Senior Development Director - Pasa Sustainable Agriculture

Senior Development Director

About Pasa:
Pasa began as a sustainable agriculture farmer-led conference that was so successful, the founders formed a nonprofit. Nearly 35 years later, we serve farmers across the Mid-Atlantic, Northern Appalachian, and Northeast regions with engagement across the Eastern United States and beyond. Our services include farmer technical support, outreach, and education; farm-based research; and, sustainable agriculture policy and advocacy. Our mission is to cultivate environmentally sound, economically viable, community-focused farms and food systems.

Position Overview: 
The Senior Development Director enthusiastically garners support for Pasa's mission. This role is pivotal in advancing Pasa's philanthropic growth, possesses advanced knowledge about our work and impact, and ensures organizational long-term sustainability through development. This position is responsible for establishing and executing the organization's overarching fundraising strategy, advising and meeting annual fundraising goals, and building a long-term vision for the department through all aspects of fundraising. Our operating budget over the next 3-4 years is anticipated to be $10-12M annually. In 2028, a major federal grant will conclude and the person in this position will develop a clear pathway to ensuring the availability of unrestricted operating funds through that transition.

This position reports to the Executive Director and collaborates closely with the Strategic Impact Director. Over time, the person in this role will supervise the development team, currently supervised by the Strategic Impact Director. 

This is a hybrid position with regular in-person workdays in Harrisburg (estimated 30% in-person initially and 15-20% long-term), frequent in-person and virtual prospecting, cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding visits, 2-3 annual in-person staff retreats, and remote/from-home workdays. Estimated travel 20%. All employees are required to attend our annual Sustainable Agriculture Conference, which takes place each February in Lancaster, PA. Employees are required to live in Pennsylvania or within 150 miles of Harrisburg unless they receive approval for the Philadelphia or Pittsburgh area to be their primary work location, in which case employees are required to live within an hour's drive from Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. If you have questions, please inquire. Employees must comply with Pasa's remote employee policies.

Responsibilities

• Key responsibilities include major donor cultivation and solicitation, with a minimum of 60% of the overall duties focused on working directly with current and prospective benefactors to increase major and planned gifts to meet annual goals
• Cultivate and grow a culture of giving within our staff, board, and supporter communities.
• Develop overarching strategy, benchmarks, work plan, and team roles to optimize unrestricted revenue streams through every possible source such as individual, recurring, employer payroll deduction, major gifts, appeals, corporate giving, general operating grants, and planned giving 
• Personally identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward a portfolio of at least 100 major donors, as well as a planned giving circle
• Support the development team members and other cross-functional team members to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward their own portfolios of active donors, each with regular in-person and virtual visits, followed up with appropriate personal communications
• Build upon the strengths of the development team to improve development operation functions, membership data collection and utilization, fundraising metrics (including retention and re-engagement) and reporting, stewardship and cultivation processes, and prospecting methods
• Ensure that all donors are solicited and stewarded appropriately
• Ensure that prospecting, moves management and donation record systems are in place and working well
• In partnership with the Communications & Marketing team, plan and implement engagement, moves management and solicitation strategies leading to mid-level and major gifts and overall increased unrestricted revenue
• With the support of the Programs & Services and Communications & Marketing teams, communicate Pasa's mission and impact to multiple audiences, including conveying return on investment to donors
• Run a successful 35th-anniversary capital campaign, highlighted by our 35th annual conference in February 2025 and culminating with the end of our 35th year at our 36th annual conference in February 2026 

Qualifications

• A self-starter who can lead a development program and actively solicit support
• 8-10 years of experience leading development strategy and implementation with an emphasis on individual major donors and unrestricted gifts
• Demonstrated ability to secure major gifts
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to build strong rapport and deepen donor investment relationships
• Organized, detail-oriented, and robust time management skills
• Excellent leadership skills and strong team management experience
• Working nonprofit CRM or donor database experience; Salesforce familiarity is a plus
• Experience with special fundraising projects, such as endowment, capital, annual or planned giving campaigns
• Thorough working knowledge of development functions, including donor identification and solicitation, cultivation, and stewardship
• Commitment to advancing anti-oppression in all facets of the work environment and giving culture
• Passion for Pasa's mission and values

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with agriculture, climate, and food systems landscape
• A background in agriculture, environment, or conservation and experience fundraising for those areas
• CFRE certification

Compensation: This is a full-time, salaried position. Annual salary is $125,000. A one-time $5,000 sign-on bonus is available for individuals who are bilingual in English and Spanish, after successful completion of a 6-month probationary period. Benefits include health, vision, and dental insurance; company wellness plan contributions; pre-tax health and dependent care flexible spending accounts; 401K retirement match; flexible scheduling; and a generous leave policy, along with a work computer and peripherals provided, travel expenses, and mileage reimbursement.

About our salary structure: In an effort to improve pay equity and equality, increase transparency, and eliminate pay gaps that can arise from bias in negotiation, Pasa has adopted a minimum annual salary of $55,000 for all full-time employees across the organization, with the exception of some term-limited employees. 

With the exception of certain executive positions as determined by the executive director, we follow a simplified salary structure:

All employees within the Level 1 “Foundational” band earn $55,000 annually
All employees within the Level 2 “Mid-level Management” band earn $65,000 annually
All employees within the Level 3 “Leadership” band earn $75,000 annually
All employees within the Level 4 “Senior Executive Leadership” band earn $90,000 annually

We are keenly and personally aware that our minimum salary is higher than the annual income of many of the farmers we serve, and Pasa is committed to advancing equity both within agriculture and our own organization. While being mindful that we are a nonprofit that relies on funding from grants and gifts from our generous donors, Pasa strives to provide a livable wage to our employees who work hard to grow a brighter future for farmers.

How to apply: We are committed to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice through our hiring practices. This entails reviewing application materials anonymously (without the applicant's name exposed) to help prevent potential unconscious bias. Our application system will automatically anonymize your materials and personally-identifying information. There is no specific action required on your part to anonymize your materials when applying. Click the “Apply” button and submit the information requested (e.g. resume, cover letter, and/or portfolio). 

Initial interviews will be conducted remotely via Zoom on a rolling basis. The anticipated start date for this position is prior to February 4.

If you have any questions, please contact jobs @pasafarming.org.