Summary
Description
About The Policing Project
The Policing Project at NYU School of Law partners with communities, police departments,
and government officials to promote public safety through democratic accountability. We
work to ensure that policing is equitable, transparent, and aligned with community values.
Our projects span cutting-edge research, legislative advocacy, frontline police-community
engagement, and tech accountability.
Position Overview
We are seeking a dynamic, highly organized, and exceptionally strategic professional to fill
the hybrid role of Senior Advancement Officer (SAO). Sitting at the intersection of
fundraising, financial operations, and executive leadership, the Advancement Officer will
drive the growth of our funding base and ensure rigorous financial stewardship of all gifts
and grants.
This role is responsible for growing our donor pipeline across both major gifts and
institutional channels, translating complex legal and policy work into high-stakes
proposals, and managing end-to-end grant lifecycles. Working in close coordination with
our financial analyst and the NYU Development team, the SAO will act as a critical force
multiplier for our Faculty Director (FD) and Executive Director (ED), ensuring they are
seamlessly prepared for donor engagements while independently driving our fundraising
pipeline, donor CRM operations, and Advisory Board relations. This role will oversee grant
tracking, budget reconciliations, and personnel allocations from pitch to closeout.
If you are a masterful oral and written communicator who can translate complex criminal
justice policy into compelling funding pitches, love building operational systems, and excel
at managing high-level relationships, this role is for you.
Key Responsibilities
1. Donor Relations & Pipeline Management (Moves Management)
• Institutional & High-Impact Funding: Build, expand and manage grant and gift
opportunities with major institutional foundations, family offices, and donor-
advised funds to sustain and scale programs. Grants and gifts are expected to range
from high five figures to seven figures.
• Major Gifts Portfolio: Manage and cultivate relationships with high-net-worth
individual donors, guiding them through a thoughtful "moves management" process
(identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship).
• Grassroot Donor Growth: Design and execute strategies to build, convert, and
sustain a growing grassroots donor base, leveraging digital campaigns, annual
giving appeals, and community-driven engagement.
• Prospecting & Pitching: Proactively research, identify, and prospect new individual
donors and philanthropic foundations. Draft customized, compelling outreach
strategies to expand our funding network, including with family offices and donor
advised funds.
• Case for Support: Synthesize the Policing Project’s complex legal, policy, and
community initiatives into compelling and digestible written donor appeals that
align with funder priorities.
2. Grant & Gift Financial Operations and Lifecycle Management
• Lifecyle Grant Tracking: Partner directly with the organization’s financial analyst
and the NYU Development team to track all grants and gifts through their full
lifecycle: from initial pitch and award notification to spend-down execution and
narrative/financial closeout.
• Budgeting & Reconciliation Support: Provide critical support for project-level
fundraising budgets, monitor expenditure pacing against grant terms, and assist in
routine financial reconciliations of restricted and unrestricted gifts.
• Personnel Allocations & Project Tracking: Support executive leadership and
finance in modeling personnel allocation across grant funds, ensuring staff time
and effort are accurately budgeted, tracked and charged against relevant funding
sources.
• Funder & University Compliance: Coordinate narrative and financial progress
reports for foundation and institutional funders, ensuring total compliance with
grant agreements and university reporting protocols.
3. Executive Briefing & Strategic Writing
• Leadership Preparation: Draft comprehensive research briefs, funder background
memos, and talking points to prepare the FD and ED for donor meetings and site
visits.
• Executive Correspondence: Draft high-touch, personalized correspondence and
stewardship updates on behalf of leadership.
• Proposal Development: Write and edit grant proposals, concept notes, letters of
inquiry (LOIs), and annual impact reports for foundations, corporate partners and
major donors.
4. CRM & Development Operations
• CRM Ownership: Serve as the administrator of our donor database/CRM
(Monday.com). Maintain impeccable records of moves management, giving
histories, wealth screenings, and deadline calendars.
• Financial & Development Dashboards: Build operation tracking systems and
reporting dashboards to monitor key development metrics, pipeline health,
projected revenue, and grant reporting deadlines.
5. Advisory Board Relations & Events
• Board Engagement: Serve as the primary liaison to our Advisory Board, maintaining
communication channels, preparing materials, and driving board participation in
fundraising efforts.
• Event Management: Lead the strategy and execution of the annual Advisory Board
meeting, along with donor salons, virtual webinars, and private cultivation events.
Qualifications & Core Competencies
• Experience: 5–7+ years of experience in non-profit development, with a track
record in mid-sized or growing advocacy, criminal justice, legal, or civil rights
organizations.
• Exceptional Writing Ability: Experience adopting the voices of organizational
leaders. You should have a proven track record of writing clean, persuasive, and
sophisticated pitches that make complex topics accessible and inspiring for diverse
funder audiences.
• Multi-Channel Fundraising Expertise: Demonstrated experience building
institutional (5- to 7-figure grants/gifts), major gift pipelines and grassroots or
annual giving programs.
• CRM Mastery: Hands-on experience managing a non-profit donor database/CRM
(Monday) with a commitment to data integrity and workflow design.
• Strategic Relationship Management: Experience with major gift fundraising,
foundation processes, and managing high-profile volunteer boards or committees.
• Executive-Level Partnership: Experience preparing executives and senior leaders
for major donors and institutional funder engagements. High emotional
intelligence, professional maturity and absolute discretion with sensitive
organizational data.
• Mission Alignment: A deep commitment to the mission of the Policing Project’s
core mission of public safety reform, equitable policing and democratic
accountability.
Additional Preferred Qualifications
• Excel & Analytical Skills: Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel (e.g. pivot
tables, complex formulas, financial tracking, budget reconciliation models, and
personnel effort allocation spreadsheets).
• Financial & Grants Aptitude: Strong familiarity with grant administration
processes, fund accounting concepts, project budget development, and tracking
spend-downs across multi-year institutional awards.
• University/Institutional Collaboration: Comfort navigating institutional
workflows, preferably alongside central university development, sponsored
research, or finance teams.
Application Instructions
To apply, please email a cover letter, resume, and a writing sample of no more than 5
pages as one PDF to applications@policingproject.org. Please indicate “Senior
Advancement Ocicer” in the subject line. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis
until the position is filled, and you will be contacted if you are selected for an interview.
Salary is commensurate with experience. In compliance with NYC’s Pay Transparency Law,
the salary is in the range of $110,000—140,000. Compensation also includes excellent
benefits, including medical, dental, and vision. After one year, employees are eligible for
tuition remission at certain NYU schools and matching retirement contributions. Further
information regarding benefits can be found here.
NYU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is committed to a policy of equal treatment and
opportunity in every aspect of its recruitment and hiring process without regard to age,
alienage, caregiver status, childbirth, citizenship status, color, creed, disability, domestic
violence victim status, ethnicity, familial status, gender and/or gender identity or
expression, marital status, military status, national origin, parental status, partnership
status, predisposing genetic characteristics, pregnancy, race, religion, sex, sexual
orientation, unemployment status, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis.
Women, racial and ethnic minorities, persons of minority sexual orientation or gender
identity, individuals with disabilities, and veterans are encouraged to apply for vacant
positions at all levels.
