Description

About the Outdoor Foundation
The Outdoor Foundation – the philanthropic arm of the Outdoor Industry Association – was launched in 2000 to inspire and grow future generations of outdoor enthusiasts, improving the health and wellbeing of communities through outdoor recreation. We champion a simple belief: everyone deserves equitable access to the joy, health, and community the outdoors provides. For 25 years, we’ve paired strategic community investments with groundbreaking research to lower barriers to participation and cultivate the next generation of diverse outdoor enthusiasts and stewards, especially in communities that have historically been left out.

Our flagship Thrive Outside initiative invests in and supports community-led coalitions that bring together schools, youth-serving nonprofits, environmental groups, land managers, healthcare and social service providers, and local businesses to deliver sustained, close-to-home outdoor experiences for children, youth, and families. The model is delivering results: in the past year, Thrive Outside communities engaged 115,000+ participants, mobilized $2.2M+ in donated gear, and leveraged $4.9M+ in local co-investment. Now active in 14 communities – with new sites launching in 2025 – we’re scaling what works: collaboration, consistency, and culture-building that turn first outdoor experiences into weekly habits and, ultimately, a way of life.

The Opportunity
We’re building smart, durable fundraising systems to power a period of major momentum for our organization. The Development Operations Associate will serve as the operational hub for our development efforts – translating strategy into execution; structuring workflows; moving opportunities forward with discipline; producing polished materials; delivering timely research and database reports; and ensuring seamless donor experiences from first touch through final report. If you love a tidy CRM, crisp checklists, and moving parts that click into place, you’ll thrive here.

What You’ll Do

• Prospect research & moves management: Identify and qualify corporate, foundation, and individual prospects; synthesize research into concise profiles and briefs. Sustain a high-volume, quality-first research cadence – regularly surfacing new, well-qualified prospects – and maintain a disciplined, CRM-supported moves-management framework (identify → qualify → cultivate → solicit → steward); Maintain clean and current data; Establish clear action timelines; and surface progress through routine portfolio updates.
• Meeting coordination: Support the Executive Director in planning and preparing materials for recurring development team meetings, donor meetings, and board meetings. Support scheduling, developing agendas, creating pre-read materials and presentations in collaboration with staff; capturing decisions and action items during meetings; logging owners and deadlines; updating CRM platform; and sending timely recaps and reminders. Support board fundraising with call sheets, prospect briefs, and follow-up tracking.
• Proposals, acknowledgments & reports: Draft and coordinate proposals, sponsorship decks, gift acknowledgments, and interim/final reports. Maintain templates and content libraries; ensure content, tone, data, and branding are consistent.
• Grants management: Track requirements, deadlines, and deliverables; draft clean, on-time submissions. Partner internally to gather narrative content, budgets, outcomes, photos, impact stories, and signatures. Own the stewardship calendar (thank-yous, touchpoints, milestones); prompt other team members on next actions.
• CRM Management (Salesforce): Develop and maintain the donor CRM system; enter and update moves-management stages, contact notes, and engagement history; build and iterate dashboards and reports (e.g., prospect/portfolio status, activity & touchpoints, revenue and grant forecasts, stewardship and grant calendars); create automated task/reminder workflows to support follow-through; perform routine data hygiene; and produce periodic development snapshots for staff and the board.

Requirements

What You’ll Bring

• 2–5 years in development operations, grants management, advancement services, or similar.
• Strong writing and editing skills; can draft concise acknowledgments and compelling proposal text.
• Proven project management experience – deadline-driven, detail-focused, and adaptive to shifting priorities.
• Hands-on experience with a donor CRM (esp., Salesforce) and Google Workspace; comfortable with spreadsheets and maintaining data hygiene.
• Proficient in Microsoft 365 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook).
• A service mindset with excellent interpersonal communication and discretion handling sensitive information.
• Inclusive, people-centered approach – listens deeply, collaborates with humility, co-creates solutions, and elevates community voices.
• Team player – collaborative, team-first, and cross-functional; communicates transparently, shares credit, asks for and offers help, and delivers reliably.

Nice to Have

• Experience supporting corporate partnerships/sponsorships and cause marketing.
• Light design/formatting skills (PowerPoint, Google Slides, Canva) for decks and one-page briefs.

How We’ll Measure Success

• 90 days: Our CRM will be up-to-date with functional dashboards and reports developed; stewardship calendar is live; proposal/report templates refreshed; all active grants and prospects tracked with clear next steps. Identification of 10 strong new funding leads, with suitable background research so that team can approach these leads.
• 6 months: On-time proposal and report submissions at 100%; acknowledgments within 5 business days of gifts; clean pipeline reporting available monthly.  Identification of 25 strong new funding leads, with suitable background research on each.
• 12 months: Reduced time-to-submit, stronger renewal rates, and smooth donor experiences from prospecting through reporting.  Identification of 50 strong new funding leads, with suitable background research on each.

Contract Details

• Type: Independent contractor
• Hours: ~20 hours/week, with the ability to flex during peak periods (however, no more than 40 hours/week)
• Term: 12 months (October 2025 – October 2026), renewable based on performance
• Compensation: $41,600/year (approx. $40/hour)
• Equipment/benefits: As a contractor, you will provide your own equipment and are not eligible for employee benefits.

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of all activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the contractor for this job. Other duties, responsibilities and activities may change or be assigned at any time with or without notice. All contractors report to and perform other related duties as assigned by the supervisor.  

To Apply
Please send your resume and a cover letter with 1–2 work samples (e.g., proposal excerpt, acknowledgment letter, reporting dashboard screenshot – feel free to redact) to lduncan@outdoorfoundation.org with the subject line: “Development Operations Associate – [Your Name]”

Equal Opportunity
The Outdoor Foundation celebrates diversity and is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds and identities – including (but not limited to) race, ethnicity, nationality, immigration status, religion, disability and neurodiversity, age, sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, veteran status, family/caregiver status, socioeconomic background, and people with nontraditional or interrupted career paths. If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every qualification, we still encourage you to apply. We value transferable skills, lived experience, and potential alongside formal credentials.

We are committed to a fair, inclusive selection process and provide reasonable accommodations throughout application and contracting. To request an accommodation, please contact [insert email]. We evaluate candidates based on alignment with the role’s responsibilities and our mission to expand access, belonging, and opportunity in the outdoors.