Development Manager - Firelands Workers United - Washington State

DEVELOPMENT MANAGER (1 position available)

Place: Remote w/ Occasional Travel Required; preference if based in Washington State 

Compensation: $62,000/year + up to $4,000 wellness stipend*

Hours: 32 hours/week (~4 days/week); full time exempt with a partially flexible and partially fixed schedule, occasional weekends and evenings. 

Benefits: Health Insurance, Dental & Vision offered

Paid Time Off: Flex time offered for parenting and care responsibilities; Accrued sick, holiday, and vacation PTO; Two Annual Full-Office Closures for an additional 4 weeks of vacation PTO

*Compensation may be updated as our personnel policies continue to reflect cost of living pressures on working people. Salaries are tied to area union salaries and are flat for the entire organization, from the Executive Director to the Organizers.

About Firelands: Firelands Workers United/Trabajadores Unidos and Firelands Workers Action/Acción de Trabajadores build multiracial working class power in Washington state's rural timber counties to campaign for a fair economy. Firelands' base of hundreds of working families throughout the region includes mill workers, cannery workers, house cleaners, nurses, school workers, mothers, seasonal and unemployed workers, tenants and mobile homeowners who are Spanish speakers and English speakers. Our campaigns advance programs and policies that benefit workers, including union jobs caring for people and the land, healthy and affordable housing, healthcare, childcare, and a fair tax system. Firelands’ organizational structure is one of shared leadership with wages and benefits in line with our values and in relationship with working-class people in rural Washington. (www.firelandswa.org)

Job Summary: The Development Manager innovates and carries out Fireland’s fundraising efforts and participates in shaping Firelands’ strategy together with staff and member leaders, developing a culture of pride and collective ownership for Firelands’ mission and resourcing needs. Firelands' approach to fundraising is rooted in our values of economic justice. The Development Manager is a full-time, exempt position that reports to the Executive Director.

Key Responsibilities

• Grant Management: In collaboration with the ED, analyze foundation grant prospects, cultivate and steward relationships with funders and manage grant cycle calendars. Write, edit, and submit grant proposals and reports under the supervision of the ED.
• Grassroots Fundraising: Manage Firelands’ grassroots fundraising drives and donor organizing efforts, including: goal setting; list development and database maintenance; annual appeals; coordinating fundraising volunteers; and preparing the ED for donor meetings and events. The Development Manager also coordinates with Organizers to launch and maintain member dues programs. 
• Financial Recordkeeping and Monitoring: 
• Manage grant and donor records in Google Drive and Every Action database for fundraising income/expense tracking and for financial reconciliation 
• Monitor, process, and track grant receivables
• Work with ED to assess the financial health of the organization

Leadership Responsibilities

• Collaboration and Culture: Cultivate a culture of belonging and pride in Firelands’ mission and encourage collective ownership of its resourcing needs. Actively collaborate with staff and members to evaluate structures, systems, programs and campaigns. Reflect Firelands’ member-driven strategy and programs in grant proposals and donor asks. Prepare accessible and bilingual background materials for ED, staff and Steering Committee to guide strategic planning and budgeting decisions. Take a developmental approach to training and coaching member-leaders to understand and make decisions related to Firelands’ fundraising and financial health.
• Communications: Attract mission-aligned resourcing and investments. Work closely with staff and contractors to develop compelling materials that communicate Firelands’ work and vision to a donor audience. 
• Member training and coaching: Work closely with organizers to train, coach and support leaders for fundraising efforts like participating in membership dues, representing Firelands to prospective donors and funders, and storytelling.

Minimum Qualifications

• At least 2 years of experience in fundraising for 501c3 and/or 501c4 community-based organizations.
• Knowledge of foundation fundraising strategies, grant and individual donor cultivation and stewardship, and/or member dues program creation.
• Detail-oriented and extremely organized: able to organize the Executive Director and ensure deadlines are met.

• Ability to communicate clearly and directly with coworkers, members and volunteers, to resolve conflicts with integrity and an openness to learning and growth.
• Capacity to work independently and on a team with weekly or biweekly supervision.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to read, write and speak in English, and use a computer keyboard and monitor. This position will require occasional travel to meetings/conferences. Reasonable accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this job.

Desired Qualifications & Capacities

• Strong commitment to racial, social, economic, gender, and rural justice and to building working class power guided by strategy

• Capacity to communicate persuasively and compellingly with diverse funder audiences, with awareness of different funder tendencies and language. Excels at building and maintaining relationships with funders and donors.
• Enthusiasm to work with members and organizers to help them develop their stories and skills in fundraising. Strong knowledge of and willingness to lead grassroots fundraising and leadership development activities.
• Strong and applied understanding of organizing and base building as a theory of change, preferably with understanding of civic engagement and electoral work.
• Has a personal stake and passion for why you do this work. Ambition and “gusto” to raise funds for Firelands! 
• Adaptable, flexible and able to make decisions and coordinate with others in the face of emerging opportunities

• Relationships with funders (donors & foundations) and familiarity in the areas of climate justice/environmental justice, economic justice and workers rights, rural organizing, electoral/movement politics and racial justice organizing, especially in WA State.
• Relationship or passion for rural communities
• Bilingual: Spanish-English
• Possess valid driver's license and is/can be insured / capacity to travel to our communities in Grays Harbor/Pacific counties and to attend funder events in Seattle, WA
• Experience using VAN, Every Action, or other databases. 

Schedule and Location:
Because we fight for every worker’s right to live a full and healthy life, Firelands offers a shorter full time work week at 32 hours a week. We also ensure staff are able to flex time, schedule around parenting and care responsibilities, take their accrued sick, holiday, and vacation PTO, and offer two annual full-office closures for an additional 4 weeks of vacation PTO. 

This position can be mostly remote (unless you live in Aberdeen or Port Angeles, WA where we have offices) with occasional travel to Washington required (Seattle, Grays Harbor and/or Pacific counties). Several times throughout the year, the Development Manager will need to work from the Firelands office, located in Aberdeen, WA, and there’s potential to share a part-time office in Seattle, WA. While many of the meetings associated with this position can be done via Zoom, this position will require pre-scheduled travel for events in Grays Harbor and/or Pacific counties for member events, and Seattle for funder-related events. 

Salary and benefits: Compensation is set at $62,000/yr plus wellness stipend for a full-time week of 32 hours/ week. Additional benefits include healthcare, dental, vision.

TO APPLY

Please send the following by Friday, March 31, 2023 at 11:59PM PST to the Hiring Committee, jobs@firelandswa.org with “Development Manager” in the subject line:

• Cover letter

• Your resume

• Contact information for three references who can talk about your qualifications (we will ask your permission before reaching out to references);

• Optional: a sample work product such as a donor newsletter, an annual appeal, a fundraising training curriculum, a grant report, or a grant proposal (but please be sure to have permission to share materials with our hiring committee).

Interviews will be offered on a rolling basis and we will offer the position to the right candidate as soon as we find them. We encourage qualified candidates to apply as soon as possible.

Firelands is an organization committed to justice. We encourage applications from people of color, women, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities and rural working-class people, who drive our work and are the heart and soul of our staff, leadership and membership.