Director of Advancement and Partnerships

Project Equity grows community wealth by retaining successful local businesses through employee ownership transitions

Do you want to see a world where the average employee has economic security and businesses help build resilient communities? So do we! Project Equity helps employees become owners of the businesses where they work. We raise awareness of employee ownership as a business succession strategy, provide support for businesses to transition to employee ownership and work in multiple regions throughout the country to create generative ecosystems in support of such work on an ongoing basis. Our early success and significant attention from media outlets such as Forbes, NPR and the Washington Post have positioned us as a national leader in the movement to harness employee ownership to maintain thriving local business communities, create quality jobs and address income and wealth inequality. Help us tap this incredible momentum!

How you will provide vision, leadership, and management of Project Equity’s fundraising strategy

As the Director of Advancement and Partnerships at Project Equity, you will lead the development and implementation of multi-year fundraising and revenue strategies to support growth, sustainability, innovation, and impact. Building upon a solid foundation of funding and working closely with our CEO and development staff reporting to you, you will spearhead the next stage of strategic relationships and fundraising efforts.

Strategy

• Execute a comprehensive fundraising strategy to build and maintain relationships with, and secure funding from, foundations, corporations, and individuals donors
• Increase, strengthen and diversify Project Equity’s funding sources to fund implementation of our strategic initiatives
• Develop and land six and seven-figure, multi-year grants
• Lead the development of new fundraising sources, such as high net worth individuals, who can support and champion Project Equity’s work
• Partner with and support the CEO and leadership team to set and achieve Project Equity’s strategic and financial goals for long-term sustainability

Grants

• Project manage, write, and edit our most sophisticated and high impact grant proposals, reports, and other funder-related communications
• Supervise and collaborate with two dedicated and talented team members: the Senior Manager, Foundation Relations and the Development Associate
• Approve all of Project Equity’s grant proposals and ensure deadlines for submissions and progress reports are met

Relationships

• Build relationships with foundations, other grant-making organizations, and major donors to advance our mission and fundraising goals
• Work closely with the Board of Directors to leverage their networks, expertise, and influence to support fundraising and strategic initiatives.
• Build upon a strong pipeline of new and existing institutional funders to move these relationships into funding opportunities
• Develop an initial pipeline of individual donors to support Project Equity, leveraging groups such as the Founders Circle and Advisory Councils and relationships from the CEO, senior leadership team, and Board of Directors
• Partner with the marketing team to develop communications that support the development and stewardship of relationships.
• Strategically curate and support key meetings for CEO and leadership team
• Represent Project Equity at funder meetings, special events, speaking engagements, and other events to help build awareness and foster relationships
• Establish and maintain relationship management systems such as Salesforce, that increase our capacity to attract, develop, and maintain meaningful relationships with grant partners, donors, and other stakeholders

Finance

• Develop and manage annual revenue and expense budgets for development activities and provide fiscal oversight for monthly revenue and expense budgets which includes preparing and analyzing monthly variance reports and recommending changes and / or adjustments as necessary
• Ensure that contributions and donor data are properly maintained in the organization's donor database, including monthly reconciliation of contributions with the finance department
• Prepare and present development reports and statistical analysis to the senior leadership team

Impact Measurement & Management (IMM)

• Supervise and collaborate with the Manager, Policy & Impact
• Oversee the annual IMM cycle of collecting and reporting on data from Project Equity’s clients
• Collaborate with the marketing and communications teams on ways to appropriately share this data with stakeholders

HOW YOU WORK

• You are passionate about making a difference and supporting employee-owned businesses and you gracefully convey your passion to others
• You are highly collaborative both with internal teams as well as external partners and contractors
• You approach things systematically and are a natural at zooming out to see the big picture, then diving in to focus on the important details
• You enjoy seeing projects through
• You are a strategic thinker and enjoy setting up systems and processes that support effective strategy development and execution
• You take initiative and manage competing priorities

YOUR EXPERIENCE INCLUDES

• At least 5-10 years of successful nonprofit fundraising experience including experience with foundation grants and other institutional donors (government or corporate); you have likely been a development director and / or executive director in the past
• At least 3-5 years experience growing and leading teams
• Demonstrated experience securing major gifts / grants of $50,000+ and access to foundations and funder networks
• Superb relationship management, interpersonal and written and oral communication skills including the ability to inspire and hold accountable diverse internal and external stakeholders
• Strong project management skills
• A strong understanding of institutional fundraising best practices and dynamics; major donor fundraising experience preferred
• A Bachelor’s degree required, Master’s degree in a relevant field of study a plus

SALARY

$130,000-$150,000 annually

Learn more at project-equity.org.