Chief Development Officer (CDO)

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Chief Development Officer (CDO)Operating Budget: $5 million
Oversee staff of: 4
Reports to: James Wendorf, Executive Director

The Mission and Vision:The National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) improves the lives of all people with learning disabilities and others who struggle to learn by empowering parents, enabling young adults, transforming schools and creating policy and advocacy impact. We envision is a society in which every individual who struggles to learn possesses the academic, social and emotional skills needed to succeed in school, at work and in life. 

The Position:NCLD seeks an entrepreneurial CDO who will manage current fundraising activities while also building significant new sources of revenue to support the roll-out of NCLD’s ambitious three-year strategic plan, which will guide the organization as it grows its funding base to $9 million per year. S/he should be equally adept at developing strategy, executing plans, cultivating and stewarding donors, managing staff and outside resources, and creatively engaging colleagues in the collective process of building the fundraising capacity of NCLD.

S/he will have responsibility for all aspects of Development and communications to support development.

• Cultivating and maintaining strong relationships with current major donors and identifying and cultivating new ones;
• Cultivating and maintaining relationships with foundations, corporations, and government agencies;
• Developing creative and effective strategies for online solicitations for individual donors;
• Serving as primary liaison to the Fundraising Committee of the Board;
• Excelling at major gift cultivation as well as solicitation and upgrade strategies for board members and other high level donors and prospects (individuals or family foundations);
• Ensuring that the development team maintains robust, high-quality and timely processes for managing major and other individual donors, corporations and foundations, and government organizations;
• Ensuring that our Raisers Edge database and donor-acknowledgment systems function at a high level of quality and timeliness.
• Managing events, including an annual benefit gala, public presentations, small group meetings, and other fund-raising events;
• Budgeting and forecasting revenue and development expenses;
• Working with the Executive Director, senior management team and Board Fundraising Committee to define and execute the organization’s long-term fundraising strategy;
• Understanding and contributing to the organization’s program planning efforts, ensuring that the Development team engages colleagues creatively and efficiently.

The Person: NCLD seeks a strategic development leader with a minimum of 7 to 10 years of relevant experience and an impressive track record. The successful candidate will have had prior experience at: managing a team; engaging a Board; and reporting to an organization’s president or executive director. S/he should be able to lead strategic planning for development and then effectively execute those strategies, in collaboration with the staff and the Board. Ideally, s/he will have had significant experience with the tools of fundraising: maximizing the value of Raisers Edge, creating powerful proposals and collateral publications, developing Web and email fundraising campaigns, organizing an annual benefit gala and other events. S/he also will have had significant experience envisioning, spearheading and shepherding new fundraising: sponsorships, online efforts, and cause marketing. S/he must be a strong communicator, both orally and in writing. S/he will be on the road about once per month as US donor opportunities dictate. S/he may also travel occasionally for conferences.

The Qualifications: Requirements include:

• Bachelor’s degree
• Passion for the mission
• 7-10 years of fundraising experience (some experience in sales/marketing may substitute for part of this requirement. Additionally, at least some of the fundraising experience, if not all, must have been New York-based.)
• 3-5 years of management experience
• Demonstrated excellence as a respectful and respected colleague in a team-based environment
• Evidence of marketing/communications savvy and success
• Proven ability to develop multi-year donor cultivation plans for complex gifts
• Proven ability to strategize, submit and close 6-7 figure gifts
• Demonstrated ability to engage, organize, utilize and solicit Board members
• High competence in using donor database systems, preferably Raisers Edge
• Prior experience with online fundraising and Web 2.0 engagement is highly desirable
• Experience with the adept utilization of staff and other consulting resources
• Experience with government funding is a plus

Equal Opportunity Employer

Contact information for confidential consideration: Machlowitz Consultants, Inc. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .