Senior Development Officer - West Coast

We are seeking a bold and entrepreneurial Senior Development Officer (SDO) and fundraising manager to serve as a front-line fundraiser representing JDC throughout the West Coast. This dynamic leader will be instrumental in driving JDC’s mission forward—pursuing strategic opportunities with tenacity, cultivating meaningful relationships, and meeting each challenge with creativity and resilience. The SDO and manager will be responsible for stewarding a portfolio of individual and foundation donors, deepening partnerships with Jewish Federations, and identifying and engaging major gift prospects in alignment with JDC’s fundraising strategy and long-term growth priorities.

This role focuses on supervising a team of fundraisers, securing significant philanthropic investments, with an emphasis on five-, six-, and seven-figure commitments.

This is an opening for one SDO to be based anywhere in CA. We do not have multiple openings in CA.

Thinking about applying?

Frequently cited statistics show that certain applicants may hesitate to apply for positions due to a false perception that they must meet 100% of the qualifications. We encourage you to apply if you meet a majority of the requirements. We look forward to your application.

What will you do as a Senior Development Officer?

• Proactively Identify, research, engage, and cultivate a pipeline of high potential individuals, foundations, and corporate donors for new, renewed or increased ($50K - $1M) gifts for JDC’s priority and budget programs.
• Strengthen and deepen strategic funding relationships with key JDC stakeholders and major philanthropic partners, including select Jewish Federations. Cultivate relationships with lay leadership, Board members and trustees of Federations and other significant Jewish organizations.
• Develop and plan innovative donor engagement activities, ranging from intimate briefings to large scale events, travel to the field, virtual campaigns, and speaker tours.
• Professional dynamic supervision of a team of 3 or more members, setting clear expectations, mentoring for growth and modeling high performance and accountability. to meet organizational, regional, and individual metrics and goals.
• Represent JDC’s global impact and vision to a range of audiences, tailoring messaging to resonate with diverse philanthropic motivations and interests.
• Maintain up-to-date records of donor interactions and moves management in JDC’s CRM.
• Work closely with units across RD and the global organization to ensure alignment at all levels, including identification of donors, outreach and solicitation, identifying funding needs, communication and messaging
• Activity and fundraising metrics to be developed with supervisor
• Participate in special projects, cross-functional initiatives, and donor-related assignments as needed.
• Member of Core Management team

What qualifications are required to be our Senior Development Officer?

• 10-15+ years of professional fundraising experience including substantial experience in closing five- and six-figure gifts (and ideally seven-figure gifts). Track record in managing highly driven, successful fundraising teams
• Fearless and resilient approach to fundraising. Proven success in soliciting and closing major gifts, and in building and maintaining relationships with major individual donors, especially in the Jewish community.
• Exceptional interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills, including an intuitive ability to understand donor motivations and speak to their values.
• Strong presentation skills, able to inspire confidence, trust, and enthusiasm, whether one-on-one or in front of a large audience.
• Self-starter with a results-driven mindset, strong organizational skills, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Technologically fluent with donor CRM systems such as Raiser’s Edge, NXT, Salesforce, etc.
• Ability to travel locally on a regular basis, meeting with donors, Federation leadership and prospects in communities across the West Coast. Ability to travel domestically 8-10 times and overseas 1-3 times annually.

Additional Preferred Skills and Competencies:

• Experience in fundraising for…