Senior Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships

Senior Director of Development & Strategic Partnerships

The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) is seeking a Senior Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships. This person will lead the WRC’s fundraising and partnerships operations to maintain and grow our financial resources, including working with foundations, other institutional grantors, and large individual donors. The Senior Director will also spearhead external communication about the organization’s accomplishments and strategic vision to audiences relevant to our fundraising and partnership building efforts.

We seek committed, creative, and energetic candidates who have a strong record of achievement as a senior fundraiser.

About the Worker Rights Consortium

The WRC is one of the world’s leading corporate accountability organizations. We support garment workers and their unions around the world who are fighting to end labor rights abuses and win better wages and conditions in the supply chains of major global brands. The WRC conducts investigations in factories in more than two dozen countries, documents and exposes labor rights violations, and pressures corporations to deliver concrete remedies to workers. And we pursue strategies to achieve systemic change: pressing global corporations to sign binding agreements with unions and end the pricing practices that compel their suppliers to pay poverty wages, subject workers to long hours of forced overtime, and ignore worker safety in order to slash costs.

The WRC works in partnership with unions and civil society organizations across the Global South and North. The priorities of workers, conveyed by their representatives, guide our work. We measure success by documented real-world impact: helping workers win victories that improve their lives and vindicate their rights.

The WRC is based in Washington, DC. We have 27 staff members located in the US, UK, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.

Senior Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships

The Senior Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships will lead fundraising, outreach, and engagement for the WRC at the level of both strategy and implementation. The WRC’s current annual budget is US$3.3 million, and we seek to grow this in line with our program strategy to roughly $5–6 million over the next two to three years.

Areas of responsibility include:

• Designing and implementing a comprehensive fundraising strategy to progressively increase annual revenue, including identifying, building relationships with, and securing new funding from foundations, other institutional funders, and individuals, as well as pursuing opportunities to expand relationships with current funders;
• Creating and implementing a framework for strategic external partnership communications, including working with the WRC’s global field team to convey the real-world impact of the WRC’s work and overseeing relevant enhancements to the WRC’s website and other communications pathways;
• Leading on grant writing and framing of external communications;
• Supporting the Executive Director and other colleagues to engage with, and ensure coherent messaging to, donors and other partners—including ensuring that the WRC participates in relevant conferences, convenings, and other discussions related to our organizational mission and objectives;
• Supervising the work of a second development professional who has day-to-day responsibility for grant management, grant reporting, implementation of sub-grantee/grantor arrangements, management of the organization’s small individual donor program, and who also assists with preparation of grant proposals;
• Monitoring progress on grant-funded projects through regular communication with program staff;
• Participating in the development of overall organizational strategy and aligning fundraising strategies accordingly; and
• Contributing to financial reporting and oversight.

This is a full-time position, available immediately. The position is hybrid for a successful candidate who resides in the Washington, DC-area or remote in the case of a candidate who resides elsewhere.

The WRC will consider candidates located within six hours of the US Eastern time zone. For international candidates and US candidates based outside of Washington, DC, the position requires periodic travel to Washington, DC, and possibly other countries in which the WRC works. The Senior Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships will report to the WRC’s Executive Director.

Qualifications

Candidates must have:

• A minimum of seven years’ experience in fundraising for nonprofit organizations and/or seven years’ combined experience with fundraising and strategic communications;
• A substantial track record of successfully cultivating institutional donors and proven experience in establishing new fundraising partnerships;
• Significant experience in communications and storytelling, with an ability to distill complex analysis and program work into communications that inspire and motivate our audiences;
• Exceptional written and oral communications skills;
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including the ability to initiate, build, and maintain working relationships with existing and potential grantors and a global team across numerous time zones;
• Strong budget management skills and experience delivering against financial targets;
• Excellent organizational and project management skills and rigorous attention to detail;
• Energy, enthusiasm, a strong work ethic, and a sense of humor; and
• A commitment to workers’ rights and corporate accountability.

The following are desirable but not required:

• Experience with labor rights work; and
• Experience working in an international context.

Compensation

Compensation for this position is $115,000–$135,000 per year, depending on relevant experience (adjusted to the local currency, where applicable). The WRC provides its US staff, who are covered by a union contract, with an excellent benefits package, including 100% employer-paid family health insurance, including dental and vision care, with an additional flexible spending plan with employer contribution; 401(k) retirement plan with employer contribution; and five weeks paid vacation.

Equal Opportunity

The WRC is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage and seek applications from women, people of color, including multilingual and multicultural individuals, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community. Applicants shall not be discriminated against because of race, religion, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, color, marital status, veteran status, or medical condition. Reasonable accommodation will be made so that qualified applicants with disabilities may participate in the application process. See our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion statement here. The WRC does not tolerate gender-based violence or harassment by or against job applicants as defined by the WRC’s policy, which you can read more about here.

To Apply

Please upload the following in our application portal:

• A cover letter;
• A résumé or CV; and
• Two writing samples, including one grant proposal, concept note, or individual donor cultivation letter and one piece written for a broader audience, such as an op-ed, blogpost, speech, etc. (samples should have been written by the applicant with little or no editing by other parties).

We will not be able to review applications that do not include all the required materials. Please email recruitment@workersrights.org if you experience any challenges with the application portal or are in need of any accommodation.

The position will be open until filled. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, as they are received.