Director of Development

Calling experienced fundraisers/team leaders— make an impact at an innovative school and community organization. 

About St. James

St. James is a faith-based educational community deeply rooted in transformative loving relationships.

Located in the Allegheny West neighborhood of Philadelphia,

The School serves students and families who are most in need, providing a full scholarship to every student. Students benefit from small class sizes, an extended day, robust music programs, extensive social-emotional support, and an 11-month school year (Sept - July)

The Graduate Support Program  is a lifelong commitment to every child. It prepares students for future success and supports them along the way – through high school, college, careers, and beyond.

The Welcome Table designs community actions and creates spaces for members of the school and broader community to address essential needs and experience a community of sharing.

The Church of St. James the Less seeks to be a place to encounter God, build community and grow personally with weekly mass and worship services.

Position Summary:

Do you enjoy leading a passionate, mission-driven team to even greater success? Like the idea of having lunch with middle schoolers daily? St. James’ next Director of Development will be ambitious and pragmatic, excited to build capacity, accelerate growth, and integrate themselves into a joyful, fast-paced educational community that is always asking, “How can we deepen our impact?”

Specifically, the Director of Development will direct and oversee St. James’s annual fundraising initiatives and operations, including:

• Individual giving
• Mailed and digital appeals
• Special events
• EITC and OSTC giving
• Foundation giving
• Church giving 
• Development operations/ data management

In partnership with and reporting to the Chief Advancement Officer, the Director of Development implements strategic and tactical plans to reach St. James’s annual operating fundraising goal of $6M. The Director manages a Development Team of 4 (Associate Director of Advancement, Associate Director of Donor and Volunteer Engagement, Grants Manager and Individual Giving Specialist).

The ideal candidate:

• Brings broad fundraising knowledge and experience.

Required: Experience with individual giving, mailed and digital appeals, 

database/development services

Preferred: Experience with special events, and foundation grantwriting

Bonus/Plus: Experience with scholarship tax credit program (EITC/OSTC), church

giving.

• Is a talented people manager, team leader and coach. Has proven their ability to effectively communicate and achieve a high standard for success while building positive team culture and camaraderie. 
• Embraces community-centric fundraising as a philosophy to guide the department and its day-to-day work.
• Prioritizes authentic relationship-building in fundraising
• Demonstrates skills as both a strong fundraising strategist and tactician. Is able to operationalize larger strategic goals into robust work plans with specific timing and tactics.
• Has a track record of identifying unrealized fundraising opportunities, creating and implementing plans that result in increased revenue.
• Can chart a path for ambitious, but realistic, future growth. The Director will partner with Chief Advancement Officer on staffing/capacity planning as St. James works to grow its annual revenue and considers its next Capital Campaign.
• Is skilled at interpreting data, identifying trends and making data-driven decisions. 

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree
• 8+ years experience in non-profit fundraising 
• 4+ years experience managing employees
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, Google Suite, and CRM databases (experience in Raiser’s Edge is a plus).

Key Responsibilities:

• Analyzes past results and unrealized opportunities to set ambitious revenue goals for the department. 
• Creates and executes a robust annual advancement plan, with key metrics to measure success for: 
• Individual Giving
• Digital and mailed appeals
• Foundation Giving
• Church Giving
• EITC/OSTC Tax Credit Program
• Special Events
• Donor Engagement and Stewardship
• Sets and creates plans to achieve specific goals for donor retention, and recruitment of new donors. 
• Manages Development Team, providing coaching and clear direction. Holds team to a high bar of success. Determines schedule for, and leads team-wide meetings to ensure successful collaboration on all development projects among team members.
• Builds a strong, collaborative, positive team culture
• Provides coaching on donor engagement/ strategy. The Director will not be responsible for managing their own portfolio of prospects and donors. 

Additional Duties

• Required participation in common life at St. James School (ex: lunch, Mass, House Meetings, etc.)

Other Duties as Assigned

Equal Opportunity Employer:

St. James is an equal opportunity employer and makes employment decisions on the basis of merit. St. James seeks to have the best available person in every job. St. James School policy prohibits discrimination based on race, color, creed, sex, marital status, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, medical condition, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, or any other consideration made unlawful by federal, state, or local law, ordinance, or regulation. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including hiring, training, promotion, discipline, compensation, benefits, and termination of employment. All unlawful discrimination is expressly prohibited.

Commitment to Anti-Racism Education:

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:17-18)

St. James School is committed to partnering with others to dismantle systemic racism and to build antiracist, multicultural diversity within our school community and beyond. Through teaching a more complete and unbiased history, St. James School will arm students, graduates and employees with the tools and knowledge to better engage in complex issues like systemic racism and privilege and to hopefully solve them rather than contribute to them.

At St. James, our benefits package demonstrates our commitment to support every faculty/staff member’s mind, body, and soul. We provide:

• Medical and dental insurance (95% premium covered by St. James)
• Defined contribution plan for retirement (St. James contributes from 5% up to 9%)
• Fertility & family-forming benefits through Maven
• Life insurance through Church Life Insurance Corporation 
• Eligible for 0% hardship loans (after one year of service)
• Professional development and continuing education funds
• A total of 40+ paid days off annually
• Wellness Benefit covers expenses for gym membership (Kroc Center, Philadelphia or Planet Fitness) 
• Spiritual and religious resources (e.g. spiritual direction, theological study)
• Free lunch available daily