Job Description: Director of Member Development & Education  

The Director of Member Development & Education at Funders for Justice (FFJ) leads the Member Development & Education team. The team leads the organization’s general member recruitment and general member political education programming, institutional membership income and membership drive, membership database, and partners with the Director of Communications on general member communications materials. They are committed to the development of FFJ members across a spectrum of political learning and leadership skills. The Membership Director understands that effective leaders are strong organizers who work with others to move towards FFJ’s larger vision and impact goals.  

The ideal candidate has experience in racial, gender, and economic justice work, experience in the philanthropic sector, is an experienced fundraiser, and has significant base-building experience at a membership-based organization. They also have relationships with movement partners, have knowledge of community organizing efforts led by and for BIPOC folks, and are unapologetically committed to transformative social justice that is led by Black folks, Indigenous people, and other people of color. 

BACKGROUND

Funders for Justice is a national network and organizing platform for grantmakers, donor networks, and funder affinity groups to mobilize resources to grassroots organizing led by and for people of color, at the intersections of racial justice, gender justice, ending criminalization, and building models for community safety and justice.  

FFJ was founded in 2014, and has since grown from less than 100 members, mostly rapid response programming, and part time staff, to over 700 members, several areas of programming, and seven full time staff members. Funders for Justice is led by a steering committee, staff, and a set of member leaders across programs. The staff work closely with the member leadership and other members to design and implement the daily programming.  FFJ’s current programming includes: divest/invest political education for funders; a cohort of 17 movement advisors that provide political guidance and frame to the work; three strategy groups: healing justice, ‘me too’ in philanthropy, and eroding the power of police unions; two fellowships for member leaders; and multiple ad hoc and emerging projects. FFJ also offers additional responsive and collaborative programs throughout the year, including webinars and virtual institutes, as well as in-person events and training institutes at philanthropic conferences.

FFJ’s current programming includes: divest/invest political education for funders; a cohort of 17 movement advisors that provide political guidance and frame to the work; three strategy groups: healing justice, ‘me too’ in philanthropy, and eroding the power of police unions; a new fellowship for member leaders; and multiple ad hoc and emerging projects. FFJ also offers additional responsive and collaborative programs throughout the year, including webinars and virtual institutes, as well as in-person events and training institutes at philanthropic conferences. 

For more about FFJ, visit Funders for Justice. For more information about our fiscal sponsor, SEE, please visit saveourplanet.org. 

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES 

The Director of Member Development and Education  is responsible for directing all areas of the team’s work. They lead the high-level planning for the year and collaborate across the organization’s staff & member leaders. The day to day responsibilities of the team are shared among each team member, including the Manager of Member Development and Education, and a part-time administrative assistant for the team.  

The Director of Member Development and Education directs the implementation of the first section of FFJ’s organizing model, which encompasses all base building, general engagement of the philanthropic sector, multiple types of events and other programming, and direct relationship-building with FFJ’s network of members, both individual participants and institutional paid members. 

They are supervised by the Executive Director. 

Serve on FFJ’s Directors’ Team

Work in deep collaboration with FFJ’s Executive Director, Director of Communications, Director of Administration & Operations, and future director roles, to support a powerful, leaderful organization. The Directors Team is responsible for the following, collectively: 

  • Lead, maintain, and continue to foster a culture of feedback and accountability, continuous learning, collaboration, and leadership development. 
  • Assume overall responsibility for staff retreats and meetings. Coordinate and collaborate on team-building activities and ensure effective communication, collaboration, and alignment across FFJ staff, teams, and initiatives.  
  • Build processes that help FFJ adapt to growth and change and enable staff to evaluate which program opportunities and requests align with our vision, values, and resources.
  • Lead work internally to ensure FFJ’s organizational culture, structures, and systems align with FFJ’s commitment to center intersectional racial, gender, disability, and economic justice, including modeling what this means for our sector. 
  • Facilitate cross-team planning and collaboration. 

Annual Goals, Budget, and Fundraising 

Lead the Membership Develop and Education team in raising the annual team fundraising goal, including coordinating and supporting the full FFJ staff to participate in this fundraising

  • Set the annual income goal, based on annual renewing income, future prospects, and planned events. The annual team income is approximately one fourth to one third of FFJ’s entire annual income. 
  • Set the annual team goals and objectives for programming and leadership development in collaboration with team members. 
  • Participate in the annual budgeting and work planning process as part of the Directors Team 

Member Political Education 

Lead the team in designing and implementing programming for FFJ’s membership base and the broader philanthropic sector. Current programs include: 

  • FFJ’s Member Learning Series: including developing the annual calendar of monthly 101 trainings, identifying and recruiting trainers, and coordinating with other staff  
  • Institutes:- including identifying topics, identifying and recruiting consultants, co-designing the content with consultants, managing all outreach, managing all registration, managing all logistics, managing all registration payments, managing consultant payments 
  • Funder Organizing Intensive: including recruiting member leaders to for trainings, managing all outreach, managing all registration, managing all logistics, managing all registration payments 

Institutional Memberships 

Direct recruitment and manage annual membership payments. 

  • Direct institutional member recruitment, including prospecting and cultivating new members, as well as maintaining current memberships 
  • Direct the annual membership drive, with participating by all staff and member leaders 
  • Lead the institutional membership application assessment process for each member, in partnership with the executive director, steering committee, and other staff as relevant. 
  • Manage institutional annual membership payments and related systems, in partnership with the Director of Administration and Operations 

Member Orientation 

Lead the orientation of new member institutions   

  • Lead the quarterly orientation sessions for staff at member institutions, including outreach, registration, and facilitation 
  • Update the welcome and orientation booklet for new institutional members on a regular basis, in partnership with the Director of Communications  

Member Database Management

Manage FFJ’s member database. 

  • Work with our database host to continue upgrades of our new database 
  • Create all systems for tracking metrics related base building 
  • Partner with staff to create systems for member engagement metrics for their work  

Base Building in the Philanthropic Sector  

  • Direct the FFJ staff in its base-building work, in partnership with the full team 
  • Direct FFJ member leadership in 1:1’s with relevant members, in partnership with the executive director and other staff, as relevant 
  • Meet with current institutional members to expand their engagement with FFJ 
  • Meet with prospective members 

Coordinate FFJ’s Outreach to the Broader Philanthropic Sector

  • Collaborate with Manager of Member Development and Education to coordinate FFJ’s relationships with other funder affinity groups 
  • Collaborate with Manager of Member Development and Education to coordinate outreach for all FFJ’s open events, to ensure that we reach the widest and most relevant audience in the sector 

Collaboration Across Teams

  • Serve as the Membership Team’s primary contact, or delegate that role to another team member, for collaboration across the organization. This includes implementing digital security protocol, other operations work that may arise, and many areas of programming. 

QUALIFICATIONS 

Required  

  • At least 10, ideally 15, years of experience in racial and gender justice work, preferably work to end criminalization, and building models for community safety and justice; experience should be primarily as as a staff member of an organization or a leadership role as a board member or member leader 
  • At least 5 years of experience with philanthropy, including foundations, intermediaries, collaborative funds, affinity groups; experience should be as a staff member of a foundation, donor network, and/or funder affinity group, and may also include experience as a grantee partner and/or movement partner 
  • Strong demonstrated experience with fundraising, any one or more of the following: grassroots organizations, grasstops organizations, public foundations for intermediaries, individual/family donors, or foundations 
  • Strong demonstrated experience with building and maintaining relationships in a network or membership-based organization 
  • Strong demonstration experience with base-building at a membership-based organization 
  • Strong experience with organizing models, and building out a team according to their role in an organizing model 
  • Demonstrated experience and comfort with with leadership role at a non-profit 
  • Strong demonstrated experience with project management, across multiple projects and multiple teams  
  • Demonstrated experience developing annual & multiyear work plans, for both long-term and more immediate programming  
  • Demonstrated experience creating and successfully managing budgets 
  • Demonstrated experience successfully managing invoices, income tracking
  • Demonstrated experience successfully managing contracts and payables 
  • Demonstrated experience in visioning and planning out programming, in collaboration with others, for a cohesive annual plan 
  • Strong writing skills

Preferred  

  • Strong demonstrated experience in engaging grantmakers and donors in meaningful programming that meet their learning needs and requests 
  • Knowledge of the historical and current frameworks and dynamics of the philanthropic sector 
  • A desire to engage funders in the sector across differences as well as across places of agreement. 

ABOUT YOU 

  • You are a people person who loves base-building, meeting new people, and engaging individuals daily on a 1-1 basis. 
  • You love databases and using data in service of base-building 
  • You believe in respect of self and others as a core value and work ethic.
  • You believe in responsibility/ accountability as a practice and value that is not only about completing tasks and obligations. 
  • Values a healthy organizational culture and community, which you build consciously with others.
  • You practice and value kindness, effectiveness, and collaboration. 
  • You are a creative thinker with strong problem-solving skills. 
  • You are emotionally aware and practice self/community care to make your ability to work and fulfill your responsibilities sustainable. 
  • You are aware of your own limits, discern, and have a practice of asking for support and collaboration to meet your goals. 
  • You have great attention to detail 
  • You see the big picture and can make connections and develop needed team infrastructure, as you have access to a bird’s eye view of all the programs. 
  • You have excellent verbal and written communication skills, which allow you to interface easily with others to agree on plans of action, problem-solve, or give/receive feedback 
  • You are able to manage time effectively, allowing you to prioritize, follow-up on, and finalize tasks in order of relevance. 
  • Strong personal drive and initiative
  • Solid interpersonal, analytical, and organizational skills
  • Facility with technology and comfort with a virtual office
  • Flexibility and comfort with overlapping projects, competing deadlines, and multiple stakeholders
  • Ability to travel for regularly for staff retreats, FFJ convenings, philanthropy convenings 

FFJ/SEE is an equal-opportunity employer. Women, people of color, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, and others most impacted by the carceral system are strongly encouraged to apply. 

COMPENSATION 

Salary for this position begins at $105,000; this is the starting salary for all team directors at FFJ. The range for the position is $105,000-$125,2000, for growth over time in the role. Benefits include generous leave, health insurance, and retirement contributions. 

LOCATION

Anywhere in the United States. The successful candidate is comfortable and able to work remotely full-time, and able to travel for staff retreats, occasional FFJ in-person events, and external conferences. 

APPLICATION PROCESS

Please send a cover letter, resume, writing sample, and a list of three references to jobs@funders4justice.org. 

Interviews are rolling, and are expected to begin in late September 2023. Our goal is for the role to be filled in December 2023 or January 2024, and work to begin by February 2024.