The Organization
Organizational overview
At Democracy Works, we work to help Americans vote, no matter what. To that end, we build technology for both voters and election administrators that increases voter access and participation.
- TurboVote is a tool designed to help voters register, request their ballot, and make their voice heard in every election, from local to national. We’ve connected over ten million Americans with TurboVote by building the largest college, nonprofit, and corporate voter engagement coalition in the country, including more than 300 campuses, nonprofits – like Headcount, Color of Change, and the Hispanic Federation – and companies like Starbucks, Univision, Facebook, Google, and Snap.
- As the only comprehensive official election dataset, the Voting Information Project (VIP) helps Americans find their polling site and available ballot dropbox locations where they look for it most: online. Across Google products alone, VIP data was viewed nearly 500 million times in 2020.
- How To Vote breaks down all the options each state offers for voting, their voter registration rules, as well as unique circumstances like voting overseas and voting rights restoration for the formerly incarcerated. Across Google products alone, our How to Vote guides were viewed over 2 billion times.
- Our tool Ballot Scout brings transparency and accountability to the vote-by-mail process by allowing elections administrators and voters to track every ballot with the same ease as a package. Ballot Scout helps election administrators track absentee ballots through the mail, providing transparency in the vote-by-mail process and making it easier to follow up when things go awry.
- Co-founded by Democracy Works and the CAA Foundation, Civic Alliance is a nonpartisan group of businesses working together to build a future where everyone participates in shaping our democracy. In 2020, membership grew to 1,030 companies with an employee reach of 5,163,938.
Position Overview
Democracy Works’ Development Team excels in generating revenue to advance our work to help Americans vote, no matter what. To create sustainability in both our funding pipelines and in our programmatic offerings, the Democracy Works Development Department raises over 70% of the organization’s annual budget through contributions. Contributions are distributed through multiple revenue channels: corporations, foundations, major gifts, mid-level gifts, and the community giving fund.
The Director of Development and the Associate Director of Development will be responsible for very similar areas of work, with the exception of supervisory status.The Associate Director will report to and collaborate with the Director of Development to develop a portfolio of donors, leads, and prospects. The responsibilities specific to the Director are listed later in this posting. You will have the opportunity to apply to either role, or to both.
Location: Brooklyn, NY or remote within the US
Target Start Date: October 26th, 2021
Salary:
- Associate Director of Development: $72,000 – $90,000 for most regions (Offers will vary based on experience and location-based cost-of-living calculations.)
- Director of Development: $90,000 – $115,000 for most regions (Offers will vary based on experience and location-based cost-of-living calculations.)
Benefits: Vision, dental, & medical insurance; 403(b) retirement savings plan; generous vacation policy; parental leave; long-term disability; employee assistance program
Levels and Supervisory Status:
- Associate Director of Development: Mid-level, non-supervisory
- Director of Development: Senior, supervisory
In both the Director and Associate Director roles:
You will:
- Maintain and manage a portfolio of donors and prospects with the intent to discover and realize donor potential
- Have a minimum annual fundraising goal tied to a blended portfolio as specified in performance standards, including both renewable and new incremental revenue
- Work alongside Democracy Works’ internal teams and partners to refine and segment fundraising strategies in alignment with their respective objectives and interests
- Be accountable for cultivating relationships with individual, foundation and corporate donors, and guide the development manager as they cultivate their portfolios
- Develop and execute an ongoing strategy for qualifying donors in extensive donor discovery, retention, and growth of donor contributions, as well as recapture from previous donors
- Develop aggregate donor moves management plans resulting in phone interaction, zoom meetings, and face-to-face solicitation
- Update donor records from your portfolio in Salesforce
- Engage in conversations about anti-oppression and racial justice in our work
You are:
- Able to work effectively with multiple stakeholders and audiences
- Able to work independently
- Able to integrate strategic goals into day-to-day tasks
- Proficient with Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Salesforce
- Supportive of the mission of Democracy Works
- A gifted storyteller who effectively communicates impact to external audiences
- Well-versed in issues of systemic oppression, including racial justice, or are committed to deepening your knowledge
You have experience:
- Working with clients, customers, donors, and investors
- Managing portfolios
- Meeting annual monetary goals
- Working with CRM software like Salesforce or equivalent informational databases
- Managing independent work that requires self-direction and close attention to detail
- Applying fundraising best practices, especially with individual major and foundation gifts
For the Director of Development role only:
As a part of the team, you will be in charge of making sure we hire, retain, and grow a talented and diverse team of development professionals, while you maintain your own portfolio of donors and investors. In addition to the above, our Director of Development role includes the following:
You will:
- Grow and supervise two Associate Directors of Development and one Development Manager
- Report to and collaborate with the Chief Development Officer (CDO) to assign portfolios, donors, leads, and prospects to team members
- Collaborate with the CDO to set annual monetary team goals
- Partner with the CDO to create long-term strategies, identify new sources of revenue, and introduce innovative concepts to the team that strengthen our current tactics
You are:
- A proven and motivational leader and manager
You have experience:
- Supervising, mentoring, motivating, and growing multiple staff members
Logistics for both roles
Physical demands
These positions require regular, daily use of a computer (including use of G-Suite and Slack) to conduct work and communicate with colleagues. For those working out of our Brooklyn office, the F train stops closest to our office, but exiting the station requires the use of four flights of stairs. Our office has an elevator available at street level. Streets and buildings nearby are currently under construction, which can disrupt sidewalks and result in varying levels of construction noise audible from the office. Our offices share a set of bathrooms with other offices on our floor, and there are no gender neutral bathrooms in the building at this time.
Social expectations
Regular (weekly and monthly) meetings with the supervisor are expected for both roles, as well as colleagues and donors, both in person (when appropriate) and virtual. External-facing meetings are required for both roles. For the Director role, regular meetings with direct reports are expected.
Time and travel expectations
DW’s regular operating hours are 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday to Friday. Two times per year, all full-time staff members participate in a five-day retreat in our Brooklyn offices. All Staff is held each year in May and November, when we are able to safely do so. This position requires 20% travel in non-pandemic times.
How To Apply
Application Instructions
To apply, please include a resume and respond to the following questions (instead of a cover letter) using the application link: https://grnh.se/a294bc713us
In your responses, please include only the following information:
- How did you find this job listing?
- In one sentence, what makes you interested in Democracy Works?
- In one sentence, what makes you interested in this role?
- Would you be available to start by October 26th, 2021?
- Are you willing to work at a non-partisan organization?
- Do you have experience working with Salesforce?
- Do you have experience cultivating relationships with individual, foundation, or corporate donors?
- Which role(s) are you applying for?
- [OPTIONAL, for Director candidates only] Do you have supervisory experience?
As part of our application, you’ll see an optional form used to collect EEOC demographic information. The data collected in this form is useful in our EEOC reporting and in our assessment of our recruitment practices. However, please keep in mind that the standardized EEOC language used in this form does not reflect the values of Democracy Works – for example, we don’t view gender as binary. We also encourage all applicants to state their pronouns when applying for any job opening at Democracy Works.
Democracy Works is committed to diversity and inclusion in everything we do and aspires to have a team that’s representative of the voters we serve. When hiring, we practice proactive outreach to top talent that’s underrepresented in our sector. We conduct an anonymized skills evaluation, to reduce implicit bias and resume-dependency in our process. We’re a woman- and gay-founded nonprofit, and promote an inclusive culture that stands against racism, sexism, homophobia, and ableism (to name a few). To be explicit, we strongly encourage applicants of all races, ethnicities, political party associations, religions (or lack thereof), national origins, sexual orientations, genders, sexes, ages, abilities, and branches of military service.
Feel free to contact work@democracy.works if you have any questions about our commitment to inclusion or about general hiring practices, or if you need an accommodation for a medical condition during the hiring process. Democracy Works posts all current career opportunities at democracy.works/careers.