Director of Development & Communications

Jazz Hands For Autism; Culver City (CA); On-site; USD 31,685,000 - 34,440,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus based on performance

Opportunity for advancement

Paid time off

Job summary

Jazz Hands for Autism in Culver City is seeking a Director of Development & Communications for a part-time role (15 hours per week) to lead fundraising campaigns and oversee organizational communications.

You will manage grants, donor programs, social media, Mailchimp campaigns, and data systems, partnering with the finance team to support budgets and reporting. Flexible evenings and local travel may be required.

Qualifications

• Educational background or professional experience in nonprofit management, fundraising and development.
• Experience in data management and data analysis, able to pull relevant reports to make informed decisions around fundraising and outreach.
• Communications background and experience with a wide range of social media and communications tools.
• Must have experience in donor development, donor outreach, and sponsorship development.
• Must be willing to participate in further grant writer/ fundraising training.
• Fundraising: 3 years (Required).
• Asana: 1 year (Preferred).
• Google Docs & Sheets: 1 Year (Preferred).
• Microsoft Office: 1 year (Preferred).
• Must be familiar with Mailchimp, Kindful, and all Social Media platforms.

Responsibilities

• Development & Fundraising: oversee the full grant life-cycle from sourcing grants, applying for grants, tracking grants, and grant reporting including: creating and maintaining grant boilerplates.
• Cultivate an individual recurring donor base with benchmarks like donor retention rate, average gift size, donor upgrade rate, response rate to outreach, new donor acquisition, and donor satisfaction.
• Develop financial and in-kind partnerships; maintain Kindful donor database, Airtable grant database, Asana grant tracking, and train staff on tools.
• Collaborate with the JHFA finance team to obtain budgets, financial reports, and other documents for donor and grant life-cycle.
• Communications: maintain all organizational social media accounts; develop original content; execute direct email campaigns via MailChimp; conduct direct mail annual end-of-year asks; foster outreach and press partnerships.
• Data Management: coordinate with the data department on processes for grant reporting; guide Curriculum and Technology coordinator on data gathering; maintain systems for grant reporting; use data to create social media content and grant drafts.

Skills

Fundraising

Donor development

Donor outreach

Data management

Communications

Social media

Grant training

Tools

Mailchimp

Kindful

Asana

Google Docs

Google Sheets

Microsoft Office

Job description

Benefits:

• Bonus based on performance
• Opportunity for advancement
• Paid time off

Organization:

Jazz Hands For Autism

Jazz Hands For Autism (JHFA) is a young nonprofit organization. Founded in May 2014, we are a talent advocacy group with a mission to provide avenues for musicians on the autism spectrum to turn their passion for music into a line of income.

We are seeking dedicated and skilled program coordinator for the Jazz Hands Musicians Academy (JHMA), a music-based vocational program that uses a strength-based approach to empower musicians with autism and amplify their voices by providing necessary resources and avenues that will assist them with forging a rewarding and career path as a working musician. JHMA provides individualized music lessons, performance training and wrap-around artist development services and performance scouting for individuals with autism who are looking to improve their musicianship and begin a career as a musician.

Position:

Director of Development & Communications

Full Time/ Part Time:

Part Time (15 hrs/ Week, with hours subject to increase about 33% in 2025)

Pay Rate:

$30/ hour

Job Overview:

The Director of Development & Communications for Jazz Hands for Autism is a dynamic and essential role to the organization that will be responsible for spearheading development and fundraising campaigns for the organization. This role will also oversee all aspects of organizational communications and outreach.

Job Responsibilities & Duties:

Development & Fundraising:

• Responsible for oversight of the full grant life-cycle from sourcing grants, applying for grants, tracking grants, and grant reporting including:
  • Creating and maintaining grant boilerplates
• Responsible for cultivation of an individual recurring donor base keeping the following benchmarks in mind:
  • Donor retention rate: Track the percentage of donors who give again in the following year
  • Average gift size: Monitor the average donation amount for each donor tier
  • Donor upgrade rate: Measure the percentage of donors who increase their giving from one year to the next
  • Response rate to outreach: Track the percentage of donors who open/respond to outreach efforts
  • New donor acquisition: Monitor the number of new donors acquired through our various outreach strategies
  • Donor satisfaction: Conduct periodic surveys to gauge donor satisfaction and engagement
• Responsible for development of financial and in-kind partnerships.
• Responsible for maintaining Kindful donor database, Airtable grant database, Asana grant tracking and when applicable, training staff on effective use of systems and tools for developing donors.
• Responsible for collaborating with the JHFA finance team to obtain organizational budgets, financial reports, and other financial documents as needed for donor and grant life-cycle.

Communications:

• Responsible for maintenance and oversight of all organizational social media accounts (including but not limited to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc).
• Responsible for consistent social media engagement, developing original content and sharing relevant content across various social media.
• Responsible for direct email campaign outreach via MailChimp and direct email campaigns.
• Responsible for the direct mail annual end of year ask campaign, when applicable.
• Responsible for facilitating and maintaining outreach and press related partnerships

Data Management:

• Responsible for maintaining close communication with the JHFA data department that is tasked with:
  • Developing and maintaining processes for effective organizational data management procedures.
  • Providing guidance to Coordinator of Curriculum and Technology on best practices for gathering data to support grant funding initiatives.
  • Developing and maintaining systems to ensure effective data management, especially as it pertains to data needed for grant reporting.
  • Utilizing data retrieved from JHFA data department to create compelling social media content and grant drafts, templates and reports

Qualifications & Skills:

• Educational background or professional experience in nonprofit management, fundraising and development.
• Experience in data management and data analysis, able to pull relevant reports to make informed decisions around fundraising and outreach.
• Communications background and experience with a wide range of social media and communications tools.
• Must have experience in donor development, donor outreach, and sponsorship development.
• Must be willing to participate in further grant writer/ fundraising training
• Fundraising: 3 years (Required)
• Asana: 1 year (Preferred)
• Google Docs & Sheets: 1 Year (Preferred)
• Microsoft Office: 1 year (Preferred)
• Must be familiar with Mailchimp, Kindful, and all Social Media platforms.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

WORK ENVIRONMENT

The work environment characteristics for this position are typical of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

SCHEDULE & TRAVEL

• This position requires a flexible schedule with occasional evenings or weekends required for special events or meetings.
• This position is required to travel locally on occasion to liaise with potential donors & partners.

WE VALUE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION!

Jazz Hands for Autism believes in creating long-term relationships by being responsive and relevant and by consistently delivering value to our employees, our students, and our community. Specifically with our employees, we focus on attracting, developing and retaining the best talent, challenging our people, demonstrating a "can-do" attitude and fostering a collaborative and mutually supportive environment.

Diversity creates a healthier atmosphere: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to protected age classification, ancestry, color, religious creed, marital status, military and veteran status, national origin, race, sex, gender, gender identity, and gender expression. Jazz Hands For Autism will make every reasonable effort to accommodate individuals based on their disability status.

Jazz Hands For Autism is based in Culver City and is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes a diverse candidate pool.

Flexible work from home options available.