New Media Ventures (NMV) is a mission-driven venture fund and investor network focused on innovation to advance progressive change. Our mission is to find, fund and support mission-driven technology and media startups that are building movements, creating new narratives and accelerating civic engagement. Over the past 12 years, we have supported over 110 progressive startups, many of which are now widely-recognized pillars of the social change community including Hearken, Blavity, Swing Left, Mijente, and PushBlack.

Organizational Culture

NMV is a pro-Black, women-led mix of Millennials and Gen Z’s. We believe in a liberated workforce. We strive to cultivate a low-ego, high-performance culture and a flexible work environment that centers joy and impact. We are looking for a self-motivated colleague who is diligent about their work, takes risks, thinks outside of the box, and is bold in their love for culture and community – basically, someone who wants to do dope shit with dope people.

The Opportunity

NMV seeks an innovative, experienced Director of Development to drive and restructure our fundraising program for efficiency and growth. Reporting to and in partnership with the President, this person will serve a key leadership role and will be an active participant in strategic decision-making.

The Director of Development will be responsible for planning and executing all development initiatives to sustain and grow our funder pipeline, including the solicitation of individual, corporate, and foundation gifts, and the implementation of special events and major gift initiatives. The director will also be heavily involved in developing strategies for effective social media and marketing and other campaigns. A successful candidate will have broad exposure to philanthropy and a background in either corporate, political, entertainment or nonprofit giving.

NMV currently has a distributed development model by which program staff also maintain fundraising portfolios and temporarily provide gap-level support around fundraising operations. As NMV grows over the next two years, the plan is to expand the fundraising staff and consolidate all fundraising responsibilities into a single department.

Primary Responsibilities

• Develop NMV’s forward-looking fundraising strategy and manage execution
• Drive fundraising activity for the organization, leading the weekly fundraising meeting and creating revenue forecasts and scenarios to ensure we achieve our goals
• Manage a portfolio of prospects and donors while supporting the team – President, out-the-door fundraisers, and Board – in managing their fundraising responsibilities
• Create and execute NMV events and partnerships strategy, identify opportunities to showcase NMV’s work to key audiences, and represent NMV at key events as needed
• Manage funder facing communications including grant proposals, reports, emails, and other materials as needed

Qualifications

• Deep mission alignment with NMV as well as deep familiarity with progressive politics and/or social justice movements
• 5+ years total experience in fundraising; at least 3 of those years of experience must be in large-dollar fundraising, e.g. stewardship, major gifts, political or movement campaigns, and/or institutional giving
• A demonstrable record of success with a broad array of development techniques (including prospecting, donor cultivation and management) and proven achievement in leading a fundraising program
• Cultural competency and a track record of working effectively with people from diverse backgrounds
• Excited about event planning and networking events
• Ability to see the big picture and think strategically while also executing on discrete tasks
• Skill at managing upwards and motivating team members to excel
• Proficient with CRMs (we use Salesforce), Google Docs and Google Sheets, and quick to learn new technology and tools
• Highly organized and detail oriented, capable of balancing and prioritizing concurrent projects and deadlines

Candidate Pluses

Note: we don't expect the successful candidate to match more than a handful of the list below:

• Experience working in a grantmaking or impact investing organization
• Experience working in media, technology, or digital organizing
• Existing relationships with the types of funders who fund NMV’s work
• Strong writing skills and/or experience with grant writing
• Significant experience with diversity, equity, and inclusion or anti-oppression work
• Deep familiarity with one or more marginalized communities in the U.S. such as communities of color, undocumented communities, low-wage workers, LGBTQ communities, disabled communities, Muslim communities, etc.
• Demonstrated skill with graphic or web design

Details:

• Salary range: $107- $145k. The higher end of this range assumes additional experience and more alignment with Candidate Pluses above.
• We prefer for the position to be based in Washington, DC, but will give consideration to qualified candidates in other locales. Team is currently based in Washington, DC; Los Angeles; and Oakland, currently working remotely.
• Full benefits, including employer-covered health/vision/dental, life and disability insurance, 401k match up to 5%, and more than 30 days of paid time off annually.

Ready to apply? Please fill out this form answering the questions below and upload a PDF resume:

• What excites you most about the function of fundraising? (150 words max)
• Describe an experience that demonstrates your potential success in this role. (150 words max)
• What are the top two critical things you need to know to determine if you can effectively lead in the role as described? (150 words max)

The application deadline for this role is August 1. We will be reviewing applications on a rolling basis.