NRDC is a non-profit environmental advocacy organization. We use law, science, and the support of 3.1 million members and online activists to protect the planet's wildlife and wild places and to ensure the rights of all people to clean air, clean water, and healthy communities. NRDC was founded in 1970 and our people helped write some of America's bedrock environmental laws, including the Clean Water Act and many of the implementing regulations. Today, our team of more than 700 lawyers, scientists, economists, policy advocates, communications experts, and others work across the United States and the globe from our offices in Beijing; Chicago; New Delhi; New York; San Francisco; Santa Monica; and Washington, D.C. 

NRDC is seeking a Senior Vice President of Membership and Development Operations to work with the Development team in our San Francisco, New York, Santa Monica, Denver, or Washington, DC. offices. 

Position Summary:

The Senior Vice President of Membership & Development Operations (SVP MDO) reports to the Chief Development Officer and is responsible for the strategy and management of three Development teams: Membership & Planned Giving; Donor Relations; and Donor Systems. This includes providing department-level leadership in the areas of planning, systems, policies, database operations, financial management, fundraising performance, prospect management and research; low dollar donations and planned giving. The SVP MDO will create and advance a long-term strategy for growth of direct response and planned giving fundraising while ensuring that staff on each team are successful, ethical and effective.

The SVP MDO proactively identifies opportunities to enhance and improve the functioning of the Development department, including essential business processes, and works in collaboration with the Senior Vice President of Principal, Institutional and Major Giving, Development Chief of Staff, CDO and Development Leadership Team (“DLT”) to establish metrics, set policy and develop and maintain compliance standards and operating procedures.

The SVP MDO ensures that operational systems and technologies, including the CRM and analytics tools, are streamlined and support the strategic fundraising and stewardship efforts of the organization. The SVP MDO analyzes and reports on department performance metrics and advises the DLT and colleagues on strategies and results. The SVP MDO is also responsible for overall strategic leadership, in collaboration with the leaders of the Membership & Planned Giving, Donor Relations, and Donor Systems -- which collectively raise over $61 million annually from individuals and realized bequests.

Management (40%)

• Leads the Membership and Development Operations teams, including strategic planning, people management and administration.
• Sets teams strategic goals in alignment with organizational priorities, develops key performance indicators and robust work plans to achieve outcomes, and sets and reinforces high performance expectations.
• Oversees and has ultimate responsibility for management of the team budget, aiming to make the most strategic and effective use of department funds by rigorously prioritizing and allocating resources to maximize opportunities and outcomes.
• Ensures that each team is developing and executing on increasingly sophisticated and effective public fundraising, planned giving and operational strategies.
• Develops, documents and implements effective development systems and operational procedures.
• Develops strong, cooperative relationships between the Development department and other organization units, especially Information Technology (IT), and Finance, ensuring mutual understanding of shared goals and objectives and thoughtful decision making.
• Ensures that donor restrictions are communicated and honored in our budgeting and that we have appropriate systems in place to spend donations for the purposes that they were committed and to report back to donors on the use of their funds.
• Develops staff through management, mentorship, and identifying and encouraging training and professional development opportunities appropriate to role and creating development plans for all staff.
• Creates a learning culture, by encouraging debriefing after completion of significant stages of projects.
• Creates or identifies strategic opportunities for team building and individual and overall staff engagement with one another in order to strengthen teamwork, interaction and collaboration.
• Advances NRDC’s diversity, equity and inclusion goals by leading efforts to cultivate DEI within the organization and across the industry.

Strategic Leadership (30%)

• Leads development of the department’s strategic technology plans, ensuring that systems and processes run smoothly, and that Development staff have the tools and training they need to do their jobs effectively. This includes ensuring the integrity, security, and cost-effectiveness of the Department’s overall technology solutions, providing timely solutions for system issues, workflow improvements, and opportunities to enhance donor engagement through information sharing.
• Collaborates with the Senior Vice President of Principal, Institutional and Major Giving (SVP PIM), Chief Development Officer, Development Chief of Staff (DCOS) and DLT to lead the exploration, development, evaluation and implementation of long-term strategic plans.
• Collaborates with the CDO, SVP PIM, DCOS and DLT to create metrics and reports for the Executive Leadership Team, Board of Trustees, Development and Finance Committees to highlight progress and areas of growth for the Development Department.
• Attends NRDC Board of Trustee meetings and Development Committee meetings of the Board.
• Leads constant efforts to improve teams, including adopting creative and innovative approaches to donor stewardship and engagement, cutting edge developments in donor research and analysis, and a drive for continuously improving and growing planned giving, membership revenue and fundraising efficiency.
• Maintains professional relationships with counterparts in other non-profit organizations, and keeps abreast of latest developments in fundraising rules and regulations, best practices and demographic changes.

Operations and Planning (30%)

• Ensures that Development’s operations and systems are highly efficient, effective, and emulate best-in-class practices.
• Ensures the donor database and other tools utilized and maintained by the Department are sophisticated, adaptable and highly efficient operationally.
• Liaises with NRDC’s IT department, external consultants and vendors supporting the donor database, 3^rd party membership fundraising providers and other tools utilized and maintained by the Department.
• Develops and maintains organizational data for reporting and analysis with the IT team.
• Liaises with the Office of General Counsel on matters around donor privacy and security, ensuring compliance with relevant regulations and laws.
• Develops, disseminates, and documents policies, procedures, and data solutions that support end-user needs, both within the Development department and as it relates to cross-departmental compliance.
• Leads working groups/task forces in Development to review and adopt changes to policies including gift acceptance, donor confidentiality, financial reporting, etc.

• The successful candidate will have a minimum of 15 years of experience in increasingly responsible positions in development and nonprofit management.
• A minimum of five years of experience in a similar management role leading large development programs and teams.
• Prior capital & comprehensive campaign experience is a plus.
• Bachelor’s degree required. Master’s in business, non-profit management, or public administration or related degree preferred
• Proven ability to manage large teams of people, large-scale projects, and relationships in a complex organizational structure.
• Demonstrated leadership skills and ability to effectively manage and lead a diverse team with emotional intelligence (self-awareness and understanding of the impact of their behavior) and cultural humility (an understanding of the need for additional learning about different cultures, backgrounds and orientation and implementation of that learning daily management practices);
• Ability to give and receive regular formal and informal feedback in a timely, constructive, respectful, and consistent manner and to incorporate debriefing into the team’s operations
• Commitment to and experience in developing team skills and talents to meet the evolving needs of an organization.
• Demonstrated skills with applying technological solutions in a Development setting, including CRM and business intelligence tools;
• Strong operational skills, ability to see opportunities for better program integration and effectiveness;
• Expertise in building and growing low dollar donor/membership programs
• Planned giving and non cash asset giving experience.
• Superior written and oral communications, interpersonal and presentation skills
• Entrepreneurial approach to building fundraising and development program
• Highly sophisticated relationship building skills
• Ability to think strategically and creatively
• Highest level of personal and professional integrity
• Commitment to NRDC’s mission and values
• Deep experience and commitment of incorporating and growing the use of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion principles in our work and in team culture and operations.

NRDC is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, both in our work and in our workplace. We believe that celebrating and actively welcoming diverse voices and perspectives is essential to solving the planet's most pressing environmental problems, and we encourage applications from candidates whose identities have been historically under-represented in the environmental movement. 

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate in hiring or employment on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, marital status, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.  

We offer competitive salaries, excellent benefits, and a supportive working environment. Salary is based on a nonprofit scale and is commensurate with skills and experience. Internal equity will be reviewed and considered to determine a final offer. For this position, the salary range is $300,000 to $320,000.  

Our offices are open and we are operating in a hybrid model. We offer NRDCers flexibility, and we ask them to come into the office and spend meaningful time there in collaboration with their colleagues. We call this purposeful presence. 

As a science-based organization, NRDC aims to do our part to help contain the COVID-19 public health crisis. For the sake of health, safety, and equity, we ask that people be vaccinated unless they have an approved medical or religious accommodation or other exemption in accordance with state and local law. We consider a person to be vaccinated two weeks after receiving one full course of a CDC-approved vaccine. In accordance with state or local law, new hires will be asked to attest to vaccination, those wishing to do so may request medical or religious accommodations or other exemptions via NRDC Employee Relations. NRDC treats all vaccine-related data confidentially, in keeping with local, state, and federal laws. 

To apply, visit www.nrdc.org/careers and upload your résumé and cover letter. Please mention where you saw this posting and upload any additional materials that showcase your abilities. Due to the high volume of applications, we will contact only those candidates we would like to interview. Please no phone calls, emails, or in-person résumé drop-offs. 

If you experience technical problems while applying or if you are a person with a disability and need assistance applying online, please reach out to iCIMS Customer Care at 1-800-889-4422. 

For more about NRDC, visit www.nrdc.org.