The Head of Development will lead the Eastern North Carolina (ENC) region’s campaign to increase our brand presence across our communities and to raise $5 million annually in operating revenue. The Head of Development will partner closely with the Executive Director on setting and executing a high level external affairs and fundraising strategy, while managing a team of talented fundraising professionals and a portfolio of donors and prospects. To be successful, the Head of Development must be a critical thinker who is able to set a bold vision, develop strategies and an operating plan to achieve this vision, and then skillfully manage team execution to achieve results that will advance our regional progress toward our vision for One Day in ENC. This individual must be comfortable in an entrepreneurial environment, possess an exceptionally high level of personal responsibility for achieving ambitious results, and must be able to build strong and sustainable relationships with the ability to interact with partners at all levels of the organization and across our constituencies.
This regional senior leadership position provides an unparalleled opportunity for individuals with a strong background in relationship and portfolio management, annual and major gifts experience, and the fundraising acumen to successfully identify, cultivate, secure, and steward high-capacity prospects and donors. The ideal person is passionate about our mission and has a heightened awareness of the systemic challenges facing communities where educational equity persists. They demonstrate an orientation and commitment to individual and collective growth in identity development and critical consciousness. They are also a skilled manager of people and operations who empowers the leadership of everyone around them.
Fundraising, Portfolio Strategy and Execution
- Develop a diverse and sustainable individual, corporate, and foundation investor base throughout Eastern North Carolina, growing our private fundraising to more than $1M annually
- Create and execute the regional strategic and operating plans, ensuring that the region maximizes opportunities, meets its goals, and significantly grows funding while building long-term sustainability
- Analyze historical and market data to set ambitious yet feasible revenue, donor quantity and retention goals for the next three to five years, and setting interim benchmarks to monitor progress
- Cultivate, solicit, and steward a portfolio of donors through external meetings, events, and correspondence
- Create and maintain up-to-date fundraising tools, i.e. pitch decks, materials, speech talking points, formal presentations, etc. for use in regular meetings and larger scale events
- Partner with the Executive Director in regional advisory board management. This includes helping to set a strategic vision for the advisory board’s role in fundraising, preparing for and participating in board meetings, managing board members on specific projects or activities, and corresponding with board members as needed
Regional Marketing, Communications and Brand Strategy Development
- Collaborate with the full regional team to maintain a fresh narrative of regional impact, which includes obtaining and maintaining timely data on regional initiatives
- Convey Teach For America – Eastern North Carolina’s history, impact, and corps member and alumni stories effectively through a wide variety of communication tools
- Partner closely with national communications and marketing liaison to ensure regional engagement with local media outlets
- Build relationships and gain a deep knowledge of the political landscape to ensure Teach For America becomes part of the social and educational fabric of the region
Sub-Regional Leadership and Team Management
- Regularly assess team-wide progress to goals, identify what is driving and impeding progress, develop solutions to address gaps, and adjust course as necessary
- Manage a team of 2-3 full-time fundraising staff, developing them as professionals in order to ensure ENC’s fundraising efforts are tightly executed and highly effective
- Prioritize key actions for the Executive Director to take in cultivating, soliciting and stewarding champions of our work through external meetings, events and correspondence, ensuring the team prepares/supports ED to execute
- Work with regional leadership team to set annual goals that are in line with our regional vision, strategic plan and core values
- Set the tone and culture for the sub-region that models our core values
Collective Responsibility Regional Projects
- Fulfill foundational responsibilities that allow our region to do our work, make decisions, grow as professionals, and strengthen our team culture, including but not limited to: attending regional meetings, operating with our Core Values and commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusiveness, completing our performance management cycle, and upholding our data management, office operations, and fiscal responsibilities
- Make a direct impact on the organizational mission of enlisting, developing and mobilizing leaders to strengthen the movement for educational equity by
- Participating in the selection of incoming corps members (6-10 days total plus preparation and close out time)
- Participating in matriculation of new corps members (up to six windows across the year)
- Supporting and staffing large scale regional and corps member facing events (including All Corps Learning Summits and Summer Training), and other initiatives that impact our members and partners
- Attending and Engaging in all-staff meetings, retreats, small team cohorts, and step backs throughout the year
- 7+ years of work experience strongly preferred with 5+ as a leader on a team in a similar or related field (i.e. fundraising, political campaigns, sales, etc), with a preference for concrete experience managing major fundraising efforts
- A track-record of achieving ambitious, measurable outcomes
- 3+ years of experience managing high-stakes relationships
- 3+ years of experience managing others
- Prior management experience of a small team (3-4 people) highly preferred
Skills
- Knowledge of the educational landscape in Eastern North Carolina preferred
- Ability to set an inspiring vision and motivate others to reach ambitious goals in support of that vision
- Demonstrated ability to cultivate internal and external constituencies and builds long-term relationships
- Demonstrated success managing individuals and teams
- High level of attention to detail with consistent ability to meet deadlines
- Strong verbal and written communication with the ability to compel individuals, groups, partners and stakeholders
- Ability to develop systems to track progress, streamline communication, and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of team execution
- Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite
- Prior experience and/or proficiency with Salesforce preferred
Work Demands
- Ability to travel across the region (5-6 times per month)
- Occasional overnight travel (3-4 times per year) required for attendance at various local and national conferences
- Ability to work out of our regional headquarters located in Durham, North Carolina
- Occasional weekend and evening work required