Operations / Administration Chief Development Officer
Job Description
Organization Summary
Elevate 215 is a catalyst for preparing students for the world of tomorrow by modernizing the
learning experience in Philadelphia schools today. We do this by investing in schools and talent, collaborating with our partners, expanding access and resources for families, and advocating to create the conditions for success. Elevate 215 is seeking a Chief Development Officer who will lead the organization in establishing a strategic vision to secure the financial resources needed for sustainability and growth.
Job Summary
The Chief Development Officer (CDO) will be a collaborative and results-oriented leader, who will be responsible for designing and leading Elevate 215’s fundraising strategy to meet the organizational mission of investing in 30 schools, developing 500+ educators, and elevating outcomes for 25,000 students. The CDO will collaborate and report to the Executive Director to manage existing funding relationships with the goal of identifying and cultivating new relationships and diversifying revenue streams in support of our $7M- $8M organization.
The Chief Development Officer will be responsible for:
Strategic Campaign Planning
- Create short and long-term strategic campaign plans to ensure Elevate 215 secures the funding needed to meet its mission; annual organization budget of $7M-8M.
- Develop a multi-year plan to diversify the funding streams to include private donations, foundation grants, public funding, and sponsorships.
- Establish performance metrics and annual revenue goals for the fundraising department, monitor results and fundraising trends, and use that information to adjust course nimbly.
Thought Leadership
- Support Elevate 215’s Board of Directors, the Executive Director and Senior Leadership in fundraising initiatives, serve as the primary resource on fundraising best practices and relevant philanthropy trends.
- Foster a fundraising culture at Elevate 215 and among Board members and friends of the organization.
A Relationship-Based Fundraising Approach
- Work closely with the Executive Director to ensure authentic relationships with donors are built and stewarded; invest donors in seeing Elevate 215’s strategy as a key lever to modernizing the learning experience in schools across Philadelphia and desiring to engage as partners in the mission.
- Develop and maintain key long-term relationships with major donors, foundations, and corporate partners, ensuring a diversified funding portfolio.
- Develop a systemic and strategic approach of personal meetings, outreach and follow up to ensure all donors and prospects are consistently meaningfully engaged; develop strategies to enhance the donor solicitation process and stewardship.
- Implement a strategic and aggressive approach to diversify funding sources including identifying potential new corporate, individual and foundation donors and developing tailored plans for engagement.
Team Leadership
- Develop and lead the Development team.
- Intentionally build the skills and abilities of the Development team in key areas (grants, communications, stewardship, major gifts, events, donor relations, operations, etc.).
- Oversee the operations function (including but not limited to materials production, data management, issuing correspondence, gift processing, research, event and meeting support), constantly evaluate for greater impact and efficiencies.
- Manage the grant writing function, provide leadership and guidance on expanding Elevate 215’s portfolio of grant makers and determine approach and data needed for proposal writing, constantly evaluating for greater impact and efficiencies.
Board Management
- Equip the Board of Directors and the Development Committee with tools needed to become champions of the mission of Elevate 215 and to introduce new donors to the organization, provide guidance and support as needed.
- Staff the Development Committee and engage Board members to assist with fundraising.
- Report to the Board at and in between Board meetings, clearly share successes and challenges and actively engage Board Members as partners.
Communications
- Create annual communications plan, provide relevant, strategic and timely communications with donors, staff members, the Board of Directors, Board Committees, and volunteers.
- Create effective development tools and resources (including but not limited to: presentations, prospectuses and annual reports, other printed and interactive marketing communications).
- Interpret multiple forms of data and create honest and compelling stories about the progress and impact of investments.
Other
- Maintain accountability and ensure compliance with all regulations and laws.
- Regularly traveling, mainly within Philadelphia and surrounding areas.
- Perform other duties as assigned.
Required Skill and Abilities
- Deep commitment to the mission and vision of Elevate 215 and its role in achieving educational equity for all children in Philadelphia.
- Strong interpersonal and communications skills, both oral and written, and a passion to develop relationships with stakeholders.
- Ability to build and maintain strong relationships across diverse groups of internal and external stakeholders.
- Superb project management and problem-solving skills with the ability to translate data insights into actionable solutions.
- Evidence of background in interpreting multiple forms of data and creating honest and compelling stories about the progress and impact of investments using analytics.
- Skilled at managing a team and multiple work streams toward measurable outcomes. Track record in hiring and coaching staff to higher performance and skill development.
- A strategic and detail-oriented thinker with the agility to balance competing priorities, complex situations, and tight deadlines; comfort leading within ambiguity.
Experience and Education
- Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred.
- Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in development or fundraising.
- Demonstrated success leading development/fundraising strategy including raising six and seven figure gifts.
- Experience working in the K-12 ecosystem both inside schools and inside or with partners supporting K-12 (talent providers, program providers, funders, other education non-profits) – preferred but not required.
Physical Requirements
Ability to physically perform the duties and to work in the environmental conditions required such as:
- Traveling to offsite meetings – valid driver’s license and/or access to transportation when necessary;
- Functioning in office space — reaching file cabinets, filing, scanning, coping, typing, mailing, making phone calls;
- Must be able to sit for up to two hours looking at a computer monitor, using a keyboard/mouse and typing.
Elevate 215 is an equal-opportunity employer with excellent benefits and an entrepreneurial, results-oriented work culture. Salary is commensurate with experience.
