Join our team to influence the future of the Moon

Development Director

Location: Remote (Global)
Compensation: USD $90,000–$115,000 (dependent on structure, experience and location)
Employment Type: Full-time, initial 12-month term with intent to extend
Reports to: Executive Director
Works Closely With: Executive Director, Board of Directors, Directors, Program & Technical Leads

Direct Reports: None

About Open Lunar

Open Lunar is a US 501(c)3 nonprofit stewarding humanity’s return to the Moon with transparency, cooperation, and shared benefit at its core. We develop practical governance frameworks and shared infrastructure — including the Lunar Ledger — that enable peaceful, equitable, and collaborative lunar activity from the start.

As lunar activity accelerates and coordination challenges grow, Open Lunar plays a unique role at the intersection of governance, policy, and technology — translating shared values into systems that shape how the Moon is explored and used.

Open Lunar has long term donor relationships and a significant network. Our fundraising goals are to steadily increase the resilience and abundance of our programs. 

Role Overview

Open Lunar is seeking an experienced, entrepreneurial Development Director to lead all fundraising strategy and execution for the organization. This role will be driving the action, owning the processes, and managing up.

The Development Director is the point person for fundraising, responsible for facilitating our  approach, identifying and pursuing funding pathways, crafting and pitching compelling opportunities, and closing significant gifts and partnerships.

You will work in close partnership with the Executive Director and Board — mobilizing senior leadership — and translating Open Lunar’s governance, policy, and technical work into fundable, high-impact opportunities. As our inaugural Development Director, you will also be creating the foundation for our development operations and strategy as you go. 

This role is ideal for someone with proven fundraising or sales experience who is excited to operate in an emerging field and comfortable opening new markets that may not yet be thinking about lunar activity.

While this position is in a department of one, we envision support for this role can be built up in time. Additionally, our team is highly collaborative and you will work closely with and receive support on key tasks from our programs, operations, and communications teams.

What You'll Step Into

  • An established portfolio of major donors with documented giving histories

  • A well-connected board committed to opening doors and making introductions

  • Dedicated budget for development tools, software subscriptions, and donor travel

  • Collaborative colleagues across programs, communications, and operations ready to amplify your work

  • A hands-on executive director invested in your success

If this role intrigues you, but your background doesn’t align perfectly with every line above, we still encourage you to apply. Open Lunar is a multidisciplinary team, and we recognize that impactful fundraising and partnership leadership can come from a variety of professional paths. We are open to discussing scope and title with exceptional candidates whose experience strongly aligns with Open Lunar’s needs.

Core Responsibilities

Leadership & Strategy 

  • Own Open Lunar’s fundraising strategy, targets, and pipelines across individual, institutional, and partnership funding.

  • Manage annual and multi-year fundraising plans, forecasts, and progress reporting.

  • Proactively guide and support staff and board members to be effective fundraising champions.

  • Design and execute special campaigns such as year-end giving, planned giving, and anniversary year fundraising pushes. 

  • Work closely with the communications team to ensure organizational outputs are aligned with our audience and fundraising strategy. 

Fundraising and Donor Engagement 

  • Identify, pursue, and close major gifts, multi-year commitments, sponsorships, and strategic partnerships.

  • Identify new funder communities and markets not traditionally engaged in lunar or space work.

  • Serve as the lead on all grant writing, pulling in other team members as needed. 

  • Strategically deploy the Executive Director and Board into fundraising conversations where their involvement is most impactful.

  • Maintain key funder relationships including stewarding future renewals. 

  • Develop compelling funding narratives for Open Lunar’s core initiatives, including the Lunar Ledger, Fellowship programs, and governance frameworks.

  • Equip leadership with pitches, decks, talking points, and follow-up strategies — while retaining ownership of overall fundraising direction.

  • Play a leadership and managing role in donor-facing events, including the annual Board & Donor Retreat in 2026.

Partnerships 

  • Build partnerships across space, technology, governance, climate, security, infrastructure, and adjacent sectors.

  • Expand upon an existing corporate sponsorship strategy, evaluate partner benefits, and recruit new partners. 

  • Travel for fundraising meetings or events and have a presence at program-focused virtual and in-person events when needed. 

  • Collaborate with program and technical leads to shape fundable initiatives and scopes of work.

  • Steward institutional relationships post-award in coordination with the Executive Director and Operations team.

Data, Systems, and Operations

  • Maintain clear ownership of pipeline health, donor movement, and closing timelines.

  • Establish and manage a donor database and ensure accurate records, acknowledgments, and data segmentation for targeted outreach.

  • Build and manage a tracking system for a pipeline of foundation and institutional funding opportunities.

  • Create and maintain dashboards and one-pagers for presenting fundraising progress to the board and key funders. 

  • Lead and submit concept notes, proposals, and grant reports aligned with Open Lunar’s broader fundraising strategy.

  • Create one-pagers, pitch decks, and other communications collateral to support fundraising activities. 

  • Implement clear policies, timelines, and quality-control systems that promote efficiency, accountability, and compliance across all fundraising functions

Who You Are

  • You are a strategist, closer, and relationship-builder who is comfortable taking ownership, setting direction, and being accountable for results.

  • You enjoy operating in complex, high-context environments and know how to translate ambitious ideas into fundable action.

Required Experience & Skills

  • 5+ years of experience in fundraising, development, sales, partnerships, or capital raising.

  • Proven track record closing significant gifts or deals, including six-figure and multi-year commitments.

  • Experience leading fundraising strategy — not just executing against a plan set by others.

  • Strong pitch development, storytelling, and negotiation skills.

  • Comfort working peer-to-peer with senior leadership and boards.

  • Excellent relationship management and follow-through.

  • Alignment with Open Lunar’s mission and values around cooperation, transparency, and peaceful futures.

  • Ability to travel 2-3 times/year.

  • Experience working in a remote environment, including excellent communication skills and fluency with digital communication tools such as Slack, Asana, and Google Workspace. 

  • Experience with both in-person and virtual relationship building and funds solicitation. 

Strong Plus / Nice to Have

  • Background in sales, venture fundraising, or business development, particularly in complex or emerging sectors.

  • Experience fundraising for governance, policy, infrastructure, science, or technology initiatives.

  • Familiarity with space, aerospace, climate, or global governance ecosystems.

  • U.S. and international fundraising experience.

  • Comfort building systems and markets that do not yet have established playbooks.

What This Role Is — and Is Not

  • This is a builder role, not a maintenance role.

  • You will help shape fundraising systems and markets that are still emerging.

  • This is not a grant-only or inbound fundraising environment.

  • You do not need to be a technical expert, but you must be comfortable learning about our work and engaging with technical teams.

Benefits

  • Open Lunar provides healthcare for employees, life insurance, and access to a retirement account

  • Generous holiday time, holidays, and a year-end office closure

  • Professional development stipend

  • Open Lunar provides a laptop and role-appropriate tools to support effective remote work.

  • Join a positive team culture where hard work is celebrated, and we genuinely support each other while making time for fun along the way.

    Apply now: https://openlunar.typeform.com/to/FO8bE7Sv

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