Development Director

Position: Development Director

Reports to: Executive Director

Location: Remote in the United States

Employment Category: Full Time

Salary Range: $75,000-$90,000 

The LoveYourBrain Foundation is a US-based nonprofit that improves the mental, physical, and social well-being of people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and caregivers. Since 2014, we’ve been pioneering the use of mindfulness, yoga, psychoeducation, nutrition, and community-building programs for healing, advancing the science behind our holistic approach in clinical and community-based settings, and re-imagining how people can actively participate in their healing. This is an exciting time for our organization--we’ve recently reached our 10-year anniversary, refining our strategic vision, and our Executive Director was recently recognized as a Top Ten CNN Hero (see video segment here). 

Position Summary: The Development Director is instrumental in growing and overseeing LoveYourBrain’s multifaceted fundraising activities. As part of the leadership team and critical thought partner to the Executive Director, the position develops, implements, and manages a comprehensive fundraising strategy to achieve the goal of 15-20% financial growth annually. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of overseeing a nonprofit organizational budget of $1M+ with a diverse portfolio of revenue streams, and must have demonstrated success with:

  • Major Donors: identification and acquisition of new major donors at the 10K+ level, and stewardship of existing major donor portfolio 

  • Grants and corporate sponsorships: sustaining and securing new grants and corporate sponsors 

  • Events and campaigns: leading strategy and growth of events and fundraising campaigns that include peer-to-peer as a primary revenue driver 

  • Endowment: Launching and leading a planned endowment campaign in partnership with the Executive Director and Board 

LoveYourBrain believes that TBI, caregiving, and the intersections where we work - namely within healthcare and yoga and wellness spaces - disproportionality impact the most marginalized in our society, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, women, non-binary people, people living with disabilities, people with intersecting identities, and others with lived experience being part of marginalized communities. We believe these communities must be centered in the work we do. Therefore we strongly encourage applications from people with these identities or who are members of other marginalized communities. If you share LoveYourBrain’s values of being real, compassionate, inclusive, fun, and curious, we’d love to speak with you. The LYB community believes in respect for all people and the planet. We embrace and strive for a community that values differences and prioritizes equity. Regardless of how you identify, or how the world sees you, please feel welcome to apply and join our community.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Major and Mid-Level Donor Engagement & Stewardship

  • Lead and cultivate a portfolio of major and mid-level donors ($10K - $99K)

  • Develop and implement stewardship strategies to strengthen donor relationships 

  • Identify and transition high-capacity donors into principal gifts ($100K+)

  • Plan and execute donor engagement events and stewardship initiatives (in-person and virtual) to build impactful interactions with donors

  • Collaborate with Development Manager to analyze and leverage donor data in prospecting and segmentation strategies 

Institutional Fundraising 

  • Develop and execute foundation and corporate fundraising strategy, including diversified portfolio of yearly and multi-year grants and large-scale funding partnerships from $10k-$200k 

  • Build relationship management strategies with key and target funders and cultivate new funding opportunities 

  • Ensure stewardship of institutional donors, including impact reports and engagement opportunities across programs and events

Events & Campaigns

  • Oversee the strategy and implementation of 5 primary events and campaigns annually (i.e., $50k-$100k goal per event)

Endowment Implementation 

  • With leadership, implement inaugural endowment campaign through quiet and external phases to meet target ($10M)

  • Present Endowment prospectus and lead external visibility of campaign 

  • Identify, cultivate, and acquire new donors with capacity to support  

Collaboration and Strategy Development 

  • Partner with leadership team to implement comprehensive and cohesive fundraising strategy 

  • Work with Development Manager to analyze donor data and trends, ensuring data-informed fundraising decisions

  • Collaborate with Marketing and Communications to develop impact-driven messaging and donor touchpoints to increase engagement and retention donor 

  • Maintain up-to-date knowledge of fundraising trends, best practices, and legal regulations to ensure the organization’s approach remains innovative and compliant

  • Oversee Development Manager, ensuring their role spearheads event logistics, donor communications, and stewardship initiatives, while supporting their professional development and growth opportunities 

    In addition:

  • Opportunity to serve on the Leadership Team

  • Opportunity to serve on Equity Team to advance our vision of being a more equitable, anti-racist organization

  • Willingness and flexibility to contribute to projects outside of your primary scope of work.

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.

Minimum Requirements:

  • At least 5-15 years experience in directing nonprofit fundraising, preferably focused on holistic health services for marginalized communities

  • Demonstrated track record of successfully securing major gifts and developing sustainable donor relationships.

  • Proven success in creating and executing annual fundraising campaigns, events, and peer-to-peer fundraising initiatives.

  • Strong writing skills that has successfully translated into securing grants and corporate sponsorships

  • Proficient in working with Classy, Salesforce, Google platform, Microsoft Office Suite

  • Exceptional interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to effectively engage and inspire a wide range of stakeholders.

  • Highly-developed organizational skills with a keen attention to detail, and a demonstrated ability to effectively prioritize tasks and meet deadlines 

  • Strong manager with ability to effectively delegate and inspire team collaboration 

  • Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) 

Qualifications and skills strongly preferred:

  • CFRE preferred 

  • Experience implementing community-centric fundraising model

  • Experience with people affected by traumatic brain injury or other disabilities

  • Mindfulness and yoga practitioner/teacher or passion for holistic health approaches

Physical Requirements:

  • Travel in the US by air and/or car (must have license, passport)

  • Drive a car 

Work Environment:

  • Ability to effectively work remotely 

  • Ability to work on a computer for up to 8 hours per day

  • Ability to talk over the phone or video conferencing (multiple times a day)

  • Ability to work over weekends (occasionally)

APPLICATION PROCESS:

Please submit to hiring@loveyourbrain.com. 

  1. A cover letter that directly addresses: 1) how you meet the selection criteria and 2) motivations for applying to this position

  2. Resume or CV

  3. 3 writing samples that demonstrate your skills and alignment with the role (eg: development plan for an organization, campaign appeal, grant proposal, major donor or sponsorship proposal)

    We encourage you to apply as soon as possible, as interviews are scheduled on a rolling basis. Potential candidates will be offered a formal interview via video conference with key LoveYourBrain staff and then a subsequent interview with the Executive Director. 

    We provide the following core benefits for full-time employee positions.

    • Health insurance coverage for 100% of BCBS VT Bronze level or a pre-tax stipend

    • Delta Dental insurance (basic plan)

    • 19 days PTO (longer based on duration at LYB) + 7 days sick/personal + 9 Federal Holidays

    • Summer hours – half days on Fridays in July and August (equivalent of 4 days PTO)

    • 12 weeks fully paid leave for person giving birth/primary caregiver and 4 weeks fully paid for secondary caregiver