Development Director

THE OPPORTUNITY

Most development leaders spend their careers raising money inside organizations where the donor base is established, the relationships are inherited, and the fundraising strategy has already been written. Every so often, a different kind of opportunity appears: an organization with a proven vision, growing visibility, community trust, and work capable of attracting significant investment, ready for a development leader who can take its fundraising to the next level.

This is that opportunity.

The Liberty Ecosystem is entering a new chapter of ambitious, community-rooted work, and we are hiring the person who will bring the capital and relationships alongside that ambition. Not simply a fundraiser. A relationship builder, strategist, and closer who can turn belief in the mission into meaningful investment.

At the Liberty Ecosystem, we're not just building projects and providing community programs. We are igniting a movement that reimagines urban investment as a catalyst for justice, equity, and transformation. Our mission is to forge a reparative, restorative, and regenerative economy that uplifts Black Los Angeles and fuels a revolution across the African diaspora.

And this is not abstract. We led the largest raise for a community-owned real estate project in American history. Our ecosystem approach has been highlighted by the Brookings Institution. Our land-justice work has been featured in Yes! Magazine and Next City.

We are a nonprofit and a social enterprise in the truest sense: the discipline and ambition of a growth company, the soul of a movement. The vision is proven. The resources are in place. Now the resources must grow with it.

Vision can inspire investment. Relationships are what turn that investment into lasting impact.

Our work has earned the belief of a remarkable and growing community - impact investors, foundation partners, and individual donors who each see something of themselves in this mission. That community is ready for a leader devoted to it: someone to deepen every relationship, open new doors, and match the ambition of the work with the ambition of the resources behind it.

As our Development Director, you will be a trusted face and voice for this movement, working hand in hand with executive leadership and the Board to grow, deepen, and steward the full community of people and institutions investing in our work. You'll lead the fundraising strategy that fuels the Liberty Ecosystem's next chapter, grow philanthropic revenue, deepen relationships across donors, funders, and investors, and open the doors that carry this movement forward.

• Develop and lead annual and multi-year fundraising strategies aligned with organizational priorities and ambitious revenue goals
• Grow and diversify philanthropic revenue across major gifts, individual giving, foundations, impact investors, corporate philanthropy, sponsor ships, campaigns, and other aligned opportunities
• Build and actively advance a strong pipeline of donors, funders, and impact investors from identification and cultivation through solicitation, stewardship, and renewal
• Track fundraising performance, forecast revenue, and keep leadership informed of progress, significant opportunities, and emerging needs

• Lead major-gifts strategy and personally cultivate, solicit, and steward major donors and high-capacity prospects
• Build authentic, long-term relationships across a diverse supporter base - individual donors, foundation partners, and mission-aligned impact investors - and move fluently among them
• Cultivate and advance our impact-investment relationships, carrying them from first conversation toward committed capital; you lead the cultivation and the ask, while executive leadership and counsel structure terms alongside you
• Build relationships that belong to Liberty as much as to you - documented in our systems, connected across our team and Board, and rooted in the mission - so the trust you build strengthens the movement for the long term
• Develop tailored strategies that deepen engagement, strengthen retention, and grow giving and investment over time
• Prepare and partner with executive leadership and Board members on introductions, supporter meetings, significant asks, and stewardship

• Build and strengthen relationships with foundations, institutional…