The Position
NVCF is seeking an experienced, dynamic and highly motivated development professional to work collaboratively with a seasoned senior management team in order to drive revenue growth across all channels of fundraising.
Reporting to the President & CEO, the Director of Development will be responsible for creating and implementing a portfolio-based, metrics-driven development program that includes major gifts, direct mail, annual fund, planned giving, social giving, endowment giving and some corporate giving as well as targeted campaigns.
The Director of Development will supervise (and help select) a Development Manager, a new position at the Foundation for which resources are already earmarked in this year’s operating budget.
NVCF is seeking a candidate who can help build and grow a development program that is rooted in the best practices of the fundraising industry. They will work closely with the President & CEO, the Marketing & Asset Development Committee of the Board and other staff to implement the fundraising objectives of the Foundation’s 2023-2028 Strategic Plan, which include the following: to grow and diversify NVCF’s roster of individual, family and corporate donors; and to expand the number and size of charitable funds held and administered by NVCF, with a focus on unrestricted gifts, key NVCF projects, large donor advised funds, scholarships, and testamentary gifts.
The Director of Development will identify, cultivate and solicit major gifts in partnership with the President & CEO; and steward current donors in partnership with the President & CEO as well as key program/donor services staff, whose stewardship efforts are focused on existing fundholders, most of which have a donor advised fund or a scholarship fund at the Foundation.
Responsibilities
Work with the President & CEO to design, implement, enhance and guide fundraising strategies, goals and objectives for:
-
- The Foundation’s four community impact areas
- The Foundation’s general operating fund
- DAFs and scholarships
- Legacy
- Maintain and enhance a culture of relationship building with prospective donors, fundholders, legacy givers, community members and stakeholders; demonstrate a customer- serving mindset.
- Increase gift revenue from new and existing donors (i.e., individual, family and corporate donors who do not maintain a charitable giving fund at NVCF but make contributions in support of NVCF impact areas or operations); and new and existing NVCF fundholders.
- Identify planned giving prospects from our roster of current and prospective donors; participate in cultivation and solicitation activities related to these legacy givers in partnership with the President & CEO.
- Work with the President & CEO to develop customized fundraising strategies for prospective
- Help select, then supervise, a new position: the Development Manager, who will be responsible for donor data quality and donor data management in the Foundation’s CRM.
- Manage a portfolio of 50 to 60 major donors (x > $10,000 annually) as well as two yearly appeals (with support for the latter from the Development Manager).
- Implement a moves management system that enables NVCF to better understand its donor, fundholder and legacy gift pipelines; help increase the number of donors and prospects in those pipelines; and personally participate in soliciting annual gifts, major gifts, new charitable funds and legacy gifts, in partnership with the President & CEO and Board
- Work collaboratively with other departments of the Foundation (like programs and communications) on projects like yearly appeals, donor-facing communications and periodic events (such as donor-hosted house parties).
- Take advantage of continuing education opportunities funded by the Foundation to ensure NVCF meets or exceeds best practices in key areas of fundraising.
Candidate Qualifications and Experience
Six to eight years of experience in professional fundraising with a career trajectory of increasing responsibility and expanded duties. The successful candidate will be deeply committed to implementing a relationship and metrics-based development program where contacts with donors and prospects can be tracked and managed, and regular reports on fundraising activities and results can be shared with staff and Board members. They must have experience in identifying, cultivating, soliciting and stewarding individual, family and corporate donors across multiple channels of fundraising. Current or past major gift work is highly desirable.
Preference will be given to candidates who have hands-on experience in all aspects of fundraising and who have a demonstrated track record of success, particularly with individual, family and corporate donors. (This position will not be responsible for institutional funder relationships.)
Experience working with Boards, volunteers, and high net worth individuals is important. Experience working with professional advisors is desirable.
Education
Bachelor’s Degree strongly preferred. Additional credentials such as a CFRE designation or a certificate from a recognized fundraising program are welcome.
Personal Attributes
The ideal candidate will be entrepreneurial, creative, passionate about philanthropy, energized by development, and inspired by the work of NVCF. They will be supremely confident but also down- to-earth; and just as comfortable making small talk with retired schoolteachers as they are with retired venture capitalists.
The Director of Development must be a hands-on fundraiser and a strategic thinker. They must possess emotional maturity and work well both independently and as part of a small, close-knit team. They must have experience at developing collaborative relationships, internally and externally, with various constituencies – and will be called upon to develop such relationships with NVCF’s constituencies, including donors, fundholders, staff and Board members, prospects, and professional advisors.
They will possess extraordinary people skills; outstanding verbal and written communication skills; a near-obsessive drive for excellence; and a strong appetite for building something new and better in the context of a highly successful, nimble and forward-looking organization. An out-of-the-box thinker who dislikes the phrase “out-of-the-box thinker” is preferred.
Compensation
The annual salary range for this position is $81,000 to $103,000, commensurate with experience.
The position is a full-time, exempt position with a comprehensive employee benefits package that includes paid time off benefits; health, dental and vision insurance (with 100% of premiums paid by the Foundation for the employee); and a 403(b) retirement plan with a dollar-for-dollar Foundation match up to 5% of the employee’s salary.
Foundation employees are required to be in the office, on average, three days per week; while working remotely on other days. This position will be required to be in the office three days per week, as a baseline; and occasionally more often (and less often) than that.
Napa Valley Community Foundation is an equal opportunity employer.
The Organization
Napa Valley Community Foundation (NVCF) works side-by-side with local donors and nonprofits to tackle the most important challenges our Valley faces. Now celebrating 29 years of service to the community, the Foundation has distributed more than $100 million in grants to improve the quality of life for residents of the region, and currently serves as the philanthropic partner to thousands of individuals, families, nonprofit agencies and corporations in Napa Valley and beyond.
According to a survey of several thousand donors conducted by the nonprofit Center for Effective Philanthropy (Donor Perception Report), NVCF is the top-rated community foundation in the US on most key measures related to donor satisfaction and impact. NVCF’s innovative programs have served as a model for other community foundations across California and the US, and its work in partnership with area donors has resulted in feature coverage for the organization in outlets such as the New York Times, LA Times, KQED Radio, American Public Media’s Marketplace, KCBS TV, La Opinion, KCBS Radio, Forbes.com and Univision.
The Foundation is a boutique provider of Donor Advised Funds (DAFs), managing 80 DAFs established by families and businesses with deep roots in the Valley as well as relative newcomers; it is the largest source of scholarship grants in Napa County, with annual awards averaging $500,000; it is a sturdy vessel into which other people pour their hopes for the future, with nearly 50% of its $75 million in total assets having come via bequest; and it deploys its discretionary grant dollars, as well as its voice and influence, in four key community impact areas: fighting poverty (through an innovative approach to accelerating the adoption of Accessory Dwelling Units); investing in youth (through grants to youth-serving orgs and scholarships); championing community (by funding a path to citizenship for hundreds of immigrants each year); and meeting the moment (through grants for community and climate resiliency as well as disaster response).
Operational Details
Napa Valley Community Foundation has a staff of ten and distributes between $8 million and $10 million in grants each year, predominantly to charitable programs in Napa County. The organization has an annual operating budget of $1.7 million and is governed by a 15-member Board of Directors. NVCF has quadrupled in size in recent years, even while relying primarily on the President & CEO and volunteer Board Members to identify, cultivate, solicit and steward donors.
About Napa Valley
Napa Valley is a tale of two cities. Or more accurately, many tales of two cities.
We see staggering wealth next to economic precarity; real farmers and gentlemen farmers; multi- generational families and relative newcomers; up Valley residents and down Valley residents; Anglos and Latinos; old wealth tied up in the land and new money born from technology, venture capital, private equity and other industries.
We see immigrants coming here to work and baby boomers coming here to retire. We see a vibrant civic life, but too few new voices at the table. At NVCF, we know our community is at a very particular inflection point in its history.
Forty years ago, Napa was literally and metaphorically a beer can: a blue collar town with a robust middle class and not much income dispersion between top and bottom. The major employers were Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, Kaiser Steel in Napa and the State Mental Hospital. The community was nearly all white, and socially fairly conservative.
With the growth of the wine industry in the 1970s, Napa has changed profoundly. Farm workers who used to be migrants set down roots in our community, as did successful people from other places, seasonally or full-time, drawn by the magnetic beauty of the Valley.
Napa might be the most famous small town in America. The whole county is home to just 139,000 residents but hosts nearly 4 million visitors each year. It is a place of extraordinary beauty with a host of challenges hiding in plain sight.
At NVCF, we believe our job is to engage the community in a conversation about its future, to work hard to preserve our small town quality of life, but to do so in a way that expands opportunity to more people.
How to Apply
To initiate consideration for this opportunity, please submit a resume and cover letter addressed to Terence Mulligan, President & CEO at giving@napavalleycf.org.