Vice President of Development

Position Overview

The Vice President of Development (VPD) leads all fundraising efforts at America’s Promise Alliance (APA). In coordination with and reporting to the CEO, the VPD is responsible for securing the investment necessary to meet the organization’s annual goals and long-term strategic vision. This includes all fundraising strategy, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.

The VPD joins the organization in a time of rapid growth and evolution, during Year 3 of a new 5-year stragtegic vision. We anticipate growing annual budgets from ~$8M to ~$15M over the next several years. This role provides an opportunity to work with some of the leading funders in the country, while building a new funding constituency around a new strategy. This position also serves as a member of APA’s leadership team.

About Our Work

Our reimagined Alliance community is the centerpiece of APA's new strategy. Our Alliance is a community of the leading nonprofits working in K-12 education, postsecondary to workforce pathways, and democracy / civic engagement. All member organizations enroll their CEO and executive teams in our community. Over the last two years, 100 organizations and 500+ leaders have joined us in this effort (see members).

We add annual value to these organizations by helping them improve, through an integrated model of leadership development, knowledge sharing, and capacity building. In this programming, the senior leaders of our member organizations build trust, relationships, and the habits of working together and we are consistently reinforcing the practical and powerful benefits of sharing and collaboration across organizations. We then use that “culture of the collective” in our community to ideate, design, and launch multi-organization collaborations, focused on opportunities in our issue areas that are too large or too complex for any one organization to address on its own. APA then designs and launches those initiatives.

Learn more about our 2022-2026 strategic plan.  

Responsibilities

·       Lead the creation of APA’s funding strategy and annual fundraising plans. Monitor progress against annual goals and iterate as necessary to ensure APA meets or exceeds its fundraising goals each year.

·       Lead prospecting and outreach to new funders.

·       Oversee the development and production of all fundraising collateral for securing new funders and stewarding existing supporters. Aligned with the responsive and dynamic nature of our Alliance community, this often includes developing collateral for new ideas the community is seeking to launch.

• In partnership with the CEO, serve as the frontline fundraiser and steward for all APA funders. Ensure a powerful (effective, efficient, and joyful) frontline fundraising dynamic in all funder interactions.

·       In partnership with the CEO and Chief of Staff, work to leverage the APA Board of Directors in fundraising and stewardship activities.

·       Support local Executive Directors of APA Partner Cities to meet annual fundraising goals and to ensure a seamless donor experience across local and national funders.

·       Provide effective team management, supervision, coaching, and professional development support for APA’s development team. Grow APA’s development team inline with APA organizational growth. Effecitvely recruit and hire top talent to join APA.

·       Oversee the development of APA fundraising infrastructure, ensuring data-driven practices and the ability to work efficiently during a time of rapid growth and evolution.

·       As a member of APA’s leadership team, serve as a key contributor on org-wide decisions, ensure effective internal communications throughout the organization, and help nuture APA’s equitable, inclusuive, and team-oriented culture.   

·       Help build the systems and processes necessary for all teams at APA to contribute effectively toward fundraising efforts.

·       Keep abrest and informed on key issues in the field, bringing new best practices to APA and positioning us to respond to new dyanmics in the field as they emerge.

·       Opportunity to support the knowledge sharing and capacity building work for the fundraising teams of Alliance member organizations. Collectively, these organizations raise $1.7B annually.    

Competencies & Experience

·       10+ years of experience as a development professional. Preference for candidates who have led development teams with $10M+ annual budgets.

• Superior writing skills and demonstrated ability to develop proposals, reports, presentations and accompanying financial materials. Strong ability to express ideas clearly both in writing and in meetings with funders.
• Demonstrated ability to identify, cultivate, solicit, and close new sources of funding.
• Demonstrated ability to raise funds from large national foundations, corporations, and individuals.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with finance teams to ensure coherence across annual and long-range fundraising and financial strategies.

·       Consistent success in leading and developing teams to deliver high-quality work with sustained high performance and impact through an inclusive feedback and support culture.

·       Demonstrated ability to work effectively in work that requires high levels of cross-team collaboration.

·       Ability to work effectively in a remote environment and manage multiple high-stakes priorities simultaneously.

·       Comfort with ambiguity and in a rapidly growing and evolving environment.

Location, Compensation, & Benefits

·       APA’s team is searching for the best talent regardless of location; as such, please note that APA’s team is largely remote, and location is flexible within the United States. Some travel is required with this role.

·       Salary and benefits will be competitive and commensurate with experience, with a range of $165,000-$200,000.

·       America’s Promise Alliance is committed to fostering a positive and supportive work environment for our team members. Our comprehensive benefits package goes beyond just health care coverage, aiming to enhance the overall well-being and work-life balance of our employees.  Our package includes a self-managed time off policy, health care, professional development, 401(K) retirement savings, wellness programs/including employee assistance, and a work from home stipend to help support a healthy and safe working remotely environment.