Executive Director, Chicago

Location: Remote in Chicago, IL with local in-person meetings and occasional national travel.

Employment Type: Full-time, Exempt

Salary Range: $145,230 - $152,000

Benefits: High-quality health and dental insurance, paid vacation, employer-matched retirement plan

The Organization:

At Thrive Scholars, we provide high-achieving, diverse, and underrepresented students, including students of color from under-resourced communities, the opportunities they need to thrive at top colleges and in meaningful careers.

Our comprehensive and data-driven program model focuses on the key inflection points that can be the difference between graduating from any college and graduating from a top college with the grades, degree, career skills, and network needed to thrive in any career. Thrive Scholars originated in Los Angeles as South Central Scholars (“SCS”) twenty years ago. Over this time, the organization has refined its program model and, in the last five years, has focused on expanding nationally; reaching more high-achieving underrepresented students, growing the number of Scholars we serve; and deepening our program impact. Thrive Scholars has begun to grow its footprint with new summer program offerings in three additional cities, with more to come. The organization has approximately 75 year-round employees and close to 200 summer employees.

The Opportunity:

Thrive Scholars is seeking an Executive Director for its Chicago and Cleveland locations to drive financial support for the organization in these regions; to grow, deepen and develop strong relationships with funders, academic and community-based leaders; and enable high performing local students to flourish in college and beyond. With Thrive’s emerging network and proven success, this is an ideal opportunity for an experienced, high-energy, self-starter with a strong track record in fundraising and passion for college and career access and success. Our goal for Chicago and Cleveland is to significantly grow the donor pipelines, significantly increasing the number of Scholars who can be recruited to participate.

Reporting to Thrive’s CEO, this executive will be joining a passionate and dedicated team of 5 other Regional Executive Directors (Boston, New York, Detroit, Jacksonville, and Los Angeles) who are committed to measurable and meaningful impact. As the primary face and champion of Thrive’s work and impact in the Chicago and Cleveland metro areas, the Executive Director will be charged with creating the narrative around local support, closing five, six and seven figure gifts, generating a network of donor support, building relationships with nonprofit and school district leaders, and inspiring, leveraging and activating local advisory boards. While this role will collaborate with national program teams and leadership, Thrive’s ED’s do not manage programmatic work; the focus of the role is on building financial support, stakeholder relationships, and community awareness in the region to enable the delivery of our national program model for students in the area.

Key Responsibilities:

Development and External Relations

• Serve as an inspirational external leader who actively engages and energizes Thrive’s supporters, partners, scholars, families, volunteers, and corporate partners.
• Identify, cultivate, and solicit five, six and seven figure gifts from individuals, families, foundations and corporations to meet ambitious seven-figure revenue targets; leverage a nuanced understanding of the Chicago philanthropic space to lead regional fundraising efforts.
• Steward outstanding philanthropic relationships to ensure a continuity of support.
• Capitalize on existing relationships with regional donors to build a growing network of engaged individual, foundation, and corporate partners.
• Establish and develop relationships with key prospects, ensuring their continued engagement, with an eye towards ensuring sustainable multi-year support; this will include drafting proposals and grant reports along with effective moves management and donor strategies and stewardship.
• Steward, appoint, and grow local champions to serve on the Chicago and Cleveland Regional Advisory Boards to meet fundraising and recruitment goals, and enhance Thrive’s profile in the community; leverage the Regional Advisory Board to drive fundraising success in the region.
• Support the efforts of the national development team, leveraging an area of interest or expertise to further the efforts of Thrive more broadly.

Community Building

• Engage a community of local academic, nonprofit and government leaders invested in Thrive Scholars’ success and willing to support the organization’s goals.
• Play a highly visible external role and serve as the main ambassador and champion for Thrive and its Scholars across the Chicago and Cleveland metro areas, coordinating with the national recruitment team to engage students, schools, and other access/success programs. Develop strong relationships with the senior leadership of partnering school districts and local community-based organizations to support the recruitment of the region’s Scholars.
• Engage and build a strong rapport with the region’s Scholars.

Systems Building and Management

• Establish effective day-to-day systems to ensure productive workflows and cross-team collaboration within Thrive’s Chicago and Cleveland metro areas, demonstrating exceptional follow-through.
• Maintain responsibility for Chicago and Cleveland metro areas revenue, with an acute understanding of the full operating budget and grant compliance.
• Partner closely with Thrive’s national leadership to create and maintain clear lines of communication around local fundraising initiatives and progress.
• Leverage existing prospect and donor tracking and moves management systems and programs to stay abreast of and report on active fundraising opportunities.
• Provide strategic guidance and thought partnership to Thrive’s senior leadership team on local initiatives.

Qualifications and Experience:

There are innumerable ways to learn, grow and excel professionally. We respect this when we review applications and take a broad look at the experience of each applicant. The qualifications and experiences listed below are intended as a guide; we do not expect candidates to check every box. If you believe you can meet the expectations and responsibilities of this position, we want to get to know you and the unique strengths you will bring to the work.

• Commitment to the mission and work of Thrive Scholars.
• Minimum of 10 years total experience strongly preferred; minimum of 5 years fundraising experience strongly preferred with an elevated comfort level working with high-net-worth individuals.
• Proven track record of building a strong body of support from new donors, community partners, corporate partners, and other key constituents in support of an organization with which they were not previously engaged.
• Ability to compellingly convey Thrive's mission, impact, and needs across the community in an authentic way that honors Thrive Scholars and their families.
• Ability to establish and sustain relationships with a diverse body of stakeholders, rallying them towards a common goal of college and career access and success throughout the Chicago metro area.
• Experience managing a seven-figure fundraising goal and knowledge of nonprofit revenue sources preferred, with a nuanced understanding of and networks in the Chicago philanthropic and corporate communities.
• Demonstrated success in fundraising, with a focus on individual major gifts, especially with family offices, foundation relations, and/or corporate partnerships, and track record of stewarding and closing multi-year support.
• Experience building and maintaining within-sector and cross-sector partnerships, and when necessary, problem-solving through partnership challenges and conflict.
• Excellence in systems building and management with the demonstrated ability to manage one’s work and approach towards successful outcomes.
• Strong skills in planning, organizing, and oral and written communication, including strong presentation skills.

Competencies:

Along with the specific qualifications and experiences noted above, the ideal candidate for this position will be expected to demonstrate the following competencies:

• Influencing: Communicates persuasively across the organization to build stakeholder and team alignment and support.
• Strategic Collaboration: Understands how and when to work with others to drive strong results. Able to balance attention to both results and relationships.
• Problem Solving: Able to analyze situations and apply critical thinking in order to identify issues and solutions.
• Commitment to Results: Takes action to produce high-quality work with measurable results in service of Thrive’s mission and Scholars.
• Fostering Thrive Community: Contributes to a work environment that embraces organizational values and works effectively across identities.

Thrive Scholars provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, disability, or veteran status. Knowing their importance to the success of our work, Thrive Scholars is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we aspire to build a diverse staff team and community. We strongly encourage people of all backgrounds to apply.

For more information, please visit thrivescholars.org