Job Title: Development Director
Reports to: Co-Executive Directors
Classification: Exempt
Salary Range: $80,000-$135,000
Location: Fresno Preferred; Regionally Remote in California Inland Empire considered
About Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability
Leadership Counsel fundamentally shifts the dynamics that have created the stark inequality that impacts California’s low income, rural regions. Based in the San Joaquin and Eastern Coachella Valleys, we work alongside the most impacted communities to advocate for sound policy and eradicate injustice to secure equal access to opportunity regardless of wealth, race, income, and place.
Through community organizing, research, legal representation, and policy advocacy, we impact land use and transportation planning, shift public investment priorities, guide environmental policy, and promote the provision of basic infrastructure and services.
Position Summary
The Development Director will be the lead strategist and project manager focused on bringing structure and imagination to the growing sophistication of our development activities, especially around foundation funding, individual giving, and special events. This role is both strategic and tactical, requiring the ability to think big while minding all the details. This role requires experience with development operations, including CRM management and budget building.
This individual is excited to deepen connections with current funders and engage new ones; is eager to implement a development plan; and enjoys managing and collaborating with staff and volunteers. They communicate effectively across all platforms and care about the details that make the difference between good and great.
This role reports to the Co-Executive Directors and works closely with them, as well as the Director of Operations. The Development Director will also be responsible for supervising and evaluating employees and will partner with other staff to promote an organizational culture of philanthropy.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
The Development Director can expect his/her/their work to include:
Foundation Relations (50%)
• Build relationships with current funders and conduct prospect research to ensure Leadership Counsel has a robust pipeline of local, regional, and national grant opportunities to pursue
• Create and manage a grant calendar to track all upcoming applications and reports, collaborating with staff as needed
• Ensure all notes on meetings, conversations, and relationships with foundations are recorded and that relationships with key foundation staff are prioritized and stewarded • Clearly and effectively draft dynamic, reader-friendly, and high-quality writing free of typos, jargon, and lackluster prose
• Execute upon the submission of an average of 5-8 grant applications and/or reports per month
Individual Giving (20%)
• Develop and manage initiatives, appeals, and campaigns focused on targeting new donors and stewarding existing donors
• Help develop creative and mission-focused fundraising messaging that effectively articulates Leadership Counsel’s work supporting community strength and co-powerment • Research, design, and lead the moves management plans for major individual donors • Project manage the Co-Executive Directors’ fundraising work, directing them where and how best to spend their time and efforts
Special Events (10%)
• Determine best combination of events to support program and organizational goals • Work with staff to plan and execute events, leading all development and revenue components
• Create and execute pre- and post-event constituent communications plans
Development Operations (15%)
• 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 Co-Executive Directors
• Spearhead development-focused data input and ensure accuracy in all records and development reports in Leadership Counsel’s CRM, PowerBase
• Work closely with Operations team to ensure data integrity
Program Engagement (5%)
• Develop and maintain relationships with community and organizational partners and other key stakeholders
• Participate in select meetings, gatherings, and convenings at least monthly to enhance relationships with staff, community residents, and partner organizations as well as to further understand the mission, values, and goals of the organization
• Maintain a strong understanding of the organization’s programmatic goals and activities
This job description is not intended to be all inclusive and the employee will also perform other reasonably related duties as assigned by the Co-Executive Directors.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities
The ideal candidate will possess:
• A Bachelor’s degree or comparable work experience
• At least 3 years of nonprofit development experience
• A commitment to working with and on behalf of low-income communities • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to authentically convey Leadership Counsel’s voice
• A strong degree of comfort and efficacy in engaging a diverse population of stakeholders including residents, partner organizations, funders, vendors, and community • Experience with CRM systems and data management
• An excitement to propose fresh ideas without prompting by leadership, open to feedback on those ideas, and persistent enough to bring them to life
• An outgoing, flexible, and creative nature with the ability to thrive in a collaborative, evolving environment
• Strong ethical standards and belief in the importance of working at the intersection of fundraising, advocacy, and movement-building
• The availability to work regular evening and weekend hours in support of Leadership Counsel’s programs
• The ability to travel within the State of California and up to 1-2 times per year out of state • Access to a personal vehicle and insurance coverage
• Fluency in Spanish (preferred)
COVID-19 Vaccination Requirement
COVID-19 vaccinations required (including boosters when eligible). Leadership Counsel will abide by all exceptions to the vaccination requirement required by applicable law. Specifically, an employee may be entitled to a reasonable accommodation exempting them from the vaccine requirement if:
• The employee has a physical or mental disability that prevents the employee from taking the vaccine; or
• The employee has a sincerely held religious belief, practice, or observance that prevents the employee from taking the vaccine.
Compensation and Benefits
The salary for this position is $80,000 - $135,000 annually, and compensation is commensurate with experience. Currently offered benefits for full-time positions include:
• Up to $70 monthly cell phone reimbursement
• 100% employer-paid health, vision, and dental insurance for employee • 50% employer-paid health, vision, and dental insurance for employee's dependent(s) • Up to 6% 401(k) match for employee
• Annual professional development allotment
• 16 accrued paid vacation days per year and additional paid vacation days after 4 years of employment
• 15 accrued paid sick leave days per year
• 12 paid holidays per year
• Paid family leave
How to Apply
Candidates should send the following to hiring@leadershipcounsel.org with Development Director in the subject line:
• Resume
● Cover letter containing salary range and available start date
● A writing sample that is authored solely by the candidate and relevant to fundraising work
Physical Requirements & Work Environment
The physical demands listed are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of the job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Ability to drive frequently and for up to 8 hours in a day to community meetings, hearings, conferences and other related activities, ability to work long days occasionally up to 14 hours in a day, ability to conduct door-to-door outreach and conduct meetings, lifting materials and supplies such as chairs, easels, tables. Typically, these will weigh 30 pounds or less. Position involves remaining in stationary position for most of the workday. The employee is regularly required to move or remain in stationary position. This position requires the ability to perform clerical duties in the office and operate computer and related office machinery. The employee is occasionally required to move self. Specific vision abilities required by this job include the ability to observe details at close range or from a distance. Other abilities required by this job include the ability to communicate information and ideas so that others understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations.
This position typically functions indoors in an office environment with light to moderate noise associated with business office equipment. The position may involve travel for meetings and events.
Employees share office space with one or more other staff members. Out-of-office meetings will include meetings in other offices, in community centers, in homes, in government buildings, and outside.
This position engages in functions both indoors and outdoors, in office environments with light to moderate noise, and in community gathering venues, private homes or government buildings with both small and large groups of people where noise levels may be higher than in a typical office setting.
Equal Employment Opportunity & Accommodations
Leadership Counsel is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer, and strictly prohibits any unlawful harassment and/or discrimination against applicants for employment or anyone in its employ based on sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or related medical conditions), marital status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity (including transgender status), gender expression, religious belief or practice, race (including natural hairstyle or hair texture related thereto), color, national origin (including possession of a driver’s license issued under Vehicle Code Section 12801.9 which authorizes licenses to individuals who cannot provide satisfactory proof of their presence in the U.S. under federal law), ancestry, age (40 and over), physical or mental disability, medical condition (including cancer-related physical or mental health impairment or history of same), genetic information, military and veteran status or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state or local laws. To comply with applicable laws ensuring equal employment opportunities to qualified individuals with a disability, Leadership Counsel will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with a disability who are applicants or employees unless undue hardship would result. Any applicant or employee who requires an accommodation in order complete the application process or to perform the essential functions of the job should contact their supervisor or one or both of the co-executive directors to request the accommodation.