Director of Development

Director of Development

Employment Type: Full-Time

Reports To: Executive Director

Location: Pike Place Market, Seattle, WA (on-site)

About the Foundation

For more than 40 years, the Pike Place Market Foundation has served the people of the Market through our mission to nurture a thriving Market community where all can live their best possible lives. We fund essential services — healthcare, food access, childcare and early learning, senior services, and emergency assistance — for the people who live, work, learn, and create here. Our work is grounded in collaboration, accountability, inclusion, and community impact.

The Impact You'll Make

This is a senior leadership role for an experienced fundraiser with a proven track record in building sustained philanthropic partnerships that deliver critical resources to accelerate an organizational mission. You will shape strategy, manage and develop a team, carry your own major donor portfolio and relationships, and drive results. The Director of Development leads the Foundation's entire Development function and serves as a key member of the leadership team.

You are joining at a pivotal moment. The Foundation just closed its strongest year of impact to date and is defining its next chapter. You’ll build on that strength, securing resources to meet the expanding needs of those we serve. This role requires a strategic leader who can integrate with speed and be operational from day one.

The Foundation offers much to build from - a new Executive Director with deep philanthropic connections and a strategic, data-driven mindset; an engaged group of committed donors; a talented team; a dedicated Board with real fundraising capacity; and an active major campaign underway to support farmers following the 2025 floods. The Development team is deeply committed to our mission and work and has recently undergone a significant transition. This moment presents an opportunity to add strength and resources in service of our mission

If you are driven by positive impact, excel at building sustained, strategic relationships and securing resources, love building a high-performing team, and thrive with real authority and partnership, this is the role for you.

What You'll Do

Own Revenue and Lead Development Strategy

• • Develop and execute a comprehensive fund development strategy and goals aligned with the Foundation's mission, budget, and multi-year priorities.
  • Own revenue outcomes and realize sustained funding growth across all portfolios.
  • Build fund development plans, set goals and establish performance measures for annual giving, major gifts, mid-level giving, planned giving, foundational and government grants, corporate partnerships, events, and emerging opportunities.
  • Chart the future strategy for the Foundation's event portfolio, using both data-driven analysis and donor-driven insights. This includes, but is not limited to, audience strategy, major donor experience design, and ROI/efficiency analysis to determine how events fit into the overall revenue portfolio.
  • Partner with program and service delivery staff to identify emerging community needs and translate them into compelling funding opportunities that align donor interests with mission priorities.
  • Serve as a member of the senior leadership team, contributing to organizational planning and cross-functional decisions.

Build and Lead the Team

• • Build, lead, coach, and develop a diverse team with varied experience levels and portfolios to meet and exceed collective and individual goals and deliver short- and long-term resources.
  • Create alignment across fundraising functions to ensure a cohesive, coordinated, and values-centered donor experience.
  • Own workforce planning, set clear expectations, invest in professional development, and build a culture of accountability, creativity, and continuous improvement.
  • Build and sustain a diverse, equitable, and inclusive team by actively recruiting people with different backgrounds, perspectives, and strengths, fostering complementary skills, and helping each person contribute their best to achieve shared results.
  • Navigate performance management directly and honestly by establishing clear goals, providing regular feedback and support, and addressing performance issues in a timely and respectful manner.
  • Collaborate across departments and with key partners to strengthen communication and shared ownership of resource development success.

Drive Major Donor and Community Engagement

• • Personally manage a portfolio of major donors, prospects, community leaders, and institutional partners to advance the mission.
  • Partner with the Executive Director and the Board to cultivate, solicit, and steward significant gifts, including six-figure and transformational investments.
  • Identify and advance major-gift, leadership-giving, and planned-giving opportunities aligned with organizational priorities and donor values.
  • Serve as a visible and respected ambassador for the Foundation in the Seattle philanthropic community.
  • Serve as staff lead on the Board-level revenue development committee, setting agendas, guiding fundraising focus, and supporting members in their philanthropic roles. Demonstrate leadership through influence, establish role clarity, facilitate productive group dynamics, and maintain a clear, mission-driven focus while navigating complex volunteer relationships.
  • Build a culture of philanthropy across the organization, with the Board as active, informed participants in donor cultivation and stewardship.

Oversee Revenue, Operations, Fundraising Communications, and Stewardship

• • Develop and manage the Development department's budget, focusing on effectiveness, efficiency, and return on investment across events, strategies, and tactics to ensure resources are allocated to achieve the greatest philanthropic impact.
  • Optimize resource allocation, using data, donor feedback, and performance metrics to evaluate effectiveness and inform strategy.
  • Oversee Development operations: CRM systems, gift processing, donor stewardship, data reporting, and campaign workflows.
  • Manage contract resources, including a part-time contracted grant writer, providing direction, review, and quality oversight across the institutional portfolio, while personally leading the research, strategy, and writing on complex, high-priority grant proposals.
  • Develop and oversee strategic donor communications, including appeals, campaign narratives, stewardship reports, and impact stories, that speak to different audiences and inspire supporters to take action.
  • Serve as the Development team's lead voice on donor-facing content, ensuring all communications are compelling, brand- and mission-aligned, and appropriate to the giving level and relationship stage.
  • Partner with marketing and communications resources to develop required materials to support fundraising. As needed, lead the creation and coordination of content directly.

What You'll Bring

Required Experience

• • 10+ years of senior-level fundraising with progressively responsible experience in nonprofit fundraising or a closely related field.
  • 6+ years of building sustainable, diverse donor portfolios that deliver upon ambitious multi-year fundraising goals across broad donor segments. Direct experience personally securing multiple six-figure major gifts
  • 6+ years building and leading high-performing fundraising teams, recruiting and onboarding talent, coaching, developing, and cultivating culture.
  • Effective engagement and partnership with executive leadership and Board members to advance organizational priorities.
  • Strong financial acumen, including proficiency in forecasting, budgeting, revenue planning, and performance analysis. Demonstrated success aligning resources with goals, tracking performance, and using data to inform decisions and resource allocation.
  • Excellent communication skills across audiences, with proven success in crafting compelling appeals, campaign narratives, and donor communications
  • Change management experience with strong results, navigating transitions while maintaining fundraising momentum.
  • Proficiency with donor CRM systems and fundraising technology.
  • Genuine affinity for the mission and community of the Pike Place Market Foundation and those we serve.

Preferred Experience

• • Experience with capital and endowment campaigns, transformational gifts, or major growth initiatives.
  • Familiarity with planned giving vehicles, donor-advised funds, and family foundation relationships.
  • Background in human services, food security, healthcare, housing, or related community impact work.
  • Knowledge of and established relationships within the Seattle philanthropic community, along with familiarity with the Pacific Northwest nonprofit sector.

Core Competencies

Success in this role requires:

• • Strategic Mindset : Serves as a thought partner on the leadership team. Contributes to organizational strategy and translates organizational priorities into a coherent, executable fundraising plan.
  • Delivering Results: Sets ambitious, measurable goals and follows through by tracking progress, making adjustments when needed, and holding themselves and their team accountable for outcomes, not just activity.
  • Team Development : Builds high-performing teams through recruiting key talent, setting clear expectations, coaching and providing honest feedback, and investing in people.
  • Developing Others : Identifies key capabilities of staff, volunteers, and partners, matches talent to organizational needs, and inspires aligned contributions across diverse stakeholders.
  • Inclusive Leadership: Demonstrated success building, leading, and retaining diverse teams by actively recruiting people with different backgrounds and perspectives, drawing out individual strengths, fostering a culture of trust, belonging, and accountability, and creating conditions where people from all backgrounds are set up to thrive and contribute their best.
  • Major Donor Relationships : Builds genuine, trust-based connections, not transactional ones.
  • Communications Fluency : Communicates effectively across audiences and formats, in writing, in person, in rooms with donors and partners, and Board members. Adjusts register and message for different stakeholder relationships without losing authenticity.
  • Comfort with Complexity : Distills complexity into a clear path forward, elevates key priorities, and clears roadblocks and distractions.
  • Sound Judgment : Makes sound decisions under pressure, in complex situations, and with incomplete information.
  • Board Partnership : Engages with volunteer Board leaders with confidence and authority, reinforcing governance boundaries with professionalism and poise. Remains steady and solutions-oriented when navigating differing perspectives or challenging group dynamics.
  • Data Fluency : Uses performance metrics and donor insights to drive strategy, not just report on it.
  • Cross-Functional Collaboration : Operates as a genuine organizational partner with the Executive Director, Board, program colleagues, and key partners.
  • Operational Execution : Turns strategy into action and delivers consistent results effectively and efficiently.

How We Support You

We believe people do their best work when they feel supported, trusted, and connected to purpose. At Pike Place Market Foundation, we are committed to creating an environment where people can learn, contribute, grow, and build meaningful relationships with colleagues, donors, partners, and the Market community.

In this role, you can expect:

• • Direct partnership with the Executive Director and the Board on organizational strategy and direction.
  • A team committed to the work and with genuine room to grow.
  • The autonomy to lead, make decisions, and shape the fundraising program.
  • Colleagues across the organization who share accountability for advancing the mission.
  • Meaningful work at the center of a community that matters, the Market and the people who live, learn, work, and create in and around it.

Please send a resume and cover letter to View email address on click.appcast.io . Priority deadline: September 15, 2026. Resumes reviewed upon receipt.