FUSE Corps Director of Development San Francisco, CA
Edgility Consulting
About FUSE Corps
FUSE Corps is a national nonprofit that enables local government to more effectively address the most pressing challenges facing urban communities. In pursuit of this mission, FUSE runs an executive-level fellowship program in civic innovation that is focused on accelerating cross-sector collaboration and community-based problem solving. FUSE partners with city leaders to identify key strategic challenges and then recruits entrepreneurial professionals from the private sector who spend a year working in local government to address those challenges. FUSE fellows are uniquely positioned to achieve transformational impact across issue areas such as education, health, social services, economic development, public safety, and the environment.
Over the course of the year of service, FUSE provides its fellows with ongoing leadership training, executive coaching, and various opportunities for peer-to-peer support from other fellows, alumni, and leaders across our partner cities. Each fellow works closely with a wide array of diverse stakeholders to plan, coordinate and drive progress toward ambitious impact goals related to their specific project. FUSE is also increasingly focused on distilling and articulating the innovations developed by our fellows as part of their projects in order to communicate those insights broadly and help inspire leaders in other cities to reimagine the ways in which their governments can successfully address local challenges.
Since FUSE was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area five years ago, this unique program has grown quickly in response to mounting demand from cities across the country. The current cohort includes 30 projects in governments both throughout California (Sacramento, Vallejo, San Francisco, San José, Fresno, Long Beach, Los Angeles) and nationwide (Seattle, Pittsburgh and New Orleans). The response from prospective fellows has been equally robust, as FUSE received more than 1,000 applications this summer from private sector executives seeking to serve in this prestigious program. Over the coming five years, FUSE will continue to expand toward placing 100 fellows annually across 25 cities and widely communicating the impact of our work. This rapid growth is being generously supported by a coalition of foundations including the Omidyar Network, James Irvine Foundation and Kresge Foundation.
Position Description
As FUSE focuses on expanding its work into more cities around the country, the organization is seeking to hire an experienced professional to serve as its first Director of Development. With fundraising efforts to date having been led primarily by the CEO, the Director will lead efforts to design and implement a system for engaging successfully with an increasingly large number of supporters in order to continue FUSE’s growth along an ambitious trajectory. This position will report jointly to the CEO and COO and collaborate closely with the organization’s staff, board, advisors, fellows, alumni, government partners, and current funders – including both project underwriters and our strategic growth capital investors.
FUSE’s business model centers on becoming financially self-sufficient based on earned income generated from the $150k fees that are charged for each of our yearlong fellowship projects. These funds are secured either through contracting with our government partners and/or from foundations that are asked to support the work of specific projects. FUSE’s current cohort is generating $4M in revenue this year, including $3M from contracts with nine government partners and an additional $1M from ten foundation grants ranging from $25k to $150k per project. This year’s underwriters include the Irvine Foundation, California Endowment, California Community Foundation, California Health Care Foundation, College Futures Foundation, REDF, Kresge Foundation, Heinz Endowments and Greater New Orleans Foundation.
As earned income from both public and private sources is projected to grow from $4M to $11M over the next five years, FUSE’s efforts to secure this revenue will be led jointly by two individuals on staff. Our current Director of Strategic Growth will continue to manage relationships and contracts with our government partners, while the new Director of Development will be responsible for engaging private funders who underwrite specific projects. While most of our current support comes from local foundations, the Director of Development will also develop relationships with national foundations, corporations, and high-net-worth individuals who will provide similar support. In particular, the Director of Development will work closely with the CEO to present seven-figure investment opportunities to national foundations in order to accelerate progress within a particular issue area by placing entire groups of project-focused fellows in cities across the country.
The Director of Development will also help FUSE to deepen its relationships with our major growth capital funders and other strategic partners around the country including public, private, nonprofit, academic, and other institutions pursuing related work toward shared goals of addressing the most pressing challenges facing urban communities. The Director of Development will help to establish major elements of FUSE’s external brand identify and work to represent the organization strategically at events and across a wide range of opportunities.
Responsibilities
Building on an existing Salesforce-based CRM platform, continue to develop the systems and processes used to manage relationships, communications and deadlines with an increasingly large number of concurrent funders.
Orchestrate the engagement of FUSE staff, board members, advisors, funders, fellows, alumni, and government partners to cultivate relationships with funders in their networks.
Working closely with other team members and our government partners, take responsibility for all phases of the fundraising process to help underwrite fellowship projects without sufficient public funding. This will include research and networking, cultivation meetings, composing proposals, securing commitments, maintaining relationships, submitting reports, and proposing renewals.
Develop relationships with national funders who may be able to support entire cohorts of fellows working in a given community or on a specific issue in cities across the country.
Organize funder coalition meetings, Jeffersonian dinners, speaker series, webinars, and other small events within new expansion regions to convene stakeholders, rally a broad base of supporters, and build momentum to bring FUSE to a new city or scale locally.
Represent FUSE at conferences and other public events, especially at events where prospective funders may be in attendance.
Work closely with a small team and a limited budget to accomplish extraordinary results, including efforts to manage a small group of vendors that may include contracted writers, graphic designers, and local consultants.
Qualifications
Passion for FUSE’s mission and a demonstrated commitment to related issue areas.
At least 10 years of experience in nonprofit fundraising, relationship-based sales, and/or strategic partnerships, ideally with programs/products relevant to FUSE’s work.
Experience designing and managing a development/sales function with reliable processes for managing relationships, opportunity pipelines, and reporting requirements.
Experience cultivating prospects and regularly “making the ask” for grants above $100,000, as well as writing proposals that make a compelling case for investment.
Outstanding interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, and ability to develop deep relationships with a diverse array of internal and external stakeholders.
Superior written and verbal communication skills with the ability to clearly convey complex topics through various presentation formats, including an exceptional ability to intuit the messages that will resonate with different target audiences and then tailor both content and style to communicate effectively with different kinds of funders.
Strong leadership skills and a demonstrated ability to provide vision and strategic direction, especially within a fast-paced, results-oriented, entrepreneurial environment.
Superior organizational and project management skills with strong attention to detail.
Ability to work on a small team and within a resource-constrained environment, always maintaining a focus on the organization’s overall needs and strategic priorities.
To Apply
Please go to goo.gl/8PoeAe to submit your resume and thoughtful cover letter to Christin Whitener at Edgility Consulting.