The Vice President, Development is a senior leader on the Houston team and serves on the regional leadership team where you will work closely with the Executive Director to develop a bold regional strategy that accelerates progress toward educational equity.
In this role, you will inspire and motivate your team to tell the story of Teach For America in Houston thus leading them to build champions that support us financially and advocate for us in the community. Specifically, you will set the vision and direction for the region’s development efforts and raise, lead your team to raise, $7M to $8M each year. You will be directly responsible for raising approximately $2M each fiscal year (in leadership gifts that generally range between $200,000 and $1,000,000) by developing a diverse and sustainable investor base amongst Houston area foundations, corporations and individuals. To do this, you will execute portfolio management, including researching current and prospective supporters and implementing a comprehensive cultivation and stewardship plan. You will also oversee our regional events strategy. You will lead and manage a team of 4 phenomenal, committed and fun development professionals to execute against this vision. The combination of these efforts will allow us to continue to grow and strengthen the corps in Houston, engage and activate our alumni, and put Teach For America in the best position to meet our partners’ demand for our teachers and leaders across our community.
You will report to the Executive Director in Houston, Tiffany Cuellar Needham.
In this role, you will set the vision and direction for the region’s development efforts and raise, lead your team to raise, $7M to $8M each year. You will be directly responsible for raising approximately $2M each fiscal year (in leadership gifts that generally range between $200,000 and $1,000,000) by developing a diverse and sustainable investor base amongst Houston area foundations, corporations and individuals.
Set the vision and direction for the region’s development plan; manage a sophisticated fundraising operation; and build, manage and coach a diverse team while serving as a core values leader across the region (30%)
- As a member of the regional leadership team, help set the short- and long-term vision and direction of the region, including crafting our 2020 Plan.
- Operate as a cultural leader in Houston by creating a strong team culture rooted in our core values and reflective of our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusiveness.
- Build an effective team and ensure all staff members are maximizing their individual strengths and assets within the context of the regional team and larger organization.
- Develop comprehensive, compelling, and effective development plan with clear goals, fundraising, communication, event strategies, and tactical plans.
- Track and assess team-wide progress to goals and maintain strong operational systems for efficient and effective team execution that align to the experience to which we aspire for all of our constituents.
- Be able to effectively and efficiently identify the root cause(s) of situations and recommend options or solutions, with implications for addressing them.
Build Catalytic Relationships with External Key Stakeholders (55%)
- Set a strategy (cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship) and execute on an action plan for your portfolio focused on inspiring and activating investors who give leadership gifts (generally between $200K and $1M annually).
- Quickly build strong, dynamic partnerships with key stakeholders from our community including but not limited to: current and past regional board members, regional board development committee members, current and future funding partners, other Teach For America national and regional teams.
- Expand the donor pipeline and cultivate new donors through research, relationship building, and managing the ED to build relationships.
- Compile compelling and high-quality grants, proposals, pitches, progress reports, and final reports for your portfolio that incorporate investor motivations, accurate data, and inspiring stories that reflect our unique mission and work.
- Deliver compelling verbal pitches that incorporate investor motivations, accurate data, and inspiring stories that reflect our unique mission and work.
- Respond quickly and comprehensively to requests for follow-up, clarification, and additional information with the aim of demonstrating the appreciation and value we place on our investors support
- Personally take meetings, and prepare the Executive Director to take meetings, with individual investors in your portfolio.
- Efficiently track and monitor all communications, actions, events, and commitments for each partner in the portfolio in Salesforce to ensure a positive and consistent investor experience.
- Work in partnership with the development committee chair to lead the regional board development committee, ensuring active engagement by all members and that board development goals are met.
Fulfill Critical Regional Team Responsibilities (15%)
- Carry out foundational activities that ensure everyone in our region is rooted in our organization’s foundations and our regional strategy, has the opportunity to give input on major decisions, grows as professionals, and strengthens our team culture by:
- Engaging in leadership team and regional team retreats and meetings;
- Preparing and leading check-ins with your manager around progress toward goals;
- Leveraging national resources (e.g. weekly newsletters, daily gift reports, etc.);
- Preparing for and engaging in our performance development program; 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 interviewing applicants to Teach For America; communicating regularly with incoming corps members; and assisting with member facing events, our alumni giving campaign, alumni survey, and other initiatives that impact our members and partners.
To be the most successful candidate, you must be obsessed with the potential of our corps members and alumni to transform our current education system such that every child has the opportunity to realize their fullest potential. Furthermore, you must be compelled to share this story of our impact broadly and garner support for our efforts. More specifically, you will be:
- Passionate about Houston and educational equity. You are passionate about issues related to educational inequity in Houston. You are incredibly optimistic about what we can achieve when we embrace the strengths that are omnipresent in Houston and partner with our schools to solve our most pressing challenges, namely in education.
- A conscious leader. You have a strong understanding of the dynamics of race and class in America and a history of operating in the spirit of our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusiveness. You have a pattern of modeling self-reflection, curiosity and exploration, and an ability to connect and empathize with people. You lead, and believe others must lead, through a culturally competent lens and in a way that empowers supporters, staff, corps members, alumni, students and communities.
- Motivated by relationships. Whether working with your teammates, external stakeholders, or our corps members and alumni, you cultivate and manage strong and lasting relationships with ease. Additionally, you have strong gravitas, presence, and maturity that engender respect and facilitate strong partnerships.
- Obsessive about outcomes. You have an incredibly strong record of achieving ambitious goals despite obstacles and have experience doing so in complex situations when the stakes are high and with diverse teams. Your decisions are data-driven, and you stay laser-focused on your goals regardless of any day-to-day chaos or distractions. You are motivated to achieve extraordinary performance and cultural outcomes in the midst of change, knowing what that will require of you emotionally, mentally, and physically, etc.
- A team player. You strive towards outcomes by working collaboratively with others on the team, knowing your outcomes are interdependent. You expect your team to act in the same ways in their work and hold them accountable to doing so. You bring a clear opinion to all meetings, especially when we make decisions, and when a decision is made, you are a champion of the team’s decision.
- Self-driven. You have superior organizational skills, attention to detail, integrity, and great follow-through on all facets of your work. You demonstrate an uncommon level of personal responsibility for achieving results, define broadly what is within your control, persevere in the face of challenges and you’re exceptionally optimistic about what is possible. You take initiative to do what it takes to achieve success. You are obsessed with learning and growing and consistently act on feedback to improve your performance, outcomes and impact on others.
- Innovative and strategic. You seek to chart a new course and create something where something does not yet exist. When you face a large problem, your first instinct is to break it down into smaller, manageable pieces and ruthlessly prioritize what is most important.
- A compelling and strategic communicator. You work across multiple stakeholders to ensure consistency and quality of internal and external communications. You craft compelling, inspiring stories about our mission and work and can tailor them to different audiences across a wide variety of communication channels. You keep your manager regularly updated as critical partners in your work. When communicating decisions you are able to assess the impact these decisions can have on others and are able to effectively plan accordingly. You are naturally empathetic and can quickly understand people’s needs and aspirations and how information can help them achieve their goals.
YOU MUST ALSO
- Have eight to ten years of work experience, at least three of which include managing teams
- Have experience leading multi-million dollar fundraising campaigns (ideal, not required)
- Have experience using Salesforce (ideal but not required)
- Are proficient in MS Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint (advanced proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint ideal)
- Be able to work weekends and evenings, as necessary
- Be able to travel up to 2 times per year for conferences and professional development