Donor Relations Manager
Remote
Full Time
Groundswell Fund
Manager/Supervisor
About Groundswell Fund
Since its inception in 2003, Groundswell Fund has put intersectional grassroots organizing led by women, transgender, and gender-expansive people of color at the center of our giving. It is a channel into which individual donors and foundations pour resources to reach vital work at the grassroots, serving as an irrigation system for growing reproductive, racial, and social justice movements. Our staff are from the very movements we fund, and we deeply understand grassroots impact with long-term investment.
We do this work with our sibling organization, Groundswell Action Fund, founded in response to the first Trump Administration. Groundswell Action Fund was founded on a simple but revolutionary premise: those most excluded from our democracy should be at the center of transforming it. Both organizations work to revolutionize philanthropy through grantmaking, capacity building, and organizing within philanthropy itself to inspire more giving to the types of organizations we support – whether or not those resources come through our doors.
While we fund nearly every major social justice movement in the United States, we are a long-term funder of the U.S. Reproductive Justice (RJ) Movement. Since the start of our grantmaking, we have moved more than $180 million (across both our c3 and c4) to the field in grants and capacity-building support, increased the giving of dozens of national and local foundations, and helped bring thousands of new individual donors into the RJ Movement. Our grantees have been instrumental in the passage of hundreds of pro-RJ policies at the state and local level and in blocking many regressive policies, and they have built a growing grassroots base of support for RJ across the U.S.
Groundswell is a fully remote, highly collaborative, pro-worker, pro-union organization working across the four continental U.S. time zones. We believe that the best ideas emerge when diverse perspectives come together, and are committed to creating an inclusive and flexible work environment where employees can thrive. We’ve embraced remote work as a core aspect of our culture since 2017 and will celebrate our first union contract with Groundswell Workers United this year.
Fundraising and Organizational Vision
Groundswell is committed to cultivating a vibrant and engaged, multiracial and multigenerational community of donors and funders who connect their values to their resources. We believe generosity and intention go hand in hand with the success of the RJ movement and intersectional grassroots organizing. Giving at every level empowers individuals, families, and entire communities to create a better world. Groundswell’s values around authentic and respectful partnerships undergird our relationships with grantees, donors, and funders. Our mission to support grantee organizations as they build their grassroots power mirrors our fundraising mission, supporting the power of our donors through learning about the issues our grantees face and collaborating for greater collective impact and liberation for all people.
Groundswell is embarking on an ambitious donor and funder organizing plan to accomplish our Blueprint goal of moving over $100 million to the field from 2020-2025. By 2025, we aim to increase our donor base to 1,000 people and our annual budget to $25 million. We will increase outreach to new funders and donors and ask current funders to increase their giving levels to support momentum in this critical moment. We aim to ensure the ongoing stability of our annual revenue and grantmaking capacity despite likely shifts in the larger economic and philanthropic landscapes. To remain on target with our Blueprint goals and our key function in the field, Groundswell must continue cultivating, stewarding, and retaining existing and new income and revenue sources.
About the Role – Donor Relations Manager
Reporting to the Director of Donor Relations, the Donor Relations Manager plays a key role in developing and implementing research, relationship-building, solicitation, and stewardship strategies for a growing individual donor program for both Groundswell’s 501c3 and 501c4. This position will also directly oversee a portfolio of mid-level donors and collaborate with the Communications team to acquire and steward grassroots donors. This role will help support the long-term sustainable growth of Groundswell and will have a deep personal and professional connection with our core values.
The ideal candidate has a positive, “can-do” attitude and the ability to work collaboratively with all staff and external partners and stakeholders in a diverse and fast-paced remote environment; is self-motivated and highly organized, with exceptional attention to accuracy; is flexible and can manage multiple deadlines simultaneously; and exercises good judgment in handling confidential donor information. The candidate will demonstrate their ability to write persuasively and have excellent interpersonal communication skills to engage a wide range of donors.
Your responsibilities will include:
Individual Donor Fundraising & Donor Relations
Who You Are:
What You'll Need:
Compensation & Location
The Application Process
Groundswell Fund has engaged Equitable Hiring Group to support this hiring process. To apply, please complete the short form to the right.
Individuals who apply by Tuesday, May 7th, will be given priority; therefore, we encourage you to submit yours soon!
When you apply, we kindly ask you to remove your schools from your resume. There is no need to reformat your resume and leave your degree as is; simplify it to "B.A. Economics," for example. Just remember to remove any references to undergraduate and graduate school names where possible. This "bias-reduced" process is aimed at opening this opportunity to more candidates, reviewing applicants on performance assessments instead of resume proxies (e.g., where you went to school).
This evaluation process will follow practices shown to reduce bias in decision-making and may be different from other application processes you have experienced.
Virtual Organization: Groundswell is a completely virtual organization and has been for many years before the COVID-19 pandemic. We are committed to building a strong identity and thriving culture that is exemplary in the nonprofit world and in the greater landscape of fully remote organizations. Our work is virtual but we will also have the opportunity to travel and see each other in person for retreats, conferences, and events. To succeed as remote workers, applicants should have a dedicated workspace, a commitment to clear and frequent communication, and comfort utilizing technology to increase collaboration and connection. Those with previous remote work experience are preferred, but we also welcome those who are new to remote work and understand the requirements of working in a thriving virtual organizational culture.
Work Schedule: Groundswell currently operates in a 4 day, 32 hour work week. We are a completely virtual organization, allowing for flexibility in work schedules for our staff across differing U.S. time zones. While work can usually be completed during standard business hours of the applicant's time zone, there may be times where early morning, evening, and weekend work may be needed to ensure organization-wide collaboration, to staff or attend events, and/or to meet organization workload needs during busy times of the year. Staff whose jobs require travel can expect longer hours, as travel may happen outside of business hours and on weekends.
Equal Employment Opportunity: The Groundswell Fund is a 501(c)(3) public charity that incubates new and innovative public-interest projects and grant-making programs. We are committed to attracting, developing and retaining exceptional people, and to creating a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding and that enables each of us to realize our potential. Our work environment is safe and open to all employees and partners, respecting the full spectrum of races, ethnicities, national origins, ages, sexual orientations, gender identities, beliefs, religions, faiths and ideologies, cultures, socio-economic backgrounds and levels of physical ability.
Since its inception in 2003, Groundswell Fund has put intersectional grassroots organizing led by women, transgender, and gender-expansive people of color at the center of our giving. It is a channel into which individual donors and foundations pour resources to reach vital work at the grassroots, serving as an irrigation system for growing reproductive, racial, and social justice movements. Our staff are from the very movements we fund, and we deeply understand grassroots impact with long-term investment.
We do this work with our sibling organization, Groundswell Action Fund, founded in response to the first Trump Administration. Groundswell Action Fund was founded on a simple but revolutionary premise: those most excluded from our democracy should be at the center of transforming it. Both organizations work to revolutionize philanthropy through grantmaking, capacity building, and organizing within philanthropy itself to inspire more giving to the types of organizations we support – whether or not those resources come through our doors.
While we fund nearly every major social justice movement in the United States, we are a long-term funder of the U.S. Reproductive Justice (RJ) Movement. Since the start of our grantmaking, we have moved more than $180 million (across both our c3 and c4) to the field in grants and capacity-building support, increased the giving of dozens of national and local foundations, and helped bring thousands of new individual donors into the RJ Movement. Our grantees have been instrumental in the passage of hundreds of pro-RJ policies at the state and local level and in blocking many regressive policies, and they have built a growing grassroots base of support for RJ across the U.S.
Groundswell is a fully remote, highly collaborative, pro-worker, pro-union organization working across the four continental U.S. time zones. We believe that the best ideas emerge when diverse perspectives come together, and are committed to creating an inclusive and flexible work environment where employees can thrive. We’ve embraced remote work as a core aspect of our culture since 2017 and will celebrate our first union contract with Groundswell Workers United this year.
Fundraising and Organizational Vision
Groundswell is committed to cultivating a vibrant and engaged, multiracial and multigenerational community of donors and funders who connect their values to their resources. We believe generosity and intention go hand in hand with the success of the RJ movement and intersectional grassroots organizing. Giving at every level empowers individuals, families, and entire communities to create a better world. Groundswell’s values around authentic and respectful partnerships undergird our relationships with grantees, donors, and funders. Our mission to support grantee organizations as they build their grassroots power mirrors our fundraising mission, supporting the power of our donors through learning about the issues our grantees face and collaborating for greater collective impact and liberation for all people.
Groundswell is embarking on an ambitious donor and funder organizing plan to accomplish our Blueprint goal of moving over $100 million to the field from 2020-2025. By 2025, we aim to increase our donor base to 1,000 people and our annual budget to $25 million. We will increase outreach to new funders and donors and ask current funders to increase their giving levels to support momentum in this critical moment. We aim to ensure the ongoing stability of our annual revenue and grantmaking capacity despite likely shifts in the larger economic and philanthropic landscapes. To remain on target with our Blueprint goals and our key function in the field, Groundswell must continue cultivating, stewarding, and retaining existing and new income and revenue sources.
About the Role – Donor Relations Manager
Reporting to the Director of Donor Relations, the Donor Relations Manager plays a key role in developing and implementing research, relationship-building, solicitation, and stewardship strategies for a growing individual donor program for both Groundswell’s 501c3 and 501c4. This position will also directly oversee a portfolio of mid-level donors and collaborate with the Communications team to acquire and steward grassroots donors. This role will help support the long-term sustainable growth of Groundswell and will have a deep personal and professional connection with our core values.
The ideal candidate has a positive, “can-do” attitude and the ability to work collaboratively with all staff and external partners and stakeholders in a diverse and fast-paced remote environment; is self-motivated and highly organized, with exceptional attention to accuracy; is flexible and can manage multiple deadlines simultaneously; and exercises good judgment in handling confidential donor information. The candidate will demonstrate their ability to write persuasively and have excellent interpersonal communication skills to engage a wide range of donors.
Your responsibilities will include:
Individual Donor Fundraising & Donor Relations
- In thought partnership with the Director of Donor Relations, design and implement an engagement plan for mid-level donors and collaborate with the Communications Team to implement a plan specific to grassroots and online donors.
- Spearhead the growth of mid-level and grassroots donor portfolios, including working with leadership and key staff to funnel prospects into the solicitation pipeline.
- Prepare solicitation asks for both new and renewal donors, and perform solicitations (via email, mail, or phone, as preferred by prospect/donor).
- Produce appeals, updates, memos, reports/proposals, and other correspondence for individual donors and donor advisors in alignment with organizational messaging and brand guidelines.
- Support the Advancement team with in-person meetings and events as assigned, always working to steward and cultivate key relationships.
- Manage solicitation and stewardship of mid-level donors by the frontline fundraisers, including by developing research and briefing materials and overseeing scheduling.
- Develop a data-driven understanding of current donors and prospects to identify opportunities for growth, enhancement of the program, income diversification, and reporting for board and leadership.
- Work with the Director of Donor Relations to develop annual individual giving program goals and operational plans.
Who You Are:
- A Convener. You recognize that a well-prepared and supported community can achieve far more than a single, highly talented individual. You can bring together sector leaders and facilitate conversations to identify ways to attract resources to our cause.
- A Relationship-Builder. You thrive on meeting new people and like to foster relationships. You like learning what motivates people, what inspires their giving, and what makes them feel appreciated.
- An Exceptional Communicator. You have excellent oral and written communication skills. You can craft high-quality proposals and presentations and explain complex concepts in a clear manner, combining intellect and intuition.
- Highly Ethical. You will be asked to make sensitive and critical judgment calls, and as such, you are known for your integrity; you take that reputation seriously. You always choose to make the right decision versus the easy decision. You know what information is sensitive, and you will protect it accordingly.
- An Abundant Thinker. You believe that we are living in a world of abundant resources and that the right team of partners can make incredible things happen. You bring relentless curiosity and creativity to every task, project, and engagement.
- Committed to Inclusion. You're always asking, "whose voice is not at the table?" You have experience working with diverse teams and successfully navigating cross-cultural communication in both local and global.
- Equity-Driven. You have experience centering diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in organizational practices. You bring sensitivity to issues of privilege, class, and race and are dedicated to incorporating principles of social justice into decision-making and strategic initiatives.
What You'll Need:
- At least 5 years of related and progressively responsible experience in fundraising and development.
- Knowledge and experience with annual giving, special events, major donor programs, and planned gifts.
- Demonstrated understanding of the importance of relationship-based connections with supporters.
- Impeccable judgment and discretion in dealing with sensitive and confidential information.
- Ability to work gracefully under pressure and handle competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
Compensation & Location
- The salary range for this position is $99,00 - 110,000. Please note that it is for a flexible 4-day, 32-hour work schedule.
- Very generous benefits include fully paid-for employee and family health, dental, vision, and a matching 401K plan, as well as additional employer-provided reimbursements for fertility expenses, gender-affirming health care costs, and midwifery/doula expenses that are not covered by insurance.
- Three weeks of vacation upon hire and a generous holiday schedule, including a week during the summer and the last two weeks of December off.
- This is a full-time, fully-remote, exempt position and is a part of a Union represented by GWU/CWA Local 9415.
The Application Process
Groundswell Fund has engaged Equitable Hiring Group to support this hiring process. To apply, please complete the short form to the right.
Individuals who apply by Tuesday, May 7th, will be given priority; therefore, we encourage you to submit yours soon!
When you apply, we kindly ask you to remove your schools from your resume. There is no need to reformat your resume and leave your degree as is; simplify it to "B.A. Economics," for example. Just remember to remove any references to undergraduate and graduate school names where possible. This "bias-reduced" process is aimed at opening this opportunity to more candidates, reviewing applicants on performance assessments instead of resume proxies (e.g., where you went to school).
This evaluation process will follow practices shown to reduce bias in decision-making and may be different from other application processes you have experienced.
- Early May: Selected candidates asked to complete short answer questions
- Mid-May: Phone interview with Groundswell staff
- Late May: Finalist candidates will be asked to complete a paid, timed, trial assignment
- Early June: Finalists will participate in a multi-team member panel interview
- Candidate references will also be checked at this step
- Mid-June: Offer extended
Virtual Organization: Groundswell is a completely virtual organization and has been for many years before the COVID-19 pandemic. We are committed to building a strong identity and thriving culture that is exemplary in the nonprofit world and in the greater landscape of fully remote organizations. Our work is virtual but we will also have the opportunity to travel and see each other in person for retreats, conferences, and events. To succeed as remote workers, applicants should have a dedicated workspace, a commitment to clear and frequent communication, and comfort utilizing technology to increase collaboration and connection. Those with previous remote work experience are preferred, but we also welcome those who are new to remote work and understand the requirements of working in a thriving virtual organizational culture.
Work Schedule: Groundswell currently operates in a 4 day, 32 hour work week. We are a completely virtual organization, allowing for flexibility in work schedules for our staff across differing U.S. time zones. While work can usually be completed during standard business hours of the applicant's time zone, there may be times where early morning, evening, and weekend work may be needed to ensure organization-wide collaboration, to staff or attend events, and/or to meet organization workload needs during busy times of the year. Staff whose jobs require travel can expect longer hours, as travel may happen outside of business hours and on weekends.
Equal Employment Opportunity: The Groundswell Fund is a 501(c)(3) public charity that incubates new and innovative public-interest projects and grant-making programs. We are committed to attracting, developing and retaining exceptional people, and to creating a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding and that enables each of us to realize our potential. Our work environment is safe and open to all employees and partners, respecting the full spectrum of races, ethnicities, national origins, ages, sexual orientations, gender identities, beliefs, religions, faiths and ideologies, cultures, socio-economic backgrounds and levels of physical ability.
Apply for this position
Required*