Chief Development Officer

Description:

Reporting to the President & CEO, the Chief Development Officer serves as the Center for Civic Education’s senior fundraising executive and strategic partner in advancing the organization’s long-term sustainability and growth. The Chief Development Officer will lead the development and execution of a comprehensive fundraising strategy designed to diversify revenue, expand philanthropic investment, and strengthen the Center’s capacity to fulfill its mission.

Key Responsibilities

Development Strategy & Revenue Leadership

Lead and own the Center’s organization-wide development strategy, ensuring fundraising priorities are aligned with the Center’s mission, strategic plan, and programmatic goals, with an initial focus on achieving $600K–$1M in annual contributed revenue and positioning the Center for sustained year-over-year growth.
Lead the transformation of the Center's development function from a historically grant-centered fundraising operation to a diversified, relationship-driven philanthropy program capable of sustained growth across major gifts, annual giving, corporate partnerships, alumni engagement, and institutional philanthropy.
Set annual and multi-year revenue goals in partnership with the President & CEO and senior leadership.
Lead revenue forecasting, pipeline management, and fundraising performance tracking across individual, foundation, corporate, and other contributed revenue streams.
Establish clear development KPIs and dashboards to monitor progress, identify risks, and support data-informed decision-making.
Build a balanced fundraising strategy that strengthens near-term revenue while expanding the Center’s long-term philanthropic capacity.
Partner with leadership to translate the Center’s strategic priorities into compelling funding opportunities for donors and institutional funders.
Serve as a strategic advisor to the President & CEO and Board of Directors on fundraising opportunities, revenue risks, philanthropic trends, and long-term resource development planning.

Major Gifts & Donor Strategy

Design and lead the Center's major gifts strategy, including prospect identification, donor qualification, moves management, solicitation planning, and stewardship practices.
Build a sustainable pipeline of major and principal gift prospects capable of supporting transformational investments in the Center's long-term growth and impact.
Demonstrated success personally closing multiple six-figure and/or seven-figure gifts.
Own major gift portfolio management, including prospect identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.
Personally manage a portfolio of high-capacity donors and prospects, including individuals with the potential to make six- and seven-figure gifts.
Partner with the President & CEO and board members to prepare for donor meetings, shape cultivation strategies, and move prospects through the pipeline.
Develop tailored donor strategies that connect philanthropic interests to the Center’s civic education programs, national reach, student impact, educator support, and future vision.
Strengthen systems for donor engagement, moves management, stewardship, and follow-up.
Ensure major gift work is proactive, disciplined, and consistently connected to revenue goals.
Create a culture of donor-centered fundraising that emphasizes relationship building, strategic stewardship, and long-term philanthropic investment.

Foundation & Institutional Giving

Oversee the Center’s foundation and institutional giving strategy, ensuring alignment with revenue goals and organizational priorities.
Partner with the Sr. Director of Advancement, who will lead day-to-day institutional giving strategy and execution, including portfolio management, cultivation, proposals, reporting, and stewardship.
Help prioritize foundation prospects and opportunities based on strategic fit, revenue potential, and organizational capacity.
Serve as a thought partner on funder strategy, proposal concepts, and institutional funding opportunities.
Engage directly in high-priority funder relationships when senior-level involvement is needed.
Ensure foundation and institutional activity is reflected in the broader development pipeline, revenue forecast, and fundraising KPIs.

Alumni Engagement 

Lead efforts to better understand the Center’s alumni and former program participant audiences, including their current connection to the Center, civic and professional pathways, and potential interest in deeper engagement, with the goal of building thoughtful pathways toward long-term involvement, ambassadorship, and philanthropy. 
Oversee the creation of early engagement opportunities that rebuild or deepen alumni connection to the Center before moving into fundraising, such as storytelling, volunteer opportunities, mentoring, events, communications, ambassador roles, or program support. 
Strategize on and oversee creation of pathways for alumni and former participants to become part of the Center’s donor community through thoughtful cultivation, stewardship, and giving opportunities aligned with their connection to the mission.

Development Team Leadership & Management

Lead and manage the development team, including two direct reports.
Build, mentor, and scale a high-performing development team, including assessing organizational talent needs, clarifying functional roles, establishing performance expectations, and developing future fundraising leaders.
Assess organizational fundraising capacity and recommend future staffing, structure, and resource investments needed to support growth. 
Set clear goals, roles, workflows, and accountability structures for the development function.
Provide coaching, supervision, and professional development to ensure team members are equipped to execute at a high level.
Strengthen internal coordination across development operations, donor communications, grant support, campaign execution, and stewardship via systems, routines, and tools.
Create a culture of collaboration, follow-through, and shared ownership of fundraising outcomes.
Ensure the development team is using Salesforce and related systems consistently to support portfolio management, reporting, forecasting, and donor engagement.

Board, CEO, & Cross-Organizational Partnership

Serve as the President & CEO’s senior partner on fundraising strategy, donor engagement, and revenue planning.
Serve as a member of the senior leadership team and contribute to organization-wide strategy, planning, resource allocation, and long-term sustainability efforts.
Support the CEO in preparing for high-priority donor and funder meetings, including briefing materials, talking points, proposals, and follow-up strategies.
Develop and implement strategies that increase board engagement in donor identification, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship, and philanthropic investment.
Partner with board members to identify prospects, open doors, and strengthen philanthropic relationships.
Provide clear and actionable fundraising updates to leadership and board committees.
Work cross-functionally with program, finance, communications, and operations staff to ensure development strategy reflects the Center’s full scope of work and impact.
Help build shared internal understanding of fundraising priorities, donor opportunities, and revenue risks.

Qualifications

Minimum of 10 years of progressive nonprofit development, fundraising, or advancement experience, including significant responsibility for fundraising strategy, revenue growth, donor portfolio management, and development leadership.
Minimum of five years supervising development staff, with demonstrated success coaching, developing, and managing fundraising professionals.
Demonstrated success and experience in the functions named above.