Director of Development

Description

LOCATION: Seattle, Washington (hybrid)

BACKGROUND

Global Partnerships (GP) is a non-profit impact-first fund manager dedicated to expanding opportunity for people living in poverty. Impact-first investing means investing in a way that seeks the greatest possible social impact, while seeking to preserve capital with a modest financial return for investors. GP believes that impact-first investing has an essential role to play in advancing sustainable solutions to poverty for millions of people worldwide.

GP supports social enterprises serving people living in poverty, primarily in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa. We ended fiscal year 2025 with a portfolio of over $180 million in outstanding investments to 86 social enterprise partners. Since inception, our funds’ investments have positively impacted more than 39 million lives. 

Our mission-driven team operates primarily from Seattle, Bogotá, and Nairobi. Learn more at www.globalpartnerships.org.

ROLE OVERVIEW

GP seeks a highly relational, highly organized Director of Development to help grow and care for our base of aligned investors and donors, with particular focus on high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs). This role is for a confident, values-aligned leader who builds trust easily, communicates with clarity and warmth, learns complex work quickly, enjoys process-driven environments, and takes pride in moving relationships forward with discipline and care.

Reporting to the Vice President of Investor Relations, the Director will strengthen how GP manages relationships across the full supporter journey: from early interest, to first commitment, to ongoing stewardship and growth. The Director will both support senior relationship managers – including the CEO, Chief Capital and Impact Officer, Vice President of Investor Relations, and board champions – and directly manage their own portfolio of supporters and prospects. In both capacities, the Director will help ensure that relationships are well understood, thoughtfully advanced, carefully stewarded, and positioned to grow over time.

The Director of Development is a new role at GP, created at a pivotal moment as we seek to diversify and materially expand our base of investors and donors. A typical day could include preparing an executive for an HNWI meeting; joining a second or follow-up conversation with a prospective investor; drafting warm, compliant next-step communication; updating an account strategy in the CRM; nudging a relationship manager on a promised follow-up; checking in with a current investor; and leading an internal planning meeting for an upcoming prospect gathering or supporter trip.

Requirements

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Relationship Management and Growth

• Build trusted relationships with HNWIs, donors, and mission-aligned investors, helping them understand GP's mission, impact-first model, and philanthropic and investment on-ramps.
• Manage and grow an assigned portfolio of relationships; identify opportunities for renewal, increased engagement, or additional participation across GP's capital spectrum.
• Participate in second and follow-up meetings with sophisticated prospects and supporters; listen well, assess motivations and decision dynamics, answer questions, and recommend the right next step.
• Work alongside GP's CEO, Chief Capital and Impact Officer, Vice President of Investor Relations, and board members in shared relationships, in some cases taking on primary ownership over time.

Prospect Pipeline Enablement 

• Serve as a strategic partner to internal relationship managers by clarifying account goals, meeting objectives, next steps, owners, and timelines.
• Develop and maintain account strategies that capture relationship history, motivations, giving or investment pathways, decision dynamics, risks, and recommended actions.
• Prepare concise executive briefing materials, talking points, and follow-up drafts that help senior leaders and board members use their time well.
• Lead or contribute to account reviews, surfacing opportunities, stalled relationships, risks, and specific recommended actions that drive quality throughput.

Strategic Engagement Experiences

• Oversee the relationship strategy for small prospect gatherings and briefings; ensure each activity has a clear audience, purpose, follow-up plan, and role in the supporter journey.
• Help shape supporter trips and other high-touch experiences as tools for stewardship, growth, prospect education, and deeper engagement with GP's mission and model.
• Partner with Investor Relations colleagues on execution; while others will coordinate logistics, this role closely manages attendee communication and follow-up to ensure each experience advances relationship goals.

Systems Excellence

• Maintain accurate, timely records of account strategies, meeting notes, opportunity stages, next actions, and timelines in GP's CRM.
• Manage multiple concurrent workstreams with precision, ensuring no high-value relationship loses momentum or falls through the cracks.
• Contribute to reporting on relationship activity, portfolio health, stewardship opportunities, pipeline movement, and areas needing leadership attention.
• Continuously identify process improvements that increase clarity, accountability, efficiency, and relationship quality across the investor relations function.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Core Capabilities

• Outstanding relationship skills; able to draw people into conversation, build trust quickly, and create comfort with sophisticated donors, investors, executives, and board members.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; articulate, concise, warm, credible, and able to translate complex work into clear language for different audiences.
• High learning agility and curiosity; able to ramp quickly into GP's model at the intersection of philanthropy, impact-first investing, international development, social enterprise, and capital preservation.
• Operational excellence; enjoys CRM discipline, account planning, process improvement, and managing multiple concurrent relationships with clarity and precision.
• Strong judgment and follow-through; able to balance strategic relationship thinking with hands-on execution and timely next steps.
• Collaborative and low-ego; comfortable enabling executives and board members while also building direct relationships and taking ownership over time.
• Passion for GP's mission to expand opportunity for people living in poverty; embodies GP's values: Dedicated, Strategic, Collaborative, Aspirational, Learning, and Excellence.

Qualifications

• Eight or more years of relevant professional experience in relationship management, philanthropy, nonprofit major gifts, investor relations, business development, client service, sales, or related roles.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex, high-value relationships through multiple stages of engagement, decision-making, commitment, stewardship, and growth. 
• Experience working directly with individual donors, HNWIs, family offices, mission-aligned investors, entrepreneurs, or executive-level stakeholders.
• Familiarity with impact investing, financial services, international development, social enterprise, emerging markets, or philanthropy preferred; curiosity and ability to ramp quickly required.
• Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree or relevant professional credential preferred.
• Ability to reside and work legally in the United States for GP without visa sponsorship; willingness to travel domestically and internationally on a limited basis.

SALARY & BENEFITS

The salary range for this role is $100,000 to $110,000 per year. GP operates with a hybrid work model: Mondays and Fridays remote, and Tuesday-Thursday in-office (downtown Seattle).

The current benefits package includes:

• Paid holiday, vacation, and sick leave
• Retirement savings plan with fully vested employer contributions
• Comprehensive health care and life/disability insurance coverage
• Transportation benefit

HOW TO APPLY

Interviews with final candidates are required.

Required application documents:

• Brief cover letter
• Résumé

Global Partnerships is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on ethnic origin/race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability, marital status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Applications will be accepted and reviewed on a rolling basis. For priority consideration, please apply by August 31, 2026.

Due to the volume of applications, we will contact only those candidates selected for interviews – no follow-ups, please.

Finalists will be asked to submit references, including name, email, and phone number, of at least two former supervisors. All offers will be contingent upon reference checks as well as a background check.