About Western Resilience Center

Western Resilience Center is a dynamic and growing environmental nonprofit organization based in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. For more than 16 years, Western Resilience Center, formerly Yampa Valley Sustainability Council, has served as a trusted, science-based, nonpartisan leader helping the communities and natural landscapes in Northwest Colorado respond to the opportunities and challenges of a changing West. The organization’s mission is  to serve as a resource, leader, and catalyst for building a more sustainable and resilient Northwest Colorado. 

Western Resilience Center works collaboratively with over 100 entities each year – governments, businesses, schools, utilities, land managers, organizations, and residents –  to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build long-term resilience to the impacts of changing climate. With technical expertise spanning energy, transportation, waste and circularity and land and water use, the organization works to advance clean energy, resilient buildings, connected transportation, watershed health, ecosystem restoration, waste reduction and circularity, and community engagement that strengthens Northwest Colorado for generations to come.  

During this pivotal decade to build resilience across Colorado’s communities and natural environments matters, Western Resilience Center is energized to establish Northwest Colorado’s first physical infrastructure for Western Resilience Center at the corner of 6th and Oak in downtown Steamboat Springs. This one-year development project, which will break ground in Fall 2026, will establish a welcoming and vibrant physical place for learning, connection, dialogue and action. The Center will host talks and trainings, inspiring educational and art exhibits, information and opportunities to participate in programs and collaborative workspace for partners, visiting professionals and fellows to foster more collaboration and regional action. More than a building, the Center will expand WRC’s ability to convene partners, provide technical assistance, train future leaders, connect communities with state and federal opportunities, and grow the regional capacity needed to respond to a changing climate.

Position Description

Western Resilience Center seeks an experienced, people-oriented Development Director to lead the organization's philanthropic growth at a pivotal stage in Western Resilience Center's evolution. Working closely with the Executive Director, the Development Director will lead Western Resilience Center's multi-year fundraising strategy, major gifts program, and capital campaign, while helping build a strong organization-wide culture of philanthropy. This senior-level position at Western Resilience Center is an ideal opportunity for someone who is ready to hit the ground running and be a key member of a highly professional, science-based and mission-driven organization that aims to accelerate climate solutions at the time we need it most.

The Opportunity

Western Resilience Center is entering a defining period of growth. With an expanding regional role, ambitious programs, a regional hub for climate resilience under development, and a growing community of supporters, Western Resilience Center has the opportunity to build the philanthropic backing necessary to sustain its leadership and impact for decades to come.

The Development Director will join Western Resilience Center at a moment when the organization has significant momentum—and significant opportunity to sustain and expand our operations and programs while completing the near and long-term needs of a capital campaign. This is a highly frontline fundraising role. The Development Director will be expected to spend significant time personally identifying prospects, making outreach, securing meetings, cultivating relationships, making asks, closing gifts, and stewarding donors.

In addition to helping grow the financial base upon which Western Resilience Center impacts stem, the Development Director will help build the next generation of philanthropy at the organization — deepening relationships with longstanding supporters and foundations, developing new major donors and philanthropic partners, strengthening the organization's culture of philanthropy, and positioning Western Resilience Center for sustained regional leadership. Above all, this role offers the opportunity to build something lasting: a community of philanthropic leaders who believe in Western Resilience Center's mission, invest deeply in its work, and provide the sustained resources necessary for Western Resilience Center to remain a strong and trusted regional institution for years to come.

Core Responsibilities

Major Gifts Strategy & Fundraising Leadership

• Lead Western Resilience Center's comprehensive fundraising strategy in partnership with the Executive Director, establishing clear annual and multi-year revenue goals, priorities, and strategies.
• Build and manage a robust pipeline of major individual, foundation, and corporate prospects capable of supporting Western Resilience Center's operating, programmatic, and capital priorities.
• The successful candidate will be a proactive, self-directed fundraiser who is comfortable opening doors, making unsolicited outreach, securing meetings with new prospects, and developing relationships from an initial introduction through solicitation.
• Grow and manage a portfolio of 100+ major/individual donors, including donors with the capacity to give over $250,000.
• Develop individualized strategies for Western Resilience Center's highest-potential donors and prospects, including clear cultivation pathways, solicitation targets, and next steps.
• Lead strategy and execution for completion of Western Resilience Center's capital campaign while ensuring continued growth in unrestricted and programmatic support.
• Build long-term donor relationships around Western Resilience Center's mission, technical expertise, regional leadership, and ability to translate knowledge into meaningful action.

Executive & Board Partnership

• Serve as the Executive Director's senior strategic partner on fundraising and philanthropy.
• Help prioritize the Executive Director's donor portfolio and ensure their time is focused on relationships, cultivation, and solicitations where executive engagement creates the greatest value.
• Prepare strategy, briefing materials, recommended asks, and follow-up plans for major donor meetings.
• Partner with board members to identify prospects, make meaningful introductions, cultivate relationships, and participate effectively in fundraising.
• Provide leadership with clear visibility into fundraising progress, pipeline strength, opportunities, risks, and priorities.

Build a Culture of Philanthropy

• Help embed philanthropy across Western Resilience Center’s team and operations as an organization-wide responsibility grounded in relationships, mission, and impact.
• Create clear and meaningful roles for staff and board members as ambassadors, connectors, storytellers, cultivators, and stewards.
• Work with program staff to identify compelling opportunities for donors to understand and invest in Western Resilience Center's work.
• Partner with communications staff to strengthen the connection between organizational storytelling, donor engagement, and fundraising.
• Build consistent practices for excellent donor cultivation and stewardship so supporters feel connected to Western Resilience Center's people, programs, progress, and impact.

Organizational Leadership and Management 

• Supervise and provide strategic direction to Western Resilience Center's Donor Engagement Manager, who supports stewardship and cultivation and leads CRM/database management, prospect research, donor stewardship systems, and relationships with mid-level donors.
• Establish clear coordination between prospect research, donor engagement, major-gift strategy, solicitation, and stewardship so donors can move naturally toward deeper engagement and investment.
• Maintain a disciplined major-gift pipeline and revenue forecast, ensuring clear ownership and next actions for priority prospects.
• Continually strengthen Western Resilience Center's fundraising systems and capacity to support sustainable organizational growth.

Required Qualifications

We are seeking an experienced development professional with a demonstrated record of personally raising significant philanthropic support.

Competitive candidates will bring:

• At least 7–10 years of progressively responsible fundraising experience, including substantial responsibility for major gifts and donor relationship management.
• Demonstrated success personally cultivating, soliciting, and closing five- and six-figure gifts; experience with larger transformational gifts strongly valued.
• Experience building and managing a major-gift portfolio and moving prospects systematically from identification through solicitation and stewardship.
• Experience developing and executing multi-year fundraising strategies with significant revenue accountability.
• Strong understanding of capital campaigns, major gifts, annual giving, institutional philanthropy, and donor stewardship.
• Demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships with sophisticated donors, foundation leaders, business leaders, board members, and community partners.
• Excellent judgment regarding donor strategy, timing, solicitation, confidentiality, and relationship management.
• Ability to translate complex technical, policy, environmental, or community work into compelling philanthropic opportunities.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to develop persuasive proposals and communicate comfortably with donors in one-on-one settings.
• Experience using CRM and pipeline data as active management tools rather than simply systems of record.
• Experience supervising and developing fundraising staff.
• Strong organizational and project-management skills with exceptional follow-through.
• Ability to operate effectively in a growing organization where strategy and systems continue to evolve.
• Commitment to Western Resilience Center's mission and to collaborative, practical, nonpartisan approaches to strengthening the resilience of Western communities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading or playing a senior role in a successful capital or comprehensive campaign.
• Experience growing a development program during a period of organizational expansion.
• Experience working closely with an Executive Director/CEO and Board of Directors on major-gift fundraising.
• Experience with environmental, conservation, climate, community development, higher education, public policy, or other mission-driven organizations.
• Existing familiarity with philanthropy in Colorado or the Mountain West.

Work Environment

This is a full-time, exempt position ideally based full-time in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Western Resilience Center supports flexibility in how staff structure their work while recognizing that this senior relationship-based role requires a meaningful in-person presence in Steamboat Springs and Northwest Colorado.

The Development Director should expect regular donor and community meetings, occasional evening and weekend events, and periodic travel for donor cultivation, funder meetings, conferences, and organizational activities.

Compensation & Benefits

Western Resilience Center offers a competitive salary commensurate with experience within the organization's established Director-level compensation structure.

Expected salary is $95,000–$110,000 annually, commensurate with experience, plus a competitive benefits package. The actual base salary package may be adjusted based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, location, and experience. Benefits include medical and dental insurance, life and long-term disability insurance, retirement contribution, paid time off and holidays, professional development support, and flexible scheduling.