Senior Director, Advancement

About Tides

Tides is a nonprofit and philanthropic organization committed to advancing social justice. We work across the social sector to shift power to communities of color and other groups historically denied power.

Centering equity and justice in everything we do, we collaborate in deep partnership with movement leaders, nonprofits, donors, foundations, and corporations to amplify the impact of their work by providing services like fiscal sponsorship, donor advised funds, grant making, and a variety of innovative solutions. Learn more at tides.org.

About the Role 

Tides seeks an entrepreneurial fundraising professional to serve as its inaugural Senior Director of Advancement to launch the first ever Advancement office to support Tides new vision and mission. To complement the work of the philanthropic advisory team, the Senior Director will develop and implement fundraising strategies; cultivate relationships with philanthropists, and philanthropic entities, formulate cultivation and solicitation procedures and strategies and lead all fundraising activities on behalf of Tides. They will leverage senior staff, board members, and supporters to develop and execute a robust plan that will meet organizational fundraising priorities. 

Reporting to Tides Foundation’s Executive Director, the Senior Director will focus on three main priorities:   

• Raise philanthropic capital for Tides-Led Initiatives (TLIs). Tides launched a set of ambitious grantmaking pooled funds in democracy, climate justice, immigration, gender equity and reproductive health. Early fundraising results have been impressive, and it will be the Senior Director’s responsibility to build off that success to maintain and grow support for our TLIs. This will be their primary responsibility. (70%-time allocation)
• Build Broadly Restricted Support for Tides. Tides serve a valuable intermediary role in the social justice sector. While we mainly rely on administrative fees from our partners to fund our organizational capacity and innovation needs, the Senior Director will play an important role in raising funds for Tides own organizational capacity development in partnership with Tides senior leaders. (15%-time allocation)
• Resource Development Coaching. Many of our social change leader/movement partners have relatively little experience with fundraising, especially with major donors, foundations and corporations. The Senior Director will serve as fundraising coach periodically to our social change leader partners, including fiscally sponsored projects at Tides Center and social change leader funds held at Tides Foundation. (15%-time allocation) 

The Senior Director will play an essential role in designing and articulating a compelling case for funders to support Tides’ strategic priorities. Success will be determined by the Senior Director’s ability to expand the donor pipeline by identifying, cultivating, soliciting, and procuring major and transformational gifts from individual and institutional supporters; and by achieving annual fundraising goals as set up the Executive Director.  

The successful candidate will be an accomplished strategist and practitioner with experience in both fundraising strategy and marketing and exhibit exceptional relationship management and business development skills. They will be a leader who inspires the entire organization to advance and support development efforts. The ideal candidate is a strategic leader with a passion for building and supporting teams while advancing toward ambitious targets; and will be intimately familiar with the unique behaviors of donors of color and the opportunities to engage those donors.  The Senior Director must be collaborative, supportive, and transparent when building relationships with key internal and external partners. 

What you will Do

• Develop, execute, and evaluate a fundraising strategy for Tides-Led Initiatives. Work in close partnership with the Tides Foundation Executive Director and other senior leadership to develop creative, data informed strategies to drive major and principal gifts revenue for Tides-Led Initiatives and for Tides own capacity building, innovation, and transformation initiatives. 
• Create ambitious and tangible fundraising targets and establish a data-informed approach to developing significant donors.  
• Build, manage and steward a pipeline of major and principal gift donors, with a particular emphasis on donors of color. Formalize onboarding processes for new donors and provide a menu of giving and engagement options.  Develop and maintain donor relationships to ensure retention and to support ongoing funder learning 
• Partner with and mentor Tides-Led Initiative program staff to develop and implement successful cultivation and stewardship strategies for donors and prospects of the Tides-Led Initiatives  
• Serve as a meaningful and authentic relationship builder, connector, and closer to achieve ambitious revenue targets.   
• Be equally adept at managing different types of donor constituencies, including HNWI and UHNWI, donors of color, foundations, and corporate philanthropies  
• Work with our Marketing, Strategic Partnerships, and Programs teams to pioneer new ways to increase the number of major and principal donor prospects under management by at least 2x, activating our substantial partner database and ultimately moving prospects into donors.  
• Serve in a more limited capacity as a fundraising coach for our social change leader partners, including Tides Center fiscally sponsored projects and Tides Foundation social change leader funds.  
• Serve on the Senior Leadership Team, setting organizational strategy and aligning revenue targets with near term and long-range organizational goals.  
• Build trust and alignment internally; ensure effective cross functional work and communications across teams to meet shared goals.  
• Over time, build and lead a high performing Advancement team; serve as an inspiring internal leader, promoting a culture of excellence, accountability, and follow-through.  
• Stay abreast of fundraising and broader revenue generation trends; keep the organization focused on trends in donor behavior and preferences.  

What you will Bring

• Strong alignment with Tides’ vision, mission, and impact goal, and our organizational values of respect, transparency, accountability, and collaboration. 
• Demonstrated commitment to progressive social change 
• Thorough knowledge of all areas of a comprehensive fundraising program and a track record of significant professional success in donor cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of high-net-worth individual philanthropists and foundations 
• Extensive experience in co-creating programmatic and campaign strategies to achieve ambitious fundraising goals.
• Direct experience with the unique behaviors of donors of color, and the unique opportunities to engage those donors in progressive social justice work. 
• Demonstrated ability to create a results-oriented work environment that promotes collaboration and achievement; and demonstrate a high level of integrity, trust, emotional intelligence, and political savviness to foster collaboration among a wide range of constituents.  
• Credibility and sophistication to effectively engage with and work with key partners across the broader progressive philanthropic ecosystem. 
• A self-starter who effectively prioritizes and meets goals in an environment of rapid change and urgent action. Ability to hold self-accountable for high-quality, timely, and effective action. 
• Strong interpersonal skills and an ability to build rapport with partners and stakeholders within and across organizations, especially with the goal of strengthening collaboration. 
• Significant experience building and managing high performing teams; experience leading efforts for organizations of comparable size; significant experience hiring, supervising, and developing staff.  
• Demonstrated skill at maintaining a high level of integrity, trust, and consistent ethical judgement in all working relationships. Engage in a direct and truthful manner and hold information confidential with excellent judgement. 
• Significant experience working with Board members and other high-level volunteers.  
• Knowledge of MS Office Suite, NetSuite, Salesforce, or similar platforms.

Ideal Experience

• A minimum of 10 years of proven leadership experience in philanthropy, strategic partnerships, and/or major and principal gifts fundraising in a complex enterprise. 
• A track record of professional growth in progressively more responsible leadership roles while meeting or exceeding fundraising goals.  
• Demonstrated understanding of nonprofit organizations, financials, and management 
• Experience with multi-entity structures, including 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) entities, preferred

Compensation

Tides is committed to providing a competitive compensation package. We value pay equity and account for factors such as your location within the U.S., your skills and your relevant experience, and we will not ask for your salary history.

Your starting salary will fall into one of three ranges:

● $159,200 - $199,000 (Most of the United States)

● $173,600 - $217,000 (Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. metro areas)

● $191,000 - $238,800 (New York City & San Francisco metro areas)

Please note, these metro areas are examples and not a complete list. Our Talent Acquisition team will review your application and confirm your placement within this structure with you at the beginning of the interview process.

Application Instructions 

Please submit your application by Thursday, October 3, 2024 at 11:59pm ET. For this role, we ask that you please include a brief cover letter that helps us to understand how your background aligns to this opportunity & your motivation to join us at Tides. 

Life at Tides 

Working at Tides connects you with world-class teammates, enduring relationships, and an inspired sense of purpose - while our employee benefits support our team’s talent and well-being. Our hybrid work model supports staff who are based across the United States, in addition to maintaining our offices in New York & San Francisco.

Equal Employment Opportunity

We look forward to reviewing applications from all qualified jobseekers. We strongly encourage applications from women, people of color, and bilingual and bicultural individuals, as well as members of the LGBTQIA+ communities. No applicant will be discriminated against because of their race, religion, sex, national origin, ethnicity, age, disability, political affiliation, sexual orientation, gender identity, color, marital status, or medical condition including acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and AIDS-related conditions. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we encourage and will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Where required by state law, we utilize E-Verify as a part of our employment authorization process.

Applicants with Disabilities

Reasonable accommodations will be made so that all who are interested may participate in our interview process. If you are in need of an accommodation, please advise in writing at the time you apply.