Development Director

Organizational Overview

Resources Legacy Fund (RLF) builds alliances that advance bold solutions to secure a just and resilient world for people and nature. We design and carry out programs and projects that promote smart policies, secure equitable public funding, and build strong constituencies for protecting nature, addressing the climate crisis, and advancing environmental equity and justice. Since RLF’s founding in 2000, we have partnered with philanthropy, nonprofit organizations, community groups, government, business, and academia to protect more than five million acres of land and ocean spaces, advance critical climate and environmental justice policies, and generate more than $30 billion in new public funding for conservation, equitable outdoor access, and climate initiatives.

We believe strategic philanthropy and thoughtful partnerships can achieve enduring, equitable outcomes at scale. Philanthropic partners trust us to manage complex, multi-year policy campaigns and philanthropic initiatives. As a grantmaker, we offer beyond-the-dollar support to strengthen grantees’ ability to meet ambitious goals. We also serve as fiscal sponsor to more than 20 projects across the nation and around the world that are doing remarkable work to advance biodiversity protection, climate resilience and mitigation, and justice and equity outcomes.

Our success is integrally tied to social equity, community health, economic opportunity, and a strong democracy. To safeguard our achievements to date and help prepare a favorable environment to face the daunting threat of climate change, we helped launch two partner organizations: Fund for a Better Future, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, and Shared Ascent Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity, to work in the intersecting areas of democracy, environment, health, and equity.

We are a multi-disciplinary team of political strategists, coalition builders, grant makers, communicators, and administrative professionals intently focused on delivering results. We are headquartered in Sacramento, California with staff distributed across the country.

Position Summary:

The Development Director drives and coordinates fundraising activities across the organization. They provide direction and leadership to RLF’s development team, supporting RLF’s principal fundraisers (staff and board) in improving and expanding our partnerships with foundations and family offices. This position is full-time, exempt, and reports to the Executive Vice President.

This is a remote position, within the U.S., that requires regular travel for meetings, conferences, and staff retreats.

Duties Include: 

Leadership and Management 

• Lead RLF’s overall team strategy for development and fundraising with the goal of building and managing an effective philanthropic program.   

• Work with the executive and program teams to set annual and multi-year fundraising/campaign goals to meet organization revenue targets. 

• Support the organizations’ fundraisers in their external relationships and communications with foundations, family offices, and other donors.   

• Provide research, materials, talking points and other support to best “set the table” for successful donor prospecting, cultivation and asks by RLF board and leadership staff.   

• Maintain organizational knowledge of key donors and prospects to ensure an effective and coordinated program of communications, stewardship, development, and leveraging of opportunities.   

• Directly supervise development team (currently a team of one development coordinator)   

• Manage, mentor, recruit, and retain talented staff; foster a culture of learning.  

Design and Manage Fundraising Operations 

• Develop internal systems, policies and processes for effective philanthropy with a focus on incoming grants, contracts, and gifts, as well as on coordinating fundraising activities.  

• In collaboration with the Operations and Grants Management Teams, build and manage the technology infrastructure and related processes to support donor engagement, including expanding the usage of our CRM/database (Salesforce) to better track donor prospecting and incoming funds.  

• Prepare analyses/dashboards on fundraising activities; ensure that efficient processes and data guides decisions.  

• Partner with Operations, Grants Management, and other teams involved with donor and financial systems.   

• Develop systems and processes for coordinating development activities across teams including stewardship and prospecting. 

Donor Stewardship and Prospecting  

• Strengthen RLF’s fundraising performance with current donors and partner with RLF’s fundraisers to expand the diversity of RLF’s donor pool.  

• Research and evaluate new potential funders/philanthropic investors.  

• Work with the RLF team to expand and diversify the donor pool; strengthen the fundraising performance of donors, including size and number of gifts.  

• Develop and maintain an active list of donor prospects and an action plan for these prospects.   

Fundraising Best Practices  

• Maintain knowledge of regional and national funding environments as they relate to RLF and its funding opportunities.   

• Model effective development strategy, approaches, and techniques.  

• Support an organization-wide culture of philanthropy, as well as fundraising capacity among members of the RLF executive team and across all program staff.   

• Provide coaching and training opportunities to staff and board.  

Other  

• Collaborate with colleagues to understand the breadth of RLF’s work and seek opportunities for synergy of programs and/or projects.  

• Serve as a member of the organization’s leadership team.  

• As needed, serve as a representative and contact person at donor events, meetings, conferences, and other conversations.  

• Perform other duties and special projects as needed.  

Qualifications: 

Note: These qualifications are guidelines, not hard and fast rules, so if you have 75% of the qualifications listed, we encourage you to apply.  Experience can include paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work and lived experiences that helped you to build the competencies, knowledge, and skills needed for this position. Applying gives you the opportunity to be considered. 

• 10+ years of progressive experience in nonprofit fundraising with increasing responsibility for the creation and execution of development strategy, planning, management, systems, and coordination.  

• Broad knowledge of fundraising approaches for multiple donor audiences, with specific experience with philanthropic foundations and family offices.  

• Experience in supporting a president, executive leadership team, and program staff with effective cultivation, engagement, reporting, and acknowledgement of funders. 

• Experience designing fundraising operations, systems, and teams.  

• Experience leveraging modern data management practices and technology for relationship management, prospecting, and streamlining development processes. Ability to collaboratively develop effective technology solutions, build new processes where there are gaps.   

• Previous experience in climate and environmental organizations   

• Knowledge of and fundamental adherence to the principles, ethics, compliance, and best practices of modern fundraising.  

• Exceptional composition, editing, and spoken communication skills.  

• Capacity to manage and coordinate simultaneous projects, and to respond rapidly and appropriately to changing priorities and situations; ability to adhere to numerous deadlines, conflicting priorities and handle multiple tasks efficiently.   

• Flexibility in working style, marked by an ability to work closely with a wide range of personality and organization types.  

• Ability to perform tasks with a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail, as well as anticipate informational needs as situations and projects develop.  

• Commitment to building and supporting a positive and inclusive work environment.  

Commitment to Nondiscrimination

We are committed to providing a work environment free from discrimination, where all team members feel valued, respected, and included. We know that our work is enriched by the varied voices and perspectives of every staff and board member, so we are committed to making an earnest effort to recruit, welcome, train, develop, and retain talented individuals from all backgrounds. We believe that a welcoming culture expands our creative capacity to do our work and achieve greater outcomes for people and the natural world.

Compensation and Benefits:

The Development Director starting salary range is $175,000-$215,000. Salary commensurate with related work experience and qualifications.

We have an alternate Fridays off work schedule and offer a comprehensive benefit package including medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401k plan with a 5% match, and generous paid time off. RLF also offers a technology allowance, student loan repayment assistance, the Calm app, mental health benefits and approximately 16 paid holidays per year.

To Apply:

Please provide a resume and cover letter explaining how your skills fit this position.

Recruitment Schedule

May 28– Recruitment launches

June 22  – Application deadline (applications received after this date may still be considered)

June 26 – Screening Interviews

RLF participates in E-Verify, potential candidates can review the information here and here.