Description

Head of Advancement
Courage Museum: A Project of Futures Without Violence

ABOUT FUTURES WITHOUT VIOLENCE AND THE COURAGE MUSEUM
Futures Without Violence (FUTURES) is a dynamic national organization with more than four decades of leadership in advancing equity and ending gender-based violence throughout the United States, and around the world. Powered by FUTURES and opening in 2027, the Courage Museum is a first of-its-kind educational and cultural institution located on the Main Post of San Francisco’s Presidio. 

The Museum's exhibits are designed in partnership with the award-winning experience design firm Local Projects, whose credits include the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York City, the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, and Greenwood Rising in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Courage Museum marks Local Projects' first installation on the West Coast. In partnership with Actual Films, the Museum features Empathy Mirrors: survivor-centered, first-person narratives that invite visitors to watch, listen, and reflect on how they can help end violence, hate, and discrimination. Content and storytelling are further shaped by an accomplished group of subject matter experts across neuroscience, psychology, adolescent medicine, and justice, who have advised on the Museum's research and design since 2024.

With a core focus on activating youth as the next generation of leaders, the Courage Museum challenges visitors to rethink how and why violence occurs and its reciprocal effect on individuals, families, communities, and societies. Through immersive learning and storytelling experiences, the Museum engages visitors in a journey of self discovery and transformative learning experiences to activate individual and collective courage among young people and their communities.

The Courage Museum is in the Presidio of San Francisco, California. Through its website and digital learning hub, Brave Space, the Museum’s education program will have national reach and engagement.

THE OPPORTUNITY
With construction underway, the Courage Museum is on track to open to the public in 2027. Designed in partnership with the award-winning experience design firm Local Projects, and in collaboration with accomplished subject matter experts in science, history, youth development, investigative journalism, and education, the Courage Museum will be an immersive, interactive experience that invites young people and their communities to understand the roots of violence, build empathy, and activate their own courage to create change.

With the opening approaching, FUTURES is seeking the Courage Museum's first Head of Advancement. Reporting to the Senior Vice President of Public Engagement and Founding Director, the Advancement leader will be a key member of the Museum's leadership team, charged with developing and implementing the Museum's expanded fundraising strategy, including an upcoming endowment campaign; broadening its base of support; and building the development team and infrastructure that will sustain the Museum and Education Program in the long term. 

The Head of Advancement will be joining a mission-focused and collaborative team that has already built a strong foundation of philanthropic support for the Museum, which includes a committed group of founding donors and lead investors, a growing portfolio of institutional relationships, and a dedicated Steering Committee that assists with identifying potential new donors.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build upon years of successful fundraising to create a diversified, sustainable development program in service of a Museum that believes narrative and systems change, healing from trauma, and civic engagement are some of the most powerful tools we have for developing the next generation of leaders to end and prevent violence.

KEY FACTS

Reports To: Founding Director, Courage Museum, who also serves as Senior Vice President, Public Engagement, FUTURES
Direct Reports: Development/Membership Associate
Key Relationships: CEO, FUTURES; COO and CFO, FUTURES; Managing Director of Education, Courage Museum; Program Director, Public Engagement and Corporate Relations; Board of Directors, FUTURES; Campaign Steering Committee, Courage Museum
Operating Budget: $7 million

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

Fundraising Strategy & Leadership

• Develop and execute a comprehensive fundraising strategy to support the Courage Museum’s annual operating budget, visitor experience, immersive installations, educational programs, and long-term growth.
• Lead all development efforts with a primary focus on major gifts, cultivating and stewarding high-net-worth donors ($25,000+).
• Direct a campaign to establish a $10M+ endowment and build a planned giving program.
• Partner with Museum leadership and finance staff to set annual revenue goals, monitor progress, and align fundraising with organizational priorities.
• Collaborate with senior leadership, the Steering Committee, and the Board to identify and pursue new philanthropic opportunities.

Major Gifts & Donor Engagement

• Build and manage a portfolio of major donors and prospects across individuals, foundations, and corporations, leading all phases from identification through stewardship.
• Develop compelling cases for support and personalized donor experiences to deepen engagement and increase giving.
• Oversee donor communications, proposals, acknowledgments, and messaging in partnership with the communications team to ensure consistency and mission alignment.

Team Management & Collaboration

• Build and grow the development team over time, starting with a small team and managing external consultants and contractors as needed while the function scales.
• Supervise and mentor development staff across membership, events, donor communications, and fundraising functions.
• Foster a collaborative, goal-oriented culture and strengthen systems for prospect tracking, gift processing, and donor stewardship through the Museum’s CRM.
• Work cross-functionally with Finance, Administration, Operations, and FUTURES development staff to coordinate outreach and achieve fundraising goals.

Campaign Leadership & Board Engagement

• Serve as primary staff liaison to the Major Gifts Subcommittee and support its growth.
• Establish and manage an endowment fundraising committee as needed.
• Equip Board members, Steering Committee, and senior staff with tools and strategy for prospect identification, cultivation, and solicitation.
• Prepare regular reports and fundraising dashboards to inform leadership and guide strategy.

Campaigns & Events

• Provide strategic leadership for special campaigns, cultivation events, donor recognition activities, and planned giving initiatives.
• Partner with events and communications teams to deliver strong, donor-centered engagement
  experiences.

SUCCESS MEASURES

• The Advancement team at the Courage Museum works collaboratively and successfully, with efficiency and joy.
  Courage Museum becomes known as a trusted, inspiring partner for individual major donors, institutional and corporate supporters in the Bay Area and nationally.
• Individual, foundation, and corporate donor growth is measurable year over year.
  Investments among individual major donors, institutions (foundations/corporations), and general supporters expand and deepen the museum’s reach.
• Annual fundraising goals are met and exceeded with consistent positive feedback loops and data-informed improvement cycles.
  Development database and infrastructure platforms are in place and operate with efficiency for cultivation, solicitation, acknowledgement and stewardship purposes.

COMPENSATION 

This is a full-time exempt position. The compensation range is $180,000 to $230,000, commensurate with experience. FUTURES offers excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage, plus tax-advantaged Flexible Spending Arrangements for Health Care and Dependent Care. FUTURES employees can take advantage of generous sick and vacation benefits including 13 paid holidays, 3 weeks of vacation and higher accruals after 3 years, 12 days of sick and safe leave per year, and an employer-contributed 401k retirement plan.

CONTACT AND PROCESS
Futures Without Violence (FUTURES) has retained Diane Carlyle Executive Search to support the search for the Head of Advancement at the Courage Museum. We welcome comments, nominations, or expressions of interest. All applicants are asked to include a letter of interest with their resume. Please send an email with supporting materials to the email address listed.

Diane Carlyle Executive Search
Based in the greater New York City area, Diane Carlyle Executive Search is a female-owned executive search firm specializing in nonprofit leadership. Diane Carlyle has nearly 20 years of experience guiding nonprofits through leadership transitions and building high-performing executive teams. Before launching Diane Carlyle Executive Search, she spent over 15 years as a core member of Spencer Stuart’s Education and Social Impact practice and began her career at a boutique search firm dedicated to NYC nonprofits. Her background as an educator and fundraiser gives her a grounded perspective on the sector’s needs. Today, Diane combines strategic expertise with a personalized, mission-aligned approach — helping nonprofits find the right leaders for long-term success.

Requirements

CANDIDATE PROFILE
The Courage Museum's Head of Advancement will be an accomplished fundraiser who brings the expertise to strengthen and scale its fundraising infrastructure as well as the curiosity, flexibility, and interpersonal skills to thrive in a complex organization. The successful candidate will be a builder by temperament: undaunted by the prospect of creating something from the ground up, comfortable with ambiguity, and able to establish trust quickly with a community of donors, staff, and volunteers who have been working toward this moment for years. A strategic and collaborative partner to the Founding Director and the leadership team, the Head of Advancement is creative, brings keen relational instincts, and is equally comfortable crafting strategy and rolling up their sleeves to get the work done. They will center the institution and its mission and be energized by the opportunity to advance a museum that is trying to change, in a real and lasting way, how our society understands and responds to violence, with a focus on youth engagement and leadership development.

EXPERIENCE

• Broad based fundraising experience that includes two or more of the following areas: individual major gifts, membership, institutional funding, corporate sponsorship, and comprehensive campaign management. Prior experience in a museum, education, and/or social justice organization preferred.
• Demonstrated success securing major gifts, meeting multi-million-dollar annual fundraising goals, cultivating new donor relationships, and developing and leading strategic fundraising initiatives.
• Proven ability to build and sustain relationships with executive leadership, Board members, high-net-worth individuals, foundation executives, and corporate partners.
• Demonstrated experience with financial management and data analysis, including setting and tracking progress against fundraising goals, using data to inform strategy, administering grant-funded programs, and reporting to leadership and the Board.
• 15+ years of progressive experience and responsibility in the field of nonprofit development, including 5+ years of experience leading and developing others, whether through direct staff management, oversight of consultants, or leading project-based and cross-functional teams.
• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, negotiation, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Passion for the Courage Museum’s mission, and the vision for Generation Courage, the Museum’s signature youth leadership and education program.
• Bachelor’s degree required.

CAPABILITIES
Strategic Leadership: Beginning with a small team and project-based consultants, the Head of Advancement will be charged with building on the Museum’s already significant base of philanthropic support to create the fundraising program, including the strategy, infrastructure, and team, that will ensure long-term sustainability of the institution. Possessing the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment while maintaining high standards of quality and accountability, the Head of Advancement will:

• Assess what exists and determine what needs to be built, and when
• Develop a multi-faceted fundraising strategy that is ambitious but sequenced and balances near-term priorities with initiatives that are crucial for long-term sustainability
• Partner strategically with the Founding Director, Board, and Steering Committee on fundraising efforts while also taking a leadership role in identifying and pursuing new donors for the Museum
• Build the systems, processes and capacity within the team that will allow the program to scale, including a robust membership program and the development infrastructure to support it
• Shift fluidly from strategy to hands-on execution, such as crafting a major gift proposal, working through a CRM issue, or stewarding a foundation relationship, without losing sight of the larger picture
• Set measurable goals and hold themselves and the team accountable to them, while staying flexible as the institution evolves

Collaboration: The Courage Museum operates within Futures Without Violence (FUTURES), its parent institution with a fundraising model that is both decentralized and collaborative. In addition, while there is a small team dedicated to the Museum, much of the Museum’s administration is provided by FUTURES, and its lead investors have deep pre-existing relationships with the Founding Director and the CEO of FUTURES. It is essential that the Museum’s advancement leader be a genuine collaborator and possess the interpersonal skills and values to effectively navigate complexity, within the organization and among its stakeholders. The Head of Advancement:

• Builds trust through competence and consistent follow-through; communicates clearly about timelines, delivers on commitments, and proactively flags when circumstances change
• Partners with the Founding Director, the CEO of FUTURES, senior leadership, and Board members who hold long-standing donor relationships, helping to support and amplify those relationships as needed
• Brings curiosity about the work of colleagues across the Museum and FUTURES, understanding that development does not happen in isolation from program, communications, administration, and education
• Works cross-functionally with finance, administration, operations, and FUTURES development staff to coordinate outreach and achieve fundraising goals
• Reads donor relationships with care, recognizing what each donor needs, how they want to be engaged, and what will deepen their commitment over time
• Exercises sound judgement about when to move forward independently and when to bring others in, particularly when navigating donor relationships that touch multiple parts of the organization or are closely tied to specific staff within FUTURES

Fundraising Acumen: In building out the fundraising program for the Courage Museum, including creating the infrastructure that will allow it to scale and generate sustainable institutional support, it is essential that the Head of Advancement be a well-rounded fundraising leader who can build a diversified fundraising program, and develop and meaningfully engage new donors with a new institution. In addition to bringing the experience outlined earlier, the successful candidate will:

• Be a compelling storyteller, able to convey big and complex ideas in a way that meaningfully engages individual donors, foundation officers, and corporate partners
• Know how and when to support and amplify the fundraising work of others or take the lead, as appropriate
• Approach donor relationships strategically: does the research, knows when and how to make an ask, and takes the long view, understanding that the most significant gifts are built on trust developed over time.
• Proactively identify and pursue new donor prospects, expanding the Museum’s philanthropic community over time
• Convey an authentic commitment to the Museum’s mission in all fundraising activities, and bring the tact and judgement to keep the institution’s needs at the center of donor relationships