Director of Philanthropy Operations

American Farmland Trust seeks a Director of Philanthropy Operations to serve a key operational and strategic team role in support of AFT’s overall fundraising, donor/prospect management and constituent marketing goals. The Director of Philanthropy Operations reports to the Vice President of Development and External Relations and acts as the intra-departmental bridge and support partner for members of the Fundraising, Communications, and Finance departments. This position requires an organized thoughtful approach to development and implementation of systems to support fundraising efforts. 

The Director will oversee daily operations related to the Raisers Edge (RE) and Convio databases to assure high standards of quality, consistency and accuracy of all development-related information to comply with industry standards and best practices for gift administration, tax policy and regulations.  The focus of this position will be on long-range strategic priorities and management of the budget.   The Director will provide support for ongoing prospect management systems and to execute this strategy to meet annual development goals through multiple revenue channels. S/he will provide high-level administrative support to the VP in directing project work and develop professional working relationships with the Fundraising team.

This position is the first point of contact for the Fundraising team with questions/ problems with the use of the database. 

Essential Functions:

• Assist in implementation and management of department

• Responsible for development and implementation of policies to guide data entry to ensure that the database effectively captures staff and donor information.

• Develop and enforce policies and procedures to preserve the confidentiality of donor and prospective donor financial and biographical information.

• Identify and recommend new practices (i.e., installing new modules) to enhance the efficiency of current processes.

• Provide thorough training and documentation, educating Fundraising, Communications, and Finance departments on how to best leverage RE and Convio.

• Monitor database and application performance in RE, implementing system efficiency improvements and making configuration changes where possible.

• Initiate and follow through on donor-centric research projects.

• Provide leadership in the analysis and evaluation of database information, including the communication of essential data and interpretations in written and verbal formats.

• Provide direction, coordination and supervision for gift and pledge processing, accurate and timely management of gift and pledge entry of all cash and non-cash gifts; Account for wire transfers and credit card transaction.

• Provide accurate and timely management of collection of new email addresses, opt-outs and changes; manage segmentation of email addresses to meet strategic objectives.

• Supervise the preparation of deposits, creating batches for processing, and reconciling RE reports to deposits.

• Create and run advanced queries, exports, and reports on a daily basis.

• Generate accurate financial and analytical reports.

• Provide support to the Fundraising staff by assisting with the creation of reports to ensure that staff is trained in the proper use of the database. 

• Perform configuration, testing, and documentation for other applications outside of RE.

• Serves as the liaison to vendors in maintaining the hard/software and troubleshooting problems. 

• Provide general support to include on-boarding of new employees/users, assistance with technology, and support of events and activities

• Establish and maintain a structure within the database to effectively identify specific segments of data for various analyses and targeted marketing efforts.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree required and 6-8 years related experience in a non-profit fundraising environment, at least 3 years in a management/supervisory role. 

• Proven track record of achievement in leading a department or division.

• Experience with Raiser’s Edge and Convio database systems and implementation of results of electronic donor screening and segmenting initiatives.

• Knowledge of current trends in fundraising including benchmarking and metrics.

• Superior verbal, written communication and interpersonal skills required.  Ability to motivate, set objectives and manage performance of a team.

• Professional experience with analytical, organizational, problems solving skills and attention to detail.

• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to effectively diagnose technical problems and apply a logical approach to problem solving.

• Previous experience in a development/foundation department or nonprofit that includes a comprehensive fundraising program preferred.

• Must be a self-starter and able to create high-quality results; ability to work independently, as well as under supervision; ability to meet deadlines required.

• Ability to create/present training and demonstrations, both formal and informal.

• Ability to complete projects and manage multiple priorities and projects with attention to detail in a timely manner.

Applications and Inquiries:

Send letter and resume with a summary of demonstrable accomplishments to: 

jobs@farmland.org