Development Director

POSITION SUMMARY:

Reporting to the President and CEO, the Development Director leads the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation’s Development and Donor Relations efforts. This position offers an extraordinary opportunity to shape the Foundation’s fundraising strategy, build partnerships, and lead impactful fundraising efforts to advance the Foundation’s mission. It is responsible for growing the Foundation’s fund portfolio and increasing charitable giving to and through the Foundation by developing and maintaining strong and trusted relationships with donors, prospects and professional advisors. The position will manage a portfolio of funds, facilitating the fund holder’s grant-making and fostering their engagement in philanthropy with the Foundation, and will create and lead fundraising efforts for the Foundation’s operations and other initiatives to benefit our region. Together with senior leadership, this role serves as a face of the organization in the broader community. The ideal candidate brings warmth, compassion, and enthusiasm to every personal interaction on behalf of the Foundation, and brings excitement, clarity, purpose, and success to our internal and external community engagement efforts.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS OF THE POSITION:

• Partner with the President & CEO in establishing short and long-term fundraising strategies and goals to increase charitable giving. Create, track and measure donor engagement activities and their outcomes.
• Serve as primary relationship manager for a portfolio of current donors, fund holders, donor prospects and professional advisors; perform intentional, relationship building-based activities to provide donor-focused philanthropy advice. May require local travel.
• Create and lead individual prospect research. Investigate and secure corporate and/or private foundation funding partnerships to advance the Foundation’s grantmaking footprint and increase operational support.
• In collaboration with Foundation staff, provide high quality, effective service to donors and fund holders.
• Monitor trends and policy changes affecting charitable giving.
• Work closely with programmatic team to identify and build issue-area and nonprofit sector knowledge that is accessible and effective for use by donors, with a particular emphasis on Oak Park, River Forest and surrounding communities.
• Have oversight and provide necessary support to collective giving groups to develop strategies and goals in the areas of fundraising, member recruitment, and grant making which advance their charitable goals and align with the Foundation’s work.
• Attend community events for the purpose of building/strengthening relationships with donors, fund holders, prospects and professional advisors, including occasional evening and weekend activities that advance the mission and vision of the Foundation. May require local travel.
• Oversee and maintain internal operations of donor services, including but not limited to: maintain the integrity of the Foundation’s donor database, compose and execute donor-related agreements, such as bequests, donor advised funds, etc, oversee the donor acknowledgement letter process, and implement and maintain other donor-specific communications.
• Work in collaboration with outside consultants to develop communications and marketing materials that attract resources and promote the Foundation’s mission.
• Serve as staff liaison to board leadership on fundraising and community engagement: provide development, donor services, and communications and marketing information, and attend assigned committee meetings and record meeting minutes.
• Work as a member of a multi-disciplinary staff team to ensure the effective and efficient operations of the Foundation in a manner that promotes the mission, vision, and values of the Foundation; actively participate and contribute in staff meetings as scheduled.

The above statements describe the general nature and level of work performed in the job.They do not intend to be an exhaustive list of all duties, and additional responsibilities may be assigned, as required, by management.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree and at least eight years of experience in client relationship and fundraising/development in the philanthropic or nonprofit sectors. Knowledge of the Oak Park, River Forest and the surrounding area’s philanthropic community is a plus.
• Proven results in donor acquisition, moves management, and cultivation.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications (e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
• Experience working in CRM and/or grant databases and comfortable learning and operating in new relational database environments.
• Prior experience developing communication materials and messaging around complex and abstract concepts, organizational offerings, strategies, values, goals and successes.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and able to work in cooperation with a wide range of individuals and community stakeholders. Experienced in working collaboratively with and maintaining positive relationships with persons from diverse backgrounds and sectors in the community we serve a plus.
• Excellent written, verbal and presentation communication skills.
• Detail-oriented with the ability to efficiently manage and prioritize multiple concurrent projects.
• Ability to demonstrate sound judgment in the absence of direct instruction.
• Ability to handle donor and grantee information with complete confidentiality.
• Ability to work independently, as well as in a team.
• Must have access to transit or other reliable transportation to execute the position’s responsibilities.