VICE PRESIDENT OF DEVELOPMENT AT ALAMEDA COUNTY COMMUNITY FOOD BANK in California, New York at Axis Talent Partners

About Alameda County Community Food Bank

ACCFB is committed to the belief that food is a basic human right and that hunger is solvable. We are focused on creating a healthy, prosperous, and just community by transforming the systems that create hunger and poverty in our region, and promoting public policies that advance racial equity and opportunity for all.

The number of people ACCFB serves has soared dramatically in recent years due to the rising cost of living and deep cuts to the social safety net. With a passionate network of more than 350 agency partners, we’ve expanded our services to meet increased need. That growth is backed by real financial strength. ACCFB is financially strong and deeply trusted, with a donor base that's rare in how it is evenly balanced across everyday givers, major donors, companies and foundations, and government and county partners — including multi-year, seven-figure commitments that span both general operating and restricted funding. A healthy mix of restricted and unrestricted dollars, paired with both short- and long-term commitments, gives us genuine financial resilience and the confidence to innovate. It's also given us a strong platform to launch into our food justice journey, and to build on the significant goodwill and deep, trusted relationships we've earned with some of the Bay Area's most influential families and companies — relationships with real potential for greater engagement, financial and otherwise, in the work ahead.

With our latest strategic plan, we are setting a bold trajectory for the long-term work required to dismantle the systems that perpetuate poverty, including racism. Our staff regularly engage in conversations about race, class, power, and privilege as part of our organizational commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion. We invite you to read our Equity & Inclusion Statement.

For more information about our mission and work, please visit our website at: https://www.accfb.org/.

Position Summary

Today, the Food Bank is financially strong and deeply trusted across the community it serves. Its strength, in part, comes from its successful public/private partnerships, including a deep connection with and investment from Alameda County. In addition, more than 70% of the Food Bank’s contributed revenue comes from individual donors who are members of its community and network.

At the heart of this work is a simple, foundational belief: hunger is solvable. We're looking for a Vice President of Development who shares that conviction and is ready to help us build the fundraising strategy, relationships, and infrastructure to act on it. This next VPD will be an experienced, relationship- and social justice-driven fundraising leader who will lead the Food Bank’s development division through a pivotal moment of growth and transformation, combining hands-on relationship-building with strategic oversight of a talented, tenured team that currently spans individual and institutional major gifts, grants, community food and fund drives, annual fund, development operations, marketing, communications, community engagement and volunteers.

ACCFB's senior leadership currently operates through a three-pronged structure made up of the Executive Director, the Head of Administration & Finance, and the Head of Strategy Implementation. This leadership structure is intentionally designed to maximize collaboration across the organization's core functions. As such, the Vice President of Development will report dually to the Head of Strategy Implementation and the Executive Director, working closely within and across leadership to ensure Development's priorities and needs are represented at the highest levels of decision-making. The next VPD will have significant room for innovation to build boldly, not simply to maintain what already exists, creating the avenues for the Executive Director and other senior leaders to engage directly and authentically with key donors and partners. This leader will play a central role in translating ACCFB's charity-to-justice strategic shift (Vision 2030) into everyday and ongoing fundraising practice.

This is a transformational opportunity for a fundraising leader who wants to help pioneer what justice-centered fundraising looks like at scale, building on an already well-resourced and high-functioning development program rather than starting from scratch, while helping to shape the Food Bank’s next chapter of sustainable, mission-aligned growth.

Essential Responsibilities: Areas of Leadership & Key Qualifications

Executive Leadership Through Change

• Assess the organization’s overall development, advancement, and fundraising functions; clarify and maximize the impact of individual and institutional major gifts, grants, community food and fund drives, annual fund, development operations, marketing, communications, community engagement and volunteers in the organization’s structure

• Operate effectively inside a mid-transformation organization, managing up and across senior leadership

• Navigate ambiguity and a complex, matrixed organization with patience and diplomacy, building and leveraging the impact of coalitions over directives

Key Qualifications:

• Executive-level experience managing a complex, multi-function team (10+ staff and multiple development verticals), and executing strategic relationships with corporate, foundation, and individual donors, stewarding six and seven figure gifts toward $30 - $40 million annual targets

• History of leading organizational and/or team restructuring, and comfort operating without full control over every aspect of the organization

• Demonstrated patience and diplomacy leading with and through other senior leaders with different subject-matter expertise and operating with significant autonomy and ownership; building new structures or approaches without an established model to follow

• Comfort with mission and organizational complexity and ambiguity; i.e. food banking is significantly more operationally complex than most nonprofit fundraising experiences

Justice-Centered Fundraising Leadership

• Build ACCFB's strategic vision and roadmap for justice-centered fundraising, translating our charity-to-justice shift from narrative into practice by redesigning how we cultivate, solicit, structure, and steward philanthropic support across donors, media, staff, and the community

• Critically assess and reimagine our fundraising practices, systems, and donor engagement model through a Community-Centric Fundraising lens, moving beyond storytelling alone to help pioneer what justice-centered fundraising looks like at scale, and reduce our reliance on charity-model mechanics to resource that shift

• Set multi-million-dollar revenue targets with discipline around forecasting and expense/revenue alignment

• Evolve our donor portfolio strategy, balancing continued growth of ACCFB's strong individual-donor base with diversification into corporate, institutional, healthcare-adjacent, and cross-sector funding; assess the ~$30–40M revenue base and lead planning toward a realistic, sustainable new normal

• Pilot new fundraising models and funder relationships with the autonomy and room for innovation to do so without an established sector playbook

Key Qualifications:

• Demonstrated ability to lead development strategy through an equity/justice lens, with concrete examples of shifting a fundraising strategy or organization toward justice or equity, and fluency in framing impact without exploitative narratives

• Public speaking and/or media experience; ability to connect data and impact evidence to fundraising narrative

• Senior development leadership track record, including experience with major/leadership-gift and institutional (corporate/foundation) fundraising and setting/managing multi-million-dollar revenue targets

• Track record of taking reasonable fundraising risks and piloting new approaches in service of a justice-aligned fundraising strategy, even without an established playbook

Team & People Leadership

• Support the growth and development of a strong team of directors and managers, helping address career-pathing and cross-department collaboration, while building team structure that will sustain the organization’s Vision 2030 strategy and beyond

• Visibly represent and advocate for the Development team's and the organization's interests in leadership spaces, with willingness to have direct or difficult conversations

• Be present and engaged with frontline and warehouse teams (i.e. “walking the floor”)

• Build systems and practices that better recognize and steward less-seen supporters and staff contributions (e.g. dock donors, small monthly givers, and volunteers) as core to the mission

Key Qualifications:

• Ability to exemplify your collaborative leadership style and build trust with an already-capable staff rather than top-down direction

• Examples of upward advocating on behalf of a team, and of being visibly present with frontline/operational staff

• Direct, honest communication style with ability to give and receive candid feedback across varied audiences

• Demonstrated investment in developing and retaining team members, including addressing engagement and opportunities for growth

Mission, Vision & Values Alignment

• Embody and represent ACCFB's mission and BATCH values (Belonging, Accountability, Transparency, Community, Hope) across every donor, staff, team, and community member

• Demonstrated personal commitment to anti-racist and justice principles, with a track record of engaging with equity/justice work beyond the workplace

• Approach the charity-to-justice transition with curiosity and humility, modeling comfort with ongoing learning and being challenged

• Help translate ACCFB's justice-oriented strategy into a genuine personal “why” that resonates with partners, donors, staff, team, and community members

Key Qualifications:

• Evidence of personal engagement with equity/justice leadership, not just via organizational messaging, and an ability to model ACCFB's BATCH values in day-to-day leadership

• Comfort with continued learning and being challenged on issues of race, equity, and justice

• A demonstrated belief that hunger and food insecurity are solvable problems, not permanent conditions to be managed

Relationship & Trust-Building

• Build genuine relationships across every layer of ACCFB, from truck drivers, warehouse staff, and program coordinators to the executive team, board, and major donors, including ride-alongs, volunteer shifts, and department shadowing

• Build trust with, and lead through, an experienced and capable development team while stabilizing and strengthening the executive leader triangle, including sharing knowledge and expertise to more actively engage senior leaders with key donors and partners

• Re-engage the board as fundraising partners, helping members tell ACCFB's story, supporting board recruitment and succession, and activating members' networks with corporate, healthcare, and institutional partner prospects

Key Qualifications:

• Track record of long-term donor and board retention, including developing board members as active fundraising ambassadors for a social-justice focused mission

• Examples of building trust across an organization’s entire staff, teams, community and network partners, and supporters

• Demonstrated comfort and success with soliciting and stewarding six- and seven-figure, multi-year gifts, while also engaging everyday and monthly donors, through relationships-driven strategy

Location, Travel & Availability Requirements

• Based in or near Oakland/Alameda County, CA with existing, rooted ties in the community or a deep commitment and willingness to authentically build them

• Regular onsite/hybrid presence expected, including time at ACCFB's Oakland facility and among warehouse, dock, and distribution staff; this is a relationship-first role that depends on visibility across the organization, not just in the office

• Some local travel within Alameda County, including but not limited to: partner agencies, distribution sites, and donor/community meetings; joining operational activities (e.g. ride-alongs, volunteer shifts, department shadowing); and evening and weekend donor events, board functions, and community engagements

Compensation & Benefits

• $230,000 - $240,000 annual salary range based on the selected candidate’s qualifications and number of years of relevant experience

• Some of Alameda County Community Food Bank’s benefits include but are not limited to:

• Medical: ACCFB pays 100% for employees and 93% for dependents for our Kaiser HMO. Blue Shield PPO option available (Buy-up)

• Dental: 100% employer-paid for employees and their dependents

• Vision: Paid by employees

• Paid time off: 15 vacation days, 12 sick days, 11 holidays, 1 personal holiday per year

• Pre-tax Flexible Spending and Commuter Accounts

• Pet Insurance at ACCFB discounted rate

• Employer-paid life, A&DD & LTD insurance, as well as buy-up options for increased coverage

• 403(b) plan available on the first day with employer match after one year; fully vested at three years

• Employee Assistance Program for employees and dependents

• Personal financial coaching program and short-term, interest-free loan program (no service fees and/or credit requirements)

To Apply

Alameda County Community Food Bank has engaged Axis Talent Partners to lead this search process. With a strong track record of recruiting successful leaders from diverse backgrounds, Axis is a consultant and executive search firm that partners with social impact organizations to center equity and inclusion in search processes.

Axis Talent Partners is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals and to providing equitable and inclusive access throughout the hiring process. Interview prompts will be provided in advance. Alternative interview formats (e.g. phone only, closed captioning transcription etc.) and flexible scheduling (e.g. extended interview times) will be made available. For any additional candidate accommodation requests, please contact Nadia Khan at nadia@axistalentpartners.com

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Alameda County Community Food Bank honors our differences and is committed to creating a workplace that celebrates and reflects the diversity of our Community. Applicants who contribute to this diversity are strongly encouraged to apply. ACCFB provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, ACCFB complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the ACCFB has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

Please note: ACCFB does not have the resources to sponsor visas, nor any open positions eligible for the H-1B program.