Associate Director, Operations & Annual Giving

Organizational Overview: Food Forward Inc. fights hunger and prevents food waste by rescuing fresh surplus produce, connecting this abundance with people experiencing food insecurity, and inspiring others to do the same. Fruits and vegetables are collected from backyard fruit trees, farmers markets, growers, and wholesale produce distributors. This recovered produce is provided free of charge to hunger relief organizations serving communities, including food banks, agencies serving unhoused people, domestic violence shelters, transitional youth homes, veteran services, family resource centers, LGBTQ+ teen/adult/senior services, and more.  On an average day, Food Forward is distributing enough fruits and vegetables to meet the daily recommended servings for more than 270,000 people. See our core values below. 

Position Overview: Food Forward seeks a motivated nonprofit leader experienced in fundraising operations and project management. The Associate Director, Operations & Annual Giving is a new position that will play a role in solidifying Food Forward’s growth trajectory by enhancing the operational efficiency of our Development team. The ideal candidate is a strategist who can work collaboratively across teams to innovate systems and build scalable revenue streams that will serve our mission. Critical skills include strong verbal and written communication, the ability to translate data into strategy, and the ability to lead projects with calm and clarity.

Working with the Chief Development Officer, the Associate Director will provide new capacity to a high-performing team. Success in year one will include:

Creation of a new KPI/benchmark reporting workflow that motivates and provides learning for the Development team and the organization’s leadership; Successful management of the schedules and deliverables for at least three fundraising campaigns throughout year one, including analysis of results towards a benchmarked increase over previous year; Completion of a compliance review and recommendations for improved donor experience (such as acknowledgments, vetting, disclosures, etc); Demonstrate a deep understanding of Food Forward’s mission and donor base.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsible for strategy and implementation of: 

Department Operations, including:

Team dashboards, benchmarks, KPIs, and progress toward strategic plan goals Gift processing and donor services, including timely and accurate acknowledgments and other compliance that ensure positive donor connections Department timelines for campaigns, events, cross-department operations, team meetings Department database and technology, including CRM (Salesforce), donation processing (current: Classy), additional campaign tools, equipment, shared file systems Financial reporting, reconciliation, and compliance, coordinating the Development and Finance departments Tracking department deliverables, including fulfillment, partner benefits, key statistics

Annual Giving, including:

Annual plan for the annual giving/scaled income stream (focus: individuals), including strategy, goal tracking, team workplans Campaign management coordinated with the Communications team, including strategy, timelines, production (eg. mail), reporting Digital fundraising and stewardship with the Communications team, including regular analytics reviews, testing, acquisition, visibility tracking Pipeline strategy, processes, and tools to manage prospects and increase support, coordinating with Major Gifts Officer Special projects to increase the organization’s visibility to build a donor base, such as affiliate groups and third-party validator websites Regular reporting on budget benchmarks and cashflow Analytics and content for performance reports to leadership and the Board of Directors, including benchmarking to industry standards Income forecasting and data-informed growth strategies for future years 

Staff Supervision and Administration, including:

Supervise two: Development Operations Supervisor (database specialist) and Coordinator  Contract management Ongoing learning for process improvements that incorporate best practices, inspire team performance Organization-wide initiatives as needed