Development Consultant

About the Organization

Smart Justice California (SJCA) educates and emboldens policymakers who support meaningful criminal justice reforms that promote safety, fairness, and healthy communities.  In coordination with our movement partners, we work closely with state and local policymakers to advance common-sense policies that reduce incarceration and over-criminalization while increasing public safety.  

Through policymaker education, advocacy, and grassroots and grasstops activation, we are building the political formidability and electoral accountability necessary to continue enacting state and local reforms.  We work to transform the policymaking landscape and bridge the gap between the public’s support for meaningful criminal justice reform and elected officials’ policymaking practices.  Since 2018, SJCA has invested more than $25 million backing state and local candidates who support significantly overhauling incarceration and criminalization in California.  To shift the public narrative, SJCA also engages policymakers, journalists, philanthropists, influencers and other community leaders through policy briefings and prison visits.  

SJCA is a fiscally sponsored project of Tides Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(3), and Tides Advocacy, a non-profit 501(c)(4).  

Overview

SCJA is seeking a development consultant to expand and manage the organization’s 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) fundraising bases, and to manage donor relations.  Using their expertise, the consultant will work with SJCA’s Executive Director and Advisory Board to develop a multi-year fundraising plan and implementation program that reflects SJCA’s ideal operating capacity and incorporates strategies for increasing fundraising from (i) private foundations and (ii) individual donors.    

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Creating compelling collateral, including pitch decks, primers, and other materials that create a persuasive narrative about the impact of SJCA’s work.
• Drafting high-quality letters of inquiry and grant proposals, working with SJCA to understand the organization’s strategy, work, and desired voice.
• Identifying and nurturing SJCA funding opportunities with targeted individual donors and philanthropies, including:
• Development of materials (collateral);
• Initial outreach;
• Follow up;
• Continued relationship building; and 
• Proposal submission. 
• Providing SJCA with top-tier project management, including:
• Tracking fundraising goals;
• Creating and maintaining database of current and target donors, including donor records, information and files;
• Tracking grants,reporting requirements, and renewals; 
• Tracking grant applications, including gathering all required information for grant proposals;
• Managing the Executive Director and Advisory Board members’ involvement in fundraising efforts; and
• Managing all other aspects of implementation of the fundraising plan. 
• Planning and executing fundraising gatherings, eg. salons, house parties, and donor briefings. 
• Providing fundraising updates to SJCA’s Advisory Board ~4 times annually during Board meetings.

Desired Experience & Qualifications

• Demonstrable expertise and success doing development work with nonprofit organizations.
• Keen writing, editing, and proofreading skills, and a love of good writing; proven ability to synthesize large amounts of information into compelling written collateral on deadline.
• Talent for marketing strategies related to nonprofit development. 
• Extremely organized and self-motivated, able to prioritize multiple deadlines; ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously.
• Self-motivated and a self-starter with an outgoing personality.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Willingness to work with a small organization with a relatively informal culture.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite; experience using Adobe Acrobat Pro and/or Canva is a plus.

SJCA is a virtual workspace. Applicants should live in California and be comfortable working remotely. 

Compensation/Fee Arrangement 

This will be an ongoing contract.  Monthly consulting fee commensurate with experience. 

Application Instructions

Interested applicants should send a cover letter and resume to hiring@smartjusticeca.org for consideration.