Director of Development

Reclaiming the California Dream….

California Calls is looking for a Director of Development—a values-aligned leader who is energized by our work of building a movement to reclaim the California Dream of equality, opportunity, and prosperity for all Californians. In this role, you will mobilize resources to support the work of California Calls and our alliance, be a member of the senior management team and a thought partner to the CEO, and represent the organization across the movement ecosystem. You will manage a team of two staff members, and work collaboratively across the organization to model a workplace culture that fosters: rigorous practice, mutual accountability, creativity, and boldness.

To learn more about our work and other opportunities to join the team, visit our website.

About California Calls

California Calls (501c3) and its sister organization California Calls Action Fund (501c4) is a powerful alliance of 27 local community-based organizations spanning urban, rural, and suburban counties across the state. We engage, educate, and motivate new and infrequent voters, including young people, communities of color, and poor and working-class communities to ensure that the electorate represents all of California. Through our bottom-up approach, we organize people most impacted by decades of disinvestment, deteriorating public services, mass incarceration, and growing inequality in support of systemic policy solutions. Working together and building the power of communities who are often left out of policy decisions, we believe we can reclaim the California Dream for all Californians.

Founded in 2009, we have an annual budget of $11M and a talented team of 27 staff members. With our headquarters in Los Angeles, remote staff across California, and partner organizations anchored in 14 counties, we advance state-based structural battles that strengthen democracy, fully-fund schools, affordable housing and local services, and expand racial, gender, and economic justice. Knowing no one organization alone can win the bold policies needed to address California’s biggest issues, we strengthen the capacity and build collaborations with organizations across the for a strong movement capable of winning structural change.

In this moment of peril and possibility, we are holding the urgency of now while also creating space to dream expansively about the future. We are growing our power toward a broad-based multiracial movement of Californians united behind our shared values of authentic democracy, racial solidarity, corporate accountability, and interdependence.

Current signature initiatives include:

Million Voters Project is an unprecedented multi-racial, multigenerational alliance of 103 community-based organizations that comprise nine community-driven state and regional networks, reaching out to millions of voters across the state. Since 2015, we have collectively built a base of nearly 2.1 million supportive voters and infrastructure designed to win statewide and regional races. We are activating the rising California majority by organizing Black, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), Latino, and young voters and employing voter outreach programs with cultural competency and in multiple languages.

We Are California catalyzes a powerful mass base–a multiracial, multigenerational, multi-issue movement–that will carry forward a decade-long fight for true representative

governing power in California. Through strategic collaboration with multiple organizations, we are opening avenues for hundreds of thousands of people to unite across differences and create a shared future where all communities can thrive. Together, we will build the California we are dreaming of: a home where everyone belongs.

Schools and Communities First is a foundational campaign for California Calls and represents the kind of tough fight we are uniquely situated to pursue as a tenacious organization with a bold vision for what is possible with a broad coalition and community power. This decades-long fight to close a corporate tax loophole passed in 1978 (Prop 13) and bring billions of dollars back to our California school system and local services represents an unparalleled opportunity to create systems change for our state at such a massive scale that it would create shared prosperity for generations to come.

Together, we are reclaiming the California Dream. Join us!

Position Overview

The Development Director will serve as a critical thought partner to California Calls’ CEO and work collaboratively across the organization, bringing their strategic mindset and knowledge of resource mobilization in service of our mission. They will guide and shape this new role.

This is an ideal opportunity for a development leader who is looking to work with a values-aligned organization with a strong foundation; California Calls is led by a CEO who is a skilled fundraiser, has a highly-productive team that known for the quality and impact of their work, and is a financially-sound organization with long-term, positive relationships with funders and other partners in the field.

California Calls has longstanding trust-based relationships with colleagues across the philanthropy ecosystem who serve both as thought partners and as funders; we receive the majority of our support from foundation partners (much of this funding is via multi-year grants.)

The Director of Development will work in close partnership with our CEO to develop and successfully execute a comprehensive fundraising strategy to sustainably maintain the revenue goals of more than $11 million annually. In addition to seeking direct funding for our own programs, part of California Calls foundational work is a regranting program that provides critical support for organizations in the alliance–of the $11M we raise annually, 30% is regranted to grassroots organizations that do powerful organizing with the most impacted communities across our state.

The Director of Development will report to the CEO and will be a member of the senior management team. They will manage a team that includes a full-time Development Manager who oversees our development operations, and a part-time Grant Writer.

For the Director of Development, responsibilities include:

• Serves as a strategic thought partner with leadership to pursue fundraising initiatives that reflect our values and strategic priorities and develops, manages, and regularly reports progress against the fundraising plan.
• Leads the day-to-day management of all fundraising activities, including prospect research, cultivation, and stewardship across a portfolio that includes institutional and individual giving.
• Provides supervision for development team staff, building frameworks for team success and reflecting a workplace culture that fosters: rigorous practice, mutual accountability, creativity, and boldness.
• Guides staff with aligning their work plans and activities with broader organizational priorities, supporting staff with evaluation of tactics and related metrics.
• Seeks out and participates in external events and networking opportunities and works closely with the CEO to develop initiatives that position the organization and leverage movement spaces.
• Works with the CEO to support her communication and reporting with the Board, ensuring that members are receiving timely information and are aware of opportunities for engagement.
• Supports the CEO in her public presentations, helping her to strategically prepare her remarks and represent the organization on her behalf as needed in funder briefings, presentations for supporters, conferences etc.
• Provides oversight for development operations, using existing tools (e.g. Raiser’s Edge) and directing the development for new approaches coordinating and reporting activity across the organization.
• Works collaboratively across the organization with other team leaders to ensure that development is integrated into and responsive to all functions, including:
  • With the Chief of Staff and program Directors to deepen understanding of programmatic strategy and issue areas to aid in the development of fundraising plans.
  • With the CFO, working closely with the finance team on revenue forecasting and tracking as well as grant budget management.
  • With the Director of Communications to support the development of communications strategy directed toward current and potential funders, working together to raise visibility of the alliance’s work.

Who You Are

• You have 6+ years of progressively responsible development experience in areas relevant to the work described here (e.g. institutional fundraising, individual giving, donor organizing, grant writing ) at a nonprofit organization, ideally at both 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) entities.
• You have a heartfelt connection to California and are energized by our mission.
• You have 2+ years of supervisory management experience, including the ability to develop team performance and build relationships that foster trust through direct feedback with compassion and clarity of purpose.
• You have a demonstrated commitment to social, racial, gender, and economic justice and an interest in mobilizing philanthropy as a tool for grassroots power building.
• You have experience with CRM databases and a willingness to learn new technologies in service of maintaining donor-related data with accuracy and appropriate discretion.
• You are highly-collaborative and have experience working with coalition-based organizations, and/or with other complex partnerships while building trusting relationships and alignment across different settings, communities, and issues with people of different backgrounds, perspectives, and cultures.
• You are a creative and flexible thinker with an orientation towards problem-solving; able to maintain a sense of hope and possibility that provides direction and inspiration for others, building momentum and moving initiatives forward despite ambiguity or obstacles.
• Strong facilitation, public speaking, and written communication skills, including writing LOIs, proposals, and contributing to and editing grant reports, annual reports, and experience with the use of communications as a tool to support advocacy work and/or campaigns and/or fundraising and/or public education and/or power building.

Bonus Qualifications We are open to drawing candidates from a wide range of professional backgrounds and aligned issue areas (e.g. housing justice, climate justice, economic justice, immigrant rights, education, worker power, LGBTQIA+ rights, reproductive justice, criminal justice reform etc.) Other not required, but welcomed experiences are: experience as a community organizer, experience with working in philanthropy (e.g. grantmaking, donor organizing, working with philanthropy serving organizations etc.) experience with regranting programs, and connection with the broader landscape of social justice organizations in California and across the nation.

Start Date, Location, Compensation & Benefits

This is a FTE remote position based in California. The Director of Development must reside in California and can expect in-state travel of 1-2 a month.

Our goal is to have the Director of Development begin their role during the second quarter of 2026.

The starting annual salary range for this FTE position is $115, 000-$130,000

Additionally, employees receive a benefit package, including the following items and more: 100% employer-paid health coverage for employees and their family; dental and vision insurance; life insurance; Flexible Spending Accounts for Health and Dependent Care; 401k Plan; and generous PTO (20 days vacation + 12 paid holidays.)

Application Instructions & Hiring Process

This position is open until filled, and applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

APPLY AT THIS LINK by uploading these items:

1. A resume
2. A cover letter produced without the use of AI that thoughtfully addresses your alignment with the role

Nonprofit talent agency People Power is the search partner for this hire. We appreciate your time and interest in contributing your talents to California Calls’ mission. Thank you! You will receive an email auto-reply to your application. We wish we could respond personally to all applicants, but only those chosen to interview will be contacted. Please do not contact California Calls directly to inquire about the status of your application.

Selected applicants will be invited to an initial 30-minute screening interview with People Power via phone. Those who continue in the process will have an opportunity to meet with executive leadership as well as the direct reports for this role over a series of three interviews that range from 30-60 minutes each.

We welcome your interest and feedback. If you meet the minimum requirements for this position and would like to make a *confidential* inquiry and/or have questions regarding this position, please email Kate B. People Power: kate@peoplepowerproject.org