Company Name
Ploughshares Fund
Company City
San Francisco
Company State
CA
Job Location
San Francisco or Washington, DC
Company Information
Ploughshares Fund is a global security foundation that seeks to reduce nuclear threats and ultimately eliminate nuclear weapons. We believe everyone has the right to a safe and secure future. In order to fundamentally transform nuclear policy, we seek to strengthen the nuclear field with new voices and diverse perspectives; motivate the public and build power with allies; stimulate new approaches and challenge status quo thinking; and catalyze inclusion within the nuclear field and our organization through Equity Rises.
Equity Rises aims to increase equity and justice in nuclear policies and institutions by empowering diverse voices, cultivating inclusive spaces (across identity, sector, and geography), and collaborating with new partners both inside and outside the nuclear field.
Ploughshares Fund is a public foundation that relies on the generous support of individuals, families and foundations.
Job Description
The Foundation Relations Officer reports directly to the Director of Development and plays a critical role on the development team. They are responsible for managing and growing a foundation portfolio of between 15-20 foundations, corporations and select individual donors. In addition, they provide support to the development team and executive leadership regarding certain stewardship activities and donor communications. This position is primarily implementation with some strategy/visioning.
In this job you will:
• Manage a portfolio of institutional/foundation donors, including researching, writing, and submitting all grant proposals and reports. Foundation support accounts for an estimated 30-50% of annual giving from a portfolio of about 15 foundations.
• Research and identify prospective foundations and new funding opportunities, with a specific eye toward engaging foundations that focus on issues that intersect or are adjacent to nuclear policy.
• With the support of the Finance Team, develop financial reports for institutional grant reporting, detailing expenditures made during grant cycles with grant funds.
• Manage a grant and proposal calendar, meeting all submission and reporting deadlines.
• Track all communications with foundation officers and proposal activity in the fundraising database and other tracking documents as needed.
• Write proposals for corporations and individual donors as needed.
• Contribute to the Development Team’s overall success with new ideas and strategies to raise annual contributed income of approximately $5-6 million across all donation platforms and categories.
• Regularly keep abreast of developments related to nuclear policy and geopolitical nuclear hotspots. In particular, track the work/results of our grantees and partners in order to inform grant reports and proposals.
• Work with Ploughshares Fund program and policy teams to gather information and supporting materials, including drawing out stories that communicate the effectiveness of our work and exemplify success, for use in grant proposals, reports, and individual donor communications.
• Support other writing projects as needed, including donor publications, direct mail solicitations, solicitation emails, and other fundraising/donor communication materials.
Job Qualifications
To do this job, you will need to have the following skills. We understand that candidates may not initially have all of these skills, but we ask that you have most of them when you apply.
• Communicate through writing, as well as speaking or signing, in a way that is clear, concise, compelling and accurate, as well as tonally appropriate for and easily understood by internal and external audiences.
• Manage complex projects that require collaboration, delegation of tasks to multiple parties, understanding and organizing complicated information from multiple sources, and paying close attention to timelines and budgets.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint), internet research, and Raiser’s Edge or other comparable donor software.
• Collaborate across departments to aquire the information, stories and examples needed for proposals and reports.
• Work independently as well as part of a team, be proactive and take direction.
• Adapt to changing circumstances, including emergent events and new information.
• Expand your knowledge about current events, the nuclear field and the field of philanthropy.
We require all of our staff to have the following skills, drawn from our organizational values of cooperation, adaptability, understanding and our commitment to Equity Rises:
• Generate new ideas with other staff members by cultivating curiosity.
• Build trust by forgiving others’ mistakes and taking responsibility for their own.
• Communicate needs around tasks, priorities and deadlines clearly to colleagues.
• Adjust their workflow (pace, topic, relationships) to respond to immediate challenges.
• Learn from and respond to others through active listening.
• Ensure their own work derives from the organization’s mission and goals (for example, in strategies and workplans).
• Reflect on and address power (personal and organizational) when communicating and making decisions.
• Help set and achieve departmental and organizational DEIA goals.
For this position we require that you have the following experience:
• 3 or more years of relevant or transferable work experience, specifically writing grant proposals and reports, writing other key donor communications or academic writing.
• 1 or more years managing people or a process.
Physical requirements:
• Ability to work at a computer for the majority of the day.
• Some travel is required.
• May be required to work weekends and nights.
Compensation and Benefits
FLSA Designation: Exempt
This is a full-time position, based in either San Francisco, CA or Washington, DC. Ploughshares Fund allows for some remote work flexibility regarding both location and scheduling. For example, in person meetings may be required for collaboration and onboarding, with remote flexibility allowed for independent project work.
This is an Officer/Manager level position which has a set salary range between $61,600 and $92,400. The maximum starting salary will be the midpoint, $77,000, and depend on your skills as stated above. Ploughshares Fund offers a full range of benefits including health, dental and vision insurance, a retirement matching plan, paid sick leave and paid vacation time. Ploughshares Fund is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
How to Apply
Please submit your application here along with a resume, a cover letter that highlights how you meet the required skills and experience noted above, and a writing sample. Applications are due by January 31, 2023. Please do not contact us by phone. To learn more about Ploughshares Fund, please visit ploughshares.org.