Community Giving Development Officer

Organization	SMART Reading
Date Posted	July 22, 2026
City	Portland
State	Oregon
Location	Hybrid
Type of Position	Full-Time
Primary Job Function	Fundraising
Salary Range	$60,000 – $65,000 annually

Description & Details

Individual Donor Engagement and Annual Giving

Invite Oregonians to make a direct and lasting difference for young readers.

Across Oregon, too many children aren’t meeting reading benchmarks, despite the hard work of families and educators. At SMART Reading, we want to change that—but we can’t do it alone.

Reading is an early gateway skill that helps pave the way for future learning, opportunity, and success. When children struggle to read, the effects can follow them throughout their lives. Lower literacy rates also affect the future health and prosperity of our entire state, placing additional strain on social services, limiting economic growth, and weakening Oregon’s future workforce.

That’s why SMART Reading mobilizes a statewide community to connect kids with two mission-critical ingredients for literacy and learning success: shared reading time and books to keep. Through the simple magic and joy of a shared book, children build confidence, strengthen literacy skills, and discover a love of reading.

As SMART Reading’s Community Giving Development Officer, you will invite individual donors, volunteers, alumni, book lovers, and community members to help create brighter futures for Oregon children.

The Opportunity

You will lead SMART’s mid-level and community-giving strategy, combining meaningful individual donor relationships with creative annual-giving campaigns.

You will get to know donors and prospective supporters, understand why reading and children’s opportunity matter to them, and connect them with meaningful ways to help. You will thank them, share the impact of their generosity, invite them to deepen their support, and ensure they understand the difference they are making for children in their own communities and across Oregon.

You will also help SMART turn its broad network of volunteers, former volunteers, families, event attendees, and community friends into a growing movement of philanthropic supporters.

This role is ideal for someone who believes fundraising is about more than transactions. It is about relationships, belonging, joy, and helping people act on their desire to make the world a little better.

What You’ll Do

Build meaningful donor relationships

Manage and grow a portfolio of individual donors giving between $500 and $9,999.
Develop personalized strategies to retain donors, renew their support, and invite increased giving.
Learn what motivates each donor and connect their interests with SMART’s work.
Meet with supporters by phone, video, and in person to listen, share stories, express appreciation, and invite participation.
Help annual donors deepen their engagement and prepare interested supporters for future major-gift relationships.
Ensure donors feel known, appreciated, and connected to the children and communities they support.

Engage SMART’s statewide community

Develop strategies to engage volunteers, former volunteers, alumni, parents, educators, event attendees, and other community members as donors.
Invite people to participate through giving, volunteering, events, peer outreach, and other forms of engagement.
Plan and represent SMART at program visits, donor experiences, volunteer activities, and community gatherings that bring supporters closer to the mission.
Help supporters understand that literacy is not only a challenge for schools—it is a shared responsibility for our whole community.

Lead creative giving campaigns

Plan and implement annual-giving, mid-level, monthly-giving, direct-mail, digital, peer-to-peer, and affinity-based campaigns.
Develop campaign themes and communications that make SMART’s mission feel immediate, hopeful, and personal.
Partner with communications and program colleagues to create donor appeals, acknowledgments, impact updates, invitations, stewardship communications, and stories that bring SMART’s work to life.
Use donor data and campaign results to identify opportunities, improve strategies, and grow participation.

Strengthen SMART’s donor community

Maintain accurate donor records, contact reports, plans, and next steps in SMART’s database.
Track progress toward donor retention, revenue, and engagement goals.
Contribute ideas, energy, and collaboration to SMART’s statewide development program.
Support a culture in which every donor and volunteer is viewed as an important member of SMART’s community.

The Impact You’ll Make

Your work will give Oregonians a direct and meaningful way to help create:

Excited, confident young readers who experience the joy of books and reading with a caring adult.
Students better prepared for learning through regular shared reading experiences and access to books of their own.
Strengthened family bonds as children bring books and the joy of reading into their homes.
More students reading at home with family, building habits that support literacy, connection, and lifelong learning.
A better educated Oregon, where more children have the confidence, support, and opportunities they need to thrive.

You will help build a broad and lasting community of Oregonians who believe every child deserves the opportunity to become a successful reader.

You May Be a Great Fit If You Are

A warm and genuine relationship builder who is curious about people.
Energized by meeting donors, volunteers, and community members.
Comfortable making personal and direct invitations to give.
A creative communicator who can bring a mission to life through stories and campaigns.
Skilled at making people feel welcomed, appreciated, and part of something meaningful.
Organized and able to manage a large number of relationships and follow-up commitments.
Motivated by goals and interested in learning from donor and campaign results.
Excited to turn community connections into long-term support for children.
Deeply motivated by children’s literacy, educational opportunity, and a stronger future for Oregon.

Why SMART Reading?

Problems like educational inequity and low literacy can feel enormous and difficult to solve. SMART Reading gives people and organizations a direct, tangible way to make a difference. By helping children access books, spend meaningful time reading with caring adults, and build confidence and a love of reading, we can positively affect the course of their lives—and the future of our state.

At SMART Reading, you will join a village of Oregonians working together across geographic, political, and economic differences around one simple truth: Reading matters.

Join us and help build the partnerships that make a reader today.

Compensation and Benefits

SMART Reading offers a salary range of $60,000 to $65,000 annually, depending on experience, along with a comprehensive benefits package that includes:

Cell phone reimbursement: $50 per month, or an additional $600 annually.
401(k) retirement plan: Employer match of up to 3% of salary.
Paid vacation: Four weeks accrued annually.
Paid office closures: Two additional paid weeks off each year—one in July and one in December—to support employee rest and rejuvenation.
Employer-paid health benefits: Medical, dental, vision, life, accidental death and dismemberment, and long-term disability insurance.
Paid holidays: Nine paid holidays that may be used on scheduled holidays or as floating days according to personal beliefs and obligations.
Paid supplemental medical leave: Two weeks accrued annually, with the ability to carry over and accumulate up to eight weeks.

A complete benefits package outline will be provided to candidates selected for an interview.

Application Instructions

Ready to help more Oregon children become excited, confident readers?

Please submit your resume and a cover letter through SMART Reading’s online application portal at the link below. In your cover letter, tell us:

Why SMART Reading’s mission matters to you.
How your experience has prepared you to build meaningful donor relationships and lead community-giving campaigns.
How you have demonstrated a commitment to equity and inclusion.

We know candidates bring valuable experience through many different professional and personal paths. You do not need to meet every preferred qualification to apply. We encourage you to share how your experience, skills, and potential align with this opportunity.

Location: Portland metro area. This position requires regular in-person work from SMART Reading’s Portland office and is not a fully remote role.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. For priority consideration, please apply by August 7, 2026.

People of color, people with disabilities, veterans, and people from historically marginalized communities are strongly encouraged to apply.

SMART’s Commitment to Equity: As an early literacy program focused on helping children succeed with reading and learning, SMART can’t ignore that deep racial, cultural, social, and economic inequities in our country and state make it harder for some children to succeed compared to others. SMART’s vision is an Oregon in which every child can read and is empowered to succeed, and we are making equity a top priority. As part of this, we particularly seek staff members, volunteers, and board members whose personal or professional background gives them a unique perspective to further SMART’s work in serving children of color and children from other marginalized groups.

Apply here: https://smart.hiringthing.com/job/1036258/community-giving-development-officer-portland-metro.

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