We’re looking for a
Development Director
to join the Strategy Center Team
The Strategy Center is known for its direct, unfiltered politics that begins with a deep commitment to L.A.’s Black and Latinx community, a deep internationalism opposing all forms of U.S. colonialism, and a strong climate justice imperative. We make a deep commitment to training long-distance runners, Black, Latinx, women, more than 100 of the best organizers to carry out that strategy.
We have been carrying out radical, transformative organizing for 34 years. We have always been able to gain funding based on the most honest, refreshing, and exciting presentation of our views. In that our new Development Director will have to be knowledgeable and enthusiastic about Strategy Center politics, here is a brief picture of who we are. Is this you? Do you want to help raise funds to expand this historic work? Applicants really have to want to work for the Strategy Center, believe in our vision, and believe they can raise funds to expand our cutting-edge work.
We operate two state-of-the art Movement Centers in South Central LA
Strategy and Soul Movement Center, 4 store-front center for civil rights, climate justice, transformative organizing in South Central Los Angeles. This is the home of the Strategy and Soul Social Justice Clubs, Bus Riders Union, Strategy and Soul Bookstore, and Strategy and Soul Movement Film Theater. We are deeply committed to protecting and expanding what is left of L.A.’s Black community from gentrification and genocide.
The Crenshaw House—a beautiful California Craftsman, with a major upgrade and re-model, the center for our National Leadership School for Strategy Organizing and the Crenshaw House Conference and Meditation Center. This position will also involve expanding rentals of this attractive facility.
We need funding for facility development, movement spaces, art, culture, books, and films.
Our Budget and Aspirations
Transformative Organizing is core driving force of the work of the Strategy Center
We carry out our work through theory driven practice, and practice driven theory as written about in Eric Mann’s Playbook for Progressives: 16 Qualities of the Successful Organizer. Our primary goal is to organize a base of Black, Latinx, and Third World people to focus on fighting for civil rights, environmental and climate justice, Women’s rights, and Public Health. We focus on building the Social Welfare State not the Police State, the Environmental Justice State, not the Warfare State. We carry out this work by organizing Black and Latinx bus riders, students, parents, teachers and others into the Bus Riders Union. We also host Strategy and Soul Social Justice Clubs at two LA High Schools. We are internationalists. We fight for the Third World inside and outside the U.S. in its fight for self-determination. We need funding to hire dedicated organizers.
It’s time to hire a development director. Are you that person? Traditionally the organizers in the field have built the relationships with funders and foundations— and then worked with them through proposals to receive grants. Our system is long overdue for a change in that the fundraising work is time consuming and takes away from our valuable strategy, planning, organizing time and energy. The core staff will still be at the center of this work but we look forward to a new funding organizer to also take up this space. We are poised for a major expansion of our work. So, the time to hire you is now!
We see the Development Director as an organizer, a conscious human being part of our team. Given our focus on “goals and objectives” and seeing fundraising as a “campaign” the job would involve setting goals and expectations for new funding leads, building on existing relationships, and raising new funding. We need a person with a strong history of metrics to evaluate the actual success or failure of a specific tactic, monitoring performance, and providing feedback to ensure that fundraising goals are met or exceeded. Given our politics, we are looking for someone with a history of gaining funding for Black/Latinx women’s liberation, climate justice and social transformation.
We have a very strong leadership team with whom you will be working closely.
The Strategy Center addresses what we call “the totality of urban life.”
- Black led organizations and leadership development
- School reform—support for Black students, challenging colonial education models, fighting the school to prison pipeline
- Climate and Environmental Justice—free public transportation, stop attacks on Black passengers, 1 million in new service hours for the LA MTA, 1,000 new CNG buses, No Cars in L.A. EcoSoc NGO status at the U.N.
- Leadership development for Black, Latinx, and women organizers through our National Leadership School for Strategic Organizing.
- Art/Culture/Media—Operating a radio program—Voices from the Frontlines
- Strategy and Soul Books and a state-of-the-art Strategy and Soul Film Theater.
From its outset, when the Strategy Center was organizing Latin@ residents of Wilmington against oil refineries, and playing an active role at the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit, the core of the Strategy Center’s first funding was from environmental funders. Recently, we have not had the level of environmental and climate justice funding we need to expand that work. We need a development director with a history of securing environmental and climate justice funding.
We are a multi-racial, overwhelmingly Black organization and a Black-led organization. We need a development director with strong ties to racial justice and liberation.
We are a “think tank/act tank” and produce great pamphlets and books for the movement. We need to break into more of the policy funding—for which we have historically been funded but not as much at present.
We run a major radio show—Voices from the Frontlines on KPFK Pacifica Los Angeles (www.voicesfromthefrontlines.com) and need funding for the radio show production and our podcast on all platforms.
Monitor and Analyze Fundraising Data You will be responsible for monitoring and analyzing fundraising data to evaluate performance and adjust strategies as needed. This involves tracking donor engagement and retention rates, analyzing revenue streams, and making data-driven decisions that help the organization achieve its fundraising goals.
Qualifications Required for a Development Director
An impressive and verifiable track record of raising funds for any combination of Black, Third World, transportation, environmental, climate, and social justice work. We need someone with strong ties to our field as well as opening new doors, new windows, new roofs to dramatically expand the reach of our work. We are very fortunate that we have a loyal group of funders who understand our work and have sustained our long-term vision. But we need a Dramatically Expanded Pool of Donors, in terms of total number of grants, new relationships, and total amount of new funds raised.
Creativity and initiative. Please study our website, www.thestrategycenter.org and the site of our radio show/podcast www.voicesfromthefrontlines.com There are an unlimited number of funding categories based on our actual work elaborated above.
In your application, show us you understand who we are, and based on that, how you would build a fundraising/development strategy. Who are the 5 most promising leads/relationships that you think would be a good match. Hopefully this will generate a lot of new ideas. The Strategy Center loves and lives on innovation. We invent new structures, organizations, publications, and physical facilities. You will never hear, “We have always done it this way.” Make something happen, use your imagination, take risks, and raise a lot of money to support our work.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills The Strategy Center writes proposals as strategy papers. That is, we first develop strategic planning documents and then translate them, usually with very little difference, into proposals. Funders have told us they appreciate the clarity and honesty of our assessment of our work and the obstacles to achieve our objectives. Thus, we need someone who understands organizing and social justice strategies and how to write about them. We write proposals with an edge. Also, we communicate regularly with the foundations and individuals who support our work. By the time our “progress reports” are due, the funders already know a lot about our work and have been following it through attending events, email correspondence, referrals to other funders. So being a good and reliable communicator is essential.
Strategic Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills—the development director’s job is to develop a long-term campaign, with short-term goals, to dramatically expand the number of people who fund our work and to dramatically expand our budget. This will require strategic thinking (welcome to the strategy center) with the ability to identify challenges and opportunities, and develop creative solutions to meet fundraising goals. You must be able to think critically and make data-driven decisions that help the organization achieve its objectives.
Key Responsibilities:
- Develop and implement a comprehensive fundraising plan to meet the organization’s annual revenue goals.
- Identify and cultivate major gift prospects, a sustainers program, and foundation donors.
- Plan and execute special events that engage donors and raise funds for the organization.
- Manage and lead our fundraising efforts, providing guidance, training, and support.
- Collaborate with the core leadership team to develop and execute effective donor communications and marketing
- Monitor and analyze fundraising data to evaluate performance and adjust the tactical plan as needed.
This is a full-time in office, team building, position. We are prepared to pay between $75,000 and $100,000 a year, depending on experience and track record and a generous benefits package—full medical, dental, vision, chiropractic. If you are a motivated and experienced fundraising professional with a passion for making a difference in the community, we encourage you to apply.
Send us a cover letter including
- Your vita/resume
- Your development work with other organizations and your history of raising funds
- A statement about why you think you can raise funds for The Strategy Center
- An original essay about yourself, your movement history, any personal stories you want to share, and what you believe is the match between you and the politics of the Strategy Center including a response to the above summation of our work.
- Please include 3 references.
Send to info@thestrategycenter.org
Attention Eric Mann and Channing Martinez.
