About WEPOWER: 

WEPOWER is building a team full of dreamers and doers. We partner with Black and Latinx communities to build power to re-design education, economic, justice, and health systems to be just and equitable for all. We build powerful relationships with community members and amplify their voices to inform critical decisions that impact their lives. We train community members to design new policies, organize, and lead policy and systems change. We provide early-stage companies with access to coaching, capital, connections, and community as they create jobs in the communities with whom we partner. We envision a future where systems are accountable to powerful communities that have been historically oppressed, and nurture our freedom, well-being, dreams, and joy. We are building a powerful movement led by everyday people. Join us! Let’s build something new and beautiful together.

About the Opportunity: 

Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), the Director of Development (DoD) is an exempt full-time employee. The Director of Development will help ensure the organization is financially sustainable and able to execute our four-year strategic framework as we scale from a startup to an established organization that achieves bold systems transformation. This includes management of (1) donor relation tracking, data analysis, and reporting, (2) grant management, (3) and cultivating and stewarding new donors while also supporting other members of the team with doing so. The DoD is especially responsible for fostering a culture of fundraising that is deeply relational and anti-racist, particularly pushing the team and board to practice the 10 Principles of Community-Centric Fundraising.

Together We Will Celebrate: 

• Achievement of our annual fundraising goals that align with our four-year strategic framework.
  • 2021: $2 million
  • 2022: $2.5 million
  • 2023: $2.88 million
  • 2024: $3.30 million
• Significant growth in the number of and diversity of new donors and continuous growth of donor retention.
• Improvement and management of a strong grant management system.

You Will: 

Continue to develop and innovate WEPOWER’s annual development strategy in a way that models our values and the 10 Principles of Community-Centric Fundraising.

• Engage in weekly coaching and professional development experiences facilitated by WEPOWER’s fundraising consultant/coach and fully immerse oneself in fundraising training opportunities made available.
• Track and analyze development data from previous years to set ambitious yet achievable goals and benchmarks in the years ahead that consider all appropriate revenue streams.
• Make development projections that align with the annual budget projections.
• Partner with the CEO and Board to refine and develop strategies, assign leads for the various strategies, and map out schedules to execute strategies.
• Oversee research funding sources and trends, with foresight, to help position WEPOWER ahead of major funding changes or trends.
• Work with the CEO to manage the Board’s Development Subcommittee.
• Monitor and report regularly on the progress of the development program.

Manage the process of growing and diversifying WEPOWER’s community of donors.

Donor Relations

• Manage backend coordination of development efforts that supports the CEO and board with the implementation of strategies and action plans to cultivate and steward high capacity donors and prospects.
  • Manage systems and software to track and cultivate donors and prospects, including our donor database.
  • Leverage the system to schedule and coordinate frequent communications and outreach to current and prospective donors.
  • Manage the coordination of communications in between meetings and convos including thank you notes, updates on organizational impact, and creative tokens of appreciation.
  • Efficiently track and monitor all communications, actions, events, and commitments for each partner in the portfolio in Salesforce to ensure a positive and consistent investor experience.
• Manage the process to expand the donor pipeline and cultivate new donors through research, and managing the CEO and board to build relationships.
  • Complete donor research and briefs.
  • Prep materials for meetings with current and prospective donors.
  • Continuously leverage the donor database to analyze the current donor base and manage the process of growing the number of monthly and annual recurring donors
  • Communicate fundraising goals throughout the organization and equip the team. members, especially the CEO to reach them.
• Work with the CEO to identify staffing needs, interview candidates, and on-board well-qualified team members to support development efforts.
• Work with the CEO, board, and the CEO’s administrative assistant to respond quickly and comprehensively to requests for follow-up, clarification, and additional information with the aim of demonstrating the appreciation and value we place on our donors’ support.
• Prepare materials for board and board-level development committee meetings to ensure our board members are informed of progress to goal and confident in our key strategies.

Grant Management

• Manage a grants manager or consultant who identifies grants, writes grants and grant reports.
• Work with the grants manager or consultant and finance team to ensure grant requirements are met and tracked against the budget.

You Are: 

• Thorough. You ensure that one’s own and others’ work and information are complete and accurate; carefully preparing for meetings and presentations; following up with others to ensure that agreements and commitments have been fulfilled. You set up procedures to ensure high quality of work. You monitor the quality of work and verify the information. You check the accuracy of own and others’ work. You develop and use systems to organize and keep track of information or work progress. You carefully prepare for meetings and presentations. You carefully review and check the accuracy of information in work reports (e.g., production, sales, financial performance) that you create or provided by other management, management information systems, or other individuals and groups.
• An Effective Communicator. Your communication, both internal and external, written and verbal, is clear and effective. You know how to listen to understand the context and share information in a way that is clear and useful to the recipient and is most likely to get the results you are seeking.
• A Relationship Builder. You have the ability to work with others. You recognize and reinforce people’s developmental efforts and improvements. You express confidence in others’ ability to be successful. You convey confidence in people’s ability to be successful, especially at challenging new tasks; delegating significant responsibility and authority; allowing freedom to decide how they will accomplish their goals and resolve issues. You have a genuine design to get to know others, their stories, interests, and visions for their community.
• A Champion of Racial & Cultural Identity Development. You are self-aware including consciousness of your social identities, cultures, biases, and perspectives. You are aware of your internalized superiority and/or internalized inferiorly. You also have knowledge and appreciation of the social identities, cultures, and worldviews of other people. You consider the larger socio-political and historical context of which we are part. You have a grasp of different forms of privilege and oppression and how they affect people’s experiences, opportunities, and access to social power. You have ability to adapt to and work collaboratively with diverse people in a range of situations. You understand that people’s social identities affect their interpersonal, communication and work styles, as well as their views of conflict, notions of leadership and sense of time (among many other things). You are also able to identify and address inequities and choose appropriate interventions to create environments, policies, and practices to ensure diversity, equity, justice, and fairness.
• Results-Oriented. You have the ability to take direct action in order to attain or exceed objectives. You set high standards and define challenging yet feasible objectives. You evaluate regularly what the situation is regarding your objectives. You take directive action when objectives are in danger of not being attained. You look for alternatives when certain actions have not led to a desired result. You look actively for the best way to achieve goals, and consider your options carefully. You mobilize means and people, even when others need to be persuaded of its necessity. You redirect processes regularly, focusing on objectives. You do not give in, and you look actively for alternative possibilities when confronted with adversity.
• Entrepreneurial & Strategic Leadership. Creator and innovator who develops new insights into situations and encourages new ideas and innovations and designs and implements cutting edge processes. Position the organization for future success by identifying new opportunities and developing or improving the strategies over time. Take calculated risks. Resilient and deal effectively with pressure; remain optimistic and persistent, even under adversity. Take initiative, have a strong work ethic, and drive towards transformative results. Strategic agility allows for proactive anticipation of future consequences and trends accurately, pivot as needed, and think strategically and analyze data as a means of capitalizing on opportunities and mitigating risk. The ability to obtain information and identify key issues and relationships relevant to achieving a long-range goal or vision. Commitment to a course of action to accomplish a long-range goal or vision after developing alternatives based on logical assumptions, facts, available resources, constraints, and organizational values.

Your Experience and Education include: 

• Minimum of five years experience in fund development
• Demonstrated success cultivating and closing gifts of $2,500 and more
• Experience working with a board of directors
• Bachelor’s degree preferred

Work Environment: 

• Fun. Fast. Focused. Values-driven. Community-centered. Collaborative. Innovative. Lots of brainstorming and imagining what’s possible and then chasing each possibility until it is reality!
• As a startup, being part of the team at WEPOWER requires extreme commitment and agility, AND we value each team member’s personal life circumstances and priorities. We will work together to ensure the organization prioritizes the health, social-emotional wellbeing, and morale of each team member! Some evening and weekend work will be expected.
• When sound public health guidance indicates it is reasonable again, there will be 24-hour access to a co-working space with printing, conference rooms, phone booths, snacks, drinks, and the opportunity to be in community with other innovators, entrepreneurs, and entrepreneur support organizations.

Travel: 

You will engage in limited travel with the exception of professional development experiences that align to your short-term and long-term development goals and areas of interests.

Compensation: 

The salary and benefits package will be highly competitive with other organizations of similar stature and size. The salary range is $58,000-$68,000.

Equal Opportunity Employer: 

At WEPOWER, we don’t just accept differences — we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it for the benefit of our team, our programs, and our community. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, veteran status, political affiliation or belief, or genetic information.

This position description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee. Other duties, responsibilities and activities may change or be assigned at any time with or without notice.