Chief Development Officer Description As the executive focused on developing sustainable support for the YWCA of the City of New York, the Chief Development Officer will report to and work most intimately with the Chief Executive Officer to drive fundraising efforts. Succeeding in this environment will require taking a hands-on approach to connecting with a broad array of donors through the internet and using traditional development methods, while implementing the infrastructure required for developing sustained annual stewardship and support. This person must be process oriented, yet have a dealmaker s creativity and speed. A deep passion for the mission will align this development role with the urgency and creativity of the YWCA s culture. The challenge of the position will be to balance development of sustainable and repeatable best-fundraising practices with a rapid expansion of the current base of support. The Chief Development Officer will also help the organization s leaders, staff and board members to integrate a fundraising perspective into all aspects of the YWCA s programs and operations. Reporting to the Chief Development Officer will be a current development staff including the Develop Officer, Foundation and Corporate Giving; Director of Events and Corporate Sponsorships, Development Manager, and Social Media and Communications Manager. Immediate priorities The Chief Development Officer s immediate priorities are to: Thoroughly understand the YWCA of the City of New York its values, history, culture, traditions, communities, programs, personalities, constituencies and governance structure; understand its base of financial support and the short and longterm funding requirements of all segments of the organization; Develop strong relationships with, and secure the trust and confidence of the CEO, key funders, board members, staff, influencers, community members, fundraising and marketing consultants, and others critical to individual and institutional fundraising efforts;
Actively engage in co-creating the strategic plan, a pivotal effort for the YWCA and arguably the number one priority for its growth and health. This plan is expected to be completed December 2013; Assess and evaluate the development department; ensure that the department is well-structured and able to support annual fundraising goals; Immediately assess the state of play of in-process fundraising efforts and provide support for those efforts as needed; assume a hands-on, creative leadership role in the identification, cultivation and solicitation of major individual and institutional gifts; personally cultivate and solicit as appropriate. Responsibilities Implement a fundraising plan that triples contributed and other revenue within 5 years to $5M in non- governmental giving through enlarging and diversifying the donor base, with a primary focus on increased individual giving, and a secondary focus on increased major gifts, increased private foundation, corporate and corporate foundation support; enhanced long term stewardship and donor recognition; and a focus on working towards a capacity building campaign while also continuing to raise funds for annual operations; In collaboration with the senior leadership team, ensure that special attention is paid to in-kind giving, particularly to build out the YWCA s infrastructure; Strengthen the YWCA of the City of New York brand among donors and prospective donors across all five boroughs and the surrounding communities, utilizing the internet and other low cost, high visibility methodologies; Organize and deploy organizational resources to actively broaden and deepen support for YWCA of the City of New York among all current and prospective donors; Grow an appropriately lean fundraising team scaled to the results and requirements of the overall fundraising effort. The Chief Development Officer will execute the following responsibilities on an on-going basis: In collaboration with the CEO, develop a systematic fundraising plan that includes both individual (community and major gift) and institutional (business and foundation) targets: o Donor segmentation (individual, business, foundation), level (community giving, various major gift levels, planned giving), and fund (in kind, capital projects and infrastructure build-out, annual operating fund, restricted gifts for specific purposes, education, endowment); o Objectives for individual and institutional fundraising and success metrics; o Identification of staff, board and community members who will be actively involved in fundraising and definition of roles;
o Targets for development team members and appropriate collaboration with team members to help the organization reach its fundraising goals. Ensure that the Development Department has a strong fundraising infrastructure, and that its staff is knowledgeable, enthusiastic and effective, including: o Evaluate current processes and systems that support fundraising initiatives, donor recognition, and campaign management for the various kinds of campaigns and events; ensure that information systems are scaled to need, are properly maintained and used; o Retain, recruit and manage a team of development professionals and consultants with appropriate internet-based and traditional donor cultivation, marketing/sponsorship, individual giving and institutional giving skills and experiences; establish work plans, performance objectives, and goals for each team member and regularly review performance; provide professional development and training required to cultivate staff skills and professionalism; o Establish clear standards for stewardship, donor recognition, and institutional sponsorship, with particular emphasis on the proper use of logos, brands, naming and other recognition opportunities; o Ensure successful adherence to grant and restricted giving agreements. Manage day-to-day fundraising at the YWCA of the City of New York, including: o Undertake direct individual donor solicitations as appropriate with the support of the CEO, other YWCA staff, members of the Board and other community members; o Establish an institutional giving program for sponsorships, corporate gifts, foundation solicitations for restricted and unrestricted giving; o Aggressively implement a structured program for fostering strong, long-term relationships with targeted individual and institutional donor constituencies; develop annual special events that boost institutional and individual fundraising efforts; specifically strengthen the stewardship and donor recognition program for individual donors, with the objective of establishing a lifelong, planned giving relationships with major donors; o Oversee the involvement, identification, training and support of fundraising volunteers, providing community members with opportunities to be involved in raising money for the YWCA; guide the efforts, and strategies for key campaign volunteers, Board members, community advisors and committees in the solicitation process; o Lead development of materials (on-line and published, text and multi-media) that tell the YWCA story to donors and individual prospects, ensuring that these materials are segmented and distributed in a targeted, regular, timely and consistent fashion; o Collaborate with the senior leadership of the YWCA in the preparation of annual operating plans and budgets, incorporating fundraising projections into the budget of the organization.
Preferred qualifications Candidates should have the following type of experience and qualifications: A record of personal success in raising money for a high- growth, rapidly changing and evolving entrepreneurial organization through the internet and mass outreach, major gifts from individuals and annual giving campaigns, and from businesses, foundations and corporations; experience building relationships through mission- supporting ventures; comfort and experience in a technology- driven environment; Broad-based knowledge of various development campaign activities including: internet, direct mail, proposal and grant development, annual fund and planned giving, event planning and management, direct solicitations, leveraging fundraising databases and support systems for donor segmentation, research and volunteer management; A track record as an exceptional communicator, in writing as well as verbally; adept at writing solicitation letters, donor correspondence, proposals and other kinds of material for publication; experience preparing and making effective presentations to diverse groups large and small; Demonstrated skills in motivating, coordinating and supporting the fundraising activities of others. 10+ Years of fundraising experience with organizations of comparable size preferred. A master s degree in fundraising, public administration, business or a related field is preferred. CFRE candidates will receive priority. Personal characteristics The successful candidate should be: A mission-driven individual with an understanding of, belief in and commitment to the open source movement, net neutrality, the benefits of the free exchange of information; a passion for communicating how these principles are important in the development of civil societies; an ability to communicate that passion without losing focus; An independent and open- minded individual who values and appreciates diversity, input and collaboration from various constituencies; has the ability to make unpopular decisions when necessary;
A charismatic communicator, both in writing and speaking, and particularly able to recognize the alignment of a donor s interests with the value of YWCA of the City of New York programs, communities, services and events; ability to be the public face of fundraising when appropriate. A good listener and strategist; comfortable receiving input from many sources, and able to act on information to develop increased support; A strong manager who will advocate for the development team and its needs. A hard worker with a high energy level; a doer with a willingness to work handson in developing and executing a variety of development and advancement activities; A person who is emotionally mature and self-reliant; someone who will thrive working in a small but growing office; A person who has an ability to tolerate a high degree of ambiguity, and to negotiate with people having sharply defined opinions while maintaining positive, respectful relationships; A person who has a sense of humor. The YWCA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Compensation is competitive with top-performing organizations in the social sector (130-150K). Interested and qualified parties should email a thoughtful cover letter and curriculum vitae and enter Subject: Chief Development Officer YWCA to resume3@ywcanyc.org.