Advancement Officer

Forging Opportunities for Refugees in America (FORA) is a refugee empowerment center based in the West Ridge neighborhood of Chicago. FORA provides almost 50,000 hours each year of individually customized High Impact Tutoring (HIT) to refugee SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education) children. Our vision is a world where refugees in need are welcomed and empowered, and our mission is to ensure that refugee families are provided access to an education sufficient to prepare them to become economically self-sufficient and robustly engaged in American civic life.

The Advancement Officer will have the following responsibilities:

Administration:

• Processes all new donations, including uploading donation information into our database, and acknowledging donation robustly through thank you call, letter, and tax receipts.
• Maintains the administration of the donor database, including but not limited to regular, accurate data entry, accurate contact information for all donors, and additional notes obtained from the fulfillment of any and all other job functions. In addition, tracks information regarding acknowledgment, recognition, ongoing communications, and continued cultivation for past and current donors.
• Overseeing a portfolio of donors. Responsible for identifying, cultivating, soliciting, stewarding and acknowledging and in any other needs of the Managing Director and/or Chief Financial Officer.
• Other administrative duties as assigned.

Fundraising:

• Identifies prospects, conducts outreach to them, and interacts with them under the direction of the Managing and/or the Chief Financial Officer. These include but are not limited to in-person home visits, meal sharing, multimedia presentations, fundraising events, and, most importantly, in-person visits to FORA.
• Works with the Chief Financial Officer and/or Managing Director to establish plans for communication to lapsed donors.
• Makes the fundraising ask after evaluating and determining the ask amount for each prospect and the best methods for asking.
• Creates and implements strategies in accord with best practices to (1) recognize the donors’ generosity and impact; (2) create ways to grow donor understanding of and excitement regarding FORA’s mission; and (3) ensure donor retention through relationship building.
• Reports regularly on fundraising metrics to the Managing Director and the Board of Directors.
• Assists with Grant Writing under the direction of the Communications Director and Managing Director.

Donor Stewardship:

• Researches and builds relationships with sponsors; meeting with them virtually and in person, thanking them often and regularly seeking their input to understand their motivations. Ensures follow up with all sponsors so they understand the impact that they are having.
• Inspires donors to invest in FORA’s work, leading donors and prospects through the stages of the Donor Cycle (Identify, Engage, Evaluate, Solicit, Recognize and Steward), strengthening FORA’s relationship with donors and deepening their identification with FORA.
• Ensures on-going and consistent communication with current donors; including but not limited to: weekly Constant Contact emails, annual book mailouts; regular phone calls; invitations to FORA.
• Sets a tone both internally and externally that funders are not only our supporters but are our teammates and must be valued as such.

Events:

• Sends invitations to donors and prospects for tours, meetings, presentations, and events.
• Assists with organizing and coordinating fundraising and community building events, including but not limited to the piano concerts, dinner tours, recruitment events and annual galas.
• Initiates and coordinates outreach and promotion.

Other Responsibilities:

• Provides support to the Managing Director by spearheading Board of Directors special projects pertaining to fundraising and development activities.
• Assists Chief Financial Officer with special projects and programming as deemed necessary.
• Participates and attends staff meetings, professional development meetings, and technical knowledge based learning meetings.

Key Competency Skills:

• Outstanding oral and written presentation skills.
• Proficiency in design, video editing, website design and/or publishing softwares.
• Possesses strong interpersonal skills, such as persuasion and motivation, to build strong donor relationships.
• Exhibits excellent verbal communication skills for initiating conversations, actively listening to a person’s message, responding appropriately, and using tone of voice to convey respect.
• Maintains motivation and perseverance in light of donation request rejections.
• Listens and communicates effectively in welcoming a diversity of opinions, needs, and cultures.
• Strong sales tactics to identify FORA’s selling points and develop a fundraising campaign. This includes but is not limited to storytelling, pitches, and cold calling to persuade potential donors.
• Deep understanding of refugees and community support work. Dedication to social justice and community development. Commitment to honor the diverse academic, socioeconomic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds of our students and their parents.

The Advancement Officer must endorse, embrace, and enact FORA’s vision, mission, and values (as described at www.refugeefora.org). Employees are expected to support all other FORA departments as requested by staff supervisors in order to ensure the smooth operation of FORA programming and special events. This job is a management job and additional hours will be expected outside of and in addition to normal working hours as deemed necessary, and no overtime will be paid for those hours.

The position is for 40 hours a week on a flexible schedule. The Officer must be available for evenings when tours and events are happening and weekends should tours or events be scheduled then. This is an in-person position from our location in the West Ridge area of Chicago.