Senior Director, Foundation Prospecting and Stewardship Strategy - Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.

Overview

NRDC is a non-profit environmental advocacy organization. We use law, science, and the support of 3.1 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure the rights of all people to clean air, clean water, and healthy communities. NRDC was founded in 1970 and our people helped write some of America's bedrock environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act and many of the implementing regulations. Today, our team of more than 700 lawyers, scientists, economists, policy advocates, communications experts, and others work across the United States and the globe from our offices in Beijing; Chicago; New Delhi; New York; San Francisco; Santa Monica; and Washington, D.C.

NRDC is seeking a Senior Director of Foundation Prospecting and Stewardship Strategy to work with the Foundation Relations team and NRDC leadership.

Position Summary

The Senior Director of Foundation Prospecting and Stewardship Strategy has three key priorities: 1) create and implement procedures and tracking systems to develop donor pipeline for the Foundation team and, 2) support the development of stewardship and cultivation strategies for top Foundation accounts and 3) personally manage a targeted portfolio of top foundations prospects, all with the goal to grow NRDC’s annual foundation fundraising target by at least $10M within five years.

Reporting to the Managing Director of Foundation Relations, the Senior Director leads a team of two staff. One is focused on supporting donor stewardship, and the other manages the development of materials and creation of systems for the prospecting work of the Foundation Relations team. The Senior Director will lead efforts to identify new opportunities for program collaboration, streamline interdepartmental coordination, and support the resulting external relationship management. The Senior Director will also engage in direct fundraising by managing a portfolio of U.S. foundations. This includes top foundations as well as significant philanthropic collaborations of multiple funders and joint fundraising initiatives in partnership with other national nonprofits. The Senior Director will collaborate with a vast array of internal teams including the Development department teams who lead Moves Management, Research and Prospecting, and Donor Systems, as well as program and institutional leadership.

Responsibilities

• For both prospecting and stewardship, establish procedures and build systems in Salesforce and related tools to manage and track the engagement of foundations resulting in increased opportunities for revenue growth (15%)
  • Identify and monitor key performance indicators for the progress and engagement of foundations
  • With support of the Donor System team, develop a comprehensive dashboard for use in reporting and monitoring outcomes, relationships, and progress on overall targets
  • Ensure that the Foundation Relations team members understand these metrics and use them to advance and refine their work
• Create and manage a prospecting management system (35%)
  • Develop a robust approach and toolkit for foundation prospecting for NRDC opportunities that supports an increase in revenue of 20% over five years from current and new foundation sources
  • Convene a monthly prospect strategy meeting of Senior Portfolio Managers, the Director of Global Foundation Strategies, and the Assistant Director of U.S. Foundation Strategies to discuss individual foundations and institutional program priorities.
  • Supervise the Managing Writer for Strategic Priorities to expand NRDC’s foundation fundraising capacity by proactively developing a suite of essential materials for NRDC’s key priorities and emerging programmatic opportunities
  • Build a system for tracking formal and informal collaborations of foundations that may present new funding opportunities
  • Ensure the prospect research team and/or Senior Development Associate provide complete research on prospective new funders, monitors foundation websites and news media and shares relevant updates, tracks the giving history and areas of interest of current foundation funders, and maps relationships between foundations and identifies those held by NRDC leadership
• Develop and manage the systems and strategies for stewarding relationships with foundations (25%)
  • With input from the Managing Director of Foundation Relations, the Director of Global Foundation Strategies, and the Assistant Director of U.S. Foundation Strategies to:
    • Build and maintain procedures for developing, managing, and updating institutional strategies for each foundation that supports NRDC
    • Create and deploy a customizable menu of stewardship strategies such as webinars, site visits, program updates, and breaking news emails
    • Create talking points on key issues and questions often raised by foundations
    • Provide training and coaching to help staff, including program experts, to be clear and compelling in meetings with foundations
  • Guide and mentor the Senior Development Associate in executing needed stewardship functions, including:
    • Building and maintaining a calendar of funder engagement
    • Creating timely strategic briefing memos in collaboration with Senior Portfolio Managers for donor meetings
    • Supporting foundation meetings on grant progress for select significant grants
    • Proactively tracking upcoming major NRDC policy announcements and creating email updates, webinars, and other mechanisms designed to inform foundations of NRDC’s work
  • Collaborate regularly with the Director of Stewardship on the Donor Relations team to share resources, coordinate outreach to advocacy staff, and develop synergistic stewardship opportunities for foundations, principal, and individual major donors
• Manage a portfolio of some major U.S. foundations(25%)
  • Focus on opportunities of $1M+ annually
  • Assist leadership in donor strategies and meetings
  • Build and maintain relationships with major philanthropic collaborations, including identifying significant funding opportunities, co-creating strategies with funders and NRDC staff, engaging staff leadership, and soliciting support.
  • Work with NRDC staff and colleagues at other national NGOs on joint fundraising collaborations, ensuring that NRDC is fully engaged in the development of strategies and is fully and accurately represented in joint proposals, funder meetings, and solicitations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; master’s degree or fundraising certifications preferred
• 7+ years’ experience in foundation fundraising
• 5+ years managerial experience required
• Experience with Salesforce preferred
• Significant leadership and analytical thinking abilities
• Ability to innovate and find balance between NRDC’s priorities and those of the foundations
• Organizational skills: ability to prioritize, delegate, and simultaneously oversee multiple streams of work to meet overlapping deadlines
• Ability to represent NRDC and co-lead donor meetings with leadership.
• Detail oriented with high standards of excellence and the ability to monitor for progress
• Commitment to DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and NRDC’s mission
• Persuasive and diplomatic communication, writing/editing, and interpersonal skills
• Mentoring, team-building, and supervisory skills

NRDC is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, both in our work and in our workplace. We believe that celebrating and actively welcoming diverse voices and perspectives is essential to solving the planet's most pressing environmental problems, and we encourage applications from candidates whose identities have been historically under-represented in the environmental movement. 

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.  

We offer competitive salaries, excellent benefits, and a supportive working environment. Salary is based on a nonprofit scale and is commensurate with skills and experience. Internal equity will be reviewed and considered to determine a final offer. For this position, the salary range is $156,750 to $171,000.  

Our offices are open and we are operating in a hybrid model. We offer NRDCers flexibility, and we ask them to come into the office and spend meaningful time there in collaboration with their colleagues. We call this purposeful presence. 

As a science-based organization, NRDC aims to do our part to help contain the COVID-19 public health crisis. For the sake of health, safety, and equity, we ask that people be vaccinated unless they have an approved medical or religious accommodation or other exemption in accordance with state and local law. We consider a person to be vaccinated two weeks after receiving one full course of a CDC-approved vaccine. In accordance with state or local law, new hires will be asked to attest to vaccination, those wishing to do so may request medical or religious accommodations or other exemptions via NRDC Employee Relations. NRDC treats all vaccine-related data confidentially, in keeping with local, state, and federal laws. 

To apply, visit www.nrdc.org/careers and upload your résumé and cover letter. Please mention where you saw this posting and upload any additional materials that showcase your abilities. Due to the high volume of applications, we will contact only those candidates we would like to interview. Please no phone calls, emails, or in-person résumé drop-offs. 

If you experience technical problems while applying or if you are a person with a disability and need assistance applying online, please reach out to iCIMS Customer Care at 1-800-889-4422. 

For more about NRDC, visit www.nrdc.org.