Organizational Summary
Contraceptive care is basic healthcare. Yet too many patients in the U.S. struggle to access the care they need, when they need it. Founded in 2014, Upstream USA is a national, nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that equitable, patient-centered contraceptive care is available to everyone.
Our Mission and Impact
Upstream works to ensure individuals can make fully informed, autonomous decisions about the contraceptive methods that are best for them. We are currently the largest contraceptive organization in the country improving contraceptive care in primary care settings, operating in 37 states and Washington, D.C.
While our foundational work focuses on partnering with healthcare organizations offering primary care, such as federally qualified healthcare centers (FQHC) and health systems, we are always evolving. We are actively pursuing additional, innovative paths to ensure every patient has streamlined access to the contraceptive service of their choice, where and when it is most convenient for them.
A Different Kind of Nonprofit
Supported entirely by venture philanthropy, Upstream operates with a culture of aggressive growth and a laser focus on measurable outcomes. To maintain our independence and nonpartisan stance, we do not accept funding from the government or pharmaceutical companies.
Our 2030 Goal: We are on a mission to partner with organizations that collectively reach 5 million patients of reproductive age.
Recognition: We are a 2023 Audacious Project recipient, with our work featured in publications like Harvard Public Health, Bloomberg, and MedPage Today.
We welcome individuals who are driven by impact and scale to join us in making equitable contraceptive access a reality for all.
Position Summary
The Vice President of Development and External Affairs Strategy and Operations provides strategic and operational leadership for Upstream’s Development and External Affairs department, ensuring the systems, planning processes, and team coordination required to achieve Upstream’s ambitious revenue goals and to steward a growing network of stakeholders.
The VP leads the operating strategy for the Development & External Affairs team, including annual operating planning, prioritization and resourcing decisions, top donor engagement strategy integration, development of the team’s service menu, performance standards, training and capability building, and the establishment of the team’s operating cadence. In this role, the VP ensures that fundraising activities, investor engagement, and cross team coordination are strategically aligned, effectively integrated, and executed through streamlined systems and processes to enable the team to execute high-quality, high touch donor engagement at scale.
The VP leads a team of 8, including 4 direct reports, and provides management and oversight for several core functions within Development and External Affairs, including systems & operations, donor and stakeholder communications, major and annual giving, and external affairs teams.
This role does not manage an individual donor portfolio and does not carry personal revenue targets. Rather, the VP is accountable for building and running the operating infrastructure, planning, and team capability that enable Upstream's frontline fundraisers and executives to achieve the organization's revenue goals.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Organizational Leadership & Strategic Alignment
Represent Development and External Affairs in key internal leadership forums and cross-organizational planning sessions, ensuring donor and investor insights inform organizational decisions and communicating enterprise priorities back to the Development & External Affairs team.
Serve as the strategic integrator between the Transformational (investor engagement and prospecting) team and other Upstream teams and leadership bodies, ensuring fundraising priorities are aligned with and informed by organizational strategy and programmatic work.
Development & External Affairs Operating Leadership
Serve as the primary operational leader for the team’s development, external affairs, board governance, and executive support functions, with end-to-end accountability for systems, workflows, team coordination, and execution across Development & External Affairs functions.
Act as the day-to-day operational decision maker for Development and External Affairs resourcing, prioritization, executive engagement strategy, training, communications and core operating processes, resolving tradeoffs and escalations to ensure effective execution and protect the CDEAO’s focus on enterprise leadership and high value fundraising.
Establish and lead the operating rhythm for the Development & External Affairs function, including planning cycles, portfolio management infrastructure, progress monitoring, and team forums that support alignment and execution.
Oversees Development and External Affairs team’s systems and operations, including CRM, analytics, reporting, planning cycles, and portfolio management infrastructure.
Provides strategic oversight, development, and accountability for the Development and External Affairs budget in partnership with Finance.
Lead, develop, and build the capability of a team of 8, including 4 direct reports, across development operations, communications, giving, and external affairs functions.
Strategic Planning & Performance Management
Lead the development and recommendation of Development and External Affairs’ annual operating plan, goals and KPIs across the transformational team (prospecting and investor relations) as well major donors and external affairs; align these with overall organizational objectives. Track progress toward goals and recommend adjustments in strategy in order to meet revenue targets.
Define and operationalize a comprehensive service menu for the Portfolio Team, ensuring consistent and high-quality engagement of top donors.
Evaluate strategic options for engagement and prospecting approaches ensuring an optimal balance of proactive and opportunistic approaches.
In close partnership with team leads, determine the optimal resourcing to achieve these strategies including job buckets, accountabilities, portfolio size metrics, and portfolio assignments
Oversee operational prioritization and planning to ensure that investor engagement touchpoints, prospecting efforts, executive travel as well as team and cross-team meetings, are coordinated, strategically aligned, and well-executed.
Training & Donor Communications
Recommend and oversee training and professional development for the Portfolio Team and others involved in transformational fundraising to prepare staff and operationalize top-tier, high touch, white glove transformational donor engagement.
Ensure the portfolio team and internal staff develop and demonstrate top-tier donor communications and engagement capabilities, and have the tools, content, and executive presence required to confidently speak to investors and donors about organizational strategy, programmatic approaches and impact, investor motivations and philanthropic narratives.
Oversee development and deployment of cross-portfolio and segmented donor-facing communications materials, ensuring exceptional quality, consistency in voice, clarity in message, and alignment with strategic priorities, reflecting the standards expected of an elite transformational fundraising team.
Liaise with other teams required to support training and donor communications: Marketing & Communications, Strategy, Regions, Growth, and Digital.
Relationship Management Strategy
Oversee and approve the integrated engagement plan for Upstream’s top investors, developed by the Senior Director of Investor Relations, ensuring coordinated deployment of the CEO and CDEAO for high impact engagement opportunities.
Work closely with the External Affairs Officer to develop communication strategies to keep this broad audience warm, informed, and inspired, balancing proactive outreach with meaningful, mission-aligned touchpoints.
Provide leadership and oversight for the organization’s annual and major donor strategy, ensuring alignment with broader fundraising goals, and ensuring that relationship ownership and execution are clearly assigned and consistently managed by the appropriate team members.
Help determine the cross-functional relationship management structures enterprise-wide.
Additional duties and projects as assigned
Required Education, Experience, Knowledge, Skills and Ability
Upstream fosters a mission-oriented workplace and welcomes applicants of all backgrounds. The ideal candidate upholds our mission of accessible, patient-centered contraceptive care, builds trust through empathy and honesty, and contributes to a collaborative culture. They bring enthusiasm to their work, creating opportunities for connection and celebration.
12-15+ years of progressive experience in development, external affairs, revenue strategy, or a closely related field, including demonstrated success as a senior operating leader responsible for enterprise-level strategy, systems, planning, performance management, and cross-team coordination (beyond individual fundraising).
Experience on a development team that has secured eight- or nine-figure (transformational) gifts, with a demonstrated understanding of what excellent transformational donor stewardship, engagement, and operational support require.
Proven experience designing and overseeing investor relations, external affairs and major gifts strategies through teams, including portfolio design, resourcing models, and accountability frameworks.
Strong track record of leading and developing senior leaders across multiple development-adjacent functions, such as operations, fundraising, external affairs, communications, content, and training.
Demonstrated experience partnering closely with C-suite leaders and boards, including preparing executives for high-stakes donor and investor engagements, managing executive deployment, and elevating executive effectiveness in fundraising contexts.
Demonstrated ability to operate as a buffer and integrator, absorbing complexity, resolving tensions, and protecting executive and frontline capacity while exercising day-to-day decision-making authority aligned with executive leadership.
Exceptional executive presence, credibility, and judgment, with the ability to coach and enable executives and senior staff to communicate confidently and persuasively with ultra-high-net-worth donors and investors.
Experience building or overseeing training, enablement, and content systems that strengthen executive presence, donor communications, and narrative consistency across the organization.
Deep understanding of fundraising operating models, including CRM systems, analytics, portfolio management, reporting, planning cycles, and functional budgets.
Demonstrated ability to set and manage KPIs, goals, and performance frameworks tied to ambitious revenue targets.
Proven ability to evaluate strategic tradeoffs, allocate limited resources, and make prioritization decisions in fast-moving, high-expectation environments.
Demonstrated ability to remain focused, adaptable, and solution-oriented in the face of challenges, setbacks, or ambiguity. Approaching obstacles with a growth mindset and maintaining a steady commitment to goals, even under pressure or changing circumstances; resilience.
While Upstream is a remotely based organization, they maintain an on-camera culture during meetings to support connection, engagement, teaming and collaboration. Must be comfortable and able to participate in this environment.
Travel Requirements
This role will require up to 25% business travel. All Upstreamers can expect a minimum of 8 days of business travel per year to attend 1 annual organizational retreat and 1 or 2 annual team/department meetings.
Pay Transparency
The salary range for this position is $230,000 – $250,000. Final offers for this position will be based upon several factors including the scope of the role, market compensation analysis, position requirements, candidate’s experience level and capabilities, fairness in internal pay considerations, and will be made within the parameters of Upstream USA's compensation framework and philosophy.
Other Upstream Staff Expectations
In our hybrid work environments, there is a basic expectation that our Upstreamers will ensure that their work from home setups will have reliable access to phone and Internet to ensure connectivity to their teams.
At Upstream we gather for moments that matter for training, teaming and connection. Our teams come together for occasional in person meetings and organizational retreats. As part of our hybrid work practices, this travel expectation will be applicable for all Upstreamers, even those based remotely.
Engagement in organization-sponsored learning & development
Upstream Benefits
Upstream USA offers a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, life insurance, long and short term disability, 401K with employer match, generous vacation, personal, sick and holiday time off, parental leave, professional development, and a fitness and cell phone allowance for all full time employees and part time employees who work a minimum of 24 hours per week.
Hiring Process
Candidates who advance in our preliminary review process will have an opportunity to discuss the position, their employment background and lived experience with a member of the Positively Partners team by telephone. Those who advance to subsequent steps in our interview process may participate in up to three rounds of meetings by Zoom or in person and in a thought exercise/case study assignment. Each round could consist of multiple meetings with various Upstreamers. If you need anything in advance of your interviews, please reach out to your recruiter.
Our Culture
We are dedicated to fostering a fair and accessible talent lifecycle, ensuring that every individual has the opportunity to thrive. From recruitment to career development, we strive to create a workplace where talent is recognized, supported, and empowered to contribute meaningfully. Building a strong, representative workforce is essential to our success, and we prioritize collaboration, transparency, and shared leadership to cultivate an environment where all voices are heard and valued.
Our commitment extends beyond hiring—we invest in professional growth, mentorship, and inclusive workplace practices to support long-term success for our employees. You can learn more about our organization on our career site.
How to Apply
Please apply directly on our career site which can be seen here. Please contact Rose at Positively Partners should you have any additional questions.
Upstream Careers
Our goal is to attract, develop and retain exceptional people, and to create a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding and enables each of us to realize our potential. Upstream is committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, genetic information, gender identity or Veteran status. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know. Upstream USA participates in E-Verify.
Upstream Headquarters
2 Oliver Street, Suite 402, Boston, MA 02109
www.upstream.org
No phone calls please.
Be advised that we do not ever conduct hiring interviews via text or email. Please protect yourself by learning more about our hiring practices and common red flags to look out for.
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