Position: Development Manager for the Equal Justice Society (EJS) at 100% FTE
Challenge: EJS was created to advance a more just society and to defeat the persistent assaults on social and racial justice. The Development Manager will have an exceptional opportunity to impact the growth of our small but extremely dynamic organization. The Manager will support the development of a comprehensive fundraising program to meet operational and sustainable funding needs. They will be working with nationally recognized civil rights advocates, educators, attorneys, artists, and activists. The Manager will also play a critical role in supporting our development team, helping to shape key aspects of our organization’s fundraising programs.
Organization: The Equal Justice Society is excited to enter a new phase of its organizational development as we transition to new leadership and expand our capacity to make even greater impacts in the next decade ahead. EJS provides visionary and experienced leadership in a national landscape hostile to critical race theory, truth-telling, women’s reproductive rights, affirmative action, and race-conscious equity policies. This is a historical moment of retrenchment demanding experienced leadership. EJS has been on the front lines for over 22 years, including numerous actions against bans on affirmative action and the colorblind, post-racial false narrative. For more information about EJS, see https://equaljusticesociety.org/jobs/
Key Job Responsibilities
- Individual Giving: Lead EJS individual donor solicitation through direct mail, email appeals, and other methods to cultivate small gift donors; manage stewardship of individual donors including new donor welcome packets, timely thank yous, and identification of engagement activities; expand EJS monthly sustainer program; solicit and track gifts-in kind
- Development Operations: Maintain donor information, such as accurate record of donor interactions; process online/offline donations; manage EJS online giving platform; create fundraising reports for organization leadership
- Major Donor program: Support cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of major donors by assisting President and COO, including following up on information requests, arranging periodic one-on-one meetings, recording donor interactions, and helping to identify engagement activities for major donors if appropriate.
- Events: Support EJS fundraising (virtual and in-person) events, including assisting with logistics and production tasks for events, producing event communications and collateral, and tracking event RSVPs; in coordination with President and COO, identify and solicit event sponsors
- Institutional Funding: Work with President to manage foundation, government, and corporate partners; facilitate timely communication with program leadership; manage grant calendar for new and renewal applications; conduct research on institutional prospects; work with President and Development Team on submission of proposals and reports.
- Communications: Coordinate with organization leadership on the overall vision and strategy for donor communications, such as social media posts, donor emails and newsletters, website, and annual report
Desired Skills
- Three to seven years of experience in development, especially in individual campaigns and grant seeking, with demonstrated experience raising five and six-figure individual gifts and six-figure grants
- The drive to achieve results while respecting others
- The ability to take initiative while remaining open to ideas of others
- Skills in collaboration and teamwork
- Experience building strong relationships with board members and ability to communicate fundraising goals and inspire board engagement
- Attention to detail
- Flexible and adaptable, entrepreneurial, can-do attitude: all are important
- Negotiation and follow-up skills to close donations, sponsorships, and funding
- Budgeting and financial planning
- Excellent presentation and communications (written and oral) skills
- Experience running a small development office
- Management and supervisory experience, planned giving, cy pres awards, and fundraising in the legal arena are all pluses
- An understanding and commitment to social and racial justice issues and being realistically optimistic will help you succeed in this position.
Compensation The annual salary range is $75,000-80,000; Equal Justice Society’s benefits package includes a 401k employer contribution, medical, vision, dental insurance coverage, and other ancillary benefits.
Application Instructions Please email a (1) cover letter, (2) resume, (3) writing sample (for example, a successful grant proposal no more than 10 pages in length or donor solicitation letters), and (4) a list of three references that includes past supervisors of your work to info@equaljusticesociety.org with “Development Manager” in the subject line.
EJS will review applications on a rolling basis; the review process will close by September 29, 2023.
EJS is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from all qualified individuals including women, people of color, people with disabilities, religious minorities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
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