Company description

Farm School NYC is a collaborative project created by individuals and organizations involved in NYC’s greening, botanical and agriculture work. Our mission is to train NYC residents in urban agriculture, in order to build self-reliant communities and inspire positive local action around food access and social, economic, and racial justice issues. Farm School NYC offers urban agriculture training through a two-year certificate program, an accelerated certificate program,  as well as a wide range of individual courses. Our courses are taught by experts in the field and focus on a wide range of topics from social justice issues, to urban planting techniques, to grassroots community organizing. Through engaging, place-based education, Farm School classes cultivate future leaders in NYC's food justice movement.

Job description

Are you a seasoned, community-centric fundraiser whose mission is to organize and channel resources into social movements?  Do you have a track record of raising multi-year support from private, public and corporate foundations?  Have you built strong relationships with funders of nonprofit work, especially in the environmental and/or agricultural fields in the northeast?  Are you confident in pursuing  government funding, and have experience in individual giving and/or special events? 

 

Farm School NYC (FSNYC) is hiring a full-time Resource Organizer / Fundraising Director to be part of the leadership team for our organization.  Farm School NYC operates within an evolving gift economy.  In the words of Robin Wall Kimmerer, “The currency of a gift economy is, at its root, reciprocity.”  We offer our mission-aligned programming as a gift to our community, and we ask for their gifts of money, knowledge, time and other resources in return to sustain that mission. Our new Resource Organizer / Fundraising Director position will steward and cultivate our community of foundation, government and individual supporters, so that we can offer our work as a gift to our city.

 

FSNYC staff is co-creating a less hierarchical, holacratic leadership structure as our current Executive Director steps down in June and our internal team steps up to lead collectively.  The Resource Organizer / Fundraising Director will maintain a refined sense of personal, staff and community responsibility and --  alongside the Operations Director and the Programs Director -- will report to the Board of Directors. The Resource Organizer / Fundraising Director will be responsible for creating and executing a diversified fundraising strategy to meet our $1,000,000 annual budget for 2024 and beyond, building upon several already secured multi-year grants and contracts and an early-stage individual giving program.
 

Summary of Responsibilities: 

Lead Foundation, Corporate and Government Fundraising - 60%

• Collaborate with program team to develop and execute Farm School NYC's annual fundraising plan
• Develop and track proposals and reports for all foundation and corporate fundraising
• Secure financial support from foundations, corporations and government sources
• Collaborate with Operations Director and outsourced bookkeeper to track grants in QuickBooks
• Collaborate with Programs team to align on grant proposal outcomes and authentically represent courses and programs in all fundraising efforts
• Maintain relationships with current partner organizations and build relationships for future partnerships 

Administration - 25%

• Prepare for and participate in weekly team meeting, biweekly organizational health meetings, monthly gift economy meetings, and quarterly Board meetings 
• Support Operations Director in tracking expenses, reimbursements, advances and other financial management tasks for government contracts and grants

Support Individual Giving - 15%

• Collaborate with Communications Manager to develop and maintain relationships with major donors
• Collaborate with Communications Manager on organization of special events
• Support Communications Manager to create and execute a strategy for a large sustained base of annual individual donors

Required Skills: 

• Strong political, racial, class, and gender analysis of food, labor, capital and climate justice and Black and Indigenous people of color-led liberation

• 5+ years experience in fundraising / foundation development
• Clear, compelling writer 
• Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines without supervision and oversight
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills
• Optimistic and self-motivated
• Flexible schedule; weekday evenings and Saturdays sometimes required
• Willingness and ability to work remotely based in NYC metro area
• Ability to multitask while working independently and with a team
• Willingness to work in a collaborative team environment that lessens hierarchy via proposal-based, collective decision making

 

Recommended Skills: 

• Passion for agriculture and/or land stewardship
• Knowledge of Network for Good
• Familiarity with Google apps

 

Compensation this position is : salaried, 75k-100k Location job can be done remotely Application instructions Deadlineno deadline