Organization Background
Rise Above Colorado is a drug misuse prevention organization that measurably impacts teen perceptions and attitudes about the risks of substance misuse to help youth make empowered,
healthy choices. Our vision is to empower teens to lead a life free of drug misuse and addiction.
Rise Above Colorado implements prevention strategies targeted for youth aged 12-17 to measurably impact attitudes (e.g. perception of harm, perception of peer use, etc.), knowledge (e.g. appropriate and inappropriate use of Rx drugs, teen brain science, etc.), and skills (e.g.
media literacy, health decision-making, refusal skills, etc.). Rise Above achieves these objectives through direct-to-youth communications, peer-to-peer engagement and resource delivery by youth-serving partner organizations.
Position Overview
Reporting to the Executive Director, the Director of Development and Operations has the
unique opportunity to create an infrastructure of success for the organization, both internally and externally. The role enables donors, stakeholders and prospects to engage in the Rise Above mission as champions for youth and the positive healthy choices they make about drugs
and alcohol. The Director is a skilled relationship-builder and creative architect of an integrated development plan for the organization that can enable annual and planned gifts from new and existing donors to support Rise Above today and sustain it for the future. The Director is a capable systems-builder, strategic thinker and a strong collaborator in order to maximize contributions from advocates and ensure staff effectiveness and wellbeing.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Development (65%)
• Creates and executes an Integrated Development Plan; sets benchmarks for all facets of development process (identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship)
• Builds and maintains a portfolio of qualified donors and prospects sufficient to meet
personal and organizational revenue goals.
• Supports the Executive Director in the development and activation of a portfolio of the top
5% of the organization’s donors and stakeholders.
• With Development Consultant, leads the development and execution of the organization’s annual fundraising event (Fill Your World With Good Sticker Contest Celebration Event).
• Leverages the Event Committee and Board of Directors to generate new corporate and individual prospects for cultivation
• Recruits new volunteer candidates for Event Committee
• Cultivates and stewards new and existing corporate prospects, including monitoring of
sponsor benefit fulfillment
• With Manager of Communications & Community Partnerships, creates marketing materials for
special events and annual and planned/endowment giving initiatives, including development
and completion of RAC’s case statement and annual report
• With Executive Director, advances culture of philanthropy among Board of Directors
and Event Committee volunteers
• Support the development of the board pillars around fundraising
• Coach and support fundraising best practices for the board / board chair
• Provide spectrum for engagement and accountability for board fundraising efforts
• Manages year-end annual solicitations
• Develops a system for grant requests and shares grant writing duties with Executive
Director, with engagement from Director of Media & Campaigns and Director of Prevention Education to ensure grant funding endeavors align with strategic vision and integrated development plan.
• Utilizes SalesForce database; manages donor records and tracks activity and reporting
for development purposes
Operations (35%)
· With Executive Director, develops and shepherds the organization’s 5-year strategic
planning process and leads the operationalizing of the plan with RAC board, staff and key stakeholders
· Develops a standard process for project goal setting and implementation timelines
· Applies RAC Strategic Framework goals and objectives to duties as guided by Executive
Director
· Creates an infrastructure for staff success, including improved processes for staff onboarding, the creation of a staff handbook of processes and policies and procedures that support staff efficiency in regular processes (accounting, expense and time reporting, etc.)
· Oversees staff professional development opportunities to ensure staff wellbeing
· Supports staff work groups on priority issues, including JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion) and CLAS (Culturally/Linguistically Appropriate Services)
· With Executive Director, explores organizational growth opportunities supported by staffing & partner agency infrastructure
· Supports Executive Director and outsourced vendors on accounting processes to ensure
efficiency and strong internal controls
Other
· Represents RAC on statewide and/or community committees, programs and boards that have a clear focus on youth development or teen substance misuse prevention
· Delivers public speaking engagements as needed, positioning RAC as statewide experts on
youth substance misuse prevention
· Supports overall growth, development, and success of RAC
Ideal Qualifications
· At least 5-7 years of development and/or operations experience with demonstrated
success in annual or planned giving, major gifts fundraising, and staff leadership
· A passion for helping youth be healthy and their best selves; a strong commitment
to equity and inclusion
· Demonstrated experience with all phases of the development cycle, from prospect
identification to stewardship
· Experience managing a personal portfolio of donors and prospects.
· Experience and confidence with in-person solicitation
· Skilled at creating effective volunteer opportunities for stakeholders to participate
in a development committee
· Experienced people manager with the ability to develop systems and processes that match the
organization’s culture and core values
· Excellent project management and organizational skills to coordinate across multiple
projects and constituencies (both internal and external), and balance multiple
priorities
· Experience participating in or leading strategic planning and visioning work a plus
· Excellent communication, presentation, and facilitation skills, both written and oral
· Exceptional interpersonal skills and demonstrated ability to work with people of all ages
and at all levels of an organization
· Must be able to work independently and as a collaborative team member
· A self-starter with excellent work ethic and passion to make a difference
· Experience with design of development marketing materials a plus
· Experience effectively utilizing development databases (SalesForce is existing platform)
· Periodic statewide travel expected, as is working occasional evenings and weekends; Candidate will need to provide a vehicle for work travel within three hours driving distance (mileage reimbursed)
· Position can be partially remote, with at least bi-weekly office-based work required in Broomfield