Director, Fundraising and Donor Engagement

About RRI

The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) is a global coalition of over 150 organizations dedicated to advancing the forest, land, and resource rights of Indigenous Peoples, local communities, Afro-descendant Peoples, and in particular the women within these groups. RRI’s members capitalize on each other’s strengths, expertise, and geographic reach to achieve solutions more effectively and efficiently. RRI leverages the power of its global coalition to amplify the voices of local peoples and proactively engage governments, multilateral institutions, and private sector actors to adopt institutional and market reforms that support the realization of rights.

If you are passionate about working with Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and Afro-descendant Peoples in the Global South to strengthen their rights, development, and environmental efforts, this could be the place for you. For more information, check out our current openings.

People of color, people from Indigenous and local communities, women, and LGBTQ+ persons are strongly encouraged to apply.

Director, Fundraising & Donor Engagement

Reporting to the President and serving as a member of the Senior Management Team, the Director for Fundraising & Donor Engagement will have a critical role in shaping and implementing the organization’s revenue strategy and advising on organizational priorities and direction. Priorities include maintaining current relationships and diversifying revenue streams, ensuring that RRI has the necessary resources to fulfill its mission, while also influencing the funding ecosystem, and expanding the resources available to RRI Coalition members.

The Director will streamline RRI’s fundraising and donor engagement processes to ensure consistency across commitments for RRI’s major institutional donors. The ideal applicant is a skilled project manager with excellent writing and collaboration skills. Experience working in multi-cultural environments is highly desirable.

This is a full-time position based in Washington, DC with the option of telework 2 days per week (Mondays and Fridays). Candidates must be legally eligible to work in the United States and be located in the DC metro area prior to the start date.

Applications will be accepted immediately and interviews conducted on a rolling basis.

Primary Responsibilities:

1. Develop and Implement a Comprehensive Fundraising Strategy

• Develop a fundraising strategy that is tailored to RRI’s strategy, work plan, vision, mission and focus areas.
• Evaluate the impact of internal and external forces on the organization and its ability to raise funds, make recommendations on how to leverage opportunities and counter risks.
• Stay abreast of developments in philanthropy as well as the general fields of management and the nonprofit sector, inform the President, development committee(s) and board on current trends.
• Oversee and manage all development and engagement activities associated with the prospecting, cultivating, and solicitation of donors.
• Establish fundraising performance measures and monitor results, regularly evaluating the effectiveness of the resource mobilization strategy and its implementation.
• Manage the day-to-day operations of the development function and monitor adequacy of activities.
• Identify opportunities with existing and emerging bilateral and multilateral donors, philanthropies, and individuals.
• Develop an outreach strategy for soliciting individual major gifts.

2. Stewardship of RRI’s Major Institutional Donors

• Develop a deep understanding of existing donors’ priorities and manage the relationship in coordination with the President, program leads, and Manager for Donor Engagement.
• Convene the Donor Support Group annually and ensure timely responsiveness to their concerns and advice, all toward informed, strong, and continued support for RRI.
• Present on RRI accomplishments to donor-convened meetings, as needed.
• Work closely with RRI’s President to promote strategic engagement and profile development with donors and donors' associations.
• Work with the Senior Management Team to ensure members’ support for and participation in donor development and engagement.
• Oversee implementation and utilization of a digital customer relationship management platform, such as Salesforce.
• Supervise the Manager for Donor Engagement to ensure that:
• Donors are informed about RRI’s activities in order to improve RRI’s positioning and opportunities for funding
• Donors are engaged with RRI priorities
• RRI successes