Job Openings with the Land Trust Alliance

• Vice President of Development
• Grants Manager
• Northeast Director
• Internship Opportunities

Join a growing and successful organization that supports a network of 1600 land trusts. Together, land trusts have conserved more land than in all of the national parks in the lower 48 states. Our work is making a difference in communities across America. As the national leader of America's land trusts, the Land Trust Alliance works to dramatically increase the pace and quality of private land conservation in America. Founded in 1982, the Land Trust Alliance has mobilized the energy of more than a thousand land trusts and has created an unprecedented grassroots movement, one that has successfully saved more than thirty-four million acres of land and has the potential to save millions more.

The Land Trust Alliance established and promotes Land Trust Standards and Practices, the ethical and technical guidelines for the responsible operation of a land trust. The Alliance established an Accreditation Commission early 2006 to operate an independent third-party verification program for land trusts seeking public recognition for implementing the standards.

The Land Trust Alliance is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate because of race, creed, color, national origin, sexual orientation, military status, sex, disability, genetic predisposition or carrier status, or marital status.

Jobs at other Land Trusts

Title: Vice President of Development

Location: Washington, D.C.

Summary Description
The Vice President of Development will manage all of the Alliance’s fundraising and membership activities including individual giving, major gifts, foundations, corporate giving, and capital campaigns. Working closely with the Board of Directors, the President, Executive Vice President, COO, and other senior managers, the Vice President of Development will create an enterprise-wide development strategy to accomplish the organization’s fundraising goals managing a portfolio of key major donor and foundation relationships.   The Vice President will be a strong communicator able to articulate the Alliance’s vision and values and serves as an ambassador for the Alliance with donors, partners and the broader conservation community.  In short, the Vice President of Development is a dynamic leader, an effective spokesperson, a skilled manager and an excellent fundraiser. 

Specific Responsibilities

• Provide vision and leadership for the Land Trust Alliance’s Development Department.
• Create and implement a comprehensive development strategy to support the Alliance’s strategic and organizational objectives.
• Build the staff, budget, systems and programs needed to fund the Alliance’s strategic plan goals.
• Manage annual giving, foundation grants, corporate gifts, major gifts, land trust membership and planned giving programs.
• Work closely with COO to ensure close coordination with other departments.
• Manage a significant portfolio of individual, foundation, and corporate donors.
• Cultivate Alliance board members, national council and executive directors to build the Land Trust Alliance’s donor base.
• Lead capital campaigns and special fundraising initiatives.
• Encourage program staff to become more involved in fundraising.
• Represent the Alliance by speaking at meetings, conferences, and events.
• Encourage staff training and professional development.
  

Professional Experience and Personal Attributes
The Vice President of Development should ideally possess the following professional experience and personal attributes:

Professional Qualifications

• A proven and demonstrated level of success in leading fundraising efforts including experience cultivating and soliciting major donors, foundation and private corporations in support of program and operational activities.
•  Intellectual agility and demonstrated ability to think strategically.
• Demonstrated success as a motivating manager who has considerable experience developing and retaining a professional staff for a growing organization.
• Demonstrated experience managing high-level relationships with board members, foundations and partners.
• Experience with capital campaigns preferred.

Personal Attributes

• Unquestioned personal integrity.
• A deep commitment to the mission and values of the Land Trust Alliance.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, which are capable of reaching across organizational hierarchies, structures and geographical distances.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
• A high energy level and drive for results.
• Good sense of humor and ability to create a positive work environment.
• Experience managing institutional growth and change.
• Strong people skills and the ability to build cooperative relationships with other managers.

Education
The successful candidate will have a college degree.  An advanced degree will be considered a plus.

Cover letter and resume should be sent to hr@lta.org or if email is not an option, you may fax to 202-638-4730.

The Land Trust Alliance promotes voluntary land conservation and strengthens the land trust movement by providing the leadership, information, skills and resources land trusts need to conserve land for the benefit of communities and natural systems.  The Land Trust Alliance is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate because of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation, disability, or marital status.

Title: Grants Manager

Location: Washington, D.C.

Summary Description
The Grants Manager is responsible for producing all grants, reports and related communications with the foundations, corporations, and government agencies who provide financial support to the Alliance.  Foundation grant revenues are nearly 55% of our $11 million annual budget.  There is a heavy focus on the day-to-day production of scores of proposals and reports each month to our current foundation network of about 90 sources.  This requires quick and efficient writing and editorial skills, along with attention to detail in managing workflow and supporting senior leadership in foundation-related travel.   The position is also responsible for grantwriting to support our sister organization, the Land Trust Accreditation Commission.  The post develops foundation revenue/expense projections and helps ensure that annual targets are met.

The Grants Manager must be able to work closely with a variety of program staff to find appropriate matches between the Alliance national and regional programs and funders’ priorities.  This person is also a coach and facilitator in preparing senior staff for foundation cultivation and guiding performance of their foundation roles.  The Grants Manager researches, develops and prioritizes new sources of funding on an ongoing basis, keeping up with trends in the field. 

Specific Responsibilities:

• Oversees all grantwriting and reports for foundations, government, and corporations, including writing, compiling information and editing as needed
• Meets deadlines, including timely acknowledgment of award notices
• Serves as a facilitator between program needs and funder opportunities
• Works closely with Alliance program staff in developing compelling approaches and materials that win financial support for our programs
• Identifies new prospect foundation and corporations, and develops strategically
• Maintains departmental income chart (monies requested, projected, and received).
• Prepares internal reports and regularly briefs senior leadership on progress
• Ensures maintenance of foundation/government/corporate files and databases
• Helps program directors with annual budget planning and forecasting
• Assists senior leadership in developing compelling cultivation strategies
• Participates in other Development activities as assigned, including but not limited to, participating in retreats, organizational budgeting and strategic planning.

Qualifications:

• Three to five years demonstrated track record as a grantwriter or principal editor of a foundation/corporate fundraising team
• Strong technical writing and editing skills, with the ability to interpret and package ideas in a clear and persuasive manner
• Able to facilitate and lead collaborations with program staff
• Experience with grant management, research and/or foundation cultivation
• Extremely organized and detail-oriented
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills
• Good supervisory or production management skills
• Comfortable with database software and excel spreadsheets
• Understands and is committed to conservation and environmental stewardship
• Flexible and able to handle multiple tasks and tight timelines with humor

Cover letter and resume should be sent to hr@lta.org or if email is not an option, you may fax to 202-638-4730.

The Land Trust Alliance promotes voluntary land conservation and strengthens the land trust movement by providing the leadership, information, skills and resources land trusts need to conserve land for the benefit of communities and natural systems.  The Land Trust Alliance is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate because of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, age, sexual orientation, disability, or marital status.

Title: Northeast Director

Location: Saratoga Springs, NY

Summary: The Northeast Director leads a dynamic program aimed at helping land trusts increase the pace of conservation and improve the quality of conservation.  The Alliance Northeast Program works with a diverse community of 500 land trusts in New York and New England through its talented team of staff and contractors spread across the region. We accelerate the pace of conservation by mobilizing land trusts to create new public funding streams and conservation tax incentives; we encourage strategic conservation by helping land trusts individually and collectively create and implement plans that fuel strategic land protection work; we build strong, sustainable land trusts by providing expert consulting on non-profit growth and management; and we ensure the permanence of conservation easements by advancing new programs to strengthen easement stewardship and defense.  To date, the Land Trust Alliance Northeast Program has helped launch two major landscape scale conservation initiatives; we have awarded over 400 separate grants totaling more than $2,000,000 to underwrite work by land trusts and their partners to increase the pace and quality of land conservation; and we have created a first-in-the-nation, multi-million dollar state partnership to strengthen and coordinate New York’s land trust community.

The Alliance seeks a dynamic individual deeply committed to helping land trusts succeed and advancing the strategic goals of the Alliance.  The director is responsible for guiding the future development of a major field program. Working with colleagues within and outside of the Alliance, the director will help lead the development and implementation of the next generation of high impact services to land trusts and partners.  The director is expected to maintain the strong relationships with the Alliance’s many stakeholders in the public, non-profit, and private sectors.  The director is expected to have strong management, communications, budgeting and fundraising skills. 

Responsibilities: The Northeast Director assumes the responsibility for overall leadership and management of the Northeast Field Program including:

• Management, guidance, and development of land conservation programs implemented by field staff and contractors in various office locations across the northeast. Supervise five full-time staff, one contract lobbyist, and temporary staff and consultants as needed;
• Work with a wide array of foundations, individuals, corporations, government agencies, the New York Advisory Board, and land trusts to raise the million dollar plus annual Northeast Program Budget, and contribute to national fundraising efforts with the Alliance’s national development team and other Alliance staff;
• Develop and guide strategies to advance strategic land conservation and easement excellence through partnerships between land trusts, public agencies, and like-minded organizations;
• Guide strategic and financial planning in the Northeast, create and monitor the annual Northeast budget, workplan and fundraising plan, and serve as part of a multi-disciplinary team on national planning projects;
• Work with the New York Advisory Board on board and committee meetings, strategy, policy, process, and fundraising for New York;
• Oversee a state public policy program in New York and guide staff research on the feasibility of policy work in other states;
• Ensure successful management of a variety of capacity-building, staffing and transaction grant programs aimed at increasing the pace and quality of private land conservation.  This includes the New York State Conservation Partnership Program, a first of its kind cooperative NYSDEC/Alliance land trust re-grant program, and the Maine Land Trust Excellence Program, a partnership between the Alliance and the Maine Land Trust Network. 
• Serve as an ambassador for the Alliance with land trusts, partner environmental groups, landowners, public agencies, elected officials, the media, and others;
• Provide macro-guidance to staff working on conference and training programs to improve land trust effectiveness;
• Conduct other program work in New York, New England and across the country as needed; and
• Be prepared to travel within the New York/New England area as well as to Washington, DC and other areas as needed.

 Qualifications

• Minimum of five years experience in land conservation, non-profit management, fundraising, or a related field. 
• College degree in natural resource, non-profit, environmental policy, or related field preferred. 
• Proven record raising leadership gifts from foundations, and securing significant gifts from individuals.
• Extensive experience in leading and managing individuals and teams, including staff and board members. 
• Experience in developing and monitoring complex budgets and workplans.
• Experience in developing partnerships with stakeholders
• Demonstrated commitment to land conservation and knowledge of private land conservation techniques.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Proven ability to conceive, plan and implement programs.
• Willingness to travel extensively by airplane and auto.
• Willingness to work a flexible schedule including weekends.
• Ability to work effectively as part of a team.

Compensation: Competitive salary and benefits provided commensurate with experience.

Contact: Send resume and cover letter via email to hr@lta.org.   If email is not an option, applications will be accepted by mail to Human Resources Manager, Land Trust Alliance, 1660 L Street NW, Suite 1100, Washington, DC  20036

The Land Trust Alliance promotes voluntary land conservation and strengthens the land trust movement by providing the leadership, information, skills and resources land trusts need to conserve land for the benefit of communities and natural systems.  The Alliance is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate because of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, or marital status.