Chief Advancement Officer

Planning and Management:

• Leadership – Build and lead a strong, competent advancement team.  Establish strong, trusting relationships with HomeSafe executives and program staff by cultivating a personal rapport and demonstrating a firm grasp of the critical issues facing the organization.   Work to foster an atmosphere, internally and externally, of cooperation and ownership of the values, vision, and mission of the organization to reinforce a common purpose and cultivate support for advancement strategies and activities.
• Office of Advancement’s Strategic Plan and Plan Implementation – Successfully implement a plan for advancement that achieves fundraising objectives, and most importantly, the financial goals established by the agency.  This includes creating strategic and tactical initiatives that are effective mechanisms for fund development.
• Staff Management – Develop and deploy staff by creating an effective department structure.  This includes crafting effective job descriptions with performance expectations, building a cohesive team of competent professionals, providing support and training to enable staff members to succeed, providing ongoing oversight, and conducting regular performance discussions and annual reviews.
• Budgeting, Reporting, and Evaluation – Develop and manage an annual budget for the advancement program.  Collect qualitative and quantitative measures for each area of program activity, track key benchmarks, organize information in accessible formats, and provide regular reports to the chief executive, members of the board, and others appropriate audiences.
• Policies and Procedures – Review, revise, and create (when necessary) policies and procedures for effective operation of the advancement program that ensure compliance with all IRS and legal requirements, and model best and proven practices in the advancement field.
• Gift Accounting and Gift Management – Ensure that all gifts are recorded correctly and that donors receive proper and timely acknowledgement of their gifts.  In addition, ensure that the gift accounting system is regularly and correctly reconciled with the general ledger.  Ensure that the CRM system and protocols are well designed and records are kept well organized in one central database. 
• Special Events – Oversee the event staff to ensure that special events are managed properly and used effectively to cultivate, solicit and steward donors—and promote the values, vision, and mission of HomeSafe and strengthen its public profile.
• Grants – Collaborate with the grant researcher/writer to integrate fundraising initiatives and ensure that they are aligned with the strategic plan.

Fundraising:

• Major Gifts –Identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward donors.  Develop and implement strategies to build prospects’ trust, interest, and investment in the organization; involve key volunteers appropriately.   Actively visit prospects and use special events to achieve solicitation goals in a timely manner.  Effectively engage and support the chief executive and members of the board as they invest time and energy in cultivating relationships with major gifts prospects.
• Planned Giving – Create and manage a program to identify, cultivate, and solicit prospects for planned gifts.  Ensure that collateral materials are produced.  Engage volunteers and professionals as necessary.
• Annual Giving – Continue to build annual giving through growth in average size of donors’ gifts and the recruitment of new donors annually.  Oversee staff to ensure that:  (1) mailings are coordinated, (2) deliberate decisions are made and strategies exist for the inclusion or exclusion of major gifts prospects and donors from annual giving mailings and activities, and (3) all aspects of the annual giving campaign are well-managed. 
• Board Giving – Serve as liaison with members of the board.  Work with the chief executive and board chair to ensure that all members are properly cultivated and solicited for gifts aligned with their means.  Secure appropriate engagement of members of the board in fund development:  prospect identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. 
• Corporate Giving – Build the corporate sponsorship and fundraising program to secure annual grant targets.  Manage and grow the program.
• Communications and Publications – Develop a donor-centered communication program that effectively cultivates prospects, stewards donors, and strengthens positive perceptions of HomeSafe and the value of gifts to its programs.  Shape key messages through the preparation of proposals, solicitation letters, and other materials for major gift prospects; ensure that they persuasively communicate appropriate messages and are consistent with the organization’s vision and strategy.
• Volunteer Recruitment and Support – Define volunteer roles and responsibilities necessary to create a vibrant and successful fundraising program.  Serve as advancement liaison to the board and fundraising-related committees, providing information, perspective, guidance and training.