Position: Director of Development & Strategic Advancement
Organization: Bring Me A Book Foundation
Location: Mountain View, CA

Overview:
Bring Me A Book Foundation’s mission is to strengthen the language and emerging literacy skills of the growing number of California’s underserved children. Bring Me A Book, a 501(c)(3) award- winning literacy nonprofit, was founded in 1997 to serve children who do not have access to quality books, and who are not read aloud to on a regular basis. We provide libraries of quality, hardback children’s books, read aloud training to over 500,000 children and parents in over 1,800 sites, and book bags for individual books to take home. Through our program offerings: the Bookcase Library Program, the Take Home Books program, and the First Teachers Program providing literacy workshops for parents and caregivers, BMAB reaches low-income children and families that need the most help with literacy skills by placing our programs in state funded preschools, Head Starts, elementary schools (Pre K-3rd grade), childcare centers and community centers. Bring Me A Book has four thriving regions throughout the state, including Northern California/Bay Area, Southern California, Central Valley (San Joaquin and Stanislaus County), and Sacramento. It also has a Hong Kong affiliate, considered to be a leading family literacy program in the region with a history of serving over 60,000 since its launch in 2006.

Position:
Bring Me a Book is seeking a dynamic and results-oriented Director of Development & Strategic Advancement to play a critical role in supporting the growth and impact of the organization in all regions. The position will be responsible for a variety of advancement duties including grant writing, donor stewardship, event coordination, developing an earned-income strategy, and marketing and communications. The Director of Development & Strategic Advancement will be headquartered in Mountain View and will report to the Executive Director.

Responsibilities:
Create and implement a comprehensive institutional development plan to fund state-wide operations, attracting new foundation and corporate funders, integrate regional fund development plans, as well as increasing funders’ support for and relationship with Bring Me A Book.

Research, identify, develop, and cultivate new relationships with foundations, corporations, and individuals, building out a pipeline of funders with capacity to make $25-$100K+ gifts. Leverage board members and other key stakeholder’s contacts throughout the regional network in building relationships.

Thoughtfully manage and grow existing relationships with current funders, maintaining these relationships to engage interest and giving to the organization, while creating systems to enable the Executive Director to strategically engage in all aspects of fund development efforts.

Partner closely with regional management to execute development strategies, facilitating cross-region collaboration and proactively identify opportunities to coordinate regional and state-wide efforts.

Provide coaching and support to Regional Managers to create consistency and efficiency in institutional fundraising strategies and best practices across the state, with particular focus on maximizing the use of the CRM database used by BMAB to track fundraising and analyze programmatic efforts.

Craft, in partnership with the Executive Director and external resources, an earned-income strategy based on the organizational assets by conducting market research, prototyping potential products and services, developing a business plan and working to secure initial investments.

Develop and manage an institutional calendar to ensure that proposals, renewals, and reports are submitted on time. Craft proposals, letters of inquiries, briefing materials for site visits and presentations, and other grant-related documents.

Pursue media and marketing opportunities to promote the Bring Me A Book brand, maintaining social media outreach and marketing for individual donor and corporate sponsorships for events, programs, and special projects.

Support the planning and implementation of an annual event (and smaller cultivation events as needed) including managing vendor relationships, staffing, event budget and logistics.

Support the management of BMAB’s Fund Development Committee; preparing presentation materials as needed.

Oversee development efforts to ensure streamlined and coordinated fundraising efforts across the organization.

Qualifications:

• Minimum 4-6 years fundraising, business development or comparable experience in a non-profit organization.

• A background in business development, strategic partnerships, or corporate giving is a plus

• Demonstrated donor relations, general grant writing and event coordination experience

• Experience serving as a representative of an organization, with a natural ability to build rapport and credibility with foundation and corporate leaders, program officers, and stakeholders

• Proficiency in current data management systems, including SalesForce.com desired

• Track record of successfully identifying and securing grants and donor stewardship

• Outstanding persuasive writing skills including the ability to edit for quality, thematic congruity, and style, excellent verbal presentations

• Marketing and design sensibility with an eye for developing high-quality, professional organizational materials

• Commitment to team collaboration and communication, particularly working with remote staff and virtual teams

• Comfort with ambiguity and ability to succeed in highly entrepreneurial and dynamic culture

• Ability to work independently with minimal oversight and thrive under pressure and on deadline

• Excellent time-management and prioritization skills; exceptionally organized, detailed and flexible

• Understanding of program budgets and financial projections

• Ability to problem solve and set priorities while having a “take care of business” attitude

• Ability to thrive in a mission-driven environment with a passionate commitment to Bring Me A Book’s mission, vision, values and strategic direction focused on early childhood education and literacy

• Background and knowledge in one or more of BMAB’s content areas--early childhood development, literacy, parent engagement, education technology, building partnerships with schools and/or youth development--desired

• Bachelor’s Degree required, Master’s level or graduate studies in a related area a plus

Salary is commensurate with experience. Compensation package includes generous benefits and vacation.

To apply, please email a thoughtful cover letter and resume outlining how your skills and experience meet the qualifications of the position, along with salary history to hr@bringmeabook.org. No phone calls or faxes please. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until position is filled. For more information about our organization visit us at www.bringmeabook.org

Bring Me A Book Foundation is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate against any individual, employee, or application for employment on the basis of race, color, marital status, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, handicap, or any other legally protected status recognized by federal, state or local law.