Associate Director, Family Philanthropy

About Cradles to Crayons:

Cradles to Crayons (C2C), founded in 2002, provides children living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive—at home, at school, and at play. We supply clothing, shoes, diapers, school supplies, and more, free of charge. Our vision is that one day all children will have the essentials they need to thrive. 

Two in 5 kids in the United States are currently facing Clothing Insecurity, going without basic essentials like pants, shoes, diapers, and school supplies during their critical development years. Three of the top 10 reasons kids miss school are rooted in Clothing Insecurity—just one example of the significant short- and long-term social and economic costs when these needs go unmet. Cradles to Crayons keeps Clothing Insecurity at the core of our mission and is the only large-scale nonprofit organization to focus on this resource gap. Since its founding, Cradles to Crayons has distributed more than three million customized packages of essentials to children in Massachusetts, Greater Philadelphia, Chicagoland, and nationally, through Giving Factory Direct—a first-in-kind online product donation platform launched in 2021. 

Cradles to Crayons takes a three-pronged approach to mitigating Clothing Insecurity: 

1. In-person Engagement—through tens of thousands of children and adults volunteering at our Giving Factory warehouses to sort and package high volumes of new and like-new donations from our communities for our Service Partners to distribute to the children they serve. 
2. Online Product Donations—Giving Factory Direct matches product donors directly to children who need the items they have to donate. GFD is currently available in a growing number of communities as we expand our reach nationally. 
3. Advocacy and Awareness—Cradles to Crayons is uniquely positioned to raise Clothing Insecurity as a national issue through awareness campaigns, data/evaluation, and legislative outreach.  

Cradles to Crayons’ strong financial health and ongoing effectiveness and reliability have helped it earn a Four-Star Rating from Charity Navigator every year since 2009. C2C has a budget of $18.5M for FY26 and a total staff of approximately 100. C2C Philadelphia has a budget of $3M for FY26 and a total staff of 22.

POSITION OVERVIEW:

Reporting to the Senior Director of Development, the Associate Director of Family Philanthropy supports the identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of individual/family gifts with the goal of increasing the number of major gifts ($10,000+). The primary focus of this position is to expand the base of individual and family supporters by successfully managing current donor relationships and recruiting new individuals and families to support the organization’s mission through the Family Advisory Council (FAC), Family Leadership Council (FLC), the Connecting Communities Committee and the programs focused on youth leadership.

The Associate Director is responsible for organizing and realizing the revenue goal for Un-Gala Purple Party and Family Day and other family centric fundraising events such as Family BPAT and others.

The successful Associate Director will demonstrate strong written and verbal communication skills, is comfortable being a spokesperson for the organization and collaborates effectively when working with both internal and external constituencies.

This is not a typical Monday through Friday position. It is a full-time position with some built-in flexibility because it often requires weekend and evening work to support family engagement events, such as Dads and Daughters Days, and Girl’s Night Out. The Associate Director will attend an average of one weekend shift per month in the Giving Factory, and is expected to attend Family Days, specific shifts when major individual and family donors are present, Family Shifts (12-15 per year on weekends), Youth programming, Teen Leadership Corps orientation, leadership development days, and Family Engagement events (usually held in the evening and weekends).

All Cradles to Crayons staff participate in monthly in-person volunteer shifts to stay closely connected to our mission.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Model and lead a positive “One Cradles” culture, underpinned by Cradles’ Cultural Values and related behaviors.
• Serve as a member of the Development Team to meet annual fundraising goals.
• Actively direct, steward and grow the FAC and FLC together with a portfolio of individual/family donors in the $1,000 - $50,000+ range.
• Support Executive Director and Senior Director of Development in cultivating, stewarding and closing major gifts (+$50K)
• Manage the Philadelphia Sr. Associate and Coordinator of Development to ensure a clear, strategic plan related to these individual’s job functions
• Direct and grow School Club, and Junior Champion Program.
• Contribute to new business development efforts by identifying and engaging prospective individual and family donors through proactive outreach, leveraging C2C’s family engagement platform and warehouse visits.
• Strategize, schedule and manage logistics for family cultivation events (Family Volunteer Days, Girls Night Out, etc.) with support from other Development Department team members and the Operations staff.
• Direct and manage the Un-Gala Purple Party and Family Day events with the Development Team and Operations to reach annual revenue goal.
• Work with Senior Director of Development in leading a cross-functional team to create holistic approach to successful family engagement and C2C’s ability to maximize funding, in-kind product donation and volunteerism.
• In conjunction with the Senior Development Director upgrade and maintain a tiered program structure for the Family Leadership Council program, to provide stewardship opportunities to leverage donor growth:
  • Identify a portfolio of FLC donors for 5-6 figure gifts
• Direct and manage the production and regular updating of all the collateral marketing and informational materials including the website for the family programs and major events in conjunction with the Marketing and Communications Department.
• Provide excellent customer service by responding in a timely manner to emails and phone calls.
• Create and maintain CRM information to support Cradles to Crayons’ family/ individual engagement goals in the areas of financial support, product acquisition, volunteering and new relationships to ensure all family interactions are recorded.
• Work with Development Operations Coordinator, as needed, to produce reports and necessary materials to enable the Development Team to stay on track to achieve goals.
• Attend C2C’s signature events and contribute to other departmental and organizational goals and activities as needed.

Performance measures:

• Establish and meet all fundraising objectives to reach the annual operating and capacity need of C2C through family/individual philanthropy.
• Demonstrate ability to generate new business and steward donors toward major gift level for cultivation by the Vice President of National Philanthropy.
• Increase and renew existing donor commitments.
• Create and use Salesforce reports to track progress toward goals.
• Demonstrate ability to build, manage and inspire others toward common departmental and organizational goals, particularly in supervisory role for the Family Philanthropy Coordinator.
• Demonstrate ability to work collaboratively and cooperatively with other C2C staff, including counterparts at other Cradles’ sites.
• Uphold high quality of customer service with all C2C stakeholders.

Required Experience/Knowledge/Skills/Abilities:

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent experience) in Communications, Business, Organizational Development or other relevant field.

• 5+ years of development experience related to individual/family giving required.
• Superior writing and editing skills
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office Suite; familiarity with CRM systems such as Salesforce or Raiser’s Edge and research tools such as Foundation Directory or GrantStation.
• Experience in planning, managing and implementing events.
• Strong interpersonal skills, ability to work with a wide range of people and self-confidence to reach out to a variety of external audiences.

• Resourceful, entrepreneurial attitude with ability to work in fast-paced environment and flexibility to work with individuals who have different work styles.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and organize time with strong attention to detail.
• Team player: demonstrate a positive and supportive attitude and willingness to work closely with the C2C team at all levels.
• Commitment to Cradles to Crayons’ mission.
• Knowledge and understanding of relevant social issues.
• Ability to walk up and down stairs easily, stand for lengthy periods of time, bend and lift up to 20 lbs.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

The estimated base salary for this position is $80,000-$85,000 annually. The compensation offered to the successful candidate may vary from the posted range based on geographic location, work experience, education, and/or skill level, among other things.

This is a benefits-eligible position. Cradles to Crayons offers a generous benefits package, which includes, but is not limited to:

• Health benefits including medical, dental, vision and a Health Reimbursement Arrangement
• A monthly cell phone and internet usage stipend
• Employer-sponsored short- and long-term disability and basic life insurance
• Retirement plan matching
• Annual professional development stipend

DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH:

Diversity and Inclusiveness are core values at Cradles to Crayons, and we continuously strive to be a team where everyone feels welcome and supported. It is the policy of Cradles to Crayons to provide equal employment opportunities without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information and/or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. Individuals from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply.

Working Conditions:

This is a warehouse environment and normal changes in temperature are to be expected while working inside the warehouse or outside, on or around the loading dock. There are no hazardous or significantly unpleasant conditions.

Accommodation:

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is possible that requirements may be modified to reasonably accommodate disabled individuals. However, no accommodations will be made by Cradles to Crayons which may pose serious health or safety risks to the employee or others, or which impose undue hardships on the organization.

To Apply:

Please submit a cover letter and resume with relevant experience to https://www.cradlestocrayons.org/what-we-do/careers/