Director of Philanthropy (Major Gifts)

About TalkingPoints

TalkingPoints is an award-winning education technology non-profit organization with the mission to unlock the potential of low-income, underserved families to support their children’s learning by partnering with their children’s schools. We are building a one-of-a-kind product in the market, a multilingual family engagement platform that connects families and teachers using human and artificial intelligence powered, two-way translated messages and personalized supports — eliminating language, time limitations, and know-how as barriers to school/family connection.

Millions of teachers and families are using TalkingPoints in their classrooms, schools and districts across the United States. TalkingPoints works with key school district partners such as Oakland Unified, Seattle Public Schools, Boston Public Schools, Buffalo Public School, Wake County and NYC DOE. We have won awards from NYU, MIT, Google, Forbes and are backed by Google, Eric Schmidt, AT&T, Cisco, and Stanford University to name a few.

TalkingPoints is at a critical inflection point in the organization's growth. We continue to see exponential growth in both our user base and our own internal structure. It's an important time to join our team and build on our momentum and ability to support students and families during this critical time in which education equity gaps are more concerning than ever. 

Diversity: we celebrate it, we support it, and we thrive on it!

The opportunity

TalkingPoints is seeking an experienced fundraiser! As a member of the Philanthropy team, the Director, Philanthropy will manage, grow, cultivate, and steward a portfolio of donors to help drive TalkingPoints’ fundraising goals. It is expected that the amount raised by TalkingPoints will increase in future years as the philanthropy team systematically and effectively strengthens the organization's overall fundraising capacity. A commitment to the moves management process and use of CRM is critical. This position will report to the Senior Director of Philanthropy and require comfort with, and confidence in, high performance execution in a remote environment. The ideal candidate will have substantial fundraising and management experience and a talent for building relationships. You will:

• Maintain a solid understanding of TalkingPoints mission, product, research and sales.
• Under the direction of the Senior Director of Philanthropy and CEO, maintain and grow a pipeline of high net-worth individual donors, including:
  • researching prospects and qualifying leads
  • developing and implementing cultivation and solicitation strategies
  • soliciting funds through providing input, review and finalization of LOIs, concept papers, proposals, reports and supporting documents drafted by Grant Writer.
  • stewarding strong relationships with existing donors by creating regular, tailored, relevant outreach, and submitting reports
  • cultivating relationships through regular meetings with prospective and existing donors, providing relevant and timely updates on TP progress, and identifying key next steps in relationship development and acting on them.
• Collaborate with Research, Marketing, Product, Operations and Executive teams to gather and synthesize that information into compelling, funder-focused communication.
• In partnership with philanthropy operations team, update CRM / donor database to plan, track and analyze results of fundraising efforts
• With the support of event planner, create memorable events and opportunities that demonstrate donors’ impact on the families and schools we serve.

Position Requirements

• Minimum 6 years of experience in a fundraising position focused on high net-worth individuals
• Track record in cultivating and securing 6-figure+ gifts from individual donors
• Experience in an EdTech earned-revenue modeled non-profit and/or start-up environment preferred
• Prior grant writing experience with foundations and corporations
• CRM database knowledge, Salesforce preferred
• Experience with Google suite, Notion and Slack a plus

Overall fit with our org culture - we look for team members who are

• User and mission-oriented: we are devoted to our mission with empathy towards the communities we serve.
• All-in together: we go above and beyond the job description, working together as a team.
• Agile & action-oriented: we get things done, knowing that our progress is urgent to our communities.
• Always Learning: we are always learning, with a growth mindset, to reach our full potential.
• Boldly Courageous: we take risks in order to achieve big things.
• Resourceful: We are creative, solution-oriented, and scrappy.

What we offer

• An incredible opportunity to build a mission-driven, rapidly growing startup tech nonprofit
• Competitive salary, full coverage health insurance, benefits, and unlimited time off
• 401K match
• Annual professional development benefit
• Flexibility to work remotely
• Fun, smart, dynamic, and motivated team

How to apply

Please submit your resume, a brief paragraph describing your interest, and a link to your LinkedIn profile