Development and Communications Director

ABOUT CJSF

Communities for Just Schools Fund (CJSF) is a national collaborative of community organizers and funders working to advance education justice. We believe in the inherent brilliance of young people, and in their right to a free, holistically safe, and equitable public education. Our work aims to achieve 2 goals- to increase the holistic safety of youth in schools and communities, and to increase the self-determination and governing power of youth, caregivers and educators. Our grassroots organizing partners, donors, and allies are building schools and communities that promote the holistic safety and well-being of all youth — irrespective of their race, gender, and sexuality, ability, documentation status, or zip code. By linking philanthropy with the power of grassroots organizing field, our organization supports 65+ Black-, People of Color, and multi-racial organizations across 17+ states, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. CJSF moves approximately $6M in grant resources and strengthens the collaboration, capacity, and impact of our organizing network partners. Supported by a donor member table of approximately 17 private foundations and philanthropic donors, CJSF provides a combination of long-term multi-year grants, capacity building and technical assistance, convening, and liberatory education. Our partners’ education-specific work includes organizing around dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, ensuring police-free schools, investing in culturally affirming social-emotional learning and mental health supports, liberatory curricula and pedagogy, restorative and transformative justice, parent partnerships, meaningful youth engagement, participatory budgeting, and much more. Led by a woman of color and with a dedicated team of 6 staffers and various consultants, we work virtually across the country.

Our Development and Communications Director will be responsible for leading the fund’s development strategy, operations and necessary communication strategy to current and potential donors and the public. Through engaging foundation and individual donors, organizing philanthropy, and cultivating opportunities for learning and relationship building, the position will work closely with the Executive Director and programmatic staff to guarantee an annual operational and grantmaking budget of $8.5-10M annually, ensuring the grassroots organizing field has the resources it needs to advance intersectional education justice.

ABOUT NEW VENTURE FUND

CJSF is a project of New Venture Fund (NVF), a 501(c)(3) public charity that incubates new & innovative public-interest projects & grant-making programs. NVF is committed to attracting, developing, and retaining exceptional people, and to creating a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding and enables each of us to realize our potential. NVF’s work environment is safe and open to all employees and partners, respecting the full spectrum of race, color, religious creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, & all other classifications protected by law in the locality and/or state in which you work.

About the Role

The Development and Communications Director will be responsible for managing and implementing all fundraising and donor engagement activities including communication, cultivation, grantmaking, development planning and implementation. This position is both strategic and tactical, as it is responsible for developing, managing, and executing CJSF’s annual development plan and overseeing our donor-facing communications plan. The ideal candidate has a clear grasp of all core components of development, including individual and foundation contributions and stewardship, annual and online giving campaigns, foundation partnerships/funding, special events, and grant writing and reporting. This role requires advanced experience managing development operations, including CRM management, budget development, and gift processing.

This role will report to and work closely with the Executive Director (ED) in addition to partnering with other staff to promote an organizational culture of philanthropy and an impact-based storytelling effort about our fund, our partners, and the impact of our work.

The Development and Communications Director can expect the work to include:

Leadership and Development Strategy: (20%)

• Contribute positively to organizational culture and reflect CJSF’s values
• Manage and execute CJSF’s development and stewardship plans to achieve annual revenue goals
• Update existing development and stewardship plans with new ideas, industry best practices, and data-driven analysis
• Ensure a robust gift pipeline big enough to hit annual revenue goals by actively managing prospective and current donors, foundations and other funders solicited via proposals, grant applications, multiple appeals, and other fundraising activities
• Participate in strategic planning for CJSF to ensure development plans align with and are in service of evolving organizational goals
• Serve as the staff leader and liaison to the board of directors’ development efforts
• Other duties, as assigned

Fundraising and Donor Relations (20%)

• Research, design and lead the moves management plans for major individual and foundation donors
• Manage and develop existing initiatives, appeals, and campaigns focused on targeting new donors and stewarding existing donors
• Help develop creative and mission-focused fundraising messaging that effectively articulates the special role and impact of CJSF in the community
• Project manage the ED’s fundraising work, directing her where and how best to spend her time and efforts on a weekly, monthly, and quarterly basis

Foundation Funding & Consistent and Creative Donor Stewardship (30%)

• Manage the execution of CJSF’s donor stewardship plan
• Think creatively about the donor stewardship plan and update it annually with new and meaningful ways to connect donors and foster a sense of community
• Ensure CJSF has a robust pipeline of local, regional and national foundation grant opportunities to pursue
• Create and manage a grant and development calendar to track all upcoming applications and reports, collaborating with staff as needed
• Write grant applications and proposals that clearly and effectively draft dynamic, reader-friendly, and high-quality writing free of typos, jargon, and lackluster prose
• Assist ED and Advisory Board in building personal relationships with foundation, individual and corporate funders
• Work with the Executive Program Associate to track all grant work in RenXT, CJSF’s CRM to ensure all grant opportunities and tasks are current and well-detailed

Communications (20%)

• Work with the Executive Director, staff, and consultants to craft annual communications goals, products, plan, and calendar to support development goals
• Direct and approve all designs and written materials produced by Communications consultants, program staff, consultants and other collaborators

Managing Development Operations, Revenue Tracking, Project Management & Staff Supervision, and Fundraising Event Management (10%)

• Establish and monitor annual and long-term revenue goals and budgets with the support of the Executive Director and the Executive Program Associate
• Design and update a regular progress-to-goal report and development dashboard for the Executive Director
• Supervise the Executive Program Associate to input development-focused data and ensure accuracy in all records and development reports in RenXT, CJSF’s CRM
• Routinely update how-to documentation to codify and safeguard systems
• Work closely with the Executive Director, Communications and Evaluations consultants, Deputy Director, and Program Managers to ensure data integrity
• Pipeline management in RenXT to ensure that all grants have open opportunities that are properly staged and set to close according to the grant calendar and all steps to completing each grant application have been set as tasks and assigned
• Design and update a grants progress-to-goal report to keep the development dashboard current for all grant opportunities and to track annual budget
• Revenue tracking of installments of grant funds received in RenXT
• Manage full-time Communications and Evaluations consultants and partial time of the Executive Program Associate, including supervision, training and coaching
• Determine best combination of events to support program and organizational goals
• Work with staff to plan and execute events, leading all development and revenue components
• Create and execute pre- and post-event constituent communications plans

About You

To be maximally successful in this role, you need to be:

• A born project manager with a knack for working backwards from a deadline to create a plan
• Accustomed to working on multiple projects with different deadlines simultaneously
• A natural people person who appreciates that everyone has an important story to tell
• A dynamic, professional, and poised brand ambassador for CJSF
• A reliable and friendly communicator who reaches out and follows up
• A practiced public speaker who can think on your toes
• A stickler for details and quality
• A caretaker of sensitive information about donors, mentors, CJSF’s community,
• A strong self-motivator
• A creative thinker willing to test out new ideas
• A team player
• A results-driven manifester
• An easy-going, collaborative problem-solver
• A passionate and committed leader dedicated to the racial and social justice community organizing field

You need to have:

• A Bachelor’s degree and 6-8 years of nonprofit development experience
• Demonstrable experience as a fundraising generalist, with hands-on practice at institutional giving/grant writing, major gifts, annual giving, corporate partnership building, special events, direct mail, and online giving campaigns
• An excellent working knowledge of RenXT (or a comparable) for donor and revenue management
• Experience managing and improving development operations, ranging from CRM management to budget monitoring to gift processing
• Enthusiasm to propose fresh ideas without prompting by leadership, openness to feedback on those ideas, and a persistence to bring those ideas to life
• Proven track record raising $4M+ in foundation and individual donor dollars per year

About Compensation and Benefits

The salary range for this position is $120,000 – $160,000 yearly, commensurate with experience, plus a competitive benefits package that includes health coverage, retirement benefits, paid sick leave, vacation and holidays, professional development support and more. We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes 100% employer-paid health, dental, and vision insurance for employees (and their families). Employees are able to enroll in 401k retirement plan and are eligible for a 3% automatic contribution and up to a 3% employer match on 401k contributions. Employees are also eligible for pre-tax transportation benefits. Employees will receive up to 80 hours of health leave, up to 2 days of casual leave, and 20 hours of volunteer leave annually and be able to accrue up to 120 hours of vacation time per year. Employees will also receive 13 paid holidays throughout the calendar year. Employees are eligible for 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave after 90 days of employment.

To Apply:

Interested applicants should submit a (1) resume, (2) cover letter and (3-4) a writing sample representative of development and another of communications work, and 2 references including name, title, organization, email, and short description of past work relationship to info@cjsfund.org with “Director of Development and Communications” in the subject line. The deadline to apply is June 22, 2026, 5pm EST.

E-Verify:

NVF participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with employees’ Form I-9 information to confirm authorization to work in the United States. Job candidates and employees authorized to work may not be discriminated against on the basis of national origin or citizenship status.