Department/Program Summary:

Mission

In support of GMF’s mission, organizational strategies, and priorities - and in concert with programs across the organization - the development team leads, executes, and tracks all GMF’s external fundraising activities and revenue generation, stewards funding relationships, and meets international, national, and state accountability systems standards.

Vision

Instilling a culture of fundraising, business development and donor stewardship throughout the organization, the development team identifies, builds, and maintains donor relationships; ensures fundraising efforts fully align with GMF’s strategy; exemplifies cross-organizational collaboration; meets fundraising targets and achieves excellence.

As a development team, we will:

• Fully leverage all GMF networks to represent the organization positively and professionally in development and engagement efforts; recognize the nuances of transatlantic and allied policy issues and cultivate relevant relationships.

• Increase, diversify, and sustain GMF’s donor base that supports an organization-wide strategy for revenue generation and sustainability; employ performance measures; assess impact; and meet milestones to drive revenue growth.

• Work closely with hub and workstream leaders to develop strategies for engagement with new funders.

• Establish, operate, and monitor effective fundraising systems and ensure data integrity via donor database, donor reports, recognition, etc.

• Account for all financial information and develop external revenue projections.

• Achieve high standards of performance in project planning, use of systems, tools and resources, and a working environment conducive to teamwork, continuous learning, and innovation.

Job Summary:

The Managing Director, Development, leads GMF’s external fundraising efforts and is responsible for development and cultivation strategy, revenue generation, revenue accountability and stewardship of funding relationships. The Managing Director manages a transatlantic Development team based in our Washington headquarters, Berlin, and Brussels offices.

The Development team drives GMF’s external revenue effort in concert with programs and our eight country offices across the organization. The team executes state- of- the- art business development strategies to generate funding from government, multilateral, private sector, and foundation actors as well as individuals for GMF’s three core programming areas: GMF Democracy, GMF Geostrategy, and GMF Innovation, as well as support for our leadership and fellowship programs. The Managing Director works with all programs and offices on proposals, relationship management and reporting. The team also manages the internal financial processes that maintain funder database information.

The key focus of the position is external revenue generation in support of the GMF mission and organizational strategy. Central to the Managing Director role is instilling a culture of fundraising, accountability, and business development throughout the organization and ensuring that fundraising is aligned with GMF’s values and priorities.

The Managing Director is responsible for the leadership and day-to-day management of the Development team, including personnel management and professional development.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities:

Strategy

• Provide leadership, vision, and direction to increase, diversify, account for, and sustain GMF’s donor base.
• Develop an organization-wide strategy, based on GMF’s strategic priorities, for revenue generation and enhanced sustainability; continue the work to build the systems and processes to implement that strategy, define outcomes, activities, and responsibilities and monitor progress.
• Develop fundraising targets and revenue goals; identify areas of required investment, performance measures and milestones.
• Identify ways to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion best practices into GMF’s development workstream and portfolio.
• Identify, cultivate, solicit, secure and steward new funding sources.
• Monitor and advise on the evolving priorities of government, foundation, individual and corporate funders.
• Provide strategic input to support external and donor-centric communications across GMF.

Relationships

• Positively and professionally represent the organization in all engagement efforts; recognize the nuances of transatlantic policy issues and cultivate relevant relationships.
• Identify opportunities to diversify GMF’s funding partners.
• Develop and steward relationships with funding partners.
• Leverage the networks of the president, Executive Team, program and office directors and Board of Trustees to engage with prospective funders.

Collaboration

• Work closely with the leaders of GMF’s core lines of effort to collect information on new and existing projects for proposals and reports and to develop strategies for positioning requests to new funders; cooperate closely with program leaders to determine appropriate outcome measures for new proposals.
• Support program teams on grant applications and reporting as part of GMF’s Lifecycle of a Grant initiative.
• Collaborate with GMF’s Sr Manager for DEI to embed diversity, equity, and inclusion into proposals and grant reports
• Work closely with Finance and Accounting team to ensure monitoring and accurate accounting of all financial information and to develop external revenue projections.
• Work closely with Associate Director of Monitoring and Evaluation to incorporate MEL best practices into the development workstream
• Raise awareness within GMF of the fundraising process: needs, constraints, and fundamental principles of the fundraising activity; clearly communicate fundraising goals and the strategies to achieve them; mobilize internal partners for effective fundraising actions.

Execution

• Work with GMF leaders of policy, leadership, DEI, M&E, and civil society programs to fashion compelling narratives, proposals, and reports.
• Oversee the effective operation of all fundraising systems – donor database, donor reports and recognition.
• Apply data analytics and work effectively with GMF’s databases to assess and drive revenue growth.
• Build the GMF staff’s capacity for grant writing, reporting , allocation, and compliance.
• Maintain current knowledge of fundraising, partnership and industry issues and trends.

Management

• Manage teams: Lead the development team to success by ensuring high standards of performance, strong project planning and management skills, effective use of systems, tools, and resources, and fostering a psychologically safe working environment conducive to teamwork, continuous learning, and innovation.

Motivate and inspire staff to proactively contribute to strategic objectives; encourage dialogue and collaboration across U.S.- and Europe-based team members.

Knowledge and Skills Needed:

• At least 10+ years of leadership and management experience, preferably in public policy or other relevant organizations, including demonstrated ability to motivate, lead, set objectives and manage a high-performance team.
• Demonstrated ability to increase external revenue and to identify and secure institutional and project funds.
• Experience and demonstrated ability to engage independently with major individual and corporate donors and to secure revenue from these sources. Strong knowledge of non-profit fundraising within an international, policy-oriented organization
• Advanced people skills (written and oral) – ability to communicate clearly, concisely, and engagingly with team members, trustees, and external audiences.
• Experience in results management, monitoring, and the use of data to “tell the story.”
• Proven ability and desire to co-create with a variety of partners and stakeholders, identifying and building on convergent interests.
• Ability to leverage an international network of personal contacts in the fundraising arena and to work in an international and multicultural environment.
• Success in coaching executive level staff to achieve fundraising success.
• Superior project management skills , including planning, analysis and decision making.
• Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion principles and practices as a manager and GMF employee.
• Demonstrated understanding of embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into development practices.
• Strong base of knowledge of current trends in charitable giving, including major gifts and planned giving, knowledge of current trends in communications.
• Adept at putting creative ideas forward; taking initiative and solving problems with creative approaches.
• Dynamic, self-motivated and focused with proactive approach
• Willingness to travel internationally.

Education:

• Graduate degree preferred.

Salary range:

$164,861 - $175,000

We highly encourage individuals from underrepresented backgrounds to apply. Historically, underrepresented groups include (but are not limited to) Black, Latinx/o/a/e, Indigenous, Asian, Arab, Middle Eastern, Pacific Islander, biracial, multiracial, female-identifying, the disability community, LGBTQIA+, and other marginalized identities.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At GMF we are dedicated to building a diverse and authentic workplace, so if you are excited about this role, but your experience does not align perfectly, we encourage you to apply. You may just be the right candidate for this or other roles at GMF.

GMF is an Equal Opportunity Employer.