Senior Director, Events, Community & Fundraising

About WHEN Justice

WHEN Justice is a charitable litigation funder, mobilizing capital to develop and strengthen public-interest environmental cases. By pooling resources behind the strategies, evidence, and expertise that carry weight in the courtroom, WHEN counterbalances corporate power to protect the health of people and planet. Founded by a successful entrepreneur and a former corporate attorney, WHEN connects philanthropic litigation funding with movement-building, broadening participation in corporate accountability and helping make harm expensive.

The Opportunity

WHEN Justice is seeking an exceptional Senior Director, Events, Community & Fundraising to build a world-class live-engagement, community-building, and fundraising platform from the ground up.

This is a highly in-person role. The Senior Director will work closely with the founder and executive leadership to create a consistent calendar of compelling events and community moments in Miami and other key cities (e.g. NYC, LA, San Francisco), including recurring founder-hosted dinners and cocktail gatherings, as well as larger benefit events, auction-driven fundraisers, concerts, cultural partnerships, and outside activations.

This is not a traditional event-planning role. The successful candidate will be a sophisticated producer, fundraiser, relationship builder, and operator who combines impeccable taste and hospitality instincts with commercial rigor, flawless execution, and the ability to build an enduring community and reliable source of support for WHEN Justice.

The ideal person can take an idea such as a dinner at the founder’s home and turn it into a beautifully produced, strategically curated, mission-aligned gathering that creates awareness, convenes the right people, deepens relationships, raises money, and leads to meaningful follow-up.

What You’ll Do

• Build and lead a recurring calendar of founder-hosted dinners, cocktail salons, donor cultivation events, benefit events, auction-driven fundraisers, concert activations, and strategic community gatherings.
• Create repeatable event formats that turn intimate gatherings and larger activations into measurable awareness, donor development, fundraising, and community-growth opportunities.
• Own end-to-end event production, including concepts, objectives, budgets, venues and home-event logistics, guest strategy, invitations, programming, vendors, staffing, run-of-show, day-of execution, and post-event follow-up.
• Establish WHEN Justice as a compelling presence across philanthropic, hospitality, cultural, entertainment, business, media, and community ecosystems.
• Identify and activate outside opportunities—including concerts, festivals, cultural events, brand partnerships, private events, and other third-party gatherings—that can expand awareness and fundraising.
• Design and manage event fundraising elements, including sponsorships, underwriting, ticketing, donor cultivation, live appeals, paddle raises, text-to-give, recurring giving, silent auctions, and live auctions.
• Build an exceptional auction procurement pipeline, sourcing art, travel, hospitality, luxury goods, entertainment access, experiences, and mission-aligned offerings.
• Cultivate relationships with donors, collectors, artists, entertainers, brands, businesses, venues, press, and strategic partners to secure auction items, sponsorships, in-kind support, and event partnerships.
• Select, implement, and manage technology for registration, invitations, ticketing, guest management, check-in, payment processing, mobile bidding, auction catalogs, live donations, text-to-give, CRM capture, and post-event reporting.
• Ensure auction item descriptions, bidding processes, payment collection, fulfillment, donor acknowledgment, and event data capture are accurate, polished, and professionally managed.
• Develop thoughtful guest lists and personalized outreach, cultivation, and follow-up plans for priority supporters, prospective donors, sponsors, hosts, partners, and community connectors.
• Coordinate with communications and public-relations partners to create appropriate event visibility, storytelling, press opportunities, and post-event amplification.
• Build the events function from the ground up, including systems, vendor relationships, operating standards, templates, production playbooks, budgets, reporting, and staffing models.
• Manage team members, freelancers, agencies, consultants, volunteers, and vendors as the program grows.
• Track and report gross and net event revenue, sponsorship value, auction performance, in-kind value, event costs, donor conversion, repeat attendance, and post-event giving.

What We’re Looking For

• 8–12+ years of progressive experience in fundraising events, high-end hospitality, entertainment, cultural programming, experiential marketing, donor development, nonprofit advancement, private membership, or related high-touch environments.
• Demonstrated success independently producing complex, high-quality events from concept through execution, fundraising, reconciliation, and post-event stewardship.
• Proven ability to generate meaningful net revenue through fundraising events, auctions, sponsorships, donor cultivation, brand partnerships, or comparable charitable and commercial activations.
• Strong existing relationships—or a demonstrated ability to rapidly build relationships—with premium venues, hospitality partners, artists, entertainment contacts, luxury brands, auction-item donors, media, philanthropic leaders, and high-capacity supporters.
• Deep familiarity with event and fundraising technology, including RSVP systems, ticketing, registration, mobile bidding, auction platforms, online catalogs, text-to-give, donation processing, CRM systems, and donor-data management.
• Strong commercial judgment and the ability to manage event budgets, vendor negotiations, sponsorship economics, auction valuation, revenue targets, and return on investment.
• Excellent relationship-management skills, maturity, discretion, executive presence, and comfort representing a founder-led organization in high-touch settings.
• A strong eye for detail, hospitality, design, and guest experience, paired with the ability to stay calm and decisive in a live-event environment.
• Based in Miami or willing to relocate to Miami for a full-time, primarily in-person role. Exceptional candidates based in NYC, LA, or San Francisco will also be considered.
• Availability to work evenings and weekends frequently, plus occasional travel, as required by the event calendar.

What Success Looks Like in the First 12 Months

• A compelling, dependable calendar of founder-hosted dinners, cocktail salons, donor events, benefit activations, and strategic partnerships.
• A recognizable WHEN Justice event experience that is elevated, mission-aligned, culturally relevant, intimate, and professionally produced.
• A repeatable system for turning events into measurable awareness, relationship-building, donor cultivation, fundraising, and community-growth outcomes.
• A robust pipeline of auction donors, sponsors, in-kind partners, cultural collaborators, venues, entertainment relationships, community hosts, and prospective high-value supporters.
• A reliable technology ecosystem for registration, ticketing, guest management, mobile bidding, live auctions, text-to-give, payment collection, CRM capture, donor acknowledgment, and reporting.
• Clear financial reporting across gross and net revenue, auction performance, sponsorship value, costs, donor conversion, repeat attendance, and post-event giving.
• A trusted roster of vendors, production partners, and operating processes that allows the event platform to grow without sacrificing quality.

Compensation

• Base salary range of $160,000–$195,000, commensurate with experience, fundraising track record, leadership capability, and depth of relationships.