Business Development Representative

DonorsChoose makes it easy for anyone to help a teacher in need, moving us closer to a nation where students in every community have the tools and experiences they need for a great education.

Since 2000, more than 5 million people and partners have contributed $1 billion to support 2 million teacher requests for classroom resources and experiences. Projects range from art supplies to build the set for a school musical, to books and puzzles that affirm students’ identities, to bird seed for an at-home science project. We proudly serve all US public schools, public charter schools, and Head Start centers, and we combat systemic inequity by driving a majority of donations to schools that have been historically underfunded due to economic and racial inequity.

DonorsChoose has been recognized as a best place to work by GOOD Magazine and the Nonprofit Times, while Fast Company named DonorsChoose one of the 50 Most Innovative Companies in the World—the first time a charity has made this list. Our dedicated team works from across the United States bring classroom dreams to life.

Team Overview

We are small but mighty! The Business Development Team works to engage top brands, major philanthropists, and large school districts and state departments of education. We get to introduce these prospective partners to our work and inspire them to support teacher projects on DonorsChoose.  This team is the right place for you if you want to be part of the work that: 

• inspired Robert F. Smith to fund projects in the cities where the majority of Black Americans live
• enabled PandaCares to fund projects near their thousands of locations
• motivated the Arizona Department of Education to devote $18 million to fulfilling teachers’ needs

This year, the Business Development team aims to raise $46M for public school classrooms through creative, collaborative partnerships - and we need your help. (More about our partnerships.)

Primary Responsibilities

The Business Development Representative (BDR) will be responsible for seeking and securing meetings with prospective partners. They will enable our team’s work by: 

• researching top prospects 
• finding contact information for those prospects or mutual DonorsChoose champions who can introduce us
• drafting communications to prospects using a multi-channel approach, including email, warm handoffs from leadership and board members, LinkedIn messaging, calling, and more. 
• building and maintaining a regular cadence of contact with prospects, including staying abreast of timely news related to prospects
• constantly evaluating and improving processes and workflows and sharing back lessons learned, as we build out this new part of our team’s work

In this role, you will:

• Research and work to connect to top prospects
  • Research prospects efficiently
  • Work to find contact information or mutual contacts with key prospect contacts
  • Draft highly personalized, motivating email and other communications in collaboration with the rest of the team
  • Manage leads in Salesforce

• Secure and prepare for first calls
  • Collaborate on determining measures of success and being accountable to those measures (one measure of success for this role will involve the number of calls and meetings the BDR is able to secure)
  • Prepare pitchers for meetings and smoothly transition to first calls

• Build and hone our inaugural outbound outreach program
  • Build and manage our first cadences for outreach using software like Salesloft
  • Iterate, experiment, and rapidly shift strategy based on successes and failures

• Help to drive the team forward
  • Build on team morale
  • Help to organize team retreats, team meetings, and cross-team collaborations

Qualifications

• You’re committed to our mission to support public school teachers and students, and energized by sharing that passion with others. 
• You’re extremely efficient and organized. People are always complimenting your to-do lists, and how you manage to fit so much into the day.
• You’re flexible, and excited to walk into a new challenge and schedule each day.
• You’re a learner. You love a good research project, and you’re comfortable pulling out the key details from a pile of research.
• You thrive on winning others over, and on finding the "yes" wherever you can.
• On the flipside: you don’t get discouraged by a lot of “no” or lack of responses. You’re motivated to find the one needle in a haystack of hundreds of prospects.
• You are wildly strategic and know how to prioritize work that will be the most impactful
• You have at least 1-2 years of relevant experience conducting outreach, handling customer service, or doing other scaled communications

Compensation and Benefits

Our compensation philosophy ensures that we are both externally competitive with tech-forward nonprofits of a similar size and internally fair in our pay practices. The following ranges represent the target offer range given the scope and experience expectations for this role. 

• The hiring salary range for this role is $43,000 - $52,000.
• We have a hiring salary range of $49,000 - $58,000 for specific higher cost of labor locations, which include New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, and Washington, D.C.

Once employees are hired, the salary range for their role increases to ensure that employees are able to receive performance-based raises and grow in their role. 

We are open to a variety of experiences, and recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced or more senior than this job description as posted. If that’s the case, an updated salary range will be shared with candidates if they move forward in our hiring process.

In addition, we offer full-time staff 25 paid vacation days per year and 11 paid holidays, a rich employer-paid individual and family health plan, a matching 401(k) plan (up to 5% of base salary), annual professional development stipend, and casual and flexible work environment. To learn more about what it is like to work for DonorsChoose, visit our careers page.

Hybrid Workplace and Other Details

In this role, you’ll have the option to work a flexible hybrid schedule in our NYC office, or to work fully remotely from CA, CO, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OR, PA, TX, or WI. 

Candidates who are not in the NYC area should expect to travel to our NYC office on as-needed basis, about 4-6 times per year. All work-related travel expenses will be covered by the organization and proper safety precautions will be taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19. 

DonorsChoose is a fully vaccinated workplace and all new employees, regardless of their work location, will be asked to share proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 within two weeks of their hire date or request an exemption from this policy due to a disability or sincerely held religious belief or practice.

A Final Note

The DonorsChoose team works toward a nation where students in every community have the resources needed for an excellent education. To do this we hire and support a diverse team of the best and the brightest talent available.

We are an organization increasingly representative of the varied races and ethnicities, genders and sexual orientations, religious and political beliefs, and abilities that comprise our nation. DonorsChoose focuses on attracting, retaining, and advancing diverse talent because it makes us more effective, high-performing, creative, and resilient.  

If you are passionate about our mission, highly skilled in your field, and looking for a place where you can bring all of yourself to work, we want you.