Development Director Athlete Ally

New York, NY

Athlete Ally’s mission is to educate and activate athletic communities to eliminate homophobia and transphobia in sports and to exercise their leadership to champion LGBT equality.

Hudson Taylor co-founded Athlete Ally in January of 2011. An athlete all his life, he witnessed demeaning humor in high school and college athletics, but befriended LGBT people when studying theater and interactive performance art at the University of Maryland. Understanding the immense opportunity for good and significant need to cultivate allyship in sports, Hudson founded Athlete Ally to inspire athletes to act as leaders against anti-LGBT discrimination. In the last three years, with modest funding and a skeletal staff, Athlete Ally has made groundbreaking progress in sports, working to create more inclusive cultures and inspire athletes to use their voices to support LGBT equality. As a leading organization in this space, Athlete Ally has engaged hundreds of college and professional athletes, organized international campaigns around LGBT inclusion in sports, partnered with professional sports leagues, and co-authored the NCAA’s first LGBT policy guide for college coaches, athletes, and administrators. In the short time since Athlete Ally was established, LGBT inclusion in sports and the role that athletes play in the global battle for LGBT rights have become major issues in mainstream media and in sports organizations at all levels of competition. Athlete Ally is a pioneering contributor to this space and aims to institutionalize comprehensive programs for long-term systemic impact.

Development Director Athlete Ally

With its solid base of foundation support, growing membership and volunteer involvement, and strong communications and marketing ability, Athlete Ally seeks a seasoned fundraising professional to lead and help build out a rapidly growing fundraising/development program. Reporting to the Executive Director and Chairman of the Board, the Development Director will serve as the lead professional responsible for building a sustainable fundraising culture, seamlessly integrated with the organization’s marketing initiatives to further Athlete Ally’s mission of ending homophobia and transphobia in sports and activating athletes to champion LGBT equality. Athlete Ally seeks a dynamic, highly organized, and strategic individual with outstanding presentation skills, marketing savvy, broad-based development expertise in all relevant areas of fundraising, and experience building and/or significantly growing a national development function. This individual will embrace Athlete Ally’s mission and the sweep of its vision and fit well within its culture of impassioned, driven, and dedicated professionals.

The successful candidate will be an accomplished development professional who has played a key role in building sustainable high-performing development programs, and a demonstrated history of successful interactions with high net-worth individuals including institutional leadership. S/he will have leadership experience within a sophisticated fundraising operation, a foundation or organization, or innovative mission-based environment, with a broad background in development with at least two years in leadership posts, including work in all core functional areas of fundraising. Experience with multifaceted, national-caliber development organizations and appreciation of the importance of communications and marketing in successful outreach and fundraising is preferred. S/he will possess deep experience in personal fundraising solicitation with a proven record of success as well as broad-based knowledge of strategic fundraising program building, national-caliber fundraising, donor acquisition, planned giving, research, cultivation, organization, stewardship, reporting, and overall management. The successful candidate will have a mission-driven orientation with energy and determination to grow and succeed in service of an entrepreneurial organization dedicated to ending homophobia and transphobia in sports and activating athletes to champion LGBT equality.

A bachelor’s degree is required. A master’s degree in a relevant discipline that will be credible to donors, with strong academic credentials, is preferred.

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