Director of Development

The Opportunity

This is both a critical and exciting time to join the Epiphany School leadership team. The school enjoys strong enrollment demand, dedicated families, and an excellent institutional reputation. Epiphany School just completed a bold campus master plan that ensures the school’s learning spaces will facilitate highly personalized education for every student, support our exceptional faculty, and create opportunity for greater access to our school through enrollment growth. To fund this vision, the school will blend financing with an ambitious capital campaign, which is at the beginning of its leadership phase.

Job Summary

The Director of Development provides motivational leadership and expertise for a philanthropy program that supports the mission and strategic objectives of Epiphany School. This position oversees and leads Epiphany’s baseline giving, major giving, stewardship, and data services/analytics with the goal of building an increasingly successful comprehensive fundraising program.

The Director is responsible for the management and successful execution of the capital campaign. As a primary solicitor, the DOD personally manages a portfolio of major donor prospects and closes major gifts, while ensuring fundraising KPIs are met by all fundraisers and leadership volunteers.

A successful candidate for this role will be a seasoned development professional who has demonstrated experience managing a comprehensive fundraising program and team. They will also have direct experience with a capital campaign with a strong preference for candidates who have experience leading all or a major portion of a campaign at a Seattle-based school or large nonprofit.

Working on the school’s leadership team, a successful candidate will lead relevant strategic initiatives and direct and participate in daily operations. Critical to this role is modeling cultural and social competence, embodying the school mission and values, and collaborating with others to ensure alignment of core practices across the school.

This position is a full-time, exempt, year-round, administrator position, reporting to the Head of School.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

Strategy & Planning

• Lead all aspects of the school’s short and long-range fundraising strategies and annual plans consistent with the School’s goals, as defined in the strategic plan, including capital campaign, annual giving, major gifts, corporate sponsorships, and planned giving.
• Building out and implementing capital campaign plan as phases move forward, including setting and adjusting goals and timelines, identifying prospective donors, designing campaign strategies, driving the solicitation process, and ensuring leadership donor engagement.
• Cultivating relationships with key stakeholders, including major donors, foundations, corporations, and community leaders.
• Managing a team of development professionals, providing mentorship, and ensuring the success of the department’s fundraising initiatives.
• Overseeing donor stewardship, ensuring consistent communication, recognition, and engagement with donors.
• Reporting to executive leadership and board of directors on fundraising progress, including regular updates on capital campaign milestones and financial performance.
• Develop and implement comprehensive stewardship strategies for Annual Fund donors and alumni engagement strategies in collaboration with the Annual Giving & Alumni Manager.
• Establish a pre-solicitation, cultivation, and stewardship strategy for the spring fundraising event, major gifts, and endowment management, ensuring alignment with broader development goals.
• Oversee and manage the department’s annual budget
• Overseeing key development events and activities including:
  • Capital Campaign donor events
  • the Annual Fund campaign;
  • Spring fundraising event, financial goals and major gift asks;
  • All solicitation brochures, appeal letters, and acknowledgements;
  • Maintenance of accurate donor records in database(s) and paper files;
  • Processes for gift receipt, acknowledgements and reporting;
  • Creation of recurring and ad hoc reports of department activity for leadership, Board of Trustees, publications, regulatory bodies, auditors, and other interested parties;
  • Content for the relevant sections of the School’s website and social media efforts

Team Leadership & Support

• Serve as an active member of the advancement and leadership teams to ensure the development team work is aligned with the school’s strategic objectives and to collaborate with the leadership team to lead the school.
• Collaborate with development team members to set individual and collective goals that align with the School’s strategic plan, establish best practices, and maintain accountability across all development functions.
• Build a collaborative and inclusive team culture that fosters respect, curiosity, open communication, and trust.
• Provide clear direction and development team empowerment allowing team members to take ownership of their work, driving team performance and goal achievement.
• Model the School’s values through professional behavior, addressing challenges head-on through collaborative problem-solving, and championing initiatives that advance the school’s mission, even in the face of uncertainty.
• Lead efforts to integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion principles into every aspect of the school’s development work – from donor communications to campaign planning – ensuring they are central to the school’s fundraising efforts.

Expectations for All at Epiphany School

• Contribute to a learning environment based on Epiphany School’s three Rs and three Cs: respect, resourcefulness, responsibility, curiosity, confidence, and courage.
• Use Responsive Classroom approach as a social-emotional learning framework for working with students.
• Provide recess supervision, arrival, dismissal, and/or front desk coverage as scheduled
• Participate in the school community, including professional development/learning, service learning, and community events.
• Performs other duties and responsibilities as assigned by their supervisor.

Typical Knowledge, Skills, Abilities

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred; additional fundraising education credentials also preferred
• Minimum of 5 years of development and fundraising experience; must have capital campaign experience
• Excellent project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple initiatives and events simultaneously.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to engage and inspire diverse groups of stakeholders, donors, and colleagues.
• Proven ability to lead and mentor a team, including setting goals, providing guidance, and fostering an inclusive, collaborative environment.
• Strong public speaking and presentation abilities to effectively engage with a variety of stakeholders.
• In-depth knowledge of fundraising strategies, including capital campaigns with an ability to think strategically to align strategies with annual giving, major gifts, corporate sponsorships, planned giving initiatives.
• Understanding of donor stewardship and engagement strategies, ensuring long-term relationships and continued support.
• Capacity to adapt and refine strategies to meet evolving needs and emerging opportunities.
• Expertise in identifying, cultivating, and soliciting gifts from individual donors, foundations, and corporations.
• Knowledge of best practices in nonprofit development, with a particular focus on educational institutions and schools
• Understanding of the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion, especially in the context of fundraising and donor relations with an ability to integrate these principles into all facets of development work.
• Experience in setting measurable objectives and adjusting plans based on evolving needs and goals.
• Familiarity with board governance and experience collaborating with board members to advance fundraising strategies.
• Experienced in budget development and financial oversight including planning, monitoring, and reporting.
• Ability to represent the school’s mission effectively through all donor and community-facing communications, including: appeal letters, event invitations, social media content, and reports.
• Proficient at maintaining accurate donor records and preparing reports for leadership, board of directors, and other stakeholders.
• Proficiency in Microsoft environment including MS Office applications
• Experienced with Greater Giving and Raiser’s Edge
• Skilled at working across departments and with external stakeholders to build partnerships that support the school’s development efforts.
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving abilities with the capacity to handle challenges and find solutions under pressure.
• Ability to travel for constituent meetings up to 50% of the time

Location

The person in this role must work in-person on the school campus in the Madrona neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. Epiphany School does not cover or reimburse relocation costs and/or expenses.

School operating hours are Monday – Friday 8:00am – 4:00pm.

This position will require evening and weekend work, including traveling locally, for recruitment events and meetings.

Working from home is permitted occasionally after the 90-day probationary period.

How to Apply

We have partnered with Tracy Bennett at Educators Collaborative to support this search. Please review the application submission information here [add link]. The application deadline is February 24, 2025.

In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United Sates and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire. Final offers will be contingent on the successful completion of a background, education, and employment check.

About Epiphany School

Epiphany School is a non-parochial, independent elementary school serving grades pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The school mission is to challenge and support all students to become confident, curious, and courageous learners through innovative teaching in a caring and inclusive environment. We strive to inspire every child to discover meaning and purpose in a life of learning and actively cultivate an awareness and respect for diversity in all forms. We aim to create a positive, joyful, and inclusive community by embracing the following values:

Respect: We encourage empathy through the strength of our differences, awareness of our global surroundings, and adherence to high standards of conduct.

Responsibility: We build integrity and trust by understanding our choices and owning our actions.

Resourcefulness: We foster resilience and expect all to search and find, to fail and learn, to risk and succeed in a changing world.

Epiphany School 's Commitment to Diversity

Epiphany School promotes and cultivates a diverse community as essential to academic success, social and emotional growth, and the development of good character. Engaging diverse perspectives stretches the mind and requires critical thinking, intellectual courage, and creativity. It takes careful listening and thoughtful expression and manifests itself in cultural competency. Thinking beyond oneself and seeing the world through the eyes of others is the foundation of fairness and empathy, and thus prepares our students to live respectfully and responsibly in our pluralistic democratic society.

Epiphany School is committed to the Americans with Disabilities Act and the principle of equal access and opportunity in education and employment and full participation for persons with disabilities in all its programs and services.

Epiphany School is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate against any employee because of race, color, national origin, citizenship or immigration status, religion, gender identity, gender expression, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, political ideology, physical, mental, or sensory disability, military status, genetic information, age, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

Epiphany School complies with federal and state disability laws and makes reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact careers@epiphanyschool.org.