OVERVIEW
Favor International serves to transform war-torn victims into purpose-driven disciples of Christ, equipped to advance the Gospel in villages and mobilized to advance the Kingdom in nations. Favor brings the Gospel to serve broken communities, the traumatized, and the poor thereby multiplying discipled leaders, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to bring Biblical solutions to their own cultures.
Favor International is a $9.8m nonprofit organization with 8 employees in the United States and 880 trained indigenous missionaries who perform the work in Uganda, South Sudan and other parts of Africa. The Tampa-based mission agency is engaged in evangelism, discipleship, education, church planting, community development, and humanitarian relief. Through their work , they show God’s love and follow the Great Commission and train indigenous leaders to create sustainable change.
OPPORTUNITY
To further the vision of impacting communities for Christ in Uganda, South Sudan, and Chad, Favor International is seeking an experienced US-based fundraising professional, to serve as their Development Officer, to develop a culture of giving among partners in the United States to support their indigenous missionary movement overseas. Meanwhile the Development Officer will be responsible for the development team, and implement systems to advance Favor’s mission through implementing a hands-on, ground-up, and relationship-focused fundraising cultivation strategy. As part of a US-based, foreign-focused virtual team, the Development Officer will report to the US Executive Director. This is a remote position based in Florida. There is an identical opportunity based in California as well (click here).
THEIR STORY
Favor was birthed by prayer in 2002 by Ugandans and founder Carole Ward, a 3rd generation missionary, in the midst of civil war with Joseph Kony and the LRA. Favor was founded to see God’s transformation of leaders and the region. Through God’s miraculous proliferation of the Gospel, discipleship, and mobilized public prayer movements, the previously unconquerable child soldier armies of the LRA self-evacuated and led to an uneasy peace by 2006. The LRA’s highest general, who converted to Christianity and attended Favor’s Bible school, credited one of Favor’s specific prayer gatherings for ending the war.
WHAT THEY DO
As a Christian organization, Favor International exists to provide spiritual and biblical guidance, humanitarian relief, and educational and economic development. Favor International builds churches and focuses on training and developing indigenous leaders to become pastors and missionaries. Dedicated towards working with children, families, and communities primarily in Uganda and South Sudan, through the power of the Gospel, mobilized prayer and discipleship, leadership development, local community-based problem solving, and public/private cooperation, our indigenous leaders help to transform unreached and underserved communities & nations of Africa.
POSITION DESCRIPTION
Job Title: Major Gifts Officer—Florida
Reports to: Director Development
Responsibilities of the Development Officer include, but are not limited to:
Fundraising
Understand and articulate the value the ministry provides in exchange for financial partnership.
Identify specific relationship lists for specific relationship-building actions within specific timeframes.
Know and continuously update the articulation of Favor’s “development message,” a key internal document that articulates the fundamental talking points, plans, budgets, and value of supporting the ministry.
Compose shareable plans for overseas projects and budgets.
Schedule appointments with current and potential partners to discuss their input and participation with Favor to accomplish shared goals.
Follow up with new leads. Walk people through the steps of becoming long-term partners.
Speak at business events, to foundations, Rotary meetings, small groups, churches, or one-on-one meetings.
Focus actionable time on face-to-face or small group meetings, not massive online or direct mail fundraising campaigns.
Plan relationship cultivation strategy and implement its details, from determining the use of collateral materials to communication calendars to email templates and use of websites.
Be part of the writing of needed marketing materials.
Writing, submitting, and following up with grant opportunities in the United States.
Set and meet development goals quarterly.
Travel regularly throughout the domestic U.S. to meet key relationships face-to-face in accordance with plans to have at least one scheduled, meaningful, and individual meeting with key partners at least annually in person or over the phone.
Fundraising Support
Provide input to the organization on legal compliance related to fundraising matters.
Ensure appropriate methods of reporting are being consistently executed
Input content development on websites and other online marketing platforms.
Provide input on the building and maintenance of systems for others to run in receiving donations, accounting, content creation, building relationships, online lead generation, and communication.
Help Develop and record processes for completing the above responsibilities.
This position meets the daily functioning needs of a small-staff, large-visioned ministry, so the role necessarily includes off-hours emergency requests for information or action and balancing a large number of different tasks and situations with a variety of skills.
Success in this role looks like:
Fundraising targets are met or exceeded
Key partners are honored and engaged: they receive timely standout thanking, reports at the level of detail desired, and personalized opportunities to grow their support of this vision.
People enjoy giving their time, talent, and treasure to Favor because the reported fruit matches what they are passionate about.
Donor retention increases
New contacts and donors
Qualifications
A good, strong, motivated work ethic that completes projects and inspires others to do the same. Be reliable and consistent.
Four or more years’ fundraising experience.
Certification with a fundraising association desired.
Ability to travel 50% of the time
A personal philosophy of fundraising favoring one-on-one and small group methods preeminent over mass media approaches.
Superb written and verbal interpersonal communication skills.
Ability to build relationships with foundations, business owners, and church leaders.
A quality network of potential volunteers, staff members, board members, vendors ready to be recommended as potential candidates for positions assisting Favor’s vision.
Flexibility to take up sudden responsibilities and complete them well at short notice.
A spiritual calling and design to serve in this particular role with this ministry at this time.
Fruit of the Holy Spirit and characteristics of a mature follower of Christ.
Real Expectations
Favor expects the successful applicant for this position to become the direct communicator with our partners regarding their giving and participation in Favor’s vision. This person should have an aptitude and calling for fundraising in the Christian international missions space.
While the Development Officer will not have to fundraise for his/her own salary, Favor expects to see a reasonable set of fundraising results at the 4-month and 8-month performance reviews. To aid in this success at Favor, Favor will provide onboarding training, access to existing systems and CRM data, and the enthusiastic support of our US Executive Director and the International Director and Founder. During the first four months of working with Favor, the Development Officer will utilize only existing partnerships, branding, and collateral. New messaging, communication templates, and marketing collateral will not be developed until after vision trip to the field.
This position requires both national and international travel. That will include taking a vision trip to see Favor’s work firsthand in Uganda and South Sudan.
Compensation
Compensation will be fairly based on experience. Compensation may increase as the organization grows.
OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES
Opportunities
This mission will prove an exciting environment because of it’s mission and the unquestioned reliance on the Holy Spirit that permeates the leadership culture.
This position will have opportunity to train and grow their own development team over time. The right leader will have the rare opportunity to curate their own team and disciple and train them to effectiveness. In addition, they will get the chance to share the exciting story of Favor with new stakeholders and partners who will join both the staff and donor communities.
Challenges
The team in the US is small but growing. They have a new office space and are adding strategically to their number. Helping the US Team grow while the founder and bulk of the filed team are in Africa may pose some challenges.
Currently the staff team does not offer benefits such as health insurance, but leadership is addressing this as the organization meets growth milestones.
The development team is currently migrating the CRM system from Continue to Give to Blackbaud Raiser’s Edge.
NEXT STEPS
If, after reviewing this information with prayerful consideration, you believe this role fits you well please click on the APPLY NOW button below. If you know someone who may have an interest, please use the social media share and email buttons at the top. If you know someone you would like to recommend, please contact:
Yale Kim
Search Consultant
MISSION:LEADERSHIP
email :: yale@missionleadership.org
web :: www.missionleadership.org