Overview:
NRDC is seeking a Senior Director of Foundation Prospecting and Stewardship Strategy to work with the Foundation Relations team and NRDC leadership.

Position Summary

Responsibilities:

• For both prospecting and stewardship, establish procedures and build systems in Salesforce and related tools to manage and track the engagement of foundations resulting in increased opportunities for revenue growth (15%)
  • Identify and monitor key performance indicators for the progress and engagement of foundations
  • With support of the Donor System team, develop a comprehensive dashboard for use in reporting and monitoring outcomes, relationships, and progress on overall targets
  • Ensure that the Foundation Relations team members understand these metrics and use them to advance and refine their work
• Create and manage a prospecting management system (35%)
  • Develop a robust approach and toolkit for foundation prospecting for NRDC opportunities that supports an increase in revenue of 20% over five years from current and new foundation sources
  • Convene a monthly prospect strategy meeting of Senior Portfolio Managers, the Director of Global Foundation Strategies, and the Assistant Director of U.S. Foundation Strategies to discuss individual foundations and institutional program priorities.
  • Supervise the Managing Writer for Strategic Priorities to expand NRDC’s foundation fundraising capacity by proactively developing a suite of essential materials for NRDC’s key priorities and emerging programmatic opportunities
  • Build a system for tracking formal and informal collaborations of foundations that may present new funding opportunities
  • Ensure the prospect research team and/or Senior Development Associate provide complete research on prospective new funders, monitors foundation websites and news media and shares relevant updates, tracks the giving history and areas of interest of current foundation funders, and maps relationships between foundations and identifies those held by NRDC leadership
• Develop and manage the systems and strategies for stewarding relationships with foundations (25%)
  • With input from the Managing Director of Foundation Relations, the Director of Global Foundation Strategies, and the Assistant Director of U.S. Foundation Strategies to:
    • Build and maintain procedures for developing, managing, and updating institutional strategies for each foundation that supports NRDC
    • Create and deploy a customizable menu of stewardship strategies such as webinars, site visits, program updates, and breaking news emails
    • Create talking points on key issues and questions often raised by foundations
    • Provide training and coaching to help staff, including program experts, to be clear and compelling in meetings with foundations
  • Guide and mentor the Senior Development Associate in executing needed stewardship functions, including:
    • Building and maintaining a calendar of funder engagement
    • Creating timely strategic briefing memos in collaboration with Senior Portfolio Managers for donor meetings
    • Supporting foundation meetings on grant progress for select significant grants
    • Proactively tracking upcoming major NRDC policy announcements and creating email updates, webinars, and other mechanisms designed to inform foundations of NRDC’s work
  • Collaborate regularly with the Director of Stewardship on the Donor Relations team to share resources, coordinate outreach to advocacy staff, and develop synergistic stewardship opportunities for foundations, principal, and individual major donors
• Manage a portfolio of some major U.S. foundations(25%)
  • Focus on opportunities of $1M+ annually
  • Assist leadership in donor strategies and meetings
  • Build and maintain relationships with major philanthropic collaborations, including identifying significant funding opportunities, co-creating strategies with funders and NRDC staff, engaging staff leadership, and soliciting support.
  • Work with NRDC staff and colleagues at other national NGOs on joint fundraising collaborations, ensuring that NRDC is fully engaged in the development of strategies and is fully and accurately represented in joint proposals, funder meetings, and solicitations.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree required; master’s degree or fundraising certifications preferred
• 7+ years’ experience in foundation fundraising
• 5+ years managerial experience required
• Experience with Salesforce preferred
• Significant leadership and analytical thinking abilities
• Ability to innovate and find balance between NRDC’s priorities and those of the foundations
• Organizational skills: ability to prioritize, delegate, and simultaneously oversee multiple streams of work to meet overlapping deadlines
• Ability to represent NRDC and co-lead donor meetings with leadership.
• Detail oriented with high standards of excellence and the ability to monitor for progress
• Commitment to DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and NRDC’s mission
• Persuasive and diplomatic communication, writing/editing, and interpersonal skills
• Mentoring, team-building, and supervisory skills