When you apply for this position, please say you saw this job on Green Dream Jobs!!
Description
Institute Seeks Development Director
Join Best in the Business
January 21, 2002
BENZONIA, MI ? The Michigan Land Use Institute, one of America?s largest and most effective state-based environmental research and advocacy organizations, is seeking an experienced and skilled development director. Since its founding in 1995 in a one-room school house in scenic northwest Michigan, the Institute has built an outstanding record of policy achievements that have helped communities curb sprawl, invest in public transportation, safeguard farmland, protect natural resources, and improve the quality of life in the Great Lakes region.
The successful candidate will join a 14-member team of journalists, editors, technical specialists, and grassroots organizers who are recognized nationally as among the best in the business.
We seek a similarly exceptional and motivated professional to establish a peerless fundraising program that ensures the Institute?s long term security. Our $1 million annual budget is derived from foundation grants, consulting fees, and more than 2,000 member families, businesses, local governments, and organizations.
The Institute recruits first-rate people and turns them loose to do great things. We reward achievement, prize collegiality, and respect individuality. Flexible hours, competitive wages and benefits, lunch time swims in the porcelain-blue waters of Crystal Lake (optional), a stunning landscape of dunes and forests, and a restorative small town pace also make the Institute a premier place to work.
The development director will work closely with the executive director and the Development Committee of the Board of Directors. At the Institute, development is a shared responsibility and the development director will collaborate regularly with the entire program and production staff and the full Board of Directors. The position is supported on a day-to-day basis with an experienced outreach and events coordinator and very capable office manager.
The successful candidate must posses a passion for the environment and the capacity to effectively present the organization to people from all walks of life. We are looking for a top-flight professional with strategic instincts for designing and executing a laser sharp fundraising plan. The candidate must be an excellent writer and communicator and have the marketing savvy to inspire, the dynamism to build membership, and the personal touch to cultivate lasting donor relationships.
And that?s not all. In keeping with our reputation for setting ever higher standards of innovation and excellence, the development director must have a firm grasp of the latest computer technology and fundraising techniques. She or he will be required to add a new dimension to our busy Web site and build the Institute?s Internet presence into a fundraising center.
Salary is negotiable and commensurate with experience and skills. If this position interests you, please send a cover letter, resume, and writing samples to:
Hans Voss
Executive Director
Michigan Land Use Institute
PO Box 228
Benzonia, MI 49616
Or send materials by email to jobs@mlui.org.
PROFESSIONAL REQUIREMENTS
? Experience as a professional fundraiser for a nonprofit organization.
? Strong writing, public speaking, planning, and organizing skills.
? Commitment to service in the public interest.
? Proven capacity to develop and successfully execute a fundraising plan.
? Creativity in designing and executing effective marketing programs.
? Strong interpersonal skills to build positive and lasting relationships with donors, foundation staff, and new members.
? Technical and programmatic skills to deploy the Internet as a fundraising center.
? Ability to work effectively in a collaborative atmosphere.
? Ability to work calmly and efficiently under deadline.
? Ability to conceive and oversee special events that advance the Institute?s mission and raise its public profile.
? Experience and proficiency in preparing grant applications.
? Familiarity with and commitment to environmental and land use issues.
POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES
Development Planning
? Work with the executive director and the Development Committee of the Board to establish a five-year fundraising plan.
? Set up a system for tracking the success of fundraising efforts and revising the plan as needed.
Organizational Communications and Outreach
? Work with the staff to establish a clear and visually effective organizational message and to evaluate whether it is reaching the target audience.
? Work with senior staff, art director, Web coordinator, and consultants to establish the Institute?s Web site as a central marketing and fundraising tool.
? Develop effective and graphically exciting public presentations and interactive Web materials.
? Work with outside consultants to develop a promotional video.
? Prepare a plan for capitalizing on the Institute?s new building on Beulah?s Main Street to promote walk-in membership.
? Develop and execute a plan to display our magazine and organizational information in more public places.
? Establish and maintain relationships with other environmental/conservation groups.
Recruiting Donors
? Work with the staff and Board to identify and increase the number of new high donors.
? Establish effective relationships to maintain the support of the Institute?s existing high donors.
? Establish an effective system to ensure that the Institute is keeping in touch with its high donors, i.e., thank you letters, regular project updates, holiday gifts, and making other contacts when appropriate.
Member Development and Outreach
? Work with the staff, Board and consultants to design and implement an effective strategy to increase the Institute?s membership.
? Oversee the Institute?s donor database and outreach program.
? Write member renewal letters and new membership appeal letters.
? Work with the staff, Board, and consultants to establish a consistent and cohesive organizational identity.
? Work with staff to develop informational materials for foundations, community members, and potential high donors. The materials should explain the Institute?s mission in words and pictures.
Building Foundation Support
? Research and identify state and national foundations likely to support the Institute?s program.
? Make initial contacts with granting institutions.
? Write letters of inquiry and full grant applications for projects and for general support.
? Work with Institute program leaders and management to fulfill reporting requirements and maintain ongoing communication with foundations.
Building Corporate Support
? Develop a promotional message that resonates with businesses and establish a corporate giving program.
? Identify and make contact with corporate foundations.
The Michigan Land Use Institute is an equal opportunity employer, considering candidates without regard to gender, race, sexual preference, religion, or political affiliation.