VP of Development

Title: VP of Development  Reports
to: CEO Position Type: Full-Time
Compensation: $150,000- $180,000
Location: U.S.-based, remote or hybrid 
Benefits: 100% premiums covered by SJN for medical
insurance, access to dental and vision insurance, 20 days paid
vacation, 3 floating personal days, 6 sick days, 8 paid holidays,
the last week of December off, work schedule flexibility, and a
remote work stipend.   Timeline: Application
deadline: March 15th, 2024 Interviews: March 25th through April
12th, 2024 Ideal Start Date: May 1st, 2024  
Background: Since 2013, the Solutions Journalism
Network (SJN) has worked to legitimize and spread solutions
journalism — rigorous reporting that examines not just problems,
but also effective efforts to respond to them — in order to
rebalance the news. We’ve made a strong case for how and why
audiences and society benefit when solutions journalism is
integrated into the news — and we’ve had real success. We’ve worked
with over 600 news organizations and 25,000 individual journalists
and, based on growing demand for our work, currently staff are
working across the United States as well as in Africa and Europe.
Around the world, solutions reporting is being adopted by news
organizations because it increases audience trust and engagement,
sharpens accountability, opens up new sources of revenue, and
surfaces and circulates vital knowledge to meet the challenges of
our time.     Today we believe it is more urgent
than ever that we take bold action and significantly broaden our
reach. Building on our success legitimizing and spreading the
solutions journalism approach, we are embarking upon an ambitious
new strategy aimed at advancing a system-level change across the
field of journalism, in which strong communications and
partnerships will play a critical role. Working with a network of
journalists, educators and allies, we aim to engage tens of
thousands more along with hundreds of news organizations in a
movement to ensure ready access to news that is informed by
solutions reporting. Our vision of success is sweeping but
achievable. With broad adoption of solutions journalism, we
envision an increase in society’s capacity to solve problems,
widespread reach of more complete and accurate coverage, advances
in fairness and equity in reporting and a public that is actively
involved in the stories being told about their
communities.       Role
Purpose: The VP of Development ensures that SJN’s
fundraising is fully integrated with the strategic thinking and
planning of the organization, not an afterthought or siloed
function, and that there is clear alignment between the
organization’s mission, aim, budget and fundraising.   To do
this effectively, the VP of Development communicates consistently
and effectively with the CEO, executive team, directors and other
staff across the entire organization, navigating a productive
tension between short- and long-term strategic needs and
responsiveness to emerging opportunities, understanding what is
important at any given time, discerning how much attention to
allocate among competing priorities, and providing insight into
where there is the greatest alignment between funder interests and
SJN’s aims.   Responsibilities for this role
include:

• Lead all aspects of fundraising, which includes working with
  the CEO and executive team to establish a clear strategic direction
  that aligns fundraising goals with the organization’s mission and
  priorities
• Craft compelling proposals, reports, concept notes, LOIs, thank
  you letters and other fundraising materials
• Steward funding relationships and support others in learning to
  do so as well
• Collaborate with others to set priorities for fundraising
• Represent the organization with a wide range of
  stakeholders
• Ensure that equity is centered in all of our proposals, reports
  and concept memos by integrating DEI principles into fundraising
  strategies and practices to ensure that SJN’s fundraising
  activities contribute to the organization’s broader DEI
  objectives
• Expand and deepen SJN’s major gifts program by working with the
  board and others to bring new major donors into the fold
• Work closely with the executive and finance teams to forecast
  revenue projections and goal setting for the development
  function
• Collaborate on the determination and articulation of short- and
  long-term strategic plans that inform development priorities
• Work with the Development Operations Manager to ensure
  development processes and record keeping are accurate, accessible
  and fulfill their purpose in service of the organization’s program
  goals and network strategy
• Build relationships with a diverse range of stakeholders
  through compelling and respectful communications to advance the
  fundraising goals as well as the organization’s reputation and
  influence
• Guide and oversee branding and messaging for donors and
  prospects, and ensure that all donors and prospects receive timely
  updates on our work, accomplishments and ambitions. This includes
  working collaboratively with team members across the organization
  on communications specifically designed for funders as well as
  those, like the website and annual report, that are key to the
  organization’s fundraising success
• Work closely with SJN’s Program and MEL teams to measure and
  articulate the impact of SJN’s work and influence on our network
  and the journalism ecosystem
• Manage the position of Development Operations Manager
• Keep the team abreast of new possibilities for funding
  relationships and help navigate complicated funding relationships,
  including those that require board level attention

Must-Have Skills and Strengths for this role
include:

• 3-5 years of progressively responsible experience culminating
  in a senior development role with experience securing and
  stewarding institutional and major gifts.
• Comfort and competency in communicating with and caring for
  individual and institutional donors.
• 1-2 years of experience managing a small team and demonstrated
  evidence of success collaborating with teams across an
  organization.
• Demonstrated experience building a culture of relational
  (rather than transactional) donor stewardship.
• Excellent written and verbal skills with attention to detail,
  deadlines, and time management.
• Self-motivated and self-directed as well as collaborative and
  supportive of others.
• Infrequent travel; flexibility of work hours to align with
  colleagues and funders in other time zones is necessary.
• Experience with GSuite, fundraising CRMs and Salesforce
  preferred.