Development Director

Interplanetary Help Desk produces benefit concerts for nonprofits in Austin. We help great causes raise money, while supporting music venues and musicians.

We need you to secure high-value sponsorships, brand partnerships, and philanthropic support. Your primary focus will be large corporations, with additional outreach to foundations and individuals capable of giving $25,000 or more. This is a revenue-generating role where you'll build and manage a robust pipeline of prospects, crafting compelling sponsorship and visibility opportunities that align partner objectives with our mission, creating greater value for both organizations.

You bring a strategic approach to brand alignment and audience engagement and are able to translate visibility, values, and reach into meaningful packages that elevate our sponsors’ presence while advancing a social impact mission. You know how to communicate brand benefits like exposure, goodwill, and community connection, and you're energized by helping partners see the why behind the partnership.

You're a passionate relationship builder who knows that success in sponsorship and advertising sales isn’t just about making the ask— it’s about building trust, creating alignment, and generating momentum. You’re just as energized by preparing a colleague, executive, or board member to lead the conversation as you are by managing it yourself. You show up with a low-ego, high-impact mindset, always focused on what best serves the mission and strengthens the connection.

This is an inside sales role, on the phone with no travel and local prospects. The team will support you with sales content, relationships, and participating in pitches as needed. Much of the sale is done via email and social media, so excellent written selling skills are a must. We’re using Salesforce to manage the process.

We have a mission-driven product, a respectful work environment, and a sales process that deeply values relationships. Making a sale is never more important than making a friend.

Your job

• Identify and engage potential sponsors and brand partners aligned with our mission and make contact with them.
• Understand partner objectives —their brand goals, target audiences, and challenges— and build deep, long-term, empathetic relationships.
• Master our messaging and storytelling. Internalize our mission and the impact we create for nonprofit partners, local music venues, musicians, and the broader community. Ensure partners understand how their investment in Interplanetary Help Desk aligns their brand with Austin’s cultural identity and community spirit.
• Manage outreach, negotiation, and closing of partnership deals. Build and maintain a pipeline of 100 active accounts, moving prospects through every stage with discipline and care.
• Meet or exceed a monthly revenue quota.
• Develop and track key performance indicators (KPIs) that matter to sponsors so we can clearly communicate the visibility, alignment, and impact they receive through partnership.
• Steward sponsor relationships by ensuring timely and thoughtful sponsorship fulfillment, strong brand visibility, and clear impact reporting with the goal of securing renewals and expanding long-term partnerships.

What we're looking for

• Proven experience in BtoB sales or large-donor nonprofit fundraising . Strong background in new business development, lead generation, and client management.
• Excellent communicator and strong writer. You're comfortable and articulate with senior-level executives in person, on the phone, and in email/social media.You understand how to position brand value.
• Relationship-building skills. Sociable, caring, engaging, and approachable person who can build meaningful relationships.
• Relentless perseverance and tenacity. You're a committed, driven winner with grit. You can hit the phones all day long, brush off rejection, and stick with it because you know that what you're selling is truly meaningful.
• Meticulous attention to detail. Database hygiene and detailed note-taking are expected of everyone.
• Mission-driven. Passionate about doing work that has a meaningful impact on society. Show deep commitment at a personal level to the people we serve, the work we do, and our team.
• Positive attitude. Cheerful-but-driven, great teammate, enjoys winning as a team, enthusiastic, good humor, adaptable, and raises the energy level in a room.

Some important details

This is an in-person job in Austin, 50% in the office. Our work is very local and hands-on. It’s mostly daytime in the office, but everyone will support our concerts in the evening at local music venues. No remote options.

How to get this job: Submit an application at interplanetary.org. We want to see a great cover letter, resume, and anything else that shows us how you write, think, and work. Show us what you've done and how you can do it for us. Include samples of your work.

Compensation: This is a nonprofit startup with limited benefits and mid-range salaries. As we grow we plan to elevate compensation and provide comprehensive benefits.

What we do

Interplanetary Help Desk produces benefit concerts for nonprofits. We help nonprofits raise money, while supporting music venues and musicians. We’re a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Our model is simple: We produce a benefit concert and the nonprofit partner sells the tickets. The venue manages the show. We cover the cost through sponsorships. The nonprofit keeps all the ticket revenue (yes, ALL the ticket revenue).

The Big Idea: What if there was a way to raise money for nonprofits that is more fun, less work, and gets everyone dancing? Nonprofits can reach big groups of supporters— but fundraisers are high risk and lots of work. Music venues are great at hosting concerts— but they need help with marketing and generating reliable revenue. Sponsors want to support local causes and artists— but they need a more efficient way to support small groups. We bring them together. Everyone wins.

What it's like to work with us

We’re building a high-performing, intense, high-energy workplace that lets you do astonishingly good work every day. And we balance it with healthy work policies that send us home, on time, to our families and personal lives. We don't know it all, but we're figuring it out together and having a great time doing it.

You'll like our team. We only work with people we like, people who care, and people devoted to the cause. There are no office politics, whiners, slackers, or jerks. (We also reject customers and partners that don't treat our employees well.) We are dedicated and driven— and you'll enjoy spending your days with us.