Senior Director Development & External Affairs

Key Responsibilities

Organizational Leadership

• Serve as a key member of the leadership team, contributing to high-level decision-making and strategic planning across the organization.
• Partner with the Executive Team and the rest of the leadership team to align development and communications strategies with organizational priorities.
• Represent G4GC in key external forums, including funder meetings, speaking engagements, and philanthropic networks.
• Support board and advisory council engagement related to development and external affairs.

Team Management

• Lead, mentor, and support a growing team including a Development Manager, Communications Manager, Digital Strategist Coordinator, and Development Associate.
• Foster strong collaboration between development and communications strategies to reduce silos, maximize resources, and ensure donor engagement and grantee amplification are mutually reinforcing.
• Inspire a team culture grounded in collaboration, care, and accountability.
• Develop and monitor departmental goals, work plans, and performance metrics.

Fund Development Strategy

• Design and implement a multi-year, diversified fundraising strategy that meets or exceeds G4GC’s $10M+ annual revenue goal.
• Lead and innovate across institutional giving, major gifts, individual donor engagement, and philanthropic partnerships, ensuring all approaches reflect G4GC’s mission, values, and trust-based philanthropic principles.
• Cultivate and steward a portfolio of funders, personally engaging with high-level prospects and partners to secure transformational investments.
• Serve as the ultimate owner of all funder proposal writing, reporting, and related deliverables—ensuring high-quality, timely submissions that meet funder requirements and reflect G4GC’s voice and values.
• Partner with the Executive Team and board to leverage their networks and visibility to advance revenue goals.
• Strengthen systems, processes, and data management—overseeing Salesforce and other CRM tools—to ensure accurate tracking, pipeline management, reporting, and donor communications.
• Integrate donor engagement across all touchpoints, while also ensuring communications about grantees and partners are consistently woven into fundraising narratives. Every interaction, whether donor-facing or public, should reflect G4GC’s impact and elevate the leadership, stories, and work of grantee partners.

Communications Strategy & Leadership

• Provide strategic oversight for an integrated communications approach that advances fundraising priorities and amplifies grantee voices, stories, and leadership.
• Lead the development of an annual communications strategy in deep collaboration with the communications  and programmatic staff, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities, fundraising goals, and movement-building objectives.
• Ensure all messaging—whether donor-focused or public-facing—reflects G4GC’s mission, values, and impact with clarity, authenticity, and consistency.
• Partner with the communications and development staff to ensure the creation of compelling materials—such as proposals, reports, campaign collateral, presentations, and digital storytelling pieces—that both inspire investment and elevate grantee visibility.
• Support the communications staff in guiding media relations, building the public profile of G4GC leadership, and creating opportunities for grantee and youth leader visibility in philanthropic and public spaces.
• Provide leadership-level guidance to ensure branding, digital platforms, events, and campaigns are cohesive and impactful, while empowering communications staff to lead execution.

Ideal Candidate

The ideal candidate is a visionary, equity-driven leader with a proven track record in both fundraising and communications at the senior level—ideally within philanthropic, nonprofit, or intermediary organizations. This leader is energized by the opportunity to steward a growing team and build a revenue strategy grounded in justice, equity, and care. They are a strategist and relationship-builder who can design bold, multi-channel revenue strategies while ensuring that messaging and storytelling both inspire giving and elevate the voices, leadership, and work of grantee partners. They bring fluency in donor engagement, communications best practices, and narrative change strategies, and can translate complex ideas into compelling content for diverse audiences. Drawing on direct experience with, or a deep understanding of, the communities G4GC serves and the broader movement to advance racial and gender justice, they approach this work with authenticity, cultural competency, and a commitment to amplifying the voices of those most impacted.

This leader is an exceptional manager who fosters collaboration, bridges teams, and invests in staff growth. They navigate seamlessly between big-picture vision and operational execution, leveraging data and systems to drive results. They demonstrate the humility and curiosity to learn from experts, grantees, and partners to deepen their understanding of the issue areas G4GC addresses, and to adopt the most authentic voices, narratives, and strategies for impact. Deeply aligned with G4GC’s mission and values, they are skilled at cultivating trust, representing the organization in high-profile spaces, and championing an inclusive, youth-centered, intersectional approach to philanthropy—where donor engagement and grantee amplification are held as equally essential to success.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible experience in development or philanthropic engagement, with at least 3 years in a senior leadership role.
• Deep alignment with G4GC’s mission and values; background in racial, gender, or youth justice strongly preferred. Knowledge of and/or experience working with G4GC’s grantee communities or broader efforts to advance racial and gender justice is a plus.
• Demonstrated ability to oversee both development and communications functions, with a track record of building and implementing systems and infrastructure that advance fundraising and elevate organizational visibility.
• Proven success in designing and executing multi-channel fundraising strategies and guiding organization-wide communications strategies that inspire giving, amplify grantee voices, and strengthen brand presence.
• Strong communication and storytelling skills, with experience translating complex ideas into compelling content for donors, partners, and public audiences.
• Experience managing, coaching, and developing inclusive, equity-centered teams.
• Strategic and adaptive leadership style with the ability to navigate complexity, competing priorities, and organizational change.
• Proficiency in donor management systems (e.g., Salesforce, Airtable) and comfort with using data to inform strategy.
• Willingness and ability to travel occasionally for team retreats, meetings, conferences, and events.