[JOB] Director of Philanthropic Partnerships at Women's Earth Alliance

[Sara Deon]

Hi all,

Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA) seeks a passionate and proven development professional to lead our philanthropic partnerships programs. We are in an exciting phase of growth, and as the Director of Philanthropic Partnerships, you will play a key role in co-designing, implementing, and stewarding a robust fundraising strategy that will both maintain current relationships and support WEA’s expansion.

The full job description is below. Please reach out with any questions!

Thanks,

Sara

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About Women’s Earth Alliance:
Women’s Earth Alliance (WEA) is a 15-year global initiative that trains, resources and catalyzes grassroots women’s networks to protect our environment and build healthy, safe, and just communities now and into the future.

Since 2006, WEA has worked at the intersection of women’s rights and the environment, creating impactful programming serving grassroots leaders in 22 countries around key environmental themes of climate change, water, agriculture, land protection, and energy. We’ve developed capacity-building trainings in partnership with global and regional NGOs in Bolivia, Mexico, India, Nepal, Sub-Saharan Africa, Indonesia, and the U.S.

Our model takes a different approach than investing in a well that might fail, leaving a
community with neither water nor self-reliance; or providing a one-time loan that could leave a woman in debt and without options. WEA’s signature model provides leadership, strategy, and technical training for women leaders to scale their climate and environmental justice initiatives while connecting them to a global alliance of peers, mentors, and funders—sparking lasting, transformative social change and environmental resilience from the ground up.

The position:
WEA seeks a skilled, experienced, and creative development professional to join our team and help drive the vision, strategy and implementation of our fundraising plans. As the Director of Philanthropic Partnerships, you will partner closely with our leadership team and other staff to drive organizational growth and help expand our capacity and impact across the world.

The ideal candidate will be passionate about social and environmental justice, have experience managing development programs, and have an innovative and people-centered approach to fundraising. This leader is a relationship and bridge-builder, inviting donors, regardless of the size of their gift, to join a movement that will benefit us all. We have a strong team who devote significant time and attention to fundraising and are looking for a Director of Philanthropic Partnerships to join us and provide strategic direction to our team members, carry a portfolio of donors, and bottomline our overall development process. As the Director of Philanthropic Partnerships, you will help lead our team to build and achieve ambitious growth goals.

Your key responsibilities will include:
● Working with our Co‐Directors and team to establish annual and long‐range
fundraising goals related to individual donations, monthly donations, major gifts,
workplace giving, corporate and foundation giving, and co-design and implement the
plans to achieve those goals. Co-supervising and training our Program & Development
Coordinator and Program & Operations Coordinator around their development
responsibilities;
● Cultivating and stewarding relationships with donors, prospects, the philanthropic
community, and other relevant constituency groups;
● Overseeing all day-to-day aspects of WEA’s donor stewardship processes;
● Supporting our foundation and corporate giving programs, ensuring we are effectively
engaging and cultivating current and potential funders as well as meeting key
deadlines;
● Leading our grant proposal process;
● Working with Co-Directors to design engagement and fundraising funnels;
● Guiding the development of fundraising materials, including donor packets, donation
thank yous, regular donor updates and appeals, and other key donor outreach
materials;
● Assessing current development and donor tracking processes and procedures and,
where necessary, designing and implementing new development systems to efficiently
support development operations and enhance the donor experience;
● Collaborating with WEA team to plan and implement fundraising and donor outreach
for special events, and other cultivation and stewardship events, including two major
annual fundraising campaigns, and an annual Giving Circle event;
● Supporting our Co-Directors in managing the development budget by tracking and
regularly reporting expenditures, and evaluating quarterly the effectiveness of
development efforts as it relates to WEA’s development goals, including cost analysis;
● Participating in professional associations as needed;
● Serving as an engaging articulate, enthusiastic, and visible spokesperson for the
organization, especially to our donors;
● Supporting the WEA team as a development professional by modeling leadership,
enthusiasm, inspiration, and accountability.

The qualifications & experience we’re ideally looking for in you:
● You have ten or more years of experience in development, with significant experience
with foundations and individual donor programs. You have a successful track record of
personally identifying, cultivating and soliciting foundation and corporate partners,
individual donors, and growing recurring donor programs.
● You have a track record of driving growth with large, mid-size and small individual
donors in a nonprofit setting.
● You care about creating a just world where all people, particularly women and those
from traditionally underserved communities, have access to basic human rights and can thrive.
● You enjoy working with people from a variety of racial, ethnic, cultural, religious, and
socio-economic backgrounds and are dedicated to building a diverse community of
supporters.
● You have strong written and interpersonal communication skills, including the ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with staff and volunteers. You
enjoy introducing yourself to new people, making phone calls, and you’re great in
meetings.
● You know the development landscape well, and you are up to speed on and interested in the latest trends in philanthropy and donor engagement.
● You have experience and facility with key computer programs, including MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, Zoom, Google suite products, and Salesforce or a similar
database.
● You have a sense of humor, enthusiastic attitude and growth mindset. You enjoy
inspiring other staff in helping with fundraising efforts.

Additional preferred qualifications include:
● You understand the necessity of an intersectional lens in achieving justice, whether
that’s gender, climate, racial or social justice--because you know that one cannot
happen without the others.
● You believe in leveraging your skills and experience to continue dismantling white
supremacy and advancing justice for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color through
our work and in the gender, climate and racial justice movements overall.
● You enjoy designing and implementing new systems, outreach, or donor activities.
● You are not daunted by juggling a variety of tasks on a daily basis.

Compensation and benefits:
The salary range is $90k-$115k, depending on experience. Additional benefits include a comprehensive employee benefits package, including medical, dental, and vision coverage, sick days, holidays, and generous vacation time. We offer a rewarding, collaborative, and supportive work environment with a flexible work schedule. We pride ourselves on being a welcoming place for women, people of color, LGBTQ+ people, various religious and ethnic backgrounds, and parents.

Additional details:
You will report our Co-Directors, co-manage two administrative staff, and collaborate with WEA team members across the organization. This is a full-time position.

Location: This opportunity is open to any applicant eligible to work in the U.S. (Unfortunately, we are unable to offer support with visas.) We are a fully remote workplace. Candidates should have an appropriate remote working environment, including reliable phone and internet.

To apply:

Please submit a cover letter and resume to car...@womensearthalliance.org and include where you heard about the job. The position will remain posted until filled. We’re looking forward to learning more about you!  Women’s Earth Alliance is working with Sarah Bennett Consulting to coordinate this search. Please feel free to reach out to Sarah and her team at the email address above or at sa...@sarahbennettconsulting.com with any questions.

Women’s Earth Alliance, fiscally-sponsored by Earth Island Institute, provides equal
employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, amnesty, or status as a covered veteran in accordance with applicable federal, state and local laws.