Senior Director, New Donor Strategy (San Francisco)

Climate Lead

San Francisco, CA 94110

United States

Posted July 4, 2025

{VOLUNTEER,INTERN}

Senior Level

Valid until August 3, 2025

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Job Description

Climate Lead empowers philanthropic leaders everywhere to take immediate and far-reaching climate action. Climate Lead equips new climate philanthropists with the information and insights they need to drive transformative solutions by serving as an impartial guide. We cut through the complexity by curating roadmaps in partnership with a diverse network of experts to help philanthropists make a bold impact on climate from day one.

Summary

This newly-created role on the Philanthropy team will lead strategy and initiatives to bring new donors to climate, which is key to meeting Climate Lead’s ambitious aim to catalyze new funding at scale by 2030. Reporting to and working closely with the Executive Vice President (EVP) - who leads the Philanthropy Team - the Senior Director will build and lead a small team responsible for pipeline strategy, prospect research, rate-and-screens, portfolio management, events, peer volunteers, and networks.

Managerial Responsibilities

This role directly manages a team of three that includes the following roles:

Director, Prospect Research
Analyst, Prospect Research

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Lead and operationalize the build of Climate Lead’s strategy to identify and engage 250 new ultra-high net worth families, positioning the team to serve as a trusted guide to 100 of these new climate donors by 2030.
Collaborate closely with relationship managers to pilot new initiatives, test what works, and iterate based on data/metrics - all while strengthening the organization’s capabilities to bring new donors to climate.
Partner with the Communications team on developing and testing marketing strategies to bring new donors to climate, including leveraging the extensive networks of Climate Lead’s President and senior team.

Prospect Research (20%)

Set vision and strategy for prospect research at Climate Lead.
Build the existing prospect research team from one to two team members; integrate prospect research closely into the everyday work of the Philanthropy team.
Lead and optimize the portfolio management system, rate-and-screen process, and prospect strategy meetings.
Strengthen Climate Lead’s work with peer volunteers, influencers, and key networks, keeping these stakeholders deeply engaged with and contributing to Climate Lead’s mission and pipeline.
Collaborate closely with relationship managers to prioritize relationships that cultivate, deepen, and optimize our work to bring new donors to climate.
With support from the Manager on this team, partner with relationship managers to solve shared needs in their work with peer volunteers and influencers (e.g., simple tools for sharing progress).

Donor Strategy for Events (20%)

Advance Climate Lead’s work to bring new donors to climate by partnering with relationship managers and the Communications Team (who own event production) to set a strategic calendar of events.
Oversee the Manager to achieve pipeline goals through the centralized guest strategy of all Climate Lead events.
Serve as Philanthropy team lead on flagship events to bring donor needs into all aspects of the event life cycle.

Success Criteria

Strategic: highly strategic and innovative, sparking new ideas and focusing on highest-value strategies; harnesses market knowledge/trends to drive towards goals; adept at testing, iterating, and refining strategies.
Drives Results: outcome-oriented; translates strategic priorities into operational reality; aligns work plans, team communication, accountabilities, resources, internal processes, and ongoing measurement systems to yield measurable and sustainable results; demonstrated ability to direct, influence, or motivate others to implement plans and drive toward shared outcomes; targets continuous improvement opportunities with the most significant potential for positive organizational impact.
Collaborative Leadership: contributes to a positive working environment through excellent modeling of organizational values and culture; integrates diverse perspectives and works across teams to ensure strategies align with the broader organizational goals.
Team Management: leads and manages a team of three spanning diverse functional areas; provides clear direction, fosters collaboration, and builds a high-performing, motivated team that operates effectively in a matrixed structure.
Mobilizing Networks: understands how to build and leverage external networks in support of an organization’s mission; develops standards and systems to activate, engage, and retain engagement as well as track their contributions and outcomes.
Data-Driven Decision-Making: ability to use data and metrics to guide decisions and refine strategies/approaches; assesses the success and failure of tactics with rigor and criteria; makes data-driven adjustments to maximize efforts.
Research and Analysis: Strong expertise in building prospect research strategies and agendas; analyzes and translates intelligence into actionable plans.
Project Management: effectively manages time and resources; ensures others have the resources and support they need to be successful; leverages available resources; stays focused and informed on action items, issues, and tracking of results.

Required Experience

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities

15+ years of experience in principal-level fundraising with some combination of expertise or oversight across donor pipeline development, prospect research, peer / volunteer mobilization, and event strategies.
Experience overseeing or contributing to donor marketing/communications activities is a plus.
Track record of advancing multiple projects that involve complex issues, diverse stakeholders, and deadlines to successful completion. Demonstrated background tracking action items and ensuring detailed follow-through on existing and new initiatives.
Experience designing collaborative processes and system requirements that enable efficient knowledge management, communication, and streamlined workflows both within and across teams.

Salary Range

$300,000 - 350,000

The Climate Lead is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. This position operates in a hybrid environment and is based in our San Francisco, CA, office. Staff in the San Francisco Bay Area currently work in the office Tuesday through Thursday each week and typically work from a home location the other days.

At the Climate Lead, we value diversity and always treat all employees and job applicants based on merit, qualifications, competence, and talent. We do not discriminate on the basis of or traits historically associated with race, color, religion, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, veteran and/or military status), domestic violence victim status, political affiliation, and any other status protected by state or federal law.