Work at Wild Animal Initiative
Applications closed
As of 27 July 2022, we are no longer accepting applications for this position.
This is an archived copy of the job description for your reference.
Basics
Job title: Development Coordinator
Department: Development
Application deadline: June 5, 2022
Application materials:
Please submit an application using this form. The form will ask you to attach two PDFs:
A one page resume (PDF) concisely describing your educational, professional, and other relevant experiences.
A one page cover letter (PDF) that (i) includes a brief personal statement outlining how your past experience is relevant to the position and (ii) responds to the following questions:
What interests you about ensuring that donors feel good about supporting our work?
What makes you a good fit to do administrative work?
What is the most complicated project you have managed?
Application process timeline:
Stage 2 (paid work test): Mid June
Stage 3 (video interviews): Mid July
Target start date: August 1, 2022
About our mission
Wild Animal Initiative is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working to understand and improve the lives of wild animals.
Even in nature, most wild animals struggle to survive every day. Unfortunately, preserving habitats or species does not guarantee that animals themselves have good lives. At Wild Animal Initiative, we believe we have a responsibility to act to improve the well-being of wild animals, whether they live in captivity or somewhere else.
Yet, responsible action requires sound science. There is still so much we don’t know about which animals are sentient, what their lives are like in the wild, and how we can responsibly help them. Our work supports the study of wild animal welfare by funding cutting-edge science, supporting the careers of researchers in the field, and contributing original research.
The success of our mission depends on the diversity of our team. We are looking to work with people that approach our mission as an inherently inclusive endeavor and celebrate the differences of others. We strongly encourage people of every color, religion, age, origin, class, citizenship, parental status, disability status, genetics, veteran status, sexual orientation, and gender to apply. Note that we are unfortunately not able to sponsor work visas at this time and require candidates to already be eligible to work in the jurisdictions where they live or will live by the start of their employment.
Please feel free to reach out to Hiring Manager Emily Sharp at emily.sharp@wildanimalinitiative.org if:
You have any questions about our hiring process or open positions;
You would like to help us find excellent candidates to join our team; or
You are interested in working with us in a capacity we’re not currently hiring for (in which case, a resume and some details about your professional interests would be helpful to receive).
Thank you for considering Wild Animal Initiative as the next part of your vocational journey, we hope to hear from you!
Terms of employment
Location:
Full-time remote
Must be able to meet with colleagues in Pacific, Central and Eastern (US) time zones most days of the week and to meet with colleagues in European or Central European time zones a few times a week.
Note: We are not able to sponsor work visas and are only considering applicants who are eligible to work in the country they plan to live and work in.
Reports to: Executive Director Cameron Meyer Shorb
Travel:
Travel within the United States and Europe required a maximum of two times per year for staff retreats; as desired for professional development (e.g. attending in-person conferences or training workshops)
Salary:
$44,784 to $54,736, depending on the approximate cost of living in your area. For a complete description of how we set and raise salaries, see our salary algorithm.
Benefits:
Four weeks of paid vacation, 12 holidays, and two weeks of sick leave.
A fully remote work environment that allows you to choose when and where you work.
A friendly, open work culture that encourages feedback, collaboration, experimentation, and evidence-based innovation.
Opportunities for advancement as our team and programs continue their growth trajectory.
Note: This benefit structure is what we use for our U.S. staff and largely similar to what we offer to many non-U.S. staff, but may be different depending on the legal requirements of the country you work in.
Responsibilities
Position mission statement:
As Development Coordinator, you will help us secure critical funding to enable WAI to help as many wild animals as much as possible. You will ensure that donors feel good about supporting our work and directly serve the administrative needs required for a financially healthy organization.
Supervisory responsibilities:
None currently, but if you are interested and able, we are open to your responsibilities evolving to include managing other development staff as our organization grows.
Core Responsibilities:
Donor relations:
Thank all donors in a timely manner according to their giving history and preferences.
Ensure donor information and preferences are accurate and recent in our contact databases.
Help our most engaged supporters run peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns.
Remind coworkers when they should reach out to major donors.
Donation recordkeeping:
Facilitate WAI’s transition to a new donor relationship management (DRM/CRM) system.
Manually enter and update transaction data.
Run reports on giving data.
Log major donor interactions in Airtable.
Update the development department’s dashboard for leadership.
Ensure privacy and anonymity of donor information as needed.
Grants:
Review grant opportunities for fit.
Coordinate our grant application process.
Manage milestone deadlines and timely consult and inform relevant coworkers.
Draft grant proposal outlines.
Support the relationships between WAI staff and grantmakers.
Development operations:
Identify and implement improvements to our current fundraising processes and collaborate with our research, operations, and communications staff where projects overlap.
Qualifications
This role will require you to have the following qualifications:
Excellent time management and organization skills.
Ability to independently stay on top of the small details of multiple projects.
Ability to accurately perform repetitive data entry work at a reasonable pace.
Ability to shepherd fundraising performed by others (including leadership) by being proactive about communicating deadlines, monitoring progress, and providing reminders whenever helpful.
Ability to write clear, clean, personable emails that make donors feel appreciated and that represent the organization well.
This role might also benefit from you having some of the following qualifications. Even if you don’t have some or all of these qualifications, you should still apply:
Experience applying for grants, running fundraising campaigns, stewarding major donor relationships, or experience with other aspects of nonprofit fundraising.
Ability to effectively research and evaluate improvements to fundraising operations, particularly relationship management platforms.
Motivated by a desire to improve the lives of wild animals.
Proficiency with Google Drive, Airtable, Asana, or a donor/contact relationship management platform. We currently use Funraise and are considering migrating to Salesforce, Airtable, or EveryAction.
Credentials and experience:
Note that we do not require any specific academic credentials or prior work experience for you to be considered for this position, as research shows that such requirements can diminish the quality of candidate pools by deterring individuals who would otherwise be a great fit for a role from applying.
Feel free to email emily.sharp@wildanimalinitiative.org with any questions about the role or the application process.