Sr. Director, Fund Development

Why Join Mandela Partners

This is a senior leadership role where fundraising directly sustains community impact. You'll set the strategy that funds our mission, serve on the Executive Leadership Team as a true partner to the Executive Director, and build a development function with the opportunity to hire your own coordinator, at an organization where philanthropy is relationship-centered, community-accountable, and equity-driven.

We back that work with real benefits and balance: a full week off in June for Juneteenth and another at year-end, a professional development stipend, a weekly paid team lunch on Thursdays, health insurance and retirement, accrued sick, vacation, and holiday pay, access to wholesale produce at cost, and a 50% discount on weekly produce boxes. The pay range is $130,000–$135,000, aligned with our compensation philosophy and nonprofit market practices.

About the Role

Mandela Partners works in partnership with local residents, family farmers, and community-based businesses to improve health, create wealth, and build assets through food enterprises in disinvested communities. Our systems model supports local economic investment, entrepreneurship, food sovereignty, and health equity — building on local assets to cultivate thriving communities.

The Senior Fund Development Director leads a fundraising strategy that builds community-grounded and institutional revenue to grow our $3.2MM annual budget. Reporting to the Executive Director and serving on the Executive Leadership Team, this hands-on, community-embedded fundraising leader partners with staff, board, donors, and community supporters to ensure our fundraising reflects our mission and values. This position is a hybrid role located in Oakland, offering a flexible work schedule.

What the First Year Looks Like

Within your first 90 days, you will assess our fundraising portfolio and recommend a strategic direction based on experience across multiple revenue streams. You will lead grant renewals, substantially expand individual giving, and engage the board in a more structured fundraising role. This position requires established expertise in all these areas and the ability to apply it in a new community context.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead annual fundraising strategy across foundations, government, corporate, nonprofit, and individual giving
• Partner with the Executive Director and Finance Director on goal setting, revenue forecasting, and reserves
• Collaborate with the Board of Directors to strengthen fundraising engagement and donor stewardship
• Manage and support a small development and engagement team, fostering growth and accountability
• Steward major funder and donor relationships across the Bay Area and California
• Lead grant prospecting, proposals, and reporting
• Strengthen individual giving programs and donor relationships at all levels
• Partner with the Storytelling and Community Engagement Manager to align fundraising with organizational storytelling
• Ensure effective use of Salesforce CRM and fundraising data
  

Preferred Experience and Qualifications

We recognize that fundraising experience takes many forms — community organizing, mutual aid coordination, resource mobilization in faith communities, and informal network-building all develop transferable skills. We encourage candidates whose experience reflects community-based pathways to apply.

• 5–10+ years of fundraising experience, bringing a diversified fundraising portfolio: direct, hands-on ownership of multiple revenue streams
• Has designed and executed fundraising strategies from inception, including building cases for support, setting revenue targets, and holding accountability for results
• Strong relationship-building and communication skills: has independently cultivated, solicited, and stewarded donors and funders at the five- and six-figure level 
• Experience managing and mentoring people with varied lived and professional experiences
• Familiarity with CRM systems and fundraising operations
• Lived and/or professional experience working alongside communities impacted by systemic disinvestment strongly valued
• Demonstrated commitment to the mission and values of Mandela Partners. 
• Centers the leadership, knowledge, and self-determination of limited-resource communities in all our work. 
• Commitment to honest, equity-grounded communication and ongoing reflection, community accountability, and collective learning. 
• Comfort with navigating disagreement or conflict with care and diplomacy.