Associate Director, Operations & Annual Giving at Food Forward, Inc

Organizational Overview: Food Forward Inc.fights hunger and prevents food waste by rescuing fresh surplusproduce, connecting this abundance with people experiencing foodinsecurity, and inspiring others to do the same. Fruits andvegetables are collected from backyard fruit trees, farmersmarkets, growers, and wholesale produce distributors. Thisrecovered produce is provided free of charge to hunger relieforganizations serving communities, including food banks, agenciesserving unhoused people, domestic violence shelters, transitionalyouth homes, veteran services, family resource centers, LGBTQ+teen/adult/senior services, and more.  On an average day, FoodForward is distributing enough fruits and vegetables to meet thedaily recommended servings for more than 270,000 people. See ourcore values below. 

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

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

• Creation of a new KPI/benchmarkreporting workflow that motivates and provides learning for theDevelopment team and the organization’s leadership;
• Successful management of theschedules and deliverables for at least three fundraising campaignsthroughout year one, including analysis of results towards abenchmarked increase over previous year;
• Completion of a compliance review andrecommendations for improved donor experience (such asacknowledgments, vetting, disclosures, etc);
• Demonstrate a deep understanding ofFood 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 compliancethat 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 Financedepartments
• Tracking department deliverables,including fulfillment, partner benefits, key statistics

Annual Giving, including:

• Annual plan for the annualgiving/scaled income stream (focus: individuals), includingstrategy, goal tracking, team workplans
• Campaign management coordinated withthe Communications team, including strategy, timelines, production(eg. mail), reporting
• Digital fundraising and stewardshipwith the Communications team, including regular analytics reviews,testing, acquisition, visibility tracking
• Pipeline strategy, processes, andtools to manage prospects and increase support, coordinating withMajor Gifts Officer
• Special projects to increase theorganization’s visibility to build a donor base, such as affiliategroups and third-party validator websites
• Regular reporting on budgetbenchmarks and cashflow
• Analytics and content for performancereports to leadership and the Board of Directors, includingbenchmarking to industry standards
• Income forecasting and data-informedgrowth strategies for future years 

Staff Supervision and Administration, including:

• Supervise two: Development OperationsSupervisor (database specialist) and Coordinator 
• Contract management
• Ongoing learning for processimprovements that incorporate best practices, inspire teamperformance
• Organization-wide initiatives asneeded