Director of Development; NIS

The National Innovation Service (NIS) partners with governments across the country to engage in systems-level transformations. We do this by creating collaborative coalitions between communities, public sector partners, and other relevant stakeholders to redesign systems with those most impacted at the center of decision-making processes. Our work is to build new systems that produce equitable outcomes.

Our team draws on a variety of disciplines and experiences to deliver this work, privileging direct experience of the problems we address and merging practices from service design, policy analysis, systems thinking, community organizing, and change management. We develop strategies and roadmaps for transformation and also remain committed partners throughout implementation. As we establish and test pathways forward with our partners, we are working to advance equity-based policy and legislation at the local, state, and national levels, as well as the development of new products and services.

NIS was officially incorporated in February 2019. Our first partnership was with King County and the City of Seattle in Fall 2018. For more details, . We’re seeking leaders with an all-hands-on-deck mentality to build our team from the ground up.

We strive to attract and develop individuals who reflect a broad spectrum of diversity, including (but by no means limited to) racial, ethnic, gender identity, and socioeconomic dimensions. We believe that inclusion of diverse perspectives is essential to achieving long-term, systemic change. We explicitly seek applications from those who self-identify as coming from historically marginalized populations to enrich and elevate our equity-centered approach to problem-solving.

The Director of Development of the National Innovation Service will be a development professional who is focused on growing our impact investment and philanthropic grants. This person will also grow our network by cultivating our relationships with high net-worth individuals, philanthropic organizations, corporate giving programs, and impact investment firms, and be able to link our projects to their interests. Because NIS is in its founding stage, each member of the team will support the Director of Development in sourcing revenue opportunities and building out our network.

We encourage you to apply if you believe your skills and experience align with the role described below, as there are many different backgrounds, industries, and lived experiences—including, but not limited to, experiences of economic insecurity, housing instability and homelessness, and mental health challenges—that give rise to ideal candidates.

As our Director of Development at NIS
, you will be accountable for...

Development

• Owning the work of proactively identifying funding options for areas of growth with thought partnership from the Director and Deputy Director.
• Independently writing productive grants, proposals, scopes of work, and pitching to investors, philanthropic partners, government agencies, etc.
• Authoring grant related compliance documents, including reports, budget analysis, etc.
• Producing annual reports for funders, elevating key achievements relative to funder priorities.
• Producing fundraising and other reports for internal stakeholders, including the Board of Directors (to be appointed), as needed.
• Working with other NIS staff to ensure appropriate framing or presentation of activities.
• Delegating fundraising and development tasks as needed to other team members as needed.

Relationship Management and Cultivation

• Building and maintaining strong high-level, high-visibility relationships across multiple sectors.
• Seeking out tools, such as a formal CRM, to organize prospective and existing partners across the country.
• Developing a regular cadence and innovative means of reaching out to partners.
• Packaging projects creatively as attractive impact investment opportunities to prospective donors and investors.
• Representing NIS at conferences, public meetings, in the media, and other public venues.
• Proactively engaging creative opportunities and non-traditional spaces to network with prospective partners.

Organizational…