Department: Development
Supervisor: Development Director
Classification: Full-Time Exempt
Supervisory Position: No

This position is covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

Position Overview:
The Development Officer at the ACLU of Kentucky supports our growing Development program. The position reports to our Development Director.

The ACLU of Kentucky’s Development program has ambitious fundraising goals that make it possible for us to execute critical programmatic work in our key priority areas: reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, immigrants’ rights, criminal justice reform, open government, digital privacy, and free speech.

Our ideal Development Officer is inspired by the work of the ACLU and sees an opportunity to work with our team, donors, and potential supporters to reach ambitious fundraising goals.

The successful applicant will understand how to communicate inspiring messages, gather & track data, determine donor priorities, and unlock potential gift strategies to ensure that donors are able to fulfill their personal giving goals.

Primary Responsibilities/Essential Duties:

• Manage and grow a portfolio of mid-level donors
• Manage a portfolio of approximately 100 – 125 mid-level donors and prospects, securing $450,000 in annual gifts. Meet, on average, with 8-10 donors monthly, including donors in areas outside of Louisville, Lexington, and Northern Kentucky.
• Partner and solicit donors through annual gifts, special campaigns, and sponsorships in order to both achieve the organization’s revenue benchmarks and reach each donor’s highest gift potential.
• Identify and qualify potential supporters and unassigned prospects, creating a comprehensive strategy for each donor and prospect in the portfolio, and execute those strategies in ways that respected, retained, and inspired to increase their support.
• Travel to areas around the state to build and strengthen relationships with donors on a one-to-one level through consistent communication.
• Assist in annual development campaigns, mailings, and online giving challenges as directed by the Development Director.
• Attend community events to cultivate existing donors and expand prospects
• Utilize and be familiar with the donor database and other digital development systems.
• Attend National ACLU Development training and webinars to stay current on donor best practices and strategies.
• Collaborate with the National ACLU and regional affiliate partners to achieve individual and affiliate goals as defined in individual performance management and development strategic planning.
• Maintain donor database hygiene by entering accurate donor information in a timely manner, including tracking all donor interactions
• Maintain, to the highest standard, donor confidentiality and strictly comply with National ACLU Donor Confidentiality Policies and Procedures.
  Support the Development Program
• Collaborate with members of the Development team to create an annual plan that is aligned with the values of the organization, the strategic plan, and the equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging goals of the department.
• Collaborate with staff across departments to enrich Development program efforts and goals.
  Assist with Development Communications
• Maintain a working knowledge of the ACLU’s state and national programmatic priorities and issues as they occur – and effectively incorporate this information into targeted written materials for individual donors, talking points for one-on-one donor interactions, and donor reports/updates in a variety of formats.
• Assist the Communication and Development Departments in the creation of donor and prospect materials as needed.
• Draft a variety of donor/prospect communications as needed.
• Assist with the preparation of the Development program’s electronic communications as needed.
  Event Support
• Support and help execute donor engagement opportunities and other special events as needed.
  Other duties as assigned.

Competencies

Knowledge/Skill: Able to retain detailed instructions and ensure that they are carried out accurately in every instance.

Critical Thinking: Able to resolve all routine problems within one’s project. Contributes to the analysis and planning in one’s program.

Decision Making: Execute goals/tasks and manage discrete projects as assigned; may exercise some level of discretion.

Qualifications
Success in this role requires strong organizational skills, the ability to prioritize, a mastery of database use and maintenance, clear and effective verbal and written communications, discretion, and a strong belief in the ACLU of Kentucky’s work and mission. It requires flexibility with the work schedules and occasionally will require travel, evening, and weekend work.

While no one person will have all the qualities enumerated below, the successful candidate will bring many of the following qualifications and attributes:

• Superior skills in relationship building and a high level of comfort with asking individuals to commit their resources to support the ACLU. This experience may come from a fundraising background or through other experience that demonstrates tenacity, creativity, follow-through, and strong person-to-person skills.
• Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills. A demonstrated ability to simplify complex themes and activities into short, compelling presentations or written pieces.
• Strong people skills. An ability to communicate effectively and respectfully with donors, prospects, Board members, volunteers, colleagues, and the public by phone/email/text and in person.
• Familiarity with talking about utilizing public policy advocacy and litigation to promote social justice is helpful.
• Experience with direct donor engagement, solicitation, donor life-cycle management, and event or project management preferred.
• Experience with donor database management and systems to track campaigns preferred to ensure that sensitive information be kept private and secure.
• Ability to work independently and to exercise good judgment in stressful circumstances.
• Flexibility and a willingness to take on new tasks as the responsibilities of the position evolve.
• Must be available for travel across the state, as well as limited out-of-state travel.
• Ability to work beyond the traditional workday and work week as needed.

Compensation
The annual salary for this position will be $62,000.

We understand how vital our work is and, at the same time, understand the toll engaged activism can take. Our goal is to retain staff, and we believe that having a robust benefit offering is vital in meeting that goal. Our benefits include paid vacation in addition to 20 office holidays, a monthly All-Staff Day of Rest, and four floating holidays scheduled at the employee’s discretion; paid sick leave, fully employer-paid medical, vision, and dental insurance for staff members, life and long-term disability insurance; 401(k) plan with employer match; and FSA Healthcare savings plan options.

How to apply:
To apply, please send the following to [email protected] (All attachments should be in .doc or .pdf format):

Letter of interest/cover letter answering the following questions:

Why do you want to engage in this work through the ACLU of Kentucky?

What in your background makes you uniquely qualified to expand ACLU of Kentucky’s network of donors across the state?

What is a fundraising success story you want to highlight?

CV/Resume

Three professional references (relationship, email address, and phone numbers)

Accommodations
The ACLU of Kentucky is an equal-opportunity employer. We value a diverse workforce and an inclusive culture. ACLU-KY encourages applications from all qualified individuals without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship, disability, veteran status, and record of arrest or conviction.

We encourage applicants with disabilities who may need accommodations in the application process to contact: T Gonzales, Deputy Director, [email protected].