Director of Institutional Fundraising

About Elevate

Elevate is a small business providing comprehensive grant writing support to nearly 100 nonprofit organizations working on a wide variety of issues. Our fully-remote staff work on teams and build long-term partnerships with clients to support every stage of the grant cycle: fundraising strategy & goal development, prospect research and cultivation, drafting and submission, and funder stewardship. All staff work remotely, with the option to visit our co-working space in downtown DC or meet with clients and teams in-person provided that these activities align with our COVID-19 policies. All candidates must be legally authorized to work for Elevate, and must work for Elevate, in the United States.

Staff benefit from flexible scheduling, built-in mentorship and support from colleagues on their client teams, a dedicated supervisor responsible for training and professional growth, established career development pathways that outline clear expectations for current and future positions within the company, and the opportunity to work with a portfolio of clients that align with their interests or provide exposure to new social change issues. 

For more information about our organizational culture and the clients we serve, visit our website here. 

Overview of the Position

For this role, Elevate seeks skilled institutional fundraising professionals with the confidence, flexibility, and persistence to coach clients on best-practices in fundraising strategy, grant writing, financials, and program evaluation while overseeing junior staff who produce compelling proposals and manage detailed grants calendars. Directors work independently to oversee 5-6 client teams at a time. They meet regularly with a dedicated Supervisor to report progress toward client goals, request support managing their teams, and to identify potential obstacles to a successful long-term client partnership for Elevate’s Client Services department.

Strong candidates have at least four years of experience or comparable experience with the key tasks and responsibilities listed below and demonstrated ability to meet the key competencies for the role.

Key Tasks & Responsibilities

• Lead 4-5 client teams while overseeing the work of junior staff; 
• Develop and implement comprehensive institutional fundraising strategies in close partnership with clients that establish short- and long-term goals, prospecting priorities, and systems for cultivation and stewardship;
• Lean on impeccable project management skills to ensure prospect research, cultivation, solicitation, and grand calendar management deliverables are completed on time and at a consistently high quality for each client;
• Manage early career development professionals who are eager to learn from you about institutional fundraising;

• Draft select proposals, reports, LOIs, and concept papers to ensure highly strategic writing on the most complex deliverables.
• Contribute positively to Elevate’s culture, commitment to equity and inclusion, and company values. 

Key Competencies 

Fundraising & Nonprofit Expertise. You develop and clearly articulate strong institutional fundraising strategies for clients that work in at least two issue areas or funder landscapes. You demonstrate exemplary, strengths-based writing skills and work to understand the root causes of the challenges facing your client organizations' beneficiaries; demonstrate a command of program design sufficient to guide clients in the development of competitive funding proposals, even for programs and interventions that are new to you. You demonstrate a comfort with budgets, basic program evaluation, and other common grant attachments. You efficiently research well-aligned funding opportunities for different organizational needs and support the cultivation of funders with concise cultivation emails and talking points that demonstrate a nuanced understanding of the funding landscape and individual funder's interests. You work effectively with your teams and clients to maintain accurate, comprehensive, and regularly updated Salesforce records that support high quality grant calendars and data analysis.

Team Management. You demonstrate standard management skills which includes all standard Elevate processes (1:1s, task delegation, and oversight), consistent and timely feedback, and proactive approach to solving problems within the team. You identify potential performance challenges on your teams and discuss them with your supervisor. You facilitate an inclusive environment that’s welcoming to all.

Problem Solving. You support team members who identify incomplete, inaccurate, or inconsistent program information that impacts the quality of our grants, helping to identify problems and develop solutions collaboratively. You check-in regularly with team members to ensure work products are on track for a timely submission and plan for contingencies in which needed information, data, or reviews are unavailable. You are comfortable addressing or adapting your strategy to common barriers to fundraising success, including, for example, minimal impact data or evaluation practices, weaknesses in organizational program/project budgeting, and limited staff capacity.

Consulting & Professional Communication. You independently present complex problems, goals, and ideas in a way that is accessible even to those unfamiliar with Elevate's work, such as program, finance, and evaluation staff. You introduce client points of contact to best-practices in fundraising strategy, budget development, measurement and evaluation, and organizational planning/sustainability. You proactively identify potential obstacles in the Elevate/Client relationship and work with a supervisor to address them. 

Timeliness & Prioritization. You support your team while consistently delivering on projects, and communicate promptly to set expectations appropriately. You are accountable for the quality and timeliness of all work products you deliver to the client.

Information Processing. You independently implement an efficient and effective system for tracking and updating information relevant to your work. You independently identify information and data needs and fill them by finding what you need in Elevate's information systems (Dropbox, Salesforce, Google Groups, etc.), asking targeted questions in internal check-ins, and reaching out directly to the client. You recommend new tools and systems to better track information and data on your client teams.

Attention to Detail. You are accountable for all details in your team's work products. You catch details that other team members have overlooked or included in error. Clients rarely identify missing or inaccurate information that you did not already flag for their review.

Tools and Systems. You adhere to and consistently use Elevate's standard tools and systems; You know what information is logged in Salesforce by default and what information can be logged by request.

Continuous Learning. You proactively request feedback from others and are open to continuous constructive feedback. You consistently deliver useful feedback on both overall performance and specific deliverables to your peers and manager in a way that strengthens relationships and enables projects to advance more efficiently or effectively.

Compensation and Benefits 

The annual salary for this full-time position is $72,500 and is based on a market analysis of comparable job duties and positions within the nonprofit sector and across a variety of United States geographies. Due to our commitment to internal parity within each position and across the company, we do not negotiate salaries.

In addition to this base compensation and flexible work schedule, we offer a generous benefits package to all staff, including:

• Health insurance: On average, Elevate pays over 94% of the medical premium, 80% of the dental premium, and 80% of the vision premium for employees only. Dependent coverage is the full responsibility of individual employees.
• Paid time off: 15 days’ vacation, 8 sick days, 12 company holidays, 24 hours of voting leave and civic engagement leave. 
• Winter Break: The office typically closes in the last week of the calendar year (between December 24 and January 2nd). Employees can choose to take the full break or apply some of this time for religious observance days (up to three) at other times of the year. 
• Summer Break : The office typically closes the first week of July.
• Sabbatical Leave: Staff with six years of FT service or more are eligible for a 4-week (21 day) paid sabbatical.
• 401(k) retirement plan- We offer a 2% employer match after the first year of employment.
• Reimbursements for your personal cell phone and home internet
• A $200 initial office set up stipend with an additional $100 stipend annually
• A $500 annual professional development stipend, in addition to a robust and growing internal training program provided free to staff.

Hiring Process

All applicants should apply via our Rippling hiring platform. You are asked to provide an updated resume, as well as a cover letter that should detail the following:

• Relevant skills and experience;
• Your interest in the position, including your interest in advancing in your career at Elevate, specifically;
• Your professional strengths;
• Evidence of your alignment with our company values.

Based on these materials, a hiring manager will contact you with next steps on a rolling basis. Applicants whose experiences and qualifications are strongly aligned with the position will be asked to complete a hiring exercise designed to assess your fundraising strategy and grant writing skills, as well as an interview process that will include at least two interviews prior to final decisions.

We accept applications and hire on a rolling basis that is aligned with our staffing needs for new clients and projects. This process can take anywhere from one to three months from application to start date. Additionally, we use Rippling to communicate with our applicants throughout the hiring process. Please take a moment to add emails from @ats.rippling.com as a safe sender before submitting your application. If you do not, emails may be directed to your spam folder, or may not reach you at all.

Elevate provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment, without regard to race, creed, ancestry, citizenship, religion, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, family responsibilities, age, national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, genetic information, status as a victim of domestic violence, marital status, disability, personal appearance or any other protected characteristic or status under applicable federal, state and local laws. If you require reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for any part of the application process, please contact [email protected].