reports and donor cultivation plans to secure new operating funds and program funding in priority areas (aligned with strategic plan).
- Partner with other leadership team members to shape requirements for and then procure, beta-test and launch a new CRM system, with an initial focus on fundraising data and reporting.
Capacity Building
- Collaboratively develop new internal processes to strengthen internal information sharing and internal coordination on fundraising.
- Establish a committee of internal fundraising leads and develop procedures, roles and responsibilities to empower this group and understand program needs and priorities.
- Develop a process for determining go/no-go decisions for major grant opportunities.
- Test out new event models with a call to action for funding.
- Regularly share new opportunities and status of grants in progress and under review in ways that ensure wide circulation.
- Promote joint team planning and proposals that maximize revenue potential and lift up the brand.
- Work closely with communications team to integrate fundraising into regular CSSP communications and, potentially, support brand-related initiatives.
About you
We are looking for someone who shares a passion for our mission to achieve a racially, economically, and socially just society in which all children and families thrive, and who is inspired by the opportunity to help drive new fundraising strategies and lift up the strengths of the CSSP teams, which have considerable grant-writing capabilities, as well as other senior staff who are seasoned in fundraising.
- You are a strategic thinker who has built and helped drive the successful execution of fundraising strategies to meet strategic goals, ideally including launching new revenue streams.
- You are highly motivated by and deeply committed to our organization’s values. You actively apply an anti-racist, intersectional approach to the work to better serve historically marginalized groups. You help create a culture that is inclusive, equitable, and inspires engagement and curious learning.
- You continuously practice a growth mindset. You welcome feedback, are open to new ideas, and support personal growth and development and organization-wide improvement.
- You are a strong communicator who is fluent in change management strategies and capacity building. You have a proven track record of success in implementing change and building connectivity and new capacities across an organization.
- You have experience working with C-Suite and other senior staff and leveraging their knowledge and connections to drive positive fundraising outcomes.
- You ground your work in developing relationships externally with donors and partners and internally across teams and individuals to collaborate, build buy-in, work cross functionally, and influence others.
- You are a strong communicator, both with your colleagues, but also in collaboration with communications professionals to leverage social media and other tools for fundraising.
- You are data and results driven and have demonstrated success in setting goals and leading teams to accomplish them.
About CSSP
The Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP) is a national, non-profit organization that connects community action, public system improvements, and policy change. We work to achieve a racially, economically, and socially just society in which all children and families thrive. To do this, we translate ideas into action, promote public policies grounded in equity, support strong and inclusive communities, and advocate with and for all children and families marginalized by public policies and institutional practices. We are headquartered in Washington, DC, with staff working remotely across the country. At CSSP, we recognize the long and devastating history of racism and discrimination in our country. For the past 15 years, we have intensified our focus on racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, and immigrant rights, including strengthening our organizational capacity to do this work in collaboration with community. We are committed to holding anti-racism and intersectionality as core values, doing this work with systems and communities, and including deep historical research as a foundational part of our work developing and advancing programmatic and policy ideas. CSSP is committed to working towards being an anti-racist organization and to identifying and eliminating aspects of White supremacy in our policies and culture.
What We Offer
CSSP offers an annual salary of $130,000 - $160,000 for this position, commensurate with skills and experience. We also offer a comprehensive benefits package for all full-time employees, including 100% employer paid medical, dental, and vision plans for employee coverage. Other benefits include 100% employer paid disability and life insurance, a generous paid vacation and holiday schedule including winter and summer breaks, paid parental leave, and 11% employer-paid retirement contributions after one full year of employment. CSSP also provides cell phone and internet stipends, professional development funds, and the ability to work remotely. This position would require six to eight trips per year if not located in the Washington, DC area.
How to Apply and Other:
Qualified applicants should send a cover letter with salary requirements and resume to jobs@cssp.org (subject: Your Name – Director of Development). In your cover letter, please be sure to indicate where you found this position announcement. The interview process will include phone screening, panel style interviews, and final interviews. Finalists will also be asked to participate in a short, written exercise.
Due to the large number of applications, emails and phone calls to CSSP will not be accepted/reviewed.
Applications accepted until April 12 or until the position is filled.
CSSP is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without unlawful discrimination based on race, color, creed, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender expression, military status, prior record of arrest or conviction, citizenship status, current employment status or caregiver status.
Ideal candidates will also have:
- A minimum of 10 years of progressive leadership experience in fundraising, including leading fundraising for a social impact or non-profit or in a significant leadership role with direct impact on meeting revenue goals and financial outcomes.
- Direct experience securing five, six, and seven figure gifts.
- Demonstrable knowledge of the philanthropic sector and experience leading complex grant production efforts.
- Experience in government grant writing, corporate fundraising, CSR partnerships and familiarity with brand strategy all a significant plus.
- Demonstrated experience in a range of operational and technology skills, such as prospect research, wealth screening, donor data management, and ideally experience using CRMs to track outcomes and measure progress toward fundraising milestones.
- Experience developing effective fundraising strategies and implementation plans for a team and measuring outcomes.
- Experience and understanding of a range of fundraising approaches, including individual, major gifts, corporate, philanthropic, and government fundraising (and/or other mass market approaches).
- Demonstrated ability to build relationships, develop rapport, and strengthen coordination processes within and among teams.
- Experience in the social service sector, a results orientation and a strong commitment to racial justice required.
- Personal and professional understanding of intersectionality, anti-racism, inclusion, and power dynamics and how these play out across teams and organizations.
- Strong problem-solving and interpersonal skills.
- Ability to work well with people with a very wide diversity of demographic and cultural characteristics; must be capable of achieving results while maintaining an inclusive, collaborative leadership style.
- Strong personal effectiveness, integrity, credibility, discretion, humility, and accountability.
- Comfort operating with a high level of independence and efficiency, coupled with a desire to lead and be part of high-performing teams.