The Senior Vice President, Chief Development Officer (CDO) reports directly to the President and serves as a key member of the Executive Team (ET). The CDO works in close alignment with his or her peers leading United Way of Greater Cincinnati (UWGC) functions to increase the visibility of our community work, foster existing partnerships and create new ways of engaging donors and volunteers.
The primary focus and responsibility of the CDO is to develop and lead the strategic plan to achieve fundraising targets by leveraging UWGC’s traditional strengths in workplace giving, individual engagement, and endowments while also developing innovative engagement strategies that excite our existing donor base and attract new donor markets. The CDO, in partnership with the President, is a “lead ambassador” and spokesperson for UWGC and will be expected to play a public role, particularly in cultivating and managing relationships with corporate, government, and other institutional partners. The CDO engages with regional and national resources within the United Way system to share best practices, leverage solutions and provide thought leadership.
Strategic Leadership
The CDO plays a key strategic leadership role in partnership with the President and SVPs of UWGC. The position establishes the key strategies to achieve development goals working in partnership with corporations and individuals and contributes to an integrated strategic planning process that aligns to and achieves organizational goals.
Specifically, the CDO will be expected to:
- Deepen our existing relationships with corporate partners and expand them into mutually beneficial solution based partnerships
- Develop new donor relationships with innovative development strategies, leveraging our brand, affinity groups and engagement through volunteerism and advocacy
- Create and execute a strategic plan for the identification, solicitation, cultivation, and stewardship of major donors
- Apply market research and data to identify opportunities to build competitive edge and create new relationships with individual donors via social media and other online communities
- Create and execute a comprehensive integrated development plan in collaboration with all departments with clear measures of success and accountability
Results Focused
The CDO will be responsible for setting and meeting all fundraising, donor development, and partnership targets for the organization. The CDO will also create and manage Department budgets and interface with UWGC’s finance and IT functions to effectively manage the Department.
Specifically, the CDO will be expected to:
- Align President and Board around critical fundraising calls and activities
- In collaboration with the Executive Team (ET) and the Board, set and communicate segmented fundraising and development goals aligned to the budget
- Make data informed decisions on prioritizing market focus and allocation of resources to achieve goals
- Make formal proposals and presentations to corporations, government and community agencies, major donors, and other stakeholders
- Recruit and Lead the Board’s Resource Development Committees and volunteers
Personal & Team Leadership
The CDO will inspire the trust and confidence of others on the team, in the organization, and from the Board and stakeholder organizations with whom he or she interacts. The position requires the ability to lead a diverse team of professionals while prioritizing competing interests and limited resources. In order to achieve organizational success, the CDO will need to build team cohesiveness by establishing, communicating, and reinforcing shared values and norms, both within the Department as well as cross-functionally.
Specifically, the CDO will be expected to:
- Be a confident leader, anticipating obstacles, removing barriers and applying best practices to execute effective solutions
- Gain the confidence and trust of others through principled leadership, sound business ethics, emotional intelligence and demonstrated results
- Be a connector for UWGC, bringing new relationships acquired from professional contacts
- Embrace the opportunities in change and lead others to a place of clarity and commitment
- Measure team and strategy effectiveness, assessing areas for growth, alignment or removal
- Identify core team competencies and recruit, lead and retain team members applying clear measures for individual and team success aligned to strategic priorities
- Judiciously source and manage the use of external contractors when expertise or capacity is required
- Lead by example and demonstrate UWGC’s core values in all his/her internal and external relationships
- Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible positions in fundraising, sales and/or resource development
- Excellent strategic, organizational and project management skills
- Demonstrated success with change management efforts
- Superior management skills, including the ability to advocate for and manage to budget priorities
- Proven success in optimizing established business while leveraging growth opportunities
- Outstanding skill and comfort in building internal and external relationships at all levels
- Experience in linking fundraising efforts to community impact; good knowledge about United Way community impact work, metrics, and grant-making
- Excellent communication skills- writing, editing, verbal, non-verbal and presentation skills. Presence and confidence to project credibility to the Board, media, and strategic stakeholders
- Strong quantitative analysis skills; ability to target the right metrics and to clearly communicate complex data
- Innovative thinker, with a track record for translating strategic thinking into action plans and results and experience bringing new products to market and tapping into new markets
- Experience building, leading, and mentoring a team of fundraising and resource development professionals, both internal and external
- Excellent judgment and creative problem-solving skills, including negotiation and conflict resolution
- A passion for UWGC’s mission, vision, and accomplishments