Director of Development Services (LDF)

The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc.; New York (NY); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is seeking a Director of Development Services to lead development operations from its New York office.

The role focuses on building efficient systems to maximize fundraising, donor relations, and data-driven decision making in support of LDF’s mission. The Director will report to the Chief Development Officer, oversee a cross-functional team, and partner with senior fundraising leaders to craft strategic plans, optimize processes, and

Qualifications

• Experience leading development operations and infrastructure.
• Ability to set strategy and align donor relations with organizational goals.
• Strong governance, reporting, and process improvement capabilities.
• Proven track record in fundraising data analysis and donor engagement.
• Experience supervising diverse teams and cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Partner with the CDO to develop an efficient development department and establish protocols, goals and metrics.
• Collaborate with Major Giving and Institutional Giving leaders to create work plans and reports.
• Supervise data-driven gift portfolio strategies and donor engagement.
• Oversee Events and Strategic Partnerships to ensure integrated stewardship programs.
• Supervise the Database Manager and Gift Services team to ensure accurate recording and reporting of gifts.
• Create and optimize policies for acceptance, acknowledgement, and list management.
• Produce timely reports for Finance, Board committees, and senior management.

Skills

Project management

Communication skills

Interpersonal skills

Strategic thinking

Data-driven decision making

Vendor management

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Advanced degree preferred

Tools

Raiser’s Edge

Microsoft Office Suite

Job description

The NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) is the country’s first and foremost civil and human rights law organization. Founded in 1940 under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall, who subsequently became the first Black U.S. Supreme Court Justice, LDF was launched at a time when the nation’s aspirations for equality and due process of law were stifled by widespread state-sponsored racial inequality. From that era to the present, LDF’s mission has been transformative–to achieve racial justice, equality, and an inclusive society.

LDF’s litigation, policy advocacy, organizing, and public education programs in the substantive areas of criminal justice, economic justice, education and political participation seek to ensure the fundamental and basic human rights of all people to quality education, economic opportunity, the right to vote and fully participate in democracy, and the right to a fair and just judicial system.

Development Department:

The LDF Development Department is headquartered in NYC and oversees all fundraising efforts to support LDF’s ongoing programs and operations. This is a transformative time for LDF and for its Development Department, having seen a recent dramatic influx of support in direct response to widespread attention to racial injustices. This is a pivotal time for LDF as the organization looks to build on this growth.

LDF seeks a collaborative, motivated and experienced individual to serve as Director of Development Services to help set strategy for the Development Department. Reporting to the Chief Development Officer (CDO) the Director will play a critical leadership role in developing, implementing and managing high quality day-to-day Development operations systems. The Director will create and manage an effective infrastructure to maximize fundraising and constituent relations efforts by optimizing business processes and systems and providing timely analysis to support data-driven decision-making in anticipation and support of donor needs.

The Director of Development Services will be responsible for operationalizing the CDO’s strategy and charged with ensuring that the entire Development team is functioning at the highest level of effectiveness by developing systems that align with LDF’s vision of excellence.

Responsibilities include:

• Partner with the CDO to develop a growing and efficient department, by establishing new protocols, implementing best practices in development operations, developing goals and metrics for all team members, and regularly measuring progress toward goal;
• Collaborate with the Senior Director of Major Giving and the Senior Director of Institutional Giving to ensure they develop work plans and timelines, evaluate data and create reports to advance strategy and secure philanthropic contributions;
• As a team builder, the Director of Development Services will o versee a data-based approach that ensures gift officers execute strategies that result in the meaningful engagement and successful solicitation of prospects ;
• Work with the Director of Special Events and Strategic Partnerships to ensure that events and stewardship programs are fully integrated across all areas of the Development Departments and running efficiently and effectively;
• Supervise Prospect Research Manager to assign prospective donors to gift portfolios, specifically by using data to identify potential new donors and to grow a robust pipeline of leadership gift prospects ;
• Supervise the Database Manager to ensure the data team is accurately recording, tracking and reporting gifts;
• Develop and implement protocols and efficient systems for acceptance policies, acknowledgement letters, list management etc.;
• Utilize data to identify regions where LDF may expand its development efforts and provide recommendations to implement;
• Serve as Development Department liaison for the Finance Department, assess current reporting processes to ensure efficiency and be responsible for producing timely reports for the Finance Department teams;
• Partner with the CDO to prepare reports for LDF’s Board of Directors, Development Committee, volunteer leadership committees, and senior management team;
• Mastermind the Development calendar and meeting schedules, both internal and external, to optimize the time spent executing the fundraising strategy;
• Create systems to ensure effective communication between internal and external stakeholders;
• Manage relationships with key vendors and ensure effective systems for purchasing and maintaining Development materials and supplies;
• Other responsibilities as assigned.

Qualifications include:

• Minimum 10 years of experience in development, preferably in development operations;
• Bachelor’s degree required; Advanced degree preferred;
• Highly organized individual with strong project management skills and the ability to prioritize and manage deadlines; experience managing vendors to implement new software processes/database conversion a plus;
• Strong communication skills, both written and oral;
• Strong interpersonal skills;
• Experience working with senior executives and high-profile donors and volunteer leadership;
• Flexibility and ability to work independently and as a team player with a range of constituents and colleagues;
• Experience with fundraising databases; familiarity with Raiser’s Edge a plus;
• Commitment to the mission and growth of LDF;
• Experience with civil rights, human rights, or educational organizations a plus;
• Excellent computer skills and advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office (Excel, Power-point, Word) programs.

Critical Competencies for Success:

• Track record of developing systems, policies and protocols, leveraging data to create gift portfolios, metrics and evaluative methods;
• Display understanding of gift reporting by various types of financial institutions;
• History of developing statements of support in writing with the highest level of attention to detail;
• Demonstrated ability to solicit, cultivate and steward donors, maintaining their engagement with an organization.

Other Characteristics:

The successful candidate will be passionate about the mission of The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and value how fundraising contributes to that mission. He/she will be a seasoned professional capable of proactively developing systems to maximize fundraising potential and articulating strategies while working in a fast-paced environment, maintaining flexibility and a sense of urgency. The ideal candidate will be organized and entrepreneurial, able to work with senior management as well as manage a collaborative team, enabling staff to perform at the highest level to achieve the best possible outcomes. The candidate must have the organizational and systems skills to create protocols and metrics that measure and advance a development team’s goals.

This is not an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, skills, efforts or requirements or working conditions associated with the job. While this is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current job, management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed as assigned. This description does not constitute a contract of employment and LDF may exercise its employment-at-will rights at any time.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to you without regard to race, creed, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, marital status, age, veteran status, medical condition or disability, genetic information, gender identity, or any other protected status under federal, state, or local law.