Company description

Mandela Partners is a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, CA, that works in partnership with local residents, family farmers, and community-based businesses to improve health, create wealth, and build assets through local food enterprises in limited-resource communities.

Job description

Why Join Mandela Partners
This is a senior leadership role where fundraising directly sustains community impact. You'll set the strategy that funds our mission, serve on the Executive Leadership Team as a true partner to the Executive Director, and build a development function with the opportunity to hire your own coordinator, at an organization where philanthropy is relationship-centered, community-accountable, and equity-driven.

We back that work with real benefits and balance: a full week off in June for Juneteenth and another at year-end, a professional development stipend, a weekly paid team lunch on Thursdays, health insurance and retirement, accrued sick, vacation, and holiday pay, access to wholesale produce at cost, and a 50% discount on weekly produce boxes. The pay range is $130,000–$135,000, aligned with our compensation philosophy and nonprofit market practices.

About the Role
Mandela Partners works in partnership with local residents, family farmers, and community-based businesses to improve health, create wealth, and build assets through food enterprises in disinvested communities. Our systems model supports local economic investment, entrepreneurship, food sovereignty, and health equity — building on local assets to cultivate thriving communities.

The Senior Fund Development Director leads a fundraising strategy that builds community-grounded and institutional revenue to grow our $3.2MM annual budget. Reporting to the Executive Director and serving on the Executive Leadership Team, this hands-on, community-embedded fundraising leader partners with staff, board, donors, and community supporters to ensure our fundraising reflects our mission and values. This position is a hybrid role located in Oakland, offering a flexible work schedule.

What the First Year Looks Like

Within your first 90 days, you will assess our fundraising portfolio and recommend a strategic direction based on experience across multiple revenue streams. You will lead grant renewals, substantially expand individual giving, and engage the board in a more structured fundraising role. This position requires established expertise in all these areas and the ability to apply it in a new community context.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead annual fundraising strategy across foundations, government, corporate, nonprofit, and individual giving
• Partner with the Executive Director and Finance Director on goal setting, revenue forecasting, and reserves
• Collaborate with the Board of Directors to strengthen fundraising engagement and donor stewardship
• Manage and support a small development and engagement team, fostering growth and accountability
• Steward major funder and donor relationships across the Bay Area and California
• Lead grant prospecting, proposals, and reporting
• Strengthen individual giving programs and donor relationships at all levels
• Partner with the Storytelling and Community Engagement Manager to align fundraising with organizational storytelling
  Ensure effective use of Salesforce CRM and fundraising data

Preferred Experience and Qualifications
We recognize that fundraising experience takes many forms — community organizing, mutual aid coordination, resource mobilization in faith communities, and informal network-building all develop transferable skills. We encourage candidates whose experience reflects community-based pathways to apply.

• 5–10+ years of fundraising experience, bringing a diversified fundraising portfolio: direct, hands-on ownership of multiple revenue streams
• Has designed and executed fundraising strategies from inception, including building cases for support, setting revenue targets, and holding accountability for results
• Strong relationship-building and communication skills: has independently cultivated, solicited, and stewarded donors and funders at the five- and six-figure level
• Experience managing and mentoring people with varied lived and professional experiences
• Familiarity with CRM systems and fundraising operations
• Lived and/or professional experience working alongside communities impacted by systemic disinvestment strongly valued
• Demonstrated commitment to the mission and values of Mandela Partners.
• Centers the leadership, knowledge, and self-determination of limited-resource communities in all our work.
• Commitment to honest, equity-grounded communication and ongoing reflection, community accountability, and collective learning.
• Comfort with navigating disagreement or conflict with care and diplomacy.

Compensation and Benefits
The pay range for this role is $130,000–$135,000. Benefits include medical, dental, vision, and retirement.

We also offer unique benefits that support work-life balance and professional growth: offices close for a week in June for Juneteenth and again at year-end; all staff receive a professional development stipend; a weekly paid team lunch on Thursdays; at-cost wholesale produce; and a 50% discount on weekly produce boxes.

About Us
Mandela Partners actively recruits candidates from Black, Indigenous, Latino/a/x, Asian, and low-income communities, and from communities most impacted by food injustice and systemic disinvestment. We believe our team should reflect the communities we work alongside.

Compensation

this position is: salaried, more than $100,000

Application instructions

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Deadline

no deadline