Senior Business Development Director at One Acre Fund

Job Description

One Acre Fund is looking for an exceptional individual to join our Business Development team. One Acre Fund aspires to one day be the world’s largest and most impactful nonprofit organization. To a large extent, the growth of One Acre Fund in the next ten years will hinge on this person’s ability to mobilize resources for the team to utilize in service to rural farmers. You will lead our relationship manager team, breaking new ground in identifying scalable funding sources that will drive One Acre Fund to put more food on the table for over 1 million farm families by 2020.

Responsibilities

The main position roles and responsibilities are across three main categories, including

The Senior Business Development Director role will independently develop a pipeline of new grant funding using their own networks while providing critical people development and strategic leadership support to the broader Business Development team.

• 70%+ of time spent on origination and growing a new donor portfolio.
• Attract new donors and close major gifts, preferably in the areas of individual and institutional giving. This will require networking and prospecting amongst some of the most thoughtful and forward-looking funders in the international development arena to grow One Acre Fund’s funding beyond $50M in 2018.
• Develop funding partnerships. Increasingly, many of our funding arrangements are strategic partnerships crafted around objectives that align with One Acre Fund’s long-term strategy. This role will help craft the strategy around these funding agreements, particularly with institutional donors. For example, our grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation aims to create a long-term platform for agricultural research and innovations that can scale to impact hundreds of thousands of smallholder farm families.
• Be a spokesperson for our farmers. One Acre Fund is increasingly contributing to global discussions around agricultural development, and this role will serve as a spokesperson for the organization, attending and presenting at events like the Sankalp Forum and SoCap.
• 20% of time spent on coaching and mentoring our Relationship Manager team.
• The Senior Director will be responsible for mentoring and developing professionals under her/his management. We have a small but growing, action-oriented team of relationship managers, who work alongside our writing, finance, and compliance teams. We would foresee this role taking over management of 2-3 Relationship
• Managers initially, and growing their management scope over time.
• We are looking for a humble leader who can help grow this business development team as we steward more funds from existing donors and access new donor segments.
• 10% of time spent on building a best-in-class team culture, thought leadership, and/or systems.
• As a member of our leadership team, there is an expectation this person contributes to our growth. These activities could include:
• Contribute strategically to our fundraising direction; for instance, analyzing the potential and steering the direction of new geographic and funding type sources.
• Build and/or coordinate people functions to help us recruit, develop and retain top talent.
• Strengthen team culture, diversity, and inclusion to make One Acre Fund the best place to work, especially as we scale.
• Drive innovation across team functions and systems such as strategic planning, professional development, financial forecasting, and communications.

Career Growth and Development

One Acre Fund invests in building management and leadership skills. Your manager, the Business Development Team Lead, and a global support team will commit significant time in your career development. We provide constant, actionable feedback delivered through mentorship and through regular management consulting-style career reviews. We also have regular one-on-one meetings, where we listen to and discuss career goals, and work collaboratively to craft roles that each person can be passionate about. Because of our rapid growth, we constantly have new high-level roles opening up and opportunities in many functions.

Qualifications

We are seeking an exceptional professional with 12+ years of work experience, a proven passion for fundraising, and a demonstrated commitment to international development. Candidates who fit the following criteria are strongly encouraged to apply:

• Proven fundraising experience, originating donor relationships and closing gifts, is required. In your cover letter please describe the major donors you have worked with and your role in building those relationships
• Speaks the language of business. Our donors are looking for someone with business fluency (communicates in financial sustainability, return on investment, impact per donor dollar, etc.). We are seeking someone with excellent external communication skills, and who speaks the language of business.
• Strong interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. The candidate should be a highly organized team player, ready to work with our writing, finance, and compliance teams to manage new and existing donors.
• Demonstrated people development experience. Ideally has managed a team of 3 or larger.
• Strong existing networks in the philanthropic community to leverage past relationships to develop a strong pipeline of new donors and partnerships.
• Demonstrated understanding of and experience in international development or the social sector more broadly.
• Strongly align on values. We put a high premium on values. We want someone who has a true service orientation and humility – someone that puts our farmers before themselves.
• Willingness to travel.
• Language: English required.

Preferred Start Date

As soon as possible.

Location

Any major global city, preference for New York, Nairobi, or Kigali.

Duration

Minimum 2.5-year commitment, full-time job.

Compensation

Commensurate with experience, and dependant on location.

Benefits

Health insurance in our group plan, 401k contributions, education savings contributions, flexible work environment, strong maternity/paternity benefits, sabbatical policy, and others.

Sponsor International Candidates

Yes, but for Kigali location only.

East Africans strongly encouraged to apply.