Position Summary
San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is thrilled to announce an opening for our next Director of Development (DoD) to lead us in crafting and implementing a dynamic, diversified development strategy. This is a highly collaborative position supported by a skilled staff and board who will work in close partnership with the DoD to achieve our revenue and membership goals, enabling the organization to achieve its vision.
About the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition was founded in 1971 by a group of activists representing a coalition of environmental and neighborhood groups and is one of the oldest bicycle advocacy groups in the nation. For over 50 years, the SF Bicycle Coalition has furthered its mission – to transform San Francisco’s streets and neighborhoods into safe, just, and livable places by promoting the bicycle for everyday transportation – through its grassroots political organizing and broadening civic engagement. With its dual 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) structure, thousands of dues-paying members, and $2.5 million annual budget, SF Bicycle Coalition has grown to add community-based programs to expand access to bicycles, education programs on safe biking practices, and partnerships with other transit-focused organizations.
The Role
Reporting to and in partnership with the Executive Director, the DoD will spearhead development and membership efforts as the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition continues to deepen and grow its impact and reach. While SFBike has established diverse revenue streams and healthy finances, opportunities exist for even greater growth and diversification of our revenue and membership base. The DoD will play a leading role in designing, guiding, and supporting the execution of a comprehensive development strategy to facilitate achievement of annual revenue and membership goals.
The DoD will bring to this work insightful strategic acumen; excellent donor and funder cultivation and project management skills; a creative, optimistic approach; and significant experience in supporting organizational sustainability and growth.
Our ideal candidate will be mission-aligned, sharing our core values of transportation justice, sustainability, people power, and joy. They’ll be excited by our work to center the voices and needs of those most harmed by inequitable transportation and infrastructure decisions, and to identify and capitalize on funding opportunities to support that work.
Key Responsibilities
The DoD will craft, guide, and oversee the implementation of a multilayered annual revenue and membership development plan to maintain and increase annual operating funds towards greater impact, growth, and sustainability.
The DoD will guide and oversee the work of two talented staff (a Membership Engagement Manager and a Membership and Development Associate), and will be supported by a professional events contractor as needed. The DoD will ensure that direct reports and their teams have opportunities to develop their skills and capacities while also promoting practices that support individual wellness and retention.
The DoD is a key member of our Directors team. The Directors team facilitates shared knowledge, team cohesion, and the development of practices and policies that support organizational efficacy as well as staff wellness and retention.
Fund Development Activities and Strategy
- Review and analyze the efficacy and efficiency of existing fundraising activities; bring a fresh lens to the work.
- Drive the cultivation, solicitation and stewardship of new and existing major donors and grants. Manage the delegation of prospects and partners among board members and key staff, to ensure that fundraising activity is well-considered, distributed, and coordinated.
- Identify, cultivate, and steward new opportunities and relationships with individual donors, foundations, business partners, and others, using a systematic and well-organized process or pipeline.
- Review, strengthen and oversee sponsorship programs; manage sponsorship campaigns for events and programs to meet or exceed budgeted fundraising goals; build rapport with sponsorship partners, write appeals, and ensure stewardship for contributions in partnership with the communications team.
- Determine best ways for the executive director, board members and key staff to plug into development and membership cultivation campaigns and activities; orient staff to practices that build their confidence and capacity as fund-raisers.
- Develop materials for donor cultivation and fundraising campaigns, in collaboration with our marketing and communications team.
- Ensure effective workflow, including consistent and effective use of CRM (Salesforce) tools and data.
- Evaluate fundraising and membership development strategies to measure return on investment; utilize data to improve and/or build on key activities; and produce fundraising dashboards and reports.
- Oversee planning of two to three annual signature events with support from key staff and volunteers.
- Guide the team in identifying grant opportunities; coordinate key staff in writing and submitting compelling, well-organized, and complete grant and funding proposals.
- Identify meetings and events geared toward networking with donors, members, small businesses, and foundations; attend events or delegate attendance to board or key staff members.
Membership Development
- Establish and oversee the implementation of strategic activities and campaigns that focus on membership retention and growth with a focus on building an organization whose membership better reflects San Francisco’s demographics.
- Support the team in stewarding members to renew at higher rates, become monthly givers, and/or become major donors through thoughtful, targeted relationship building and direct cultivation of gifts.
- Introduce and experiment with new ideas and approaches to membership growth, retention, and engagement.
Staff Management and Agency-Wide Collaboration
- Invest in and nurture the development of direct reports through thoughtful coaching and supervision; identify leadership and growth opportunities and support the coordination, development, and efficacy of the membership and development team.
- Collaborate with staff across the organization on the alignment and implementation of revenue and membership growth activities.
- Serve as a member of the Directors team, providing high-level input on organizational needs, challenges, and opportunities.
- Contribute to our culture of collaboration to ensure our collective success.
Experience and Qualifications of Our Ideal Candidate. While no one person will embody every quality, our ideal candidate will bring many of the qualifications and attributes listed below:
- A strong commitment to the SF Bicycle Coalition’s mission and core values of transportation justice, sustainability, people power, and joy.
- Significant experience in leading successful, highly collaborative development and membership teams and campaigns.
- Prior experience engaging members, donors, and other funders who represent a wide range of giving capacities.
- Demonstrated team-building skills to thoughtfully engage, support, and develop people and teams of varied backgrounds and experience levels with grace and skill.
- Well-developed organizational skills with the ability to think creatively and flexibly.
- Demonstrated experience managing a systematic donor pipeline or moves management system.
- Ease with CRM and Salesforce or related programs; experience developing and presenting data and dashboards.
- Commitment to contributing to a collaborative organizational culture that encourages healthy work-life balance.
- Grant writing and grants management experience is a plus.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Willingness to travel locally and work occasional evenings and weekends.
Commitment to Equity and Justice
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition acknowledges the harm biking culture and unequal access to transportation have inflicted upon underserved communities — especially people of color, people with disabilities, people from working-class backgrounds, women, and people with LGBTQ+ identities. We believe that these communities must be centered as leaders in the work we do; therefore, we strongly encourage applications from people with these identities.
Compensation: The starting annual salary range for this exempt position is $95,000 – $115,000 depending upon relevancy of experience. Full-time benefits include medical, vision, and dental insurance; 10 days paid sick leave, 12 paid holidays and 3 weeks PTO annually, with PTO accruals increasing in subsequent years. Other benefits include a flexible work arrangement policy, and 100% match of an employee’s contribution to their 401K up to 3% of an employee’s annual salary.
Location: Hybrid — San Francisco Bay Area. Staff and their supervisors will work together to determine the appropriate work arrangement based on the nature of the individual’s role, and in alignment with organizational policies and departmental needs and activities. We strive to be as flexible and fair as possible while ensuring in-person accessibility when needed to interface with our volunteers, membership, community, and each other.
To apply, please submit a resume and a PDF with your answers to the below three questions. Please make your answers roughly one paragraph each:
- What inspires you to want to work at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition?
- What does equity and justice mean to you, and how do you see it fitting into your career in fundraising and development?
- What skills and/or experiences do you have that would make you a good fit for this role?
