Director of Development, Education Nonprofit

Our Mission: Project Invent empowers students with 21st-century skills to succeed individually and impact globally, through invention.

Our Vision: A generation of fearless problem solvers.

Project Invent (projectinvent.org) is a national nonprofit empowering high school students across the country to invent technologies for social impact. We train teachers in design thinking, engineering, and entrepreneurship to lead students through identifying real problems in their communities and inventing impactful solutions. At the end of the year, students pitch their inventions to investors and tech leaders at our Demo Day events. Since 2018, we've grown from one school to 50 schools across the country. 

Our Director of Development will be the first dedicated hire as we start our development department. As a $500,000 organization in its third year of operation, Project Invent is growing quickly in its impact and size as an organization. The ideal Director of Development will have experience working with and telling the story of innovative education organizations. Experience with soliciting major gifts from corporate, foundation, and individual sources is essential.

Project Invent is a high growth, young startup. The person serving in this position needs to be excited to join a fast-paced, dynamic work environment. This means being open to fluidity, flexible to changes, and passionate about building an organization from the ground-up.

We are a remote-friendly team, and are happy to accept candidates from anywhere in the U.S., although for our Director of Development position, we prefer candidates located in the San Francisco Bay Area. This is a full-time, salaried position for a candidate excited about building the development department of a young nonprofit!

What we're looking for…

Committed to our mission of empowering students with 21st-century skills, through invention. 3+ years of development (or sales) experience, including solicitation of major gifts and proven track record of achieving fundraising goals and initiatives Persuasive, charismatic, and enthusiastic communicator. Good with interpreting data and planning new development strategies. Able to effectively bring donors (and program officers) through the whole donor cycle – identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. Knows how to prioritize promising development leads.  Knowledge of the Bay Area and STEM education funder landscape is a plus. Experience with a CRM like Salesforce is a plus. Analytical and data-driven decision making skills is a plus.

Roles & Responsibilities…

Create and implement a comprehensive fund development plan Create and maintain strong relationships with 50+ prospects and current major donors through cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. Manage and launch new programs to help identify and cultivate new donors (i.e. annual gala, corporate engagement programs, etc.). Work closely with the Executive Director and Board of Directors to achieve fundraising goals and develop an effective, long-term development strategy. Generate data and reports of development performance on a regular basis to share with the Executive Director and Board of Directors. Manage and update our donor relationship management system (Bloomerang, Salesforce) Build, grow, and lead a development team from the ground up.

Origin Story:

Project Invent was started in 2018 by Connie Liu, an MIT mechanical engineer turned high school teacher turned entrepreneur. You can learn more about that story here.

Helpful Links:

Want to get a better feel of what we do and why we do it? Check out these links:

Program Experience (video) Team Experience (video) Fellow Experience (video) Demo Day Experience (video) 2020 End-of-Year Report (pdf)

Application: Please send your resume and a cover letter to hello@projectinvent.org.