Director of Development

POSITION DESCRIPTION: DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT  

Title: Director of Development

Employment Status: Full-time, exempt

Reports To: Executive Director

Location: Remote, US-based

Salary range: $150,000 - $170,000, commensurate with experience and qualifications; comprehensive benefits package

About Us

Recustom’s mission is to revolutionize home-based Jewish rituals, empowering individuals to craft diverse, unique experiences by offering accessible, easy-to-use, and sophisticated design tools. Our small but mighty team is passionate about building a world abounding with people who are connected, community-minded, and empathetic. We are at an exciting stage in our organization’s evolution, looking to substantially grow our programmatic footprint beyond our existing sites, Haggadot.com & HighHolidays@Home, to reach all aspects of Jewish life and DIY rituals. To accomplish our goals, we are building out our network, designing and piloting exciting new online tools, and seeking to grow our team with more people who share our values of Caring, Questioning, Creating, Collaborating, and Celebrating.

About the Role

Recustom is in search of a Director of Development. This position will report to and work closely with the Executive Director. The Director of Development leads individual giving strategy at Recustom and works closely with the other members of the leadership team to engage individual donors in supporting our growth. The Director of Development plans and implements all individual donor cultivation and stewardship activities, conducts donor research, and manages reporting for individual giving. This position holds the responsibility for a portfolio of major donors, ensuring their moves management plans lead to solicitation and growth year over year. The Director of Development also works with our contracted grant professional to finalize grant requests, including providing final edits to applications. The ideal candidate has a clear grasp of all core components of development, with particularly strong experience in individual giving, including major gifts, stewardship, and annual giving campaigns (direct mail and digital).

This is a full-time position that is US-flexible with required availability between 9 am and 1 pm Eastern Monday - Friday as well as flexible hours to collaborate with partners in Europe. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities 

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty and responsibility satisfactorily. Other duties may need to be assigned to meet organizational needs. The Director of Development  can expect their work to include:

Strategy and Leadership 

• Manage and execute Recustom’s development plan to achieve annual revenue goals
• Update the existing development and stewardship plans with new ideas, industry best practices, and data-driven analysis. Ensure the development plan remains aligned with the strategic plan such that it is always in service of evolving organizational goals
• Use data and metrics to help achieve fundraising goals, including identifying and developing a pipeline of major gift prospects
• Assist the Executive Director in cultivating relationships with board of directors and support them both as a group and as individuals in identifying and tailoring their best development contributions to Recustom
• Manage the partnership with our contracted grants professional, collaborating regularly to ensure consistency of messaging across Recustom individual and institutional fundraising strategies. 
• Work effectively with the leadership team, program staff and volunteers to foster a culture of philanthropy across the organization
• Lead monthly development department meetings by collaborating with team members to design agendas and managing the flow of the meeting

Individual Giving Relationship Management 

• Research and design the moves management plans for all major donors. Lead a portfolio of donors in this work as well as support the Executive Director in the execution of those plans 
• Energetically and proactively cultivate and nurture relationships between Recustom’s donors and donor prospects, board members, volunteers, and other key constituents – serving as the main point of contact for all small and mid-sized  individual donors
• Conduct prospect research on individual donors to grow the organization’s individual donor communities 
• Prepare meeting briefs for Recustom’s leadership team when meeting with donors, including agendas and other needed communication collateral
• Develop and execute the donor welcome series process 
• Serve as the point of contact for all general incoming donor inquiries

Annual Appeals and Communications 

• Lead the design, creation (including copywriting) and project management of annual fundraising appeals, including analyzing campaign results and creating reports to use in planning future appeals
• Work with the leadership team to develop creative and mission-focused fundraising messaging that effectively articulates the special role of Recustom in the Jewish community
• Draw on donor communications best practices to originate content, review design, and work with the Senior Marketing Manager to implement all donor communications and marketing, including monthly emails/newsletters, website donation pages and program-focused one-pagers
• Become a Recustom “expert” and excel in telling our story. Act as a spokesperson for the organization as needed to bring in funding and engage with donors and prospective supporters

Development Operations and Revenue Tracking 

• Serve as the primary administrator for the Recustom CRM (Salesforce), ensuring the system is used to the fullest and best extent possible for fundraising management
• Conduct weekly gift processing and acknowledgement letter mail merges
• Manage the execution of the Recustom donor stewardship plan, prompting team members to execute their roles on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis 
• Spearhead data input, including notes on meetings and scheduling next-step tasks, and ensure data integrity and accuracy in all records and reports in Recustom’s CRM 
• Prepare individual giving related reports and materials for the leadership team and/or board of directors as requested 
• Work with accounting team to ensure the CRM and accounting reports are reconciled
• Routinely update how-to documentation to codify and safeguard systems

About You

To be maximally successful in this role, you need to be:

• A born project manager with a knack for working backwards from a deadline to create a work plan
• Scrupulously punctual and diligently mindful of deadlines
• Accustomed to working on multiple projects with different deadlines simultaneously
• A succinct and directive communicator 
• A natural information-sharer so that everyone is always looped in
• A fanatic for follow-up so that you get what you need, when you need it
• A strong self-motivator
• Willing to engage in continuous learning and training
• Comfortable working across a number of digital tools and platforms

Desired Experience

• 10+ years of nonprofit fundraising experience
• Knowledge and experience with Jewish traditions preferred 
• Demonstrated experience working on individual giving, email campaigns, annual fund, and/or related tasks, preferably within the Jewish community
• Superb verbal and written communication skills, with experience tailoring messages to suit intended audiences and compelling readers to act
• Excellent project management skills. Demonstrated ability to prioritize and plan work activities across multiple projects, use time efficiently, follow instructions, and respond to management direction
• Ability to analyze and use data and metrics to shape goals, strategies, and tactics.
• Strong research skills 
• High level of skill with Google Drive and MS office applications
• Expert knowledge of CRM best practices; Salesforce experience preferred
• Must be able to work with sensitive and protected information in a confidential manner

Benefits Package Includes:

• Fully-remote work with flexible hours (US-based; available for meetings from 9am - 1pm EST)
• Unlimited PTO 
• Paid office closure holidays: 13 days + the week between xmas and new year 
• $50/month phone stipend
• Initial work from home office set up reimbursement up to $300
• Work from Home Staff Support Fund: reimbursement up to $150/month for work from home-related needs
• $1,000/year for professional development
• QSEHRA Health Reimbursement Arrangement
• 403b option to enroll in plan with 4% employer match contribution

Equal Opportunity Employment

We are committed to creating a culture of inclusion and accountability. We are an equal opportunity employer and recruit, hire, train, promote, compensate, and administer all personnel actions without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, culture, age, creed, disability, ancestry, medical condition, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other protected status.

Studies have shown that women, trans, non-binary folks, and BIPOC are less likely to apply for jobs unless they believe they meet every single one of the qualifications as described in a job description. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organization, and we are most interested in finding the best candidate for the job. That candidate may be one who comes from a background less traditional to our field of work, and that’s okay. We would strongly encourage you to apply, even if you don't believe you meet every one of the qualifications described.

We do not discourage applications from or discriminate against people with a conviction history, and we do not conduct conviction history checks as a part of our hiring process. You will not be asked about your conviction history at any point in the hiring process.

Bottom line: we’re looking for a good human who wants to build something amazing with us. If you think that’s you, we’re here for it.

To Apply

Please send a resume, cover letter, and a short individual-giving focused writing sample from your previous work (ex: appeal letter) to careers@recustom.com with “Director of Development” in the subject line.

• Fully-remote work with flexible hours (US-based; available for meetings from 9am - 1pm EST)
• Unlimited PTO 
• Paid office closure holidays: 13 days + the week between xmas and new year 
• $50/month phone stipend
• Initial work from home office set up reimbursement up to $300
• Work from Home Staff Support Fund: reimbursement up to $150/month for work from home-related needs
• $1,000/year for professional development
• QSEHRA Health Reimbursement Arrangement
• 403b option to enroll in plan with 4% employer match contribution