Grade:                              Full-Time (40 hrs/week); Exempt

Reports to:                      Executive Director

Location:                          Flexible (Main office is located in Santa Barbara, CA)

Start Date:                       No later than early December 2018

Application Deadline:    October 1, 2018

Short Candidate Profile

A strong candidate for the Member and Strategic Partnerships Manager position is a professional with a proven track record who will excel at fostering relationships across a broad cross-section of partners, understand that fundraising is about more than just dollars, and be genuinely interested in people and their ideas. The candidate’s excellent written and oral communication, project planning, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills reflect a strong intellect, intuition, and sense of humor. The Manager will demonstrate dedication to the values promoted by SAFSF: equity, collaboration, respect, stewardship, and integrity.

About SAFSF

Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders (SAFSF) amplifies the impact of philanthropic and investment communities in support of just and sustainable food and agriculture systems. SAFSF is a vibrant and growing network of more than 100 organizational members from the philanthropic and investment sectors whose work spans a broad range of issues and strategies as well as a wide geographic range—domestic and international.

Our vision is that all resources invested in food and agriculture systems enhance our collective wellbeing. Our core values of collaboration, equity, respect, stewardship, and integrity drive our organization on a daily basis. We use these values to guide our decision-making process in all our work, from developing programs and hiring new staff to choosing caterers, vendors, and venues.

SAFSF recognizes that a diversity of perspectives, lived experiences, and professional and personal skills among our staff, leadership, and membership is critical to our success as an organization. We are a dynamic, rapidly evolving organization that values creativity and innovative thinking and fosters strong teamwork based on mutual respect.

Our strategy is to harness the power of our membership and community through the use of three strategic levers to fulfill our mission based on our values of collaboration, equity, respect, stewardship, and integrity:

• Strengthening Connections among philanthropy, investors, and government agencies at all levels
• Fostering Collaboration which can be topical, geographical, and/or policy-oriented in focus
• Building Capacity of the philanthropic and impact investing sectors through advocacy and education

Position Overview

SAFSF seeks a full-time Member and Strategic Partnerships Manager to support, mobilize, and expand SAFSF’s membership and secure new revenue in support of our strategic direction. The Manager will work alongside other staff to foster relationships with current SAFSF members; increase awareness and usage of SAFSF’s services, benefits, resources, and programs; and ensure that a culture of service to members is preserved and promoted throughout SAFSF. Working to expand and increase SAFSF’s already diverse revenue stream (which includes membership dues, project support and general operating grants, event sponsorships, and event registration fees), the Member and Strategic Partnerships Manager will work closely with SAFSF’s broad and diverse membership, as well as its leadership committees, and report to the Executive Director. Location for this position is flexible.

Core Responsibilities

• Work closely with SAFSF’s leadership in all activities related to member retention and new member development.
• Manage outreach and communication to current and prospective members. Together with the Executive Director design, create, and implement a member engagement strategy, including marketing, renewal, and communication campaigns to promote membership value, engage and recruit members, and achieve revenue goals. Compile, analyze, and provide reports on membership composition, trends, and engagement.
• Serve as staff lead for the Membership and Resource Committees. This includes working with committee chairs to set agendas, develop associated materials, schedule and facilitate calls as needed, and track action items.
• Interface with current and potential members, partners, and donors. Represent SAFSF in a variety of capacities, which may include phone, video call, and in-person contact with staff from philanthropic organizations, philanthropy-serving organizations (also known as affinity groups), and other organizations; participation in conference calls, meetings, and conferences; and written correspondence.
• Work with SAFSF’s leadership to develop and meet annual revenue plans that are diversified, realistic, and enable the organization to reach short- and long-term goals. Revenue plans include membership dues, project and general operating grants, event sponsorships, and other revenue sources.
• Manage grants process from prospecting through reporting, including writing, submitting, and tracking letters of intent, proposals, reports, and other materials.
• In collaboration with the operations staff, manage the business of membership dues and grants, including database management, reporting, and member recognition.
• Stay abreast of issues that impact the broader philanthropic community, SAFSF member organizations, and other philanthropy-serving organizations.

Required Skills and Experiences

• Exceptional interpersonal skills: Eager and able to connect, build rapport, and develop effective, values-driven working relationships with individuals who have a wide range of interests and lived experiences. Must be effective in phone, video conference, and in-person meetings, both one-on-one and in groups. Maintains a high level of discretion and confidentiality for both business and personal affairs.
• 4-6 years of proven fundraising/development experience in a nonprofit setting, including experience with grant writing and managing a variety of fundraising strategies as well as donor relations with foundations, individuals, corporations, and other sources.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and ability to tailor communication to various audiences; experience developing compelling organizational marketing and communications materials preferred.
• Project management skills: Must be a self-starter who is able to manage multiple projects/responsibilities simultaneously while working within a fast-paced team/collaborative staff environment. Able to anticipate obstacles, assess priorities, identify and involve stakeholders appropriately, and use resources wisely.

• Strong computer skills: required expertise with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and email; preference for those with experience using email marketing platforms (MailChimp preferred), CRM databases (Salesforce preferred), and project management platforms.
• Understanding of philanthropy and philanthropy-serving organizations (also called affinity groups).
• Basic understanding of food systems in the U.S.; providing value to SAFSF members requires understanding where their work fits within the larger food system context as well as SAFSF’s programming and current membership.

• Willingness to discuss and help SAFSF work to eliminate the impacts of race, class, gender, and other forms of structural bias within our own organization and the broader philanthropic sector.

Additional Preferred Skills

• Previous experience working with or for a philanthropic organization, philanthropy-serving organization, and/or membership organization would be a plus but is not required.
• Existing network of and relationships with investors, donors, and/or foundations.
• Willingness to assist with any tasks that may arise including meeting facilitation, note taking, general office duties, and more.

Basic Work Requirements

Fluency in English. Must be willing/able to travel domestically several times per year.

Compensation and Benefits

The salary range for this position is $60-70,000. We offer an excellent benefits package which currently includes automatic and matching retirement contributions, medical, vision, dental, and prescription insurance (paid for by SAFSF), as well as health and fitness and cell phone benefits. Paid time off includes federal holidays, vacation, personal, and volunteer hours.

Application and Hiring Process

We are committed to transparency and aim to minimize the stress and uncertainty of our application and hiring process.

• Step 1:All interested applicants must apply online at io/222E6 no later than 12:00 noon Pacific on October 1, 2018. NOTE: Applications will be reviewed as they are received.
  • Please submit a single PDF file (with the naming protocol Lastname_Firstname_SAFSF_MSPM) containing the following:

1. Cover letter of no more than 2 pages. Your letter should respond to the following:
   • What appeals to you about this position?
   • How do your experiences, personal strengths, and leadership abilities prepare you for this position?
   • Describe a successful donor relationship or fundraising campaign with which you have been involved or provided a leadership role.
2. Resume or CV

• Step 2: Short phone interview with selected candidates to assess fit. (Anticipated timing: ongoing as applications are received.)
• Step 3:Following an initial phone interview, selected candidates will be asked to submit responses to two of three short writing prompts.
• Step 4: Selected candidates will be invited to a 50-minute video interview with the Interview Committee. (Anticipated timing: mid-October.)
• Step 5: Final candidates will be invited to a three-hour, in-person interview with the Interview Committee. Reference checks on top candidates. (Anticipated timing: late October.)

Contact [email protected] with any questions. We look forward to getting to know you!

SAFSF is a project of New Venture Fund (NVF), a 501(c)(3) public charity that incubates new and innovative public interest projects and grant-making programs. NVF is committed to attracting, developing, and retaining exceptional people, and to creating a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding and enables each of us to realize our potential. NVF’s work environment is safe and open to all employees and partners, respecting the full spectrum of race, color, religious creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, and all other classifications protected by law in the locality and/or state in which you are working.